I get the pcm 2.0 input from T5 to my receiver when it displays 5.1 output from T5. So i don't get surround sound.
Hi, I have the same issue with T5.
After you reboot the device you have the passthrough option in KODI.
but if you put it in sleep and wake up the passthrought option is no longer available.
I've periodically tested a Neo T5 with the different MINIX firmware releases with my AVR & 5.1.2 audio hardware since the device was released. For the most part, lossy SD 5.1 audio (AC3, e-AC3 & DTS) all worked fine via HDMI, as well as e-AC3 encoded media with Atmos metadata. TOSLINK/optical was a little more tricky at times but I did get it to work at one point, (unfortunately that was nigh on 2 years ago & I just can't remember all of the details with my awful memory
).
HD audio never functioned but ultimately we eventually worked it out for ourselves that the lack of HD audio was a known limitation of the official firmware, not the hardware.
I've since installed CoreELEC Matrix directly to the eMMC of my test T5 so I can no longer easily jump back & forth between CE & the official FW to test for these sorts of problems you're currently experiencing with a T5 again.
However, as I've just explained, lossy SD 5.1 audio did in fact work OK (with my audio hardware at least), so make sure you haven't missed something with regards to configuration with either the T5 or your audio hardware as it does actually work. (Obviously, this is still by no means any guarantee for every possible end user. (As another example, I suffer significant issues trying to run a U22 via my AVR while other users have a very different experience with their hardware. Unfortunately, to date MINIX never have managed to resolve the issues with HD audio on the T5 or for those with affected hardware.))
Are you both heavy users of Kodi? Depending on the answer to that question, it would certainly be well worth considering running CoreELEC off a micro SD, for example, & otherwise continue to run the official firmware off the eMMC. Switching between the two literally takes a few seconds & CE is still very responsive, & runs fast enough from an external source for the average user. (I'd also advise continuing to run CE off external media if you do elect to try it as reverting back to the official firmware with the eMMC alone isn't as simple as with other devices.)
I know, you've purchased these devices & ultimately they really should be functioning as expected!! However, what have you got to lose at this point by simply trying CoreELEC for evaluation? You may even find that you prefer running Kodi with CE than you do running it within the Android OS
.
Up to you
.