Contributor I

LG C9 + Arc + UB820 / Multichannel PCM for DTS Blu-Ray discs

Forum|Forum|5 years ago
November 17, 2020
344 replies
32087 views

I’m running an LG C9 with a Panasonic UB820 Blu-ray player, Sonos Arc + Sub gen 3 + One SL surrounds. The lack of DTS support on the Arc has been frustrating for non Dolby encoded Blu-ray discs, so I have been eagerly awaiting the multichannel PCM update.

It’s finally arrived (thanks, Sonos!) and I tried playing a DTS encoded Blu-ray and… no dice. Still stereo PCM 2.0. Has anyone running a similar set-up managed to get 5.1 PCM output from the Arc?

The C9 supports eARC and multichannel PCM, I’m using 48gbps HDMI cables that support up to 8k60Hz, all of the devices are up to date, I have the C9 set to PCM with eArc enabled, DTS output set to PCM on the UB820… I’m really at a loss here. Any ideas or suggested settings?

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GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

So if I purchase the HD Fury Arcana for use with my LG CX, Panasonic UB820-K, and Sonos 5.1 system, then I should be able to get 5.1 surround for DTS Blu-rays via LPCM?

My original plan was to swap out my Panasonic for the LG UBK90 but I’d rather keep the Panasonic because of the HDR Optimizer. Also, it seems that on the LG UBK90, you can’t set audio input method for Dolby and DTS separately like you can with the Panasonic, so you would have to switch back and forth between PCM and Bitstream for DTS and Dolby tracks. Annoying.

Has anyone with the same setup as me confirmed that the Arcana solves the issue? According to the Arcana site, they will not accept returns if you use the item and I want to make sure it solves the issue here before purchasing it.

Any insight is appreciated!

I have the Panasonic UB820 UHD player and the Arcana, and I can confirm that I get multichannel PCM 5.1/7.1 audio playing from the Arc with all of my DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS:X encoded Blu-rays.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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Laird M Malamed

Enthusiast I

My original plan was to swap out my Panasonic for the LG UBK90 but I’d rather keep the Panasonic because of the HDR Optimizer. Also, it seems that on the LG UBK90, you can’t set audio input method for Dolby and DTS separately like you can with the Panasonic, so you would have to switch back and forth between PCM and Bitstream for DTS and Dolby tracks. Annoying.

GuitarSuperstar answered your question on the audio with the HDFury.

As to this specific part, I have both players and this is exactly the tradeoff I am playing with:

LG UBK90 - Correctly passes DTS audio via LPCM through the LG TV to the Sonos Arc. However, you need to set the UBK90 to PCM output for all audio. It can not be set specifically for DTS tracks vs. Dolby tracks. Non-4K content is sent to the TV in original format.

Panasonic - DTS audio is PCM 2.0 for all tracks regardless of original input and this setting is separate from the Dolby pass through which will correctly send Atmos to the Arc through the TV. Upscaler is excellent on the Panasonic. (The TV is not bad though either.)

Anyway, I have an HDFury on order and can report back whenever I get it.

I

iBoyley

Trending Lyricist I

My original plan was to swap out my Panasonic for the LG UBK90 but I’d rather keep the Panasonic because of the HDR Optimizer. Also, it seems that on the LG UBK90, you can’t set audio input method for Dolby and DTS separately like you can with the Panasonic, so you would have to switch back and forth between PCM and Bitstream for DTS and Dolby tracks. Annoying.

GuitarSuperstar answered your question on the audio with the HDFury.

As to this specific part, I have both players and this is exactly the tradeoff I am playing with:

LG UBK90 - Correctly passes DTS audio via LPCM through the LG TV to the Sonos Arc. However, you need to set the UBK90 to PCM output for all audio. It can not be set specifically for DTS tracks vs. Dolby tracks. Non-4K content is sent to the TV in original format.

Panasonic - DTS audio is PCM 2.0 for all tracks regardless of original input and this setting is separate from the Dolby pass through which will correctly send Atmos to the Arc through the TV. Upscaler is excellent on the Panasonic. (The TV is not bad though either.)

Anyway, I have an HDFury on order and can report back whenever I get it.

Is the purpose of the Arcana not to provide eArc capability for older TV’s that do not have this feature? I don’t see why a CX would require such device something is clearly not working as intended however getting either Sonos/Panasonic or LG to own up that the fault is theirs could prove problematic

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GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

@iBoyley Yes, the primary purpose of the Arcana is to provide eARC capabilities for users with TVs with HDMI ARC only. But the Arcana can also allow users to bypass ANY TV with lip sync problems, audio limitations, or handshake issues too, and the LG CX is one of those TVs.

If you are waiting for LG to address the problem, you could be waiting a very long time.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

I

iBoyley

Trending Lyricist I

@iBoyley Yes, the primary purpose of the Arcana is to provide eARC capabilities for users with TVs with HDMI ARC only. But the Arcana can also allow users to bypass ANY TV with lip sync problems, audio limitations, or handshake issues too, and the LG CX is one of those TVs.

If you are waiting for LG to address the problem, you could be waiting a very long time.

