[VonMagnum]

Hi! I just cannot get the 7.1 audio out of the DTS-HD MA 7.1 mkv’s with Kodi. I have the Yamaha RX-v781 receiver that detects the DTS-HD MA, but always outputs it 5.1. Dolby Atmos works 7.1. with no problems. I have tried disabling the DTS and DTS HD passthroughs and also tried everything with the receiver advandec settings.

I have LibreELEC (official) 9.2.4 (kernel Linux 5.1.16) with capable hardware.

With passthrough enabled, it shouldn't matter really, but make sure your audio setup is set to 7.1 for straight PCM 7.1 passthrough to the receiver.  Also, are you certain the MKVs have 7.1 in them (does Kodi report that or is it just assumed from the dump?  Is there more than one track in the MKV (info set to output 7.1 track?).  By advanced settings, I'm sure you checked off that your receiver can handle DTS-HD 7.1 tracks, correct? (since you indicate Atmos works).  Did you test a 7.1 True-HD track without Atmos and see if it gets 7.1 (assuming you own one; they were kind of rare before Atmos came out, especially with 7.1).

If the receiver detects DTS-HD MA, then it's probably set right (ignore above about settings, although verify KODI sees it as 7.1).  Can you get it as 7.1 by letting KODI output 7.1 multi-channel PCM instead (i.e. no passthrough with KODI set to 7.1 output)?  Is there any receiver setting that might somehow affect the output to 5.1 (I have a Marantz 7012 11.1 based Atmos/X/Auro-3D receiver so I'm not familiar with the current Yamaha 7.1/Atmos receivers software; my last Yamaha was pre-DTS-HD and pre-True-HD (it had 7.1 output, but only for dual rears and 7.1 passthrough from an external source via RCA like an external processor and only handled up to 6.1 DTS-ES internally).