"FX4" wrote:
Apple TV, commonly referred to as ATV. DD+ streams are as they should be out the HDMI port, DD streams are sent the TosLink connector. Been doing it for years and the Audio issues with Roku is why I bought an ATV, so I could watch movies in 5.1 surround from my old and very expensive Onkyo receiver.
Right, because they most likely have a decoder chipset and a license to go along with it to do that - just like my LG TV. Seems like the Roku 4 has the required chipset, as all of this would be moot if it didn't. In the case of the R4, it seems like it may be a license-cost issue and firmware update to enable this feature, as RokuDale has implied that the technical capability to offer the stream is in the R4. Or perhaps the licensing comes with the chipset and it's just a matter of enabling; I don't know.
And I guess I blanked on the Apple TV / ATV, lol.
Edit: My guess is correct. This snippet is directly from Dolby regarding the Apple TV's handling of Dolby streams:
DECODING AUDIO STREAMS
Apple TV includes a built-in decoder for Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital audio. This means that the Apple TV is able to decode Dolby audio rather than simply pass the compressed bitstream to another device (such as an audio/video receiver [AVR] or a sound bar).
Decoding the audio inside of the Apple TV enables Apple to support several features such as mixing of other sounds from the system, Siri® voice input, and so on.
When a user plays media with stereo or multichannel audio (including Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital audio), the audio soundtrack is decoded to two or more PCM channels (uncompressed digital audio) before it is sent to the AVR or other downstream device.
Dolby Surround – This setting is intended to force the Apple TV to output a Dolby Digital (also known as “AC3”) compressed bitstream. This may be required with certain legacy devices or sound bars that support the older Dolby Digital format but do not yet support Dolby Digital Plus or multichannel PCM audio. Remember that Dolby Digital is only capable of up to 5.1 channels of audio, so this option will never be able to send 7.1 channel audio to the connected HDMI device.
When this setting is selected, the audio is first decoded (although constrained to 5.1 channels) and mixed with other system sounds, and is then reencoded to the legacy Dolby Digital format just prior to the HDMI output. The connected device (TV, sound bar or AVR) will then receive a Dolby Digital bitstream.
http://developer.dolby.com/News/Dolby_A ... le_TV.aspxOn older ATV's, there's a chance that Netflix, et al., is/was offering standard DD 5.1 dedicated streams vs. DD+ - or has a similar/older decoder.
This post suggests that the Netflix stream on ATV - as of a year and a half ago, anyway - was standard Dolby:
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2014/05/27 ... n-5-1-fix/