PCM vs Passthrough (Atmos, DD True HD, DTS-HD,...)

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

Is there any disadvantage on a Vero 4K to using PCM sound output vs passthrough for Atmos, TrueHD, DTS-HD, etc?

Will Vero 4K actually output the 2 Atmos channels via PCM (ie. 5.1.2 output)? I assume other formats would sound the same (TrueHD, DTS-HD)?

Reason: My Onkyo 676 receiver seems to have an annoying 1-2 sec audio delay when starting or unpausing video. This only happens with passthrough audio, PCM does not have this delay. I don’t think this delay is caused by Vero 4K since I have seen posts from others on the Onkyo board about this same delay.

2

3D audio formats only work when you enable passthrough. The over-head audio metadata is only carried in the raw audio stream via passthrough. PCM can only deliver up to 7.1 channels, ergo the 3D audio part will be lost, if you let the Vero transcode the audio stream to PCM before passing it to your AVR. If you want to benefit from 3D audio, you’ll probably have to live with the time your AVR needs to detect the passthrough audio stream after every playback initialization or after resuming playback…

3

Thanks for clarification.

Not sure if possible, but it would be great to see an option to enable passthrough only for formats that can’t be properly sent though PCM. This would limit my issue to only Atmos or DTS-X files.

Eg. add ‘Dolby Atmos Capable Receiver’, so only these can be enabled.

But maybe this is a Kodi request…

4

This would probably be device specific and not Kodi business. It’s noted on the long list of wishes… Let’s see what might be done and changed about audio some day. :wink:

Always happy to help! :+1:t2:

5

Have you tried the Keep Audio Device Alive toggle in the Kodi settings? Also, there’s a setting in Kodi to send an inaudible sound through the speakers. This often keeps the receivers from going into that mini-sleep. I know I’ve had this issue in the past with receivers, and I remember these settings helping a great deal. It’s not the Vero’s fault, - to clarify, but there are ways to mitigate it as I recall.

6

Yes… I initially thought that was the issue, but currently have ‘Keep Audio Device Alive = Always’ and same delay happens.

7

Have you tried the other option I mentioned?

8

If the AVR is having this delay every time a new format other than the “default” PCM is passed on, there’s probably no source device setting that can change this behaviour… Especially as those two settings will only send a 16bit/44.1kHz PCM signal, nothing else.

9

Where is this setting in the interface? I don’t remember seeing this.

10

It’s there in System Settings or Audio Settings. Can’t remember exactly. Not hidden.

11

The mentioned setting might become visible if you scroll through ‘basic’ / ‘advanced’ settings to show?

12

A somewhat unconventional solution may be to install a Kodi add-on such as Unpause Jumpback.

It will rewind for a couple of seconds after a paused playback (you can set after how long and how many seconds it rewinds).

This will give your AVR the chance to ‘wake up’ and you won’t miss any sound.

I know it’s not a real solution but may make your problem very easy to live with.