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

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So, I’ve tested while having the blu ray player on with the film playing and pulled the plug for a while and still no joy with the GX. Has anyone else confirmed this method working for the Panasonic?

 

At present with the Dr HDMI I can replicate the LG EDIDs to play anything with DOLBY Vision that has a Dolby soundtrack. For anything with regular HDR or a non Dolby track I can use the UHD GREEN 1 setting.

The only scenario that I can’t cover is when there’s DV and DTS together, which fortunately seems rare. in this case the picture would be HDR only but at least I’ll get full surround sound. The only one I can see in my collection at a glance that has DV and DTS is Gladiator. 
 

J
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Update:

I tried Die Hard UHD this morning. TV had been switched off overnight. Result: silence.

Then I unplugged the CX. The sound returns!

I’ll do some more testing...

J
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@JockWu

 

To clarify, you have to unplug before each test attempt? How long does it work for before you need to unplug again?

No, I only unplugged the one time. I’ve only tested it on 2 discs so far (All About Eve and Saving Private Ryan). Will check if it’s still working and test on more discs later today.

@JockWu  thanks. Did you have to keep the blu ray player on when you did the unplug / plug as @iBoyley  suggested? I haven’t had a chance to test it yet. 

Yes. The blu-ray player was on when I unplugged the CX.

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@JockWu

 

To clarify, you have to unplug before each test attempt? How long does it work for before you need to unplug again?

No, I only unplugged the one time. I’ve only tested it on 2 discs so far (All About Eve and Saving Private Ryan). Will check if it’s still working and test on more discs later today.

@JockWu  thanks. Did you have to keep the blu ray player on when you did the unplug / plug as @iBoyley  suggested? I haven’t had a chance to test it yet. 

J
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Interestingly some guy on Reddit owns a CX and said that

“If you set the TV earc to passthrough and then unplug the TV from power for a few seconds. It will start miraculously playing whatever the number of channels you expect.”

 

I haven’t got round to testing it yet

@iBoyley 

Have you been able to test the unplug method?

J
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@JockWu

 

To clarify, you have to unplug before each test attempt? How long does it work for before you need to unplug again?

No, I only unplugged the one time. I’ve only tested it on 2 discs so far (All About Eve and Saving Private Ryan). Will check if it’s still working and test on more discs later today.

I
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Did you have everything else on/movie loaded on the Panasonic before then unplugging the TV?

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Sadly, no joy for me with the Panasonic using this unplug method...

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@JockWu

 

To clarify, you have to unplug before each test attempt? How long does it work for before you need to unplug again?

J
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OK, I have confirmed that multichannel PCM is coming through the Arc after unplugging the power cord for a few seconds.

My Sonos system is Arc + 2 x One SLs + Sub (Gen 3).

I have a Sony ubp-x800m2 UltraHD player → LG 65 inch CX OLED TV (2020 model). The LG is connected to the Arc via HDMI 2 (the eArc port).

For testing, I’m using the Saving Private Ryan (Sapphire Series) blu-ray which has English 5.1 DTS-HD MA.

Settings

Sony

     Digital Audio Out: PCM (rather than bitstream)

LG

     eArc: ON

     HDMI Audio Input: Bitstream

     Digital Audio Output: Pass Through

 

The Sony display says “LPCM 5.1”, while the Sonos app says the sound is Multichannel PCM 7.1. I’m guessing it’s not actually 7.1, but I’m also just glad that I can get multichannel PCM without having to wait for a firmware fix or Arcana. All those DTS 5.1 tracks can now be utilised!

Hope this helps. And hopefully this solves the issue permanently.

J
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@JockWu Could you not get multichannel PCM from DTS-encoded discs from your Sony player before you did the unplugging trick?

 

That’s correct - the LG CX seemed to have trouble outputting multichannel PCM to the Arc.

That’s interesting. This is the first I have heard anyone have the problem with a Sony player. Everyone on this thread has the Panasonic UB820 player.

Yeah, when I press Display on the Sony remote, it says the audio being output is LPCM 5.1. Previously, LPCM 5.1 from the Sony resulted in silence on the Arc.

G
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@JockWu Could you not get multichannel PCM from DTS-encoded discs from your Sony player before you did the unplugging trick?

 

That’s correct - the LG CX seemed to have trouble outputting multichannel PCM to the Arc.

That’s interesting. This is the first I have heard anyone have the problem with a Sony player. Everyone on this thread has the Panasonic UB820 player.

