Channels & viewing

[Obelix27]

Thank you. But then what does the Audio Mode in Roku's settings actually do? I can set it to DD, or DTS (which my surround processor can handle) and for Plex the signal is then transcoded to DD or DTS, as expected. But from what you say it is Plex itself doing the transcoding.

- So for say Netflix, what difference does this Audio Mode setting make?

- Does it make any difference to the processing the Roku itself does?

[RokuTannerD]

@Obelix27 Thanks for the notes. In the case of Netflix, changing this option won't really do much, unless you are selecting specifically DD+ or Stereo, as those are the two audio formats currently offered by the channel.

If a channel provided say, both DD+, DD, and Stereo, changing this selection would attempt to select the specific format that you had selected from the available audio formats provided by the channel. The Roku does not process the audio in this scenario, it simply passes through the format provided by the channel (with the exception of using the Volume Mode feature for Stereo content). 

Thanks,

Tanner

[Obelix27]

That makes sense - thanks.

One suggestion for future improvement that is related: currently Night mode only works in stereo. Would be great if it worked in surround sound too ... I assume the Night Mode processing is done in the Roku and not by the source channel...

[HomeTheaterGuy]

You are 100% incorrect.  Have this configured with 1080P and the optical cable and HDMI for the video and are not getting any type of DD or DTS from the Roku Ultra.  

As an owner of an AV and Home Theater company, I went through each connection, replaced and tested each with the proper cables and enabled all systems to native to allow the content to pass through.  When in native or not, brands and products like; XBox One X/PS-4, Blu Ray DVD players, Channel Master HD OTA DVRs and Streaming sticks all pass through correctly and the AV receivers successfully pick up the DD, DTS, DD-EX, DTS-ES content with no problem.

The problem is the Roku software.  Please let me know when this issue has been addressed.

[atc98092]

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@HomeTheaterGuy wrote:

You are 100% incorrect.  Have this configured with 1080P and the optical cable and HDMI for the video and are not getting any type of DD or DTS from the Roku Ultra.  

As an owner of an AV and Home Theater company, I went through each connection, replaced and tested each with the proper cables and enabled all systems to native to allow the content to pass through.  When in native or not, brands and products like; XBox One X/PS-4, Blu Ray DVD players, Channel Master HD OTA DVRs and Streaming sticks all pass through correctly and the AV receivers successfully pick up the DD, DTS, DD-EX, DTS-ES content with no problem.

The problem is the Roku software.  Please let me know when this issue has been addressed.

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I'm unsure who you are responding to, but I can comment on something here. Roku players will output DTS from local media when connected to an AVR via HDMI or optical. This page offers more complete information about supported audio and video codecs. I have no issue getting DD or DTS from my Ultra 4640 connected to a Yamaha AVR via HDMI. Of course, that's the basic core DTS, not any of the enhanced versions. If I play something with DTS Master Audio, only the DTS core will passthrough. DD and DD+ will also pass via HDMI or optical. Of course, no current Roku player has optical out any longer. The Ultra 4640 was the last model with an optical out, other than some Roku TVs.

Based on the information already made public, Roku is adding support for Dolby TrueHD in OS 9.3.0. Of course, that requires a channel to support that codec, which so far none do. 

[HomeTheaterGuy]

 Appreciate the response, however what you provided is not what is needed to interpret the DD and DTS data coming from the Roku Ultra.  I am not using personal movies or audio content via a USB.  Instead, I am streaming directly from the device.   

I have the Ultra 4670R.  

Connection sequence:

Multiple Devices (HDMI) ---> HDMI HDCP 2.2 Matrix

HDMI HDCP 2.2 Matrix ----> HDMI 4K HDCP 2.2 Fiber Optic Cable (40 feet) ----> JVC Pro HD-ILA Projector

HDMI HDCP 2.2 Matrix ----> Toslkink Optical Cable ----> Integra 9.2 AV Receiver

All other devices have no issue receiving DD and DTS content and it encoded/decoded perfectly by the AVR beautifully.

[atc98092]

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@HomeTheaterGuy wrote:

 Appreciate the response, however what you provided is not what is needed to interpret the DD and DTS data coming from the Roku Ultra.  I am not using personal movies or audio content via a USB.  Instead, I am streaming directly from the device.   

I have the Ultra 4670R.  

Connection sequence:

Multiple Devices (HDMI) ---> HDMI HDCP 2.2 Matrix

HDMI HDCP 2.2 Matrix ----> HDMI 4K HDCP 2.2 Fiber Optic Cable (40 feet) ----> JVC Pro HD-ILA Projector

HDMI HDCP 2.2 Matrix ----> Toslkink Optical Cable ----> Integra 9.2 AV Receiver

All other devices have no issue receiving DD and DTS content and it encoded/decoded perfectly by the AVR beautifully.

