Contributor I

No Dolby Digital 5.1 with Netflix through Chromecast

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
March 27, 2021
41 replies
7989 views

This is some sort of post-topic to this:

I got myself a splitter as suggested in the above topic and have a partial success as I’m getting 5.1 sound on the optical output of the splitter for my cable box. However I’m not getting 5.1 when I plug in my Chromecast and cast Nextflix on it. Per this: https://help.netflix.com/en/node/23924 for proper 5.1 sound from Netflix I should be getting 5.1 from Chromecast which is not happening, at least when I use it with the splitter. Do you guys think this is a Chromecast issue, Netflix issue, splitter issue or a combination of those? Any ideas appreciated, thanks!

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J

John B

Here is a link that covers Chromecast sound settings

https://support.google.com/chromecast/answer/7575098?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en-AU

J

John B

FWIW I have just tried playing a 5.1 film from the Netflix app using the built-in Chromecast on my nVidea Shield.

My Arc showed DD+ being played. If it had been a Beam, I would have expected the handshake between Chromecast and Beam to result in DD5.1 being passed. But maybe that handshake isn't working properly?

K

kiurAuthor

Contributor I

@John B, thanks! This looked like it could help, but… with the same configuration when I set the surround settings for my Chromecast device to AC3 (or AC3/EAC3, doesn’t matter), still S2 app shows I’m getting stereo :( And yes, I did turned off Chromecast for some time before plugging it in again to the switch. Not sure what else I can try and I’m starting to give up on this frankly speaking

nVidia Shield looks promising, still this is quite expensive if I’d like to use it only for Netflix. So you think it should be able to decode the DD+ or Dolby Atmos sound from Netflix build-in app to DD on its outpical output I could use with Beam?

J

John B

Hi. No I am not suggesting that the Shield would decode anything. I only referred to the Shield because it is my only way of using Chromecast.

Possibly there isn't an effective 'handshake' between Chromecast and the Beam because you are using optical.

I doubt that a Shield is the answer to your problem.

Ken_Griffiths

@John B, thanks! This looked like it could help, but… with the same configuration when I set the surround settings for my Chromecast device to AC3 (or AC3/EAC3, doesn’t matter), still S2 app shows I’m getting stereo And yes, I did turned off Chromecast for some time before plugging it in again to the switch. Not sure what else I can try and I’m starting to give up on this frankly speaking

nVidia Shield looks promising, still this is quite expensive if I’d like to use it only for Netflix. So you think it should be able to decode the DD+ or Dolby Atmos sound from Netflix build-in app to DD on its outpical output I could use with Beam?

Does your cable TV box not have a Netflix App? If not. you just need a TV ‘stick’ with the Netflix App that supports DD 5.1 - maybe check out FireTV, Roku Stick, Apple-TV4HD etc.

You have several HDMI ports to fill on your chosen audio extractor/switch, so perhaps look into that option.

K

kiurAuthor

Contributor I

Just off the chats with both Nexflix and Google supports. The first one was completely useless, the Google one was actually not. The official statement from them is:

“ Netflix will emit 5.1 surround sound if Chromecast is connected to an AVR that supports Dolby Digital Plus (DD+).”

Looks like I need to give up on Sonos Beam. It’s so disappointing it does not support anything newer than DD 5.1

Ken_Griffiths

Just off the chats with both Nexflix and Google supports. The first one was completely useless, the Google one was actually not. The official statement from them is:

“ Netflix will emit 5.1 surround sound if Chromecast is connected to an AVR that supports Dolby Digital Plus (DD+).”

Looks like I need to give up on Sonos Beam. It’s so disappointing it does not support anything newer than DD 5.1

The Beam was around before the streaming services switched from DD5.1 to DD+ and then the picture changed quickly with Atmos audio. Most services though (and most A/V systems) still widely support the DD5.1 codec … the file size is smaller with DD+ but personally speaking it’s hard to hear any difference between the two, without any atmos metadata included in the stream.

I think DD+ is supposed to be backward compatible to DD anyway, but it appears that Google may not have implemented their device to operate in that way. The fact the Nvidia shield is able to transcode/output the DD+ signal as DD5.1 is some evidence that simple transcoding is doable, it’s just Google haven’t done it to perhaps help keep the costs down.

J

John B

For the avoidance of doubt I have NOT established that the Shield outputs DD5.1 in this situation.

The Google Support claim that Chromecast will output DD5.1 if that is what the AVR will handle may depend on an HDMI handshake that does not apply when optical is used.

J

John B

Is it not possible to install Netflix on the TV?

K

kiurAuthor

Contributor I

No it’s not possible on my TV. Also I don’t have Netflix app on my cable box

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