Playbar + Dolby Digital

Have you researched an Apple TV or Roku device?

Not an apple guy, but my understanding was Netflix went DD+ on the Roku’s where the Optical port went away…. Am I wrong here?

The Roku Ultra model 4640X still has on optical port.

And I found this on Roku’s website:

“The Roku Ultra model 4640X provides an additional option to transcode Dolby Digital Plus to Dolby Digital. This allows you to connect your Roku Ultra to an AVR, soundbar, or TV that supports Dolby Digital, but not Dolby Digital Plus, and still hear the audio in surround sound.”
https://support.roku.com/article/208754498

Yeah -- I was a Roku user a long while ago, and had picked up the Ultra when it first came out. Unfortunately, it would only output 4k to my non-4k TV, so the video was scrambled. Something went wrong with the handshake somewhere….

I sure wish we weren’t in this phase of technology where all our products are obsolete within a matter of years….. My TV still shows a picture quite well, my Sonos speakers still sound great. But it seems the sources have moved beyond, backward compatibility be damned.

I have a Roku Ultra 4660 connected to my 1080p Panasonic Plasma from 2013 and it works great.

Of course all the newer ones available now are an updated model (4800) that has dropped the optical port. Looks like the Nvidia Shield may be an alternate solution here?

You could keep an eye out for a used Roku 4640X on eBay or Mercari.

I don’t believe the latest Nvidia Shield models have an optical port either.

I bought a nVidia Shield Pro a couple of months ago. It does not have an optical port, but it is a fantastic Android box - I’ve been through a few boxes and the Shield Pro leaves others running to their mummies, crying.

Optical port isn’t the requirement, I have a HDMI switch that splits optical off -- But if the box only outputs DD+, the optical gets nothing. Does the Shield Pro output Plan DD? I’ll happily pick one up if that’s the case!

I just looked on mine - the current Shield Pro supports outputting Dolby Digital (AC3), Dolby Digital + (E-AC3), Dolby Atmos, DTS, DTS-HD, Dolby TrueHD and stereo. I would assume that it only real-time re-encodes to DD though - which is exactly what you’d want when using optical (DTS works over optical too, but not with Sonos). You can tell it to automatically select output according to the audio device’s capabilities (for HDMI connections), or manually select which are suitable.