Audio passthrough?

[Jecht_Sin]

So I finally ordered my new audio system. I'll get it on Tuesady!!  I discarded the soundbars and went for a Yamaha YHT 4940 which supports DTS-HD and Doby TrueHD in 5.1.

It has HDMI/ARC and 4 HDMI In ports with 4K/HDR 4:4:4 video passthrough so it won't be an issue to get the right audio from the HDMI devices. What about the audio from apps like Netflix, Plex, Kodi, Amazon Video, YouTube etc.? Does the audio get sent back as it is, with the apps automatically choosing the best audio format supported by the receiver? 

I know Plex has some specific options, but I'd like to know (in advance, before getting mad when setting it up) how it works in general, being quite noob on the topic. Plus I'd like to understand what does not work due to some bugs, as I keep reading around.

PS: Connecting the PS4 to the receiver and then to the TV would add any input lag? 

[Kuschelmonschter]

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Jecht_Sin schrieb:

Instead, what is wrong with Netflix? On my TV pressing the "info" button it says Stereo for the audio. On my PS4 it says 5.1 channels. And the audio, even if via optical out (on TV) to optical to analogue converter (I stil have to receive my AVR) does sound better.

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I also get stereo only for quite some content. Sometimes only the English track is in 5.1. But I can't countercheck with other devices whether those have multi-channel.

I am not surprised though. The love and care that Android TV generally receives is underwhelming...

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Jecht_Sin schrieb:

hen on a quite unrelated matter, but this has been puzzling me for quite few days now: how is that possible that with my current HT with 2 ch analogue input when playing the DTS: X Object Emulator demo (for headsets) in YouTube I do get the 5 channels physically separated?

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Those so-called multi-channel audio tests on YouTube are worthless anyway. Just check the streams with youtube-dl. They are all stereo AAC, Opus or Vorbis. Dolby and DTS formats are not supported on YouTube. I think we had this discussion before.

So at some point in time DTS probably got transcoded to some stereo format supported by YouTube. It entirely depends on the mixer what will happen to all those channels, but FL and FR will most likely stay FL and FR.

[Jecht_Sin]

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Kuschelmonschter wrote:

Those so-called multi-channel audio tests on YouTube are worthless anyway. Just check the streams with youtube-dl. They are all stereo AAC, Opus or Vorbis. Dolby and DTS formats are not supported on YouTube. I think we had this discussion before.

So at some point in time DTS probably got transcoded to some stereo format supported by YouTube. It entirely depends on the mixer what will happen to all those channels, but FL and FR will most likely stay FL and FR.

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No, ok about YouTube formats. Then that video is for headsets so it must be a stereo audio signal. But how does my crazy setup manage to (perfectly) separate the channels from a stereo input? I mean, I do get perfect surround, something that sure I am not used to.

I know DPL II uses phase shifts techniques for that. I am just suprised it works from YouTube to the TV, to optical, to Optical/Analogue converter, to my 10 years old HT and finally to the 5 different speakers.

Regarding Netlifx, all the videos I have watched show as stereo on the TV. And what I checked on PS4 was alway 5.1.

Anyway, I have just received the phone call from TNT! 10 minutes and I have it! Oh the joy!!  

[Kuschelmonschter]

I just checked Netflix...

The Big Bang Theory has a German DD 5.1 track. The English track is only stereo.

The Walking Dead and Orange is the new Black both have DD 5.1 for German and English language.

Sherlock is stereo only.

Just to name some examples. Quite a lot is indeed DD 5.1 here on my Sony.

[kinggo01]

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@Jecht_Sin wrote:

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 But how does my crazy setup manage to (perfectly) separate the channels from a stereo input? I mean, I do get perfect surround, something that sure I am not used to.

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Any AVR can do that from stereo if you use those sound modes. But it's nowhere near as good as true 5.1 or 7.1 sound.

