DTS:X explained

The short explanation

DTS-HD Master Audio is lossless multichannel audio, the DTS counterpart to Dolby TrueHD. DTS:X is object-based, the counterpart to Atmos: sounds placed in space rather than assigned to channels, without a fixed speaker layout requirement.

DTS:X IMAX Enhanced appears on some discs and receivers as a further variant.

Where you run into it

Which format a disc carries is the studio's choice, not yours. A system that handles Atmos beautifully but has DTS support missing from its advertised capabilities will fall back on every DTS title — and since many releases use DTS, that is not a rare event.

DTS support is advertised as its own set of EDID flags, quite separate from the Dolby ones, so it can go missing on its own.

How the DR HDMI 8K handles it

The DR HDMI 8K reports DTS capability separately for both sides of the link — the Audio DTS line for the connected sink and for the EDID the source reads. In the audio flags, DTS-HD MA has its own control with a sample rate setting, and plain DTS its own mode setting. If DTS titles behave differently from Dolby ones, that is the first place to look.