Prodigy I

Answered

Surprised & puzzled - DTS converts to Dolby Digital 5.1 in my Beam setup!

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
May 10, 2020
26 replies
6403 views

It’s well known in these circles that the Beam, Playbar and Playbase won’t play DTS soundtracks, and the best we can hope for in this situation is a down-mixed stereo output. I’ve also read that Blu-ray players that convert DTS to DD on the fly are like hens teeth - the lists I’ve seen a contain a few Samsung and Oppo players only.

So, how come I’m getting DD5.1 out of my Beam (reported by the app, and by my ears) from plain DTS and DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks?

My setup is:

Sony UBP-M800 Mk2 UHD bluray player
Sony AG9 TV
Beam connected via the TV’s eARC connection
Sub and Play:1 rears bonded to Beam

There’s no fancy trickery or other boxes, switches, etc. It’s simply bluray player to TV to Beam, all via HDMI.

To get sound from the Beam, I had to make one change to the M800’s audio settings: “Digital Audio Output” = PCM. The other option (“Auto” = bitstream in most cases I believe) gives silence. All other audio settings on the player (and there aren’t many) are at the default. None of them appear to relate to transcoding audio formats.

The result, as reported from the player’s display and by the Sonos app:

DVD or BluRay soundtrack: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 48kHz, or DTS 5.1 48kHx
Blu-ray player output via HDMI = “LPCM 5.1Ch 48kHz”
Sonos app reports Beam is receiving “Dolby Digital 5.1”

What’s going on here? I’ve tested this on several discs, 4K and standard bluray, with the same results.

Have I misunderstood the problem everyone else is talking about? Or have I struck lucky with the Sony M800 Mk2?

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Best answer by Airgetlam

It’s a function of HDMI CEC. The Sonos reports two things to the hub, your TV, one is that it is a speaker, and the other that it handles two codecs, stereo and Dolby Digital. The HDMI CEC hub in the TV then sends the acceptable codecs to all source devices. Assuming the source device is HDMI CEC compliant, it then adjusts itself to only send a Dolby Digital or stereo signal along to the hub, which then forwards that to the speaker.

There are some devices that can accept an HDMI CEC command even when the option isn’t available in the options shown to the user in the audio settings for the device.

Unfortunately, there are some hubs (TVs) and sources that either didn’t properly implement HDMI CEC, at least in the first attempt, which is why you frequently see suggestions for people to download new software for the TV, as well as a reboot process in case something has gone awry. Unfortunately, chances of software updates tend to be slimmer on source devices, but these updates should be applied where possible.

Unfortunately, it’s frequently the receiver/speaker that gets the blame, when it is most often something upstream. To my knowledge, to date, Sonos has not needed to update their relatively tangential implementation of HDMI CEC. It has almost always been an implementation issue in the HDMI CEC hub, built in to the TV set. There have been a handful of issues with source devices, but since that’s significantly upstream from the Sonos, it’s really much harder to define from the end point, the Sonos.

AjTrek1

You answered your own question the Sony is converting the stream to PCM which the Beam can handle over HDMI. The problem would be over optical.

Together Everyone Achieves More = T.E.A.M.

AirgetlamAnswer

It’s a function of HDMI CEC. The Sonos reports two things to the hub, your TV, one is that it is a speaker, and the other that it handles two codecs, stereo and Dolby Digital. The HDMI CEC hub in the TV then sends the acceptable codecs to all source devices. Assuming the source device is HDMI CEC compliant, it then adjusts itself to only send a Dolby Digital or stereo signal along to the hub, which then forwards that to the speaker.

There are some devices that can accept an HDMI CEC command even when the option isn’t available in the options shown to the user in the audio settings for the device.

Unfortunately, there are some hubs (TVs) and sources that either didn’t properly implement HDMI CEC, at least in the first attempt, which is why you frequently see suggestions for people to download new software for the TV, as well as a reboot process in case something has gone awry. Unfortunately, chances of software updates tend to be slimmer on source devices, but these updates should be applied where possible.

Unfortunately, it’s frequently the receiver/speaker that gets the blame, when it is most often something upstream. To my knowledge, to date, Sonos has not needed to update their relatively tangential implementation of HDMI CEC. It has almost always been an implementation issue in the HDMI CEC hub, built in to the TV set. There have been a handful of issues with source devices, but since that’s significantly upstream from the Sonos, it’s really much harder to define from the end point, the Sonos.

Bruce

W

WithaneeAuthor

Prodigy I

Thanks both of you. So, I think you’re saying that my player, the Sony UBP-X800 Mk2, converts DTS to Dolby Digital on the fly? If so, this is good news, and I will share this news with others via the BD Players thread.

I appreciate that the player’s ability to do this is only one (necessary) link in the chain, and that as you say, Bruce, the Sony’s HDMI-CEC (aka Bravia Link) implementation ensures that the Beam’s desire for DD 5.1 reaches the player.

Airgetlam

No, I wouldn’t expect this is on the fly conversion, I would think the HDMI CEC link is telling the player to only play the Dolby Digital track. But that’s a guess, you’d need to check with the folks at Sony for more clarity. On the fly conversion is a whole different set of electronic circuitry of some cost, and is rather unlikely to be included in the player, without heralding it and using it as a marketing point.

Bruce

Airgetlam

There would be a way to test this, with relatively little complexity. Find. Blu-ray Disc that does not have a Dolby Digital track, only stereo and DTS and play that. See what shows up in the controller for your Beam. If it’s stereo, then your Blu-ray isn’t doing on the fly translation. If it’s Dolby Digital, then it is doing the magical translation, and I need to go buy one. ;)

Or possibly, the TV is doing the translation, since it’s in the stream. Unlikely, but not impossible.

Bruce

W

WithaneeAuthor

Prodigy I

Sorry, I didn’t make that point clear in my original post: all of my test discs had NO Dolby Digital English language soundtracks on them (and that includes DD5.1, True HD, Atmos, etc). If they had, I would have selected one of those soundtracks from the disc menu and would never have discovered my surprising finding! :wink: And my French, German, Potuguese and Catalan etc isn’t good enough to watch in any other language than English. So I select the DTS tracks from the disc menu, and it plays as DD5.1 on the Beam, just so long as I set Digital Audio Output = PCM on the BD player. Magic!

Regarding the TV, I haven’t seen anything in the manual or settings menus to suggest it’s doing any sort of audio conversion. But someone might know different?

BTW, I got the BD player model name wrong in my first post: its the Sony UBP-X800 M2 (as in Mark 2; I’ve seen others with the original X800 complaining of no joy with DTS...)

Airgetlam

That is indeed magic!

Now I need to go price the UBP-X800 M2. Thanks for sharing!

Bruce

buzz

Grand Maestro

You can verify the audio format that SONOS is receiving by going to Settings → System → About My System

W

WithaneeAuthor

Prodigy I

Hi Buzz, you’re right, I did that as per my original post:

Sonos app reports Beam is receiving “Dolby Digital 5.1”

W

WithaneeAuthor

Prodigy I

Bruce: I paid £265 for it in the UK. It’s a great player - superb picture and they seem to have ironed out some quirks/issues from the Mak 1 version. Very limited on streaming apps and other bells and whistles, and some won’t like the minimalist styling and lack of a display, but I love it. Super quiet too, even with 4K discs.

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