Audio Passthrough - Sanity check and/or advice

.Griff.

Member
I've recently purchased a U9-H to replace an old generic S905x box.

My setup is as follows >

Minix U9-H into Samsung Q9FN "One Connect box" and audio out of that via Toslink/Optical to AVR* - Storage is courtesy of a 4TB network share.

* The AVR doesn't support 4k so all feeds go into the TV and the AVR just handles audio.

My U9-U audio settings are as follows >

DRC Mode --> Line
DTS Drcscale --> SOUND0, (0%).
Digital Sounds --> Auto detection (HDMI Passthrough)
Sound Devices --> Input devices - Auto, & Output devices - HDMI.

My Kodi settings are as follows >

Allow passthrough - Enable
Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver - Enable
Dolby Digital Plus (E-AC3) capable receiver - Enable
DTS capable receiver - Enable

Number of channels - 5.1
Maintain original volume on downmix - Disabled
Stereo upmix - Disabled
Output Config - Best match
Keep audio device alive - 1 min
Send low volume noise - Enable

Issue >

Regardless of audio codec whatever movie I play via the U9-H the AVR detects stereo. It does this if I play a file via Kodi or if I play the same file via Mx Player.

If I play the same file directly via the TV (E.G DLNA) my AVR correctly detects AAC/DD/DTS etc

Advice >

Am I missing something obvious? I had CoreElec installed on my S905x and simply allowing "Audio Passthrough" on that seemed sufficient and the AVR worked fine so I don't think the Q9FN is a culprit. Likewise, if I use DLNA to play a file directly via the Q9FN itself the AVR works fine.

It's only when I use the U9-H that I seem to be restricted to stereo. Are there any logs I can obtain that may elaborate on the possible cause?
 
Additional test >

Just fired up my PS4. Used the media player to browse to the share and play the same file. AVR detects DD/5.1.

The only other device connected to the Q9FN is a Sky Q box. AVR detects DD/5.1 from that too (MAN City match in UHD)
 
What pusb87 said.

Alternatively, can you feed your AVR via HDMI? Optical does not support the newer audio formats, such as TrueHD, DTS-HD and probably more.
 
What pusb87 said.

Alternatively, can you feed your AVR via HDMI? Optical does not support the newer audio formats, such as TrueHD, DTS-HD and probably more.

OP's AVR doesn't support 4K!! Direct TOSLINK from the U9-H to the AVR is obviously required ;).
 
Correct. There is simply not enough bandwidth in the specification to transmit Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio. 125mb/s Is the maximum bandwidth. It may have seemed like a truck-ton, even 10 years ago as an audio standard, but even with modern compression being used over a full 32-bit packet-steam (originally 3.1 Mbit/s,(PCM stereo) now 125 Mbit/s -5.1, AC3, DTS), today, just has no capacity to transport that much data. And it's chip-coded on most older AVR's (read:physical hardware), Cleverly a PS3 or PS4 will down-sample automatically, hence people probably never notice. Thank Sony for their genius in that regard.
 
Thanks all. Apologies for the slow response. I've not been able to get the forums for a while (maybe just me?!?)
 
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