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
J
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@JockWu Could you not get multichannel PCM from DTS-encoded discs from your Sony player before you did the unplugging trick?

 

That’s correct - the LG CX seemed to have trouble outputting multichannel PCM to the Arc.

G
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@JockWu Could you not get multichannel PCM from DTS-encoded discs from your Sony player before you did the unplugging trick?

"Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." - Rashi
J
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Interestingly some guy on Reddit owns a CX and said that

“If you set the TV earc to passthrough and then unplug the TV from power for a few seconds. It will start miraculously playing whatever the number of channels you expect.”

 

I haven’t got round to testing it yet

 

M wife wanted to watch All About Eve (which has a DTS-HDMA 5.1 track) so on a whim I decided to unplug my CX for a few seconds. Guess what, the Sonos app says Multichannel PCM 7.1!!

I’m not sure All About Eve is known for its spectacular surround sound, so next, I’ll try it with Die Hard or another DTS disc.

 

Stay tuned...

What type of UHD Blu Ray player are you running?

 

Sorry, should have mentioned I have the Sony ubp-x800m2. Audio output set to PCM (Auto gives me silence).

T

Interestingly some guy on Reddit owns a CX and said that

“If you set the TV earc to passthrough and then unplug the TV from power for a few seconds. It will start miraculously playing whatever the number of channels you expect.”

 

I haven’t got round to testing it yet

 

M wife wanted to watch All About Eve (which has a DTS-HDMA 5.1 track) so on a whim I decided to unplug my CX for a few seconds. Guess what, the Sonos app says Multichannel PCM 7.1!!

I’m not sure All About Eve is known for its spectacular surround sound, so next, I’ll try it with Die Hard or another DTS disc.

 

Stay tuned...

What type of UHD Blu Ray player are you running?

J
Userlevel 1
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Interestingly some guy on Reddit owns a CX and said that

“If you set the TV earc to passthrough and then unplug the TV from power for a few seconds. It will start miraculously playing whatever the number of channels you expect.”

 

I haven’t got round to testing it yet

 

M wife wanted to watch All About Eve (which has a DTS-HDMA 5.1 track) so on a whim I decided to unplug my CX for a few seconds. Guess what, the Sonos app says Multichannel PCM 7.1!!

I’m not sure All About Eve is known for its spectacular surround sound, so next, I’ll try it with Die Hard or another DTS disc.

 

Stay tuned...

L
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Hey guys, can anyone confirm that the Arcana doesn’t have the Dolby Vision issue?

 

I can 100% confirm that the Arcana works - you just need to set the device to pass the audio to the HDMI Out port and you do not use the eARC output port at all. You use the device just as a passthrough, similar to the intent of the DR HDMI 4K. This is my set up now and has been stable for weeks.

 

I can also confirm I am running into the Dolby Vision issue with the HDMI DR 4K. So, in my rushed eval on Monday, I missed this was not working with the built in EDID. I see now that the HDFury site has different EDIDs listed for the banks than what is on the sticker on the physical device. I have more to check on this and to get an EDID editor going for my personal interest.

 

And finally, I have chatted briefly on the HDFury Discord server with them. They are very fast and you can scroll through a ton of old chats too which can be helpful.

 

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Hey guys, can anyone confirm that the Arcana doesn’t have the Dolby Vision issue?


HDfury have pointed me to

https://hdfury.com/tools/HDfury_EDID_collection.zip

 

and suggested trying some of the EDIDS. 

 

I’m wondering whether the easiest route, if we have to muck about editing EDIDS,  might be to modify the LG one to allow MLPCM and leave everything else intact. 

T

I just want to thank you guys for doing so much to figure this issue out. It can be very demoralizing and frustrating when buying new tech and it doesn’t work correctly out of the box. It seems pretty complicating just to get the HD FURY 4K to work correctly so hopefully there is an easier fix.

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Curious if anybody has raised this with HDFury direct on their Discord server - their customer service is supposed to be excellent.

 

I have a unit ordered from TMF but not sure how long it takes to arrive. Hopefully quick for £11 postage :)

I got mine from TMF as well. Took a couple of working days. 
 

Good idea regarding HDFury. Will give it a try. 

I
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Curious if anybody has raised this with HDFury direct on their Discord server - their customer service is supposed to be excellent.

 

I have a unit ordered from TMF but not sure how long it takes to arrive. Hopefully quick for £11 postage :)

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So, my unit arrived and I’ve done a quick test. 
 

