DTS-HD MA not playing

Help and Support Vero 4K / Vero 4K +
1

I am having a similar problem to yassineim as he describes here. Every time I play a DTS-HD MA clip (with passthrough enabled) on my Vero 4K + (OSMC 2020.03-1), I get nothing but static.
Every other format (DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital+ and TrueHD) works just fine. I am using Sony’s HT-Z9F soundbar which according to the specs is DTS -HD MA compatible…
I’ve tried different HDMI cables etc. but no difference.
Log is here: https://paste.osmc.tv/johimujipa

How can I eliminate the soundbar as the culprit? Can I play a DTS-HD MA source from another device?

2

That log was empty.

You are the only person who knows the answer to that question!

3

Oops, my bad. Here are the logs: https://paste.osmc.tv/yacojevipi

Gee, thanks for that super helpful reply. :wink: I was hoping someone would be able to say something along the lines of: yes, you can connect your laptop via HDMI and if you use XYZ player, it will send a passthrough signal…

4

Well, considering that I have no clue as to what kind of equipment that you have I think that was a very proper answer. How could I know that you have a laptop, or what software is on that laptop?

5

If you want to evaluate the soundbar’s ability to play DTS-HD, connecting up a Blu-Ray player is probably the best bet. Obviously checking that passthrough is enabled on it.

Perhaps you or a friend of yours have one.

I don’t anticipate this being an issue with the Vero however. If you enable DTS-HD we will simply send the stream through as it is.

Some logs will verify that we are indeed doing this but if we weren’t we’d be sending an LPCM stream which wouldn’t give you static

Cheers

Sam

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6

You can disable passthrough if you want, it’s physically the same thing as long as you select 7.1 in Kodi (lossless to lossless).

I also noticed that the culprit was neither the receiver nor the Vero, it’s the combination of both, as in I don’t have the same problem with a Shield TV, nor do practically anyone here has a problem with their Vero.

7

So even if my system is physically 5.1, I need to say I have a 7.1 setup?

Interesting… thanks @yassineim. Maybe I’m having one those strange combined problems. I’ll try and test it tomorrow with VLC on my laptop.

8

Thanks @sam_nazarko. I think VLC can output passthrough audio via HDMI. I’ll try it on my Macbook tomorrow.
In the meantime, how much quality degradation should I expect if I turn passthrough off? I guess this is a general question. If it makes any difference, my system has 5.1 physical speakers.

9

@Kihikihi Your provided log shows the Vero is connected to a device not being able to play DTS-HD

====================== Audio Cap =================== k3dRrf31
CodingType MaxChannels SamplingFreq SampleSize
PCM, 6 ch, 32/44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz, 16/20/24 bit
AC-3, 6 ch, 32/44.1/48 kHz,  bit
DTS, 6 ch, 32/44.1/48 kHz, 24 bit
Dobly_Digital+, 8 ch, 44.1/48 kHz, 16 bit
MAT, 8 ch, 48 kHz, 16/20 bit

Here an example of my Sony AVR STR-DN1080 supporting all formats:

====================== Audio Cap =================== k3dRrf31
CodingType MaxChannels SamplingFreq SampleSize
PCM, 8 ch, 32/44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz, 16/20/24 bit
AC-3, 6 ch, 32/44.1/48 kHz,  bit
DTS, 6 ch, 32/44.1/48/88.2/96 kHz,  bit
Dobly_Digital+, 8 ch, 44.1/48 kHz, 16 bit
MAT, 8 ch, 44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz, 16 bit
DTS-HD, 8 ch, 44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz, 16/20 bit
DTS-HD, 8 ch, 44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz, 16 bit
OneBitAudio, 6 ch, 44.1 kHz,  bit

Please, could you describe the infrastructure the Vero is conneced to? Is it connected via HDMI to a Sony TV or the Sony soundbar on first hop?

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10

Very interesting… thank you for spotting that.

