playbar + nas + mkv + dts - how to get dd5.1? samsung ubd-k8500 doesn't do it.

  • 19 August 2018
  • 3 replies
  • 606 views

Hi guys, sorry if I'm repeating other people questions.

I've got playbar + 2x play5 so I could enjoy 5.0 surround sound from MKV movies played from NAS, but problem I've got is that all DTS is decoded down to stereo.

So I was reading up and seen that samsung ubd-k8500 can downmix DTS to DD5.1, so i went ahead and purchased one and to my surprise, it doesn't convert dts to dd5.1 but only to stereo, as this is what I can see in about my sonos system screen.

I have tried plex, dlna and twonky servers on my nas and all outputs same.

Even DD5.1 mkvs are outputed as a dd2.0/stereo.

So now that I can see that samsung k8500 player doesn't really do what I need it to do, is there any other player/decoder/media streamer that could do it - that doesn't ruin the bank?

Also, noticed that although playbar doesn't do anything with DTS, it still shows DTS in ABOUT MY SONOS SYSTEM. Strange.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

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3 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +19
Hi there, Benek 1000. Thanks for posting and welcome to the Community. Sonos only supports PCM (Stereo) and DD 5.1. DTS. While DTS shows up in "About my Sonos", it only shows the audio codec being received by Sonos. It's a great way to check the signal being sent to the Playbar.

With regards to the decoder, perhaps someone from the Community can point you in the right direction? Best of luck!
Userlevel 1
What are you using to play your mkv files?
Recommend you get either an Amazon Fire box and side-load KODI or a generic Android box and install KODI.
Point KODI to your media collection on your NAS, and set KODI to transcode audio output to DD 5.1.
I was previously using an Amazon Fire TV with KODI installed, I've now moved to using a MINIX NEO U9 running an installation of LibreELEC KODI in order to play HDR 4k MKV files. Audio is set to transcode to DD 5.1 for my Playbase.
See if the settings I recommended on this thread work for you.

https://en.community.sonos.com/troubleshooting-228999/no-audio-from-playbar-when-watching-a-specific-blu-ray-6790072

Is the signal being passed through TV?