Solving playback issues

[Voliam]

I have a new Roku Premiere connected via HDMI to my TV with optical audio out from TV to AVR. No matter what audio setting I use, I get no surround sound from the Roku. If I watch Netflix via the onboard tv app I get surround sound- if I use the Roku app I don't (nothing via Roku plays in surround sound).
I have read/ tried everything in Roku's support pages to no avail. Therefore, does Roku even support Dolby Digital or do I have to have HDMI in/out on an AVR?

Thanks in advance

[atc98092]

"Voliam" wrote:
I have a new Roku Premiere connected via HDMI to my TV with optical audio out from TV to AVR. No matter what audio setting I use, I get no surround sound from the Roku. If I watch Netflix via the onboard tv app I get surround sound- if I use the Roku app I don't (nothing via Roku plays in surround sound).
I have read/ tried everything in Roku's support pages to no avail. Therefore, does Roku even support Dolby Digital or do I have to have HDMI in/out on an AVR?

Thanks in advance

What channels are you attempting to use? Not all offer 5.1 audio. Also, not all TVs will send 5.1 out the audio port from external devices. From your description, I believe this is likely your problem. The only way you will get 5.1 from the Roku (and yes it does support Dolby Digital) is to connect it to an AVR via HDMI. 

[Miami_Son]

"atc98092" wrote:

"Voliam" wrote:
I have a new Roku Premiere connected via HDMI to my TV with optical audio out from TV to AVR. No matter what audio setting I use, I get no surround sound from the Roku. If I watch Netflix via the onboard tv app I get surround sound- if I use the Roku app I don't (nothing via Roku plays in surround sound).
I have read/ tried everything in Roku's support pages to no avail. Therefore, does Roku even support Dolby Digital or do I have to have HDMI in/out on an AVR?

Thanks in advance

What channels are you attempting to use? Not all offer 5.1 audio. Also, not all TVs will send 5.1 out the audio port from external devices. From your description, I believe this is likely your problem. The only way you will get 5.1 from the Roku (and yes it does support Dolby Digital) is to connect it to an AVR via HDMI. 

Not to mention that most TVs will only send multichannel audio (or any audio) out the optical port when the source is cable or OTA and not an HDMI port.

[NightHawk]

A lot of TVs will tell the device (Roku) over HDMI they are stereo only and then it will only provide stereo to the TV.
The only way around that is normally to use an AVR with HDMI ports and plug the Roku into that to get multichannel capability sent to the device from the AVR.
There are some external HDMI switchers that can report multichannel to the device and offer their own optical output, but optical is only capable of DD or DTS max, not the newer DD+ that many services use now for multichannel audio streaming like amazon, netflix, etc.
So either an AVR with DD+ capability is needed, or a device like the Roku Ultra 4640 that has built-in DD+ decoder and optical audio output for an older AVR without HDMI and DD+, thats what I'm using successfully with a Panasonic plasma HDTV that also reports only stereo audio on its HDMI ports.

[Voliam]

I have a Blu Ray player connected via HDMI to the TV and get DD and DTS out via the optical port.

[Heyitsrick]

Netflix is Dolby Digital Plus (+),  not standard Dolby Digital. Additionally, Dolby Digital Plus carries too much data to be output on optical. It needs HDMI.  

You would need a 2016-version of the Roku Ultra that had the ability to convert Dolby Digital Plus to standard Dolby Digital over optical.  (The current Ultra doesn't "transcode" DD+).

That said, some TVs will convert DD+ to DD. My LG LED TV would convert DD+ to DD and output it over optical from the TV.

[Heyitsrick]

"Heyitsrick" wrote:
Netflix is Dolby Digital Plus (+),  not standard Dolby Digital. Additionally, Dolby Digital Plus carries too much data to be output on optical. It needs HDMI.  So, you will get stereo-only over optical with Netflix.

You would need a 2016-version of the Roku Ultra that had the ability to convert Dolby Digital Plus to standard Dolby Digital over optical.  (The current Ultra doesn't "transcode" DD+).

That said, some TVs will convert DD+ to DD. My LG LED TV would convert DD+ to DD and output it over optical from the TV.

[jhannus]

I just got a roku streaming stick+ with v9.2.0 on it and was looking for some information on this myself.

I have the same setup. My 5.1 AVR does not have hdmi so I have optical coming from my tv to the 5.1 avr. So all sound whether surround or not comes through the AVR cable, ps4, roku, etc.

My AVR displays a blue light ONLY when it’s real Dolby digital also you can hear the difference. So far I’ve only seen this on some Netflix originals, not YouTube tv ABC channel, or Hulu (I tried 1 original).

So yes, you can do this type of setup but the roku channels supporting real 5.1 are sparse. Also if your tv doesn’t read it as 5.1 try changing your tv audio settings to see if you can give it some hints.

Also imho, having a single device plugged in to your AVR seems to defeat the home theatre purpose. I need ALL audio coming from the tv no matter how many channels to go to the AVR

[atc98092]

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@jhannus wrote:
I just got a roku streaming stick+ with v9.2.0 on it and was looking for some information on this myself.

I have the same setup. My 5.1 AVR does not have hdmi so I have optical coming from my tv to the 5.1 avr. So all sound whether surround or not comes through the AVR cable, ps4, roku, etc.

My AVR displays a blue light ONLY when it’s real Dolby digital also you can hear the difference. So far I’ve only seen this on some Netflix originals, not YouTube tv ABC channel, or Hulu (I tried 1 original).

So yes, you can do this type of setup but the roku channels supporting real 5.1 are sparse. Also if your tv doesn’t read it as 5.1 try changing your tv audio settings to see if you can give it some hints.

Also imho, having a single device plugged in to your AVR seems to defeat the home theatre purpose. I need ALL audio coming from the tv no matter how many channels to go to the AVR

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As @Heyitsrick  mentioned, most content on Roku channels uses Dolby Digital+, which usually cannot be transmitted over optical. But DD+ is "real" 5.1. If your AVR doesn't have HDMI ports, it likely doesn't support DD+ either. And as mentioned very few TVs will convert DD+ to DD. Unfortunately, for the majority of online streaming today, you need an AVR with HDMI ports and DD+ support. Otherwise, 2 channel stereo is all you are going to get.

[msujdog]

I had the same problem.  I was able to get it sorta fixed by moving the Roku from the ARC HDMI input to another standard input.  THis at least allowed my 5.1 plex rips to stream properly via an optical cord to the receiver.

I did discover along the way that the native apps in my new LG tv are better than Roku's.  The LG even transcodes DD+ down to standard 5.1 DD via the optical cable for my old receiver which doesn't have HDMI or DD+ ability.  Finally can watch netflix in full surround!