Vero is connected to my Sony TV (X950G). and the TV is connected to the soundbar via eARC. Is that the way it should be?

11

So, obviously the Sony TV cannot process DTS-HD and by that cannot passthrough the HDMI packets to the soundbar correctly. Is it possible to connect the Vero to the soundbar and let the soundbar process the audio but forward the HDMI packets to the TV from there?

Otherwise you’ve to deactive the DTS-HD passthrough flag in settings->system->audio on the Vero with that current cable configuration. The TV will then get a DTS core or mutli channel PCM (depending whether you set the DTS flag or not) when a DTS-HD video is played on the Vero.

12

That’s what I read, but honestly I’m not sure, I got that advice from a thread in kodi forums.

13

If you have a 7.1 channel source and you are outputting PCM audio when you set the number of channels in Kodi to less than that, you are dictating they get downmixed by Kodi instead of the downstream device. Essentially the choice on whether to set output to 5.1 or 7.1 should be dictated by if your other device is capable of receiving 8 channel PCM and does as well or better than Kodi on downmixing it.

14

OK, I tried turning logging on and then connecting Vero directly to the soundbar, to see if that would produce a different list of audio capabilities: https://paste.osmc.tv/xumawozace
Unfortunately my plan didn’t work :slightly_frowning_face: I’m still seeing the same info coming from the TV. Does Vero not check audio caps every time it’s connected to a HDMI input?

I am going to try and get my hands on an “audio extractor” next… these boxes split HDMI video and audio, so I can feed the video to TV as I currently do, but the audio stream can go directly into the soundbar’s input (HDMI, or S/PDIF).

15

You need to reboot to get it to re-read the EDID (audio and disp_cap) info.

16

Yeah, that’s what I thought… I did the following:

  1. turn on logging
  2. power down Vero
  3. switch HDMI cable from TV to soundbar
  4. power back up and wait for a few minutes
  5. switch the cable back to the TV (now I can actually see Vero’s output again)
  6. upload the log

Maybe I have these steps in the wrong order…?

17

Swapping the output device forced a refresh. You would have had to ssh into the Vero and gotten the logs with a grab-logs -A command when it was still connected to the soundbar. Does your soundbar lack the ability to act as a passthrough device? What is the make and model of your soundbar?

18

Quickly read both manuals for the Sony HT-Z9F soundbar and TV X950G … should be absolutely no issue.

You’ve to connect the TV’s eARC/ARC HDMI port (it’s called HDMI IN 3) with eARC/ARC HDMI out port of the soundbar and the Vero with the HDMI 1 or 2 port of the soundbar. Of cause you’ve to use appropriate HDMI cables.

If you want to watch the signal from the Vero, you have to switch to the appropriate input on the soundbar (using HDMI 1 or HDM2 button on the soundbar’s remote control) and switch the TV’s input to HDMI IN 3 (using the INPUT button on the TV’s remote control).

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19

Thanks for the tip. Here is the log: https://paste.osmc.tv/asilizipub

====================== Audio Cap =================== k3dRrf31
CodingType MaxChannels SamplingFreq SampleSize
PCM, 8 ch, 32/44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz, 16/20/24 bit
AC-3, 6 ch, 32/44.1/48 kHz,  bit
DTS, 6 ch, 32/44.1/48/88.2/96 kHz,  bit
Dobly_Digital+, 8 ch, 44.1/48 kHz, 16/20 bit
MAT, 8 ch, 44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz, 16/20 bit
DTS-HD, 8 ch, 44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz, 16/20 bit
DTS-HD, 8 ch, 44.1/48/88.2/96/176.4/192 kHz, 16 bit
OneBitAudio, 6 ch, 44.1 kHz,  bit

Apparently, this device can handle DTS-HD.

It probably does. What would be the point of passthrough in a soundbar? :thinking:

See above, it’s a Sony HT-Z9F.

20

I am pretty sure he is talking about video passthrough to the TV, i.e. does the Soundbar have HDMI In AND HDMI out?

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