Solving playback issues

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Effinae
Reel Rookie

Re: Update 9.2 broke dolby digital

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I'll check this as soon as I can.  My kids were in the middle of watching a movie on Disney+ that does support 5.1.  Volume Leveling was "on" but I turned it "off".  I then went the home screen and made sure to change my audio settings back to "auto".  I re-launched the Disney+ app and it still did not fix the dolby digital pass through.   Once I am able to retest I will report back further.  (I can't remember if the sound settings on my TV were put back to how they should be from when I was originally trying to figure this out)  But so far this seems as though it is not fixed.

My Setup:  Premiere+>HDMI>TV>optical>DD Receiver.  This worked fine up until the 9.2 update.

99-99
Channel Surfer

Re: Update 9.2 broke dolby digital

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I still don’t have mine working.  This last test kind of makes it a definite roku problem in my book.  I plugged my old fire stick in and Netflix and prime all have 5.1 now.  Stereo only with roku prime and Roku Netflix.  I have a new roku ultra.  Everything is using my TVs optical out to my Sonos soundbar.  Blue ray has 5.1, internal app on Samsung tv has 5.1, amazon fire stick has 5.1.  Roku no 5.1

Effinae
Reel Rookie

Re: Update 9.2 broke dolby digital

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It is working now.  As I expected I need to change an output setting on my TV to get it to send DD correctly to my receiver.  I'm assuming that the volume leveling that was automatically turned on is the culprit to this issue.  I posted my setup chain above and here I will post the specific settings I used on the Roku:

Volume Leveling = off

Audio Mode (Auto(DD+, DTS))  I'm guessing it decides this depending on the next option

HDMI:  I have specified (DD+, DTS)

Again, I do NOT have a DD+ capable receiver.  Some incorrect information was given earlier in the thread that you HAVE to have a DD+ receiver and that is true.  Either it's because of being backwards compatible or my TV doing the decoding, which might be my case here.  My TV does have an option on its output over optical to send either DD or DD+ and I have DD selected.

[content edited]

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Wsb
Channel Surfer

Re: Update 9.2 broke dolby digital

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I tested also.  Volume leveling off.  “Auto” selected.  Tested with amazon prime on a movie that said 5.1 supported. Sound was PCM.  Only Roku channel delivers 5.1.

im using the newest Roku ultra with a Yamaha receiver that supports Dolby dts 

ryeguy_24
Binge Watcher

Re: Update 9.2 broke dolby digital

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Keep in mind that Netflix requires Dolby Digital Plus (does your receiver have that). If you choose that setting, does it work? It works for my Ultra and Yamaha. 

Heyitsrick
Roku Guru

Re: Update 9.2 broke dolby digital

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@Wsb wrote:

I tested also.  Volume leveling off.  “Auto” selected.  Tested with amazon prime on a movie that said 5.1 supported. Sound was PCM.  Only Roku channel delivers 5.1.

im using the newest Roku ultra with a Yamaha receiver that supports Dolby dts 


Roku only passes through Dolby audio to the device it's connected to.  Amazon Prime uses Dolby Digital PLUS (DD+) surround.  Same for Netflix - Dolby Digital Plus.  If you're connecting your Roku to a receiver/AVR that does not support Dolby Digital Plus surround, you'll get stereo-only. It's as simple as that. 

Some people connect their Rokus to their TV, and then use the TV's Optical Out to send to their receiver that does not support Dolby Digital Plus but DOES support regular-old Dolby Digital (non-plus). In this case, it's the TV that's doing the converting of the surround sound. In these cases where the TV supports this, the TV is converting Dolby Digital Plus to standard Dolby Digital, and then sending it on to the receiver.  For that to work, your TV needs to be able to do the DD+ --> DD conversion. This is not a Roku issue. This is whether your TV supports DD+ conversion down to regular DD.

Heyitsrick
Roku Guru

Re: Update 9.2 broke dolby digital

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@Effinae wrote:

 

Again, I do NOT have a DD+ capable receiver.  Some incorrect information was given earlier in the thread that you HAVE to have a DD+ receiver and that is NOT true.  Either it's because of being backwards compatible or my TV doing the decoding, which might be my case here.  My TV does have an option on its output over optical to send either DD or DD+ and I have DD selected.


It's not "incorrect" information. If you connect your Roku directly to an AVR (receiver) that does NOT support Dolby Digital Plus, you won't get surround sound unless the original surround sound exists as standard (old) Dolby Digital. If a program exists on an app in Roku that's in old-fashioned standard Dolby Digital (not Dolby Digital Plus, such as Netflix/Amazon, etc.), you'll be able to get old-fashioned standard Dolby Digital on your receiver.  However, if it's Dolby Digital PLUS (DD+) and you connect the Roku directly to the receiver that doesn't support DD+, you're going to get stereo, max.  It's just that simple.

In your case, you're using the TV to decode DD+ to standard/old DD and then sending it out to the receiver. When the receiver gets it, it sees standard/old Dolby Digital and can give you standard/old Dolby Digital surround.  But again, if you connected your Roku directly to this receiver (not the TV) via HDMI and the receiver didn't support Dolby Digital Plus, you'd be out of luck. You're just lucky you can use the optical workaround. Not every TV supports that (My LG HDTVs support it, however).

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vodil
Binge Watcher

Re: Update 9.2 broke dolby digital

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@ryeguy_24 wrote:

Keep in mind that Netflix requires Dolby Digital Plus (does your receiver have that). If you choose that setting, does it work? It works for my Ultra and Yamaha. 


Which is a very annoying limitation of ROKU in that netflix can have ATMOS sound, but not on any version of ROKU.  So I if I want to have atmos on my home theater I have to do it through my PC (which can get the atmos version) as ROKU won't.

I am not buying another ROKU until that gets fixed.

 

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Zwack
Binge Watcher

Re: Update 9.2 broke dolby digital

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So, for my setup I have a Roku Ultra connected to HDMI port 1 on a Sony Bravia.  I have a Sonos Beam connected to HDMI-ARC on the Sony Bravia.  I have Ikea Symfonisk as surround speakers.

If I leave Roku set to "Auto" It detects Dolby Digital, DTS from the Bravia and I get stereo on the Sonos from Netflix on the Roku, I get 5.1 from Netflix on the TV.

If I tell Roku to use Dolby Digital plus, DTS then I get 5.1 on the Sonos from both Netflix apps.

Using HDMI-ARC is not the same as optical so I think that makes a big difference. 

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Wsb
Channel Surfer

Re: Update 9.2 broke dolby digital

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whats being implied with these posts is that the industry is deprecating Dolby DTS and inserting plus.  I can find no documentation that supports this.   what i see is that plus simply gives a 7.1 output, which i can see no streaming service really supporting with the content.  its primarily 5.1. 

Also the fact that the Roku audio setup continues to allow selecting Dolby DTS shows to me that this is just a product defect that needs attention.

 

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