Just a quick question. In order to keep the setup family friendly I have connected the Vero4K to a Sony XBR-65X900F along with a ST-ST9 sound bar on ARC. It seems the TV does not pass through TrueHD and DTS-HD and I get only silence when playing back media with those two codecs. Right now the HDMI cable is buried in the wall connecting the Vero to the TV so I am not sure if the problem with pass though is the cable being 4 years old and not good enough to handle the signal. I know I can connect the Vero directly to the sound bar but that makes it more difficult to switch activities for wife and etc.
If I disable pass through in the Vero I get sound when I otherwise would not in the previous scenario I described. During playback (with pass through disabled) the audio decoder shown is ff-dca and the sound bar displays LPCM. It’s basically the same uncompressed sound I can hear then is it not? It’s just the Vero decoding the lossless audio instead of the sound bar am I right? I wonder if it becomes a sampled at a lower rate this way though.
That TV has only ARC and not eARC correct? If so then you going to get uncompressed stereo sound from Kodi or optionally, by setting Kodi to do so, a downconverted to surround AC3 version. In theory the Stereo PCM should be pretty close to the same as playing the actual HD audio track although there can be differences in AVR’s/soundbars in how they are able to do extra processing between PCM and Dolby and DTS formats. Really you should just let your ears be the judge but I think you will likely find that you will get better sound quality from directly connecting the Vero to that soundbar than by routing it through ARC.
I did some reading and it seems the tv will only send out 2.0 LPCM or DD,DD+, and DTS to the sound bar. Even had it been 5.1 LPCM it would have been okay since it’s basically the same as TrueHD or DTSHD. Good enough I suppose. The thing is if connect Vero to the ST9 I will lose 4K picture so there’s a drawback either way. Better stick with better picture than lossless audio in this case.
I wasn’t finding anything for a “ST-ST9” on a Google search. The results all came back with references to a “HT-ST9” which is advertised as having 4K support. If your soundbar really does not have support for 4K then the only way to get both 4K and HD audio without replacing equipment would be to split the HDMI signal using an HD Fury or similar type of device.
Using the display for settings
You can make various adjustments to elements such as picture and sound.
Basic settings are underlined.
1 Press HOME.
The home menu appears on the TV screen.
2 Press to select [Setup].
3 Press / to select the setting category icon
then press.
Icon Description [Software Update] (page 22)
Updates the system software.
[Screen Settings] (page 23)
Makes the screen settings according to the type of TV.
[4K output]
[Auto1]: Outputs 2K (1920 × 1080) video signals during
video playback and 4K video signals during photo playback when connected to a 4K compatible device manufactured by Sony.
Displays 4K video signals during playback of 24p video content or playback of photos when connected to a device other than a Sony 4K compatible device.
This setting does not work for 3D video playback.
[Auto2]: Automatically outputs 4K / 24p video signals when you connect a 4K / 24p compatible device and make the corresponding settings under [Network Content 24p Output] in [24p Output], as well as 4K / 24p still images when using 2D - play photo files.
[Off]: Disables the function.
I’m a moron. I read the pdf incorrectly and yes it does support 4K. It is a HT-ST9.
But now I have another issue that is irritating. For some reason when HOME is pressed I get a blank screen and no interface from the soundbar. Everything seems to work as the tv controls it for on/off etc but for the life of me I can’t access the HOME screen.
I remember doing a firmware update for it a ways back. But right now I cannot access any menus or anything to change any settings on the ST9 since the home screen refuse to display. I even used the Sony TV interface to access the ARC HDMI INPUT and open the home screen on the ST9 and it still won’t show up. Really strange bug!!!
Is your UI in Kodi set to 4K? It is not uncommon for devices with OSD’s to only display when they are outputting lower resolutions (ie not in passthrough mode). Also if your UI is set to 4K and 60hz I don’t think your particular hardware would support that setting and would be expected to not get a signal. Just in case your not aware the following are the recommended settings…
We recommend people with 4K TV’s set their user interface (UI) to 1080p. Kodi’s UI is not optimized for 4K yet and this can put unnecessary demands on your device and can lead to a suboptimal picture quality, as well as potentially cause other issues.
With the above settings your UI will be output in Full HD and your 4K content will be output in 4K. *Information regarding the whitelist can be found here. If you have any doubt, feel free to upload some logs so we can verify that your settings are indeed correct.
In case anyone is curious I tried hooking up the bar to a different tv and it works fine displaying the home screen et all. I think the HDMI cable buried in my wall has become damaged as it fits the bar looser than I’d like. It appears the cable is good enough to carry audio but not enough to send video. When I install the new entertainment centre I’ll use a new cable and hopefully it is not some dumb setting on my TV.
to select [Setup].
to select the setting category icon