LG GX

ub820ebk

SONOS ARC

 

I can confirm Aaron T’s observations with the GX on

Green 1 – 4k60-444-HDR-2020-3D-Q9FN ALLM VRR HDR10+. (That’s the description on my unit, seems a little different from what others have?)
 

Dolby Atmos pass through works fine. 
DTS is presenting as 7.1 PCM

 

Unfortunately, DOLBY Vision no longer works. Laird, is it the same for you?

 

I tried a few of the other presets but none of them worked either. 
 

I guess we’ll have to use Aaron’s workaround. Aaron, any further details on your method/ software would be greatly appreciated! 

L
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@AaronT Thanks for sharing. I wonder if I was mistaken on Dolby Vision on my end and need to do the same thing for the C9. I will check when I can.

 

In the meantime, can you share which editor you are using? (Do you recommend it?) I was going to try to get the RS232 connection to work to inspect the TV one.

 

Also, I am curious if your 820 is limiting downsampling to 48kHz in the settings of the 820 or allows up to 192kHz which might explain why you had to change the EDID. (The Sonos can only accept up to 48kHz I think.) I have my 820 with this limit in place (which I am not sure even applies to the HDMI output).

A

My setup is the UB820-LG CX-Sonos Arc and I got tired of waiting for a solution from Panasonic or LG for the multichannel LPCM problem so I purchased DR HDMI 4k and tried it a few days ago.

I was hoping to just set the unit to the 4K max mode EDID. “Green 1 – 4k60-444-600M-HDR-BT2020-3D-FULLAUDIO” and have it all work, but for me it wasn’t quite that simple. Using this mode did allow me to get 7.1 channel LPCM from the UB820, but I noticed 2 problems:

  1. I wasn’t getting Dolby Vision indicatations by the LG CX. Only HDR indications even for disks that supported Dolby Vision (and that I had seen Dolby Vision indicated when I wasn’t using the DR HDMI).
  2. For certain disks, I would get no audio when the playback first switched to multichannel LPCM (decoding DTS). For example the UHD Bluray menu may have started in DD 5.1 and only switched to LPCM for DTS when starting the actual movie. The UB820 indicated 7.1 LPCM being sent out, but the Sonos app would indicate no audio being received. Forcing the DR HDMI to restart a handshake fixed the problem each time.

I ended up fixing this by copying the LG EDID that was being sent out into the special bank for this in the DR HDMI. Then I used the DR HDMI utility on my PC to copy the EDID to a binary file, and then used an EDID editor (with GUI) on my PC to find the Dolby Vision “Vendor Specific Data Block“ EDID that was being provided by the LG and copied that info into a side file. Then I copied the “Green 1 – 4k60-444-600M-HDR-BT2020-3D-FULLAUDIO” bank to a binary file, and I used the EDID editor to start with that as a base and then added the Dolby Vision support info that I saved off in a side file. Then I saved off the resulting modified EDID into a binary file and then used the DR HDMI EDID utility to save that to bank “Custom 1”.
(I’m a little surprised the utility provided by DR HDMI doesn’t have more support to actually “decode” the binary into a GUI that figures out each field and includes a description)

When I used Custom 1 from the DR HDMI 4k, now I could see the LG confirming that it was getting Dolby Vision and not just HDR. But I was still getting the problem of not hearing the LPCM 7.1 for some disks unless I restarted the handshake of the DR HDMI.

So then I went back and looked at what the LG was sending for supported audio and modified the EDID I was using in Custom 1 to have matching audio support (this involved things like removing audio support for things like DTS/DTS-HD/1-bit SACD audio as well as 192k and 96k support for LPCM). After I saved these changes to the Custom 1 bank of the DR HDMI and used this, now my audio worked right away all the time for LPCM 7.1 coming out of the UB820 (no need to force the DR HDMI to reinitialize a new handshake). I wonder if the UB820 was trying to send out 96k LPCM for DTS-HD on some disks initially and only redoing the handshake somehow got it to send LPCM in a format supported by the LG and/or Sonos Arc.

I also mention that when I examined the EDID being sent by the LG CX, when I looked at the audio data block section of the EDID, I couldn’t find anything wrong. So its not obvious why the UB820 couldn’t figure out that it could send multichannel LPCM based on the EDID from the LG. There must have been something else wrong or different about the EDID being sent by the LG compared to the DR HDMI 4k max mode that is messing up the UB820. Oh well, now that I have something that works, I don’t think I’m going to bother investigating that any more.

I hope this helps anyone else with this setup that doesn’t get things to work exactly right when using the built-in modes of the DR HDMI.

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