[Jecht_Sin]

All righty @Kuschelmonschter!! So I have set up my new AVR (via HDMI/ARC), plugged to it my PS3 and PS4, watched some stuff, did my testings! The TV automatically recognized that there is an AVR and did its own setup to send the audio to it, excluding the TV speakers. These are my intial findings. All apps have audio passthrough enabled when possible:

Netflix:

It does return DD  5.1 audio to the receiver. I checked it from the AVR options, there is a signal info. I have seen myself as well that with an AVR via HDMI/ARC now the some available tracks have the option for 5.1 or "plain". It may depend on the language but usually English always have the two options. Italian sometime has DD 5.1 as well.

It did not show the 5.1 audio when passing through optical.

Amazon Video:

Well, even better. I have got up to DD Plus 5.1. At least something that app is doing right.

Plex:

Dolby Digital passes through. Up to EAC3 (DD Plus) 5.1. Never an issue with it. DTS instead is totally broken. The Plex client asks the server to convert both the audio AND the video (which makes the vision impossible with a not very powerful CPU in the server).

Kodi:

All I tested (DTS-HD 7.1, DD Trued HD 7.1, DD 5.1, DD Plus 5.1) was converted to PCM 2ch. Pasthrough or less. With the exception that AC3 doesn't play any audio at all when passthroughed. EAC3 instead works? But still in PCM 2ch. I am really not sure what is going on because I think that when I first tried I had a 5.1 signal. But it was just after setting up everything and I may have made it up in my head.

Sony Video/VLC beta:

There is no passthrough option, everything I tested play but only in PCM 2.0

PS4:

No matter if it is a game, Netflix or else, it outputs whatever we have selected in the Audio format in Options (Linear PCM, Bitstream Dolby, Bitstream DTS). Probably it converts everything if an audio track for that format isn't avaliable.

PS3:

Like the PS4, but it has a list of all possible modes (a lot). One must disable manually the modes to get a different format. For example I disabled all possible Linear PCM in surround and the audio was DD 5.1. Otherwise it was always PCM 5.1. But I didn't test it extensively.

About the PS4/PS3 I'd like to know which should be the better options at this point. Unless they are all equivalent in terms of audio quality (again, I'm still a noob! ).

[Kuschelmonschter]

Set digital output to Auto 1 inside Android setting. Video app should automatically do passthrough for audio compatible with the connected AVR.

[Jecht_Sin]

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kinggo01 wrote:

Any AVR can do that from stereo if you use those sound modes. But it's nowhere near as good as true 5.1 or 7.1 sound.

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Yeah, I know generally speaking it works and it isn't good, but with that particular video the sound arrived when the ball was ner that speaker.

Regarding its quality in general I now finally feel again the enemies coming from behing in the PlayStation!! Dark Souls 3, just the couple of minutes I checked has been quite a thing. 

It sure didn't happen with my previous, awful setup. Then don't make me start about the difference in the dialogue quality. At very low volume (during night), perfect dialogues with decent surround. And no spikes in volume driving me mad. The best money ever spent!! I wish I could say the same about my Bravia TV.. 

Oh yeah.. And I can forget about that stupid Android TV volume bar not showing up! Life is better, now. 

[Jecht_Sin]

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Kuschelmonschter wrote:

Set digital output to Auto 1 inside Android setting. Video app should automatically do passthrough for audio compatible with the connected AVR.

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I checked that already yesterday. It is Auto 1. Also it says it is for optical audio only. I am not really sure if I am doing anything wrong. Plex, Netflix and Amazon Video work. Not so TIM Vision (PCM 2ch only). But who knows what audio format they are using, probably stereo indeed. Oh, same for YouTube. Always PCM 2ch.

[Kuschelmonschter]

YouTube does not support any passthrough format. PCM 2.0 (decoded AAC, Opus or Vorbis) is the best you will get over ARC.

[Jecht_Sin]

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Kuschelmonschter wrote:

YouTube does not support any passthrough format. PCM 2.0 (decoded AAC, Opus or Vorbis) is the best you will get over ARC.

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Yeah, you mentioned that already. I just wrote it to confim. And bizarre enough that DTS:X demo video played better in my old HT. Still, it isn't that important (although it's quite underwhelming that Google doesn't care about audio).

What about Kodi instead? I selected the passthrough directly from the Audio/Video options when playing a video (and I saved them as general options). Is there an hidden thing I need to set somewhere else?