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I'm not watching anything from the USB port. My media is contained on a server running DLNA software. I'm unaware of any online streaming provider that offers DTS, so I made an assumption you were streaming in a similar manner. 

I too am streaming directly from the Ultra, either from my media server using Roku Media Player, or from online sources such as CBS All Access, Disney+ Prime Video, etc. None of them offer DTS.

You have provided one possible issue. You haven't stated from what source you are streaming your media, but if it's from one of the major online providers, they all use Dolby Digital Plus. Your Ultra is not capable of converting DD+ to DD. Only the Ultra 4640 has that ability, and no other Roku player has ever had it. Optical is capable of passing DD+, but if your AVR doesn't support it, then stereo is all you will ever get. 

[Obelix27]

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@atc98092 wrote:

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I'm unsure who you are responding to, but I can comment on something here. Roku players will output DTS from local media when connected to an AVR via HDMI or optical. This page offers more complete information about supported audio and video codecs. I have no issue getting DD or DTS from my Ultra 4640 connected to a Yamaha AVR via HDMI. Of course, that's the basic core DTS, not any of the enhanced versions. If I play something with DTS Master Audio, only the DTS core will passthrough. DD and DD+ will also pass via HDMI or optical. Of course, no current Roku player has optical out any longer. The Ultra 4640 was the last model with an optical out, other than some Roku TVs.

My whole problem, in the OP, is that Netflix (and Amazon Prime) on Roku Streaming Stick+ outputs 2.0. My setup is Roku-> HDMI Projector via HDMI switch which has optical out to a DTS/DD AVR (Rotel RSP-1068). Presumably Netflix is outputting DD+, but I thought DD+ was meant to be backwards compatible!?

Plex outputs DD,DTS fine with this setup, and amazingly even converts between DD and DTS depending on the Roku audio settings. So clearly it is possible ....

The link states "Some Roku players can decode Dolby Digital Plus to HDMI and S/PDIF TOSLINK (optical). This means that content encoded with Dolby Digital Plus will be transcoded (converted) into Dolby Digital if your A/V receiver does not support Dolby Digital Plus, but does support Dolby Digital 5.1".

How do I find which Roku players do this?

[HomeTechie]

I too had this issue with my Roku streaming stick+ and searched forums etc. for hours over the last 2-3 week found the solution via another forum so posting here for users - it works for Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney+ etc., basically any streaming that broadcasts DD+ audio you need to turn off the volume leveling which by default seems to be set to ON. 

To do this you have to play the actual video/content and then press the option button (thats the *) on the Roku remote, the side menu will appear and make sure to change the volume leveling to OFF!

Once you do that your receiver or soundbar should straight away pick up the DD+/5.1/7.1 audio stream instead of PCM and switch. Even my old Pioneer AVR that supports DD+ did. You may need to do this for each streaming service content you watch as by default again setting in one app doesn't appear to fix for all the others.

Remember the other thing is the AVR/audio component must be supplied/connected via HDMI for audio as optical/SPDIF/TOSLINK does not have the bandwidth to support DD+ nicely. I actually tried this with my AVR and while it did show up the DD+ and plays it in my 5.1 setup, every 10-15 seconds the audio drops out (I am assuming the optical link just can't keep up with the higher bandwidth requirement for DD+).

Good luck!!

[HomeTechie]

Another few points to address your specific questions

If you only have an optical link to your sounds/AVR setup or system you will have to use a old/used Roku Ultra model 4640x which does indeed convert DD+ to DD apparently.

I just bought one on eBAY (before I found the volume auto leveling to OFF solution for DD+ I described in my last post) and will try it out this weekend and use the optical link from that 4640x to my AVR and see if DD works well (I actually want to compare DD vs. DD+ quality of surround for myself as there are different opinions out there as to whether it is a big difference or not). Since my AVR has HDMI I may end up just going with HDMI connection, since my AVR has HDMI and buy a HDMI splitter for $20-$30 on Amazon but I will post again once I check out the Roku ultra.

FYI my current setup is 

Roku streaming stick+ (and bunch of other sources) -> 4x2 4k HDMI matrix -> Out 1) Main TV, and optical to AVR via optical extract port of matrix, Out 2) TV in my garage for treadmill

Likely will switch it to put the splitter after the matrix to supply the TV and AVR both via HDMI for DD+