Off the start, I understand this is more of a compatibility issue of standards rather than a Vero 4K issue.
My home theater uses a Pioneer Elite SC-61 receiver which I have loved until now. With my new TV 4k is now in the mix. This means I can no longer connect my source devices to the AVR HDMI inputs and pass the video on to the TV, because this downgrades my video to 1080p. So I have configured my TV as the connection point for my input devices, then connected the TV to my receiver via HDMI.
The problem now is that unless the audio from my Vero 4K is stereo, I get no audio passed through the TV to the AVR. I have confirmed that the Vero 4k is outputting the correct audio by connecting the Vero 4K to the AVR. This generates all the various types of audio formats to my receiver.
All I want to do is watch 4k with full surround sound. I don’t want to spend $$ to replace my excellent (but 4k impaired) receiver.
Does anyone have any recommendations that would allow my LG B6P to pass full theater sound through to my Pioneer Elite SC-61?
The only suggestions here would be: You’d need an HDMI splitter that sends the same signal to the TV as well as to the AVR. Then you can playback the passthrough audio via the AVR and have the 4k video passed to your TV. The only problem here would be that the splitter wouldn’t be allowed to send the 4k video signal to your AVR via HDMI, but only to your TV - otherwise the AVR would refuse to take the signal at all… Or even make the Vero downgrade video to 1080p like it would with a single passthrough HDMI connection through the AVR to the TV.
Maybe somebody else who’s using a setup like this could chime in here and recommend a splitter which can downgrade the video on one of the two outputs or just send audio on one of the two HDMI ports (some HDFury device maybe?). What has to be achieved here to make this work: something like a dual HDMI out like some higher-end UHD Blu-ray players offer for 4k video and separate audio via HDMI.
I’m not sure what kind of splitters are out there, but I have the feeling that you might need to upgrade your AVR eventually to get 4k video and HD audio at the same time.
I have a similar setup, but with a 20+ year old Yamaha receiver that only has SPDIF inputs. I set the Vero 4K to passthrough (and set the proper formats that the Yamaha can handle). From the TV I connected the SPDIF to the Yamaha and turned on passthrough on the TV, so the HDMI audio is sent Vero -> TV -> Yamaha without being changed. Works great.
The other option could be to just connect the Vero to the amp via SPDIF.
I think there are splitters that may be able to achieve this. The issue however is whether they’re worth the cost. I suspect the cost of such a device would make a sizable contribution to the cost of a new AVR.
What @bmillham suggests wouldn’t passthrough any HD audio, so as I understood, wouldn’t solve the problem for @fragment. But also an interesting thing you’re saying there: Your TV offers full passthrough of DTS and Dolby over S/PDIF?
Frist time, I hear that this exists…
But also: If you’d also consider using S/PDIF, you could very well just connect the Vero 4k directly to your AVR and that would be it. But no HD audio then.
Well, the Pioneer Elite SC-61 was a high-end AVR that time with a 4-digit price in dollar … so, I cannot imagin @fragment wants to replace it by a cheap 4k AVR and even expensive solutions are interesting for him.
Have a look at HDFury, perhaps here is what helps you the next years till even 4k is out and not state of the art anymore.
I’d understand that very much! The “innovation” cycle of home entertainment equipment is frankly rediculous atm. HDMI 2.0, HDR10 and 4K just in place (kind of) and HDMI 2.0 is already “old” again, HDR10 seems to become outdated soon enough (and understandably as it seems to be a rushed and inferior solution compared to HDR10+, DV and HLG) and even 8K is already discussed a lot… I find that all quite frustrating. 1080p/3D with sound formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA and the interface needed - HDMI 1.4 - seemed to have been a constant a lot longer.
Even I have to fear that my “old” Denon AVR-X4300H (from end of 2016, having been the state of the art Denon product line until end of 2017!!!) will already lack HDR10+ passthrough support… At least sound formats seem to be something of a constant for the time being: Dolby Atmos and DTS:X which I wouldn’t want to miss anymore.
This all reason enough for me to just hop on the 3D audio train for the moment. 4k is still not ready with its quadrillion HDR formats that not one manufacturer all wants to support at the same time.
But I’m ranting on here and you’re probably not interested in this
From what I’ve heard their products might be the ones offering just what you’re looking for. If it could keep your equipment usable with 4k and HDR for around 100 bucks, I’d definitely go for it!
Thanks for the input folks. I don’t think S/PDIF is my solution (I have played with it) as it won’t cover the HD audio formats that most 4k source material is encoded with.
Somehow, I was hoping there would be some magic combination of settings with the Vero, the LG, and the pioneer like ARC that would enable the passthrough of audio over HDMI back to the receiver.
My Pioneer has some three letter acronym settings buried deep in the setup menu that I can’t yet make sense of. Maybe magic lives there?
It looks like HDFury AVR Key will do what is required for US$150.
I found this in a support forum: “It demuxes (separates) the audio from the datastream, repackages it into HDMI 1.3 or 1.4 format so it can be read and played back by a capable AVR, and combines it with 720p/1080p/no video to be sent to the AVR.”
I just hope it doesn’t introduce another layer of complexity into my system as it has its own UI (groan).
It certainly looks like the solution to your problem…
Would be interested to hear whether it’ll work for you. If my AVR won’t get an update to passthough HDR10+ and the Vero 4k will be able to playback HDR10+ content, I might need this solution, too some day.
@fragment let us know whether/how this works. Like you there are a lot of people in the field who would like to use their existing full hd AVRs somewhat longer.
Only the HDFury proucts that will do support this kind of operation… Other splitters will combine the full EDID of the 2 (or more) outputs and the lesser attributes will take priority.
The AVRKEY does cost a bit, it being new and all. An alternative is to look for the HDFury Integral which can also do this and more. It can be had quite cheap nowadays on Ebay, since the Linker, and Vertex has succeded it.
So, you could solve the problem and are now able to watch 4k with all the sound formats your AVR can handle?
If so, please mark the thread as solved with the answer coming closest to the answer that solved it for you, so that others interested in this see it right away.
