[wesk05]

Under which circumstances? If I connect my FireTV to my 5 year old Philips TV (which does not support E-AC3, but does AC3), then I get sound (TV shows "Dobly Digital"). If I connect the same FireTV to my AVR and play the same episode on Netflix, my AVR shows DD+. So no silence there. If the trick includes something odd, then what is the purpose of this trick?

What you have just described is the benefit of having Dolby Audio license. Amazon fireTV is a certified Dolby device. When you connect it your old Philips TV, fireTV converts the Dolby Digital Plus stream from Netflix and sends a Dolby Digital stream to the TV. When you connect it to the AVR, fireTV sends the Dolby Digital Plus stream directly. This is what the Shield will not do.

[wrxtasy]

Lets lay it out a bit clearer shall we: (All DD+ TV/AVR's will work with the Shield)

5.1 DD = AC3
5.1/7.1 DD+ = EAC3

DD+ Audio Works:
Amazon Video DD+ > Amazon FireTV (Dolby Licensed) > Amazon Video DD > TV DD (Dolby Licenced)

Netflix DD+ > Amazon FireTV (Dolby Licensed) > Netflix DD > TV DD (Dolby Licenced)

Amazon Video DD+ > Shield (no Dolby, so passthrough) > Amazon DD+ > TV DD+ (Dolby Licenced)

Netflix DD+ > Shield (no Dolby, so passthrough) > Netflix DD+ > TV DD+ (Dolby Licenced)

Netflix DD+ > Mi Box (Dolby licensed) > Netflix DD+ > TV DD+ (Dolby Licenced)


DD+ Audio Will Not Work: (2.0 PCM only)
Netflix DD+ > Shield (no Dolby, 2.0 PCM) > Netflix 2.0 PCM <-> DD TV / Soundbar / Optical / HDMI ARC AVR

Amazon Video DD+ > Shield (no Dolby, 2.0 PCM) > Amazon 2.0 PCM <-> DD TV / Soundbar / Optical / HDMI ARC AVR

VUDU DD+ > Shield (no Dolby, 2.0 PCM) > VUDU 2.0 PCM <-> DD TV / Soundbar / Optical / HDMI ARC AVR

---

Normally Digital TV's can support DD/AC3. Only more modern (usually 4K) ones can support DD+ input via external HDMI sources.

The Amazon FireTV can extract 5.1 DD from 7.1 DD+, before streaming to a DD only TV / Soundbar because it has a Dolby licence.
The nVIDIA Shield cannot.

There are also OLED TV's coming on to the market now that can do Dolby Atmos (with Dolby Vision)

[wesk05]

Amazon Video DD+ becomes Netflix DD

[wrxtasy]

Nice proof reading thx. ,EDIT correction time

I suspect we will find Netflix Certified Smart TV's will also comes with DD+ capabilities

[Tinwarble]

Normally Digital TV's can support DD/AC3. Only more modern (usually 4K) ones can support DD+

Hmm...that's not right.

My 2011 1080p Sharp LED can handle DD+.

[wrxtasy]

Should we classify your 2011 TV as modern ?

and is it a Smart TV that can stream 1080p Netflix by chance ?

[Tinwarble]

Should we classify your 2011 TV as modern ?

and is it a Smart TV that can stream 1080p Netflix by chance ?

No, it does have Neflix, but it's based off the old Netflix API, same as WD Live's which was dropped in their newest player because Netflix dropped support for it (the API). So it's still a dumb TV with a couple of Sharp specific apps.

But modern (to me anyway) would be anything made within the last 2 or less years, not a nearly 6 yr old device.

[wrxtasy]

Interesting regarding the Netflix API and DD+ support on a old 1080p TV. We need more user feedback like this.

What do you suggest I put instead of the modern sentence then ?

I expect a majority of 4K TV's, especially those with Netflix would also support DD+

[Tinwarble]

What do you suggest I put instead of the modern sentence then ?

"Varies by manufacture".

Some have supported DD+ for a long time, 5+/- yrs., some still don't support it even today (Magnavox on their 1080p TVs for instance, smart or dumb).

EDIT: By the way, if you're interest in Netflix dropping the public API: https://techcrunch.com/2014/06/13/netflix-api-shutdown/

[wesk05]

There are "older"* TVs that do support Dolby Digital Plus, but consider them as exceptions. I want to make a distinction here: the Dolby Digital Plus support referenced here is for external HDMI input. Lot of old TVs do have native support for Dolby Digital Plus, but it is only for "within" content.

@Tinwarble: Do you get 5.1 option in Netflix when you connect your Shield directly to your Sharp TV?

* I consider TVs that are 3 years or older as old & outdated

[Tinwarble]

@Tinwarble: Do you get 5.1 option in Netflix when you connect your Shield directly to your Sharp TV?

I can't say about Netflix, but when I had my WD Live connected directly to the TV it did give me that it was a supported format.

[Theetjuh]

I got a Sony 40W5500 which is from 2009 ... a dumb tv ... but it has a DD+ logo in the manual.
Never knew about this btw ...

[infinity85]

It is hard for me to understand why a non-modern DD (AC3) capable TV is not able to handle DD+ (play only the AC3 Core). This must be some kind of bug or so... The sole purpose of the old DD (AC3) core in DD+ and in TrueHD is that older devices, like (pre EAC3) Blu-Ray players and TVs still can output sound. The core is supposed to be the compatibility mode. Why the heck is this core not working on older DD devices then? There is no sense in having the AC3 core inbetween the EAC3 and TrueHD stream then. If the core would only be there for DD+ certified devices, then these devices would also be able to simply transcode/decode the 1300kbits DD+ stream to 448kbps DD streams. But the core is like without decoding and withoud transcoding, it is supposed to simply be extracted in case the target device can only cope with DD (like my TV... it should see only the AC3 core in the incoming EAC3 stream --> compatibility maintained). I am confused here o.O

[Soli]

The core isn't AC3. It needs to be remuxed/transcoded and will be output as AC3@640kbs AFTER this happening. Dolby licensed hardware will be capable of doing this.

[infinity85]

The core isn't AC3. It needs to be remuxed/transcoded and will be output as AC3@640kbs AFTER this happening. Dolby licensed hardware will be capable of doing this.

Official Dolby FAQ claims that there is a core and compatibility:

Is Dolby Digital Plus content backward-compatible?
Because Dolby Digital Plus is built on core Dolby Digital technologies, content
that is encoded with Dolby Digital Plus is fully compatible with the millions
of existing home theaters and playback systems worldwide equipped for
Dolby Digital playback. Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks are easily converted
to a 640 kbps Dolby Digital signal without decoding and reencoding, for
output via S/PDIF. The 640 kbps bit rate, which is higher than the standard
448 kbps used on DVDs, is fully compatible with all existing Dolby Digital
decoding products such as A/V receivers, and can provide higher-than-DVD
quality from Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks when played back through
existing systems
source: https://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/Asse...us-faq.pdf

640 kbps is also supported on all old S/P-Dif devices, it was just never used on DVDs. But at the beginning of this century the nVidia nForce Mainboards that had the first DD-Live encoders built in (derivatives from the original Microsoft XBOX) were encoding the computers audio in 640 kpbs AC3 streams. Even my 1997 old AV-Receiver was able to decode this Dolby Digital 640 kbps AC3 stream via S/P-Dif (because it was part of the standard).