Im not sure who’s at fault however the LG CX is able to pass LPCM from both my Series X and PS5 so that leads me to believe the issue is with the Panasonic somehow

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GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

@iBoyley Yes, the primary purpose of the Arcana is to provide eARC capabilities for users with TVs with HDMI ARC only. But the Arcana can also allow users to bypass ANY TV with lip sync problems, audio limitations, or handshake issues too, and the LG CX is one of those TVs.

If you are waiting for LG to address the problem, you could be waiting a very long time.

Im not sure who’s at fault however the LG CX is able to pass LPCM from both my Series X and PS5 so that leads me to believe the issue is with the Panasonic somehow

The Panasonic player is capable of outputting multichannel PCM audio from DTS-encoded Blu-rays. This has been confirmed from other users, including myself. The problem is a specific handshake issue with LG and the Panasonic UHD player. You can wait for LG or Panasonic to address it, or you can use your Xbox and PS5, or get the Arcana, and enjoy your Arc today.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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joeytvmusic97

Lyricist III

Purchased HDFury Arcana and am now able to get Multichannel PCM 7.1 through Sonos while watching a DTS-X disc on my LG CX and Panasonic 820.

However, this only works if you plug the Panasonic directly into the Arcana via the HDMI IN port. So it appears that I will need to use an HDMI switcher for my other devices (Apple TV 4K, PS5, Fios, and Nintendo Switch) so that they can all plug directly into the HDMI IN port of the Arcana.

Someone above suggested that for e-ARC televisions, it would not be necessary to plug the devices into the Arcana because the e-ARC TV would act as the “switcher”. However, when I tried plugging the Panasonic directly into the TV via HDMI like I usually do, I was only able to get Stereo PCM 2.0 through the Arc.

My next thought was to connect only the Panasonic to the Arcana through the HDMI IN port and leave my other devices (Apple TV 4K, PS5, Fios, and Nintendo Switch) connected directly to the TV via HDMI. But when I tested a Dolby Atmos Netflix film on the Apple TV, I was getting “Dolby Atmos (DD+)” through the Arc. When I used to watch Dolby Atmos content on Netflix, the Sonos app showed “Dolby Atmos”.

I did some research and it appears that the “(DD+)” indicates that the Arc is not connected via e-ARC, only regular Arc. I believe this is a lossy Atmos rather than lossless.

All in all, I’m happy to have found an (annoying) solution and will need to purchase a different HDMI switcher because my current one only has 3 external ports and I have 5 devices that will need to feed into the Arcana.

S

Silverthorn

Prodigy II

You will only get lossy Atmos (DD+) when steaming I believe. The Panasonic should give you TrueHD Atmos from an Atmos disc.

"I saw the Stooges and the MC5"

Ken_Griffiths

I did a bit of playing today with an LG C9 TV and an old PS3, playing a Blu-ray movie. Initially set to bitstream output on the PS3 and TV, the Movie output its audio as Uncompressed Dolby TrueHD. There was no Atmos metadata, but that’s irrelevant here for the following test.

My purpose was to then see if the LG C9 TV would pass-through multichannel LPCM 5.1 uncompressed audio, as I had seen some users mention earlier in the thread (and elsewhere on the forum) that the C9 TV doesn’t support the pass-through of that codec and apparently some were considering getting the Arcana to bypass their TV. Anyhow here is my result … see attached screenshot.

It seems clear the TV will pass-through multichannel LPCM after all.

What I had to do to make this work was switch the PS3 over from Bitstream to do ‘on the fly transcoding’ to LPCM in the video settings menu (LPCM transcoding is its default setting anyway) and it will transcode DD and DTS codecs. I then had to manually change the audio output on the connected HDMI port to support the following codecs (do not use the automatic detection setting):

DD 5.1/Plus/TrueHD
DTS 5.1/HD/HD-MA
Linear PCM 2CH/5.1CH 44.1/48kHz

I didn’t bother with 7.1CH or any higher sampling rates as I understand Sonos supports sampling up to 48kHz... and note again these settings were setup manually.

On the LG C9 TV (additional) sound settings. I changed the HDMI input port audio format (HDMI 3 is where the PS3 was attached) from Bitstream to PCM and played the same Blue-ray Movie which arrived at the Sonos ARC as LPCM 5.1. This revealed that the TV will (and does) pass-through the multichannel LPCM codec.

I just thought that info. was worth sharing here, as I see some were considering bypassing their TV sets thinking that the LG C9 didn’t pass-through the codec. The results here tend to suggest the TV will pass it through.

The TV’s HDMI2 Port for the connected Sonos Arc was set to eARC (obviously) and audio pass-through. TV firmware version 5.00.10

I hope the info above may assist other LG C9 TV owners trying to pass-through the LPCM codec.

G

GuitarSuperstar

Lead Maestro

@joeytvmusic97 The Panasonic UB820 has to be connected to the Arcana to bypass your TV. That’s the purpose of it.

If you used to get Dolby Atmos audio from Netflix on your Apple TV before connecting the Arcana, you still should be able to get it.

If you are looking for a good HDMI switch that has been proven to work with the Arcana, try this ROOFULL switch:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07CF793HQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glc_fabc_-iq9FbB1CRZ0C

I am using their 3-port switch and it works well with the Arcana. The only issue I have with it is it doesn’t auto switch inputs. But I have programmed my Harmony remote/hub to take care of the switching.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi

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