[noggin]

RPI2 -> Samsung LED TV (UF8500) -> SONOS PLAYBAR

I'm using the same Kodi build on a Atom mediaplayer (Xtreamer Ultra) with the same settings (stock), without any issues.

TV supports DTS/AC3/5.1 etc..
I'm using passthrough with DTS/AC3 capable.

Is it possible to decode/encode AAC 5.1 to AC3 5.1? Because all DD5.1 and DTS movies/episodes are playing fine.

Have you enabled Expert settings? There is a transcode to Dolby (might be AC3) option that you can enable which will transcode FLAC, AAC, PCM stuff to Dolby I believe.

[00b5]

I've had a pi1 rev b 512ram model for a while using it on xbmc/kodi using raspbmc

thinking of getting a pi2

my question is would i see a noticable difference in picture quality while streaming live tv as on a 46" tv it's not the best quality

We'd need more specifics about "not the best quality". It sounds like you are watching Live TV, but does that mean you are watching over the air, via your PI (from some backend) or you are using some addon that is getting feeds from online sources from somewhere?

Also, what region are you in, as broadcasts are different in parts of the world.

If its just OTA broadcasts (and you have some tuner of some sort somewhere) then its probably mpeg2 video, which you needed to buy a codec from the PI foundation for decoding that. Its also 50hz/60hz in europe/america/etc.

I have a feeling you are using some sort of kodi addon here, and that its "slow" and that you are getting poor quality SD streams from "questionable" sites.

Again, we need specifics on the type of video you are watching. The Pi is VERY good at 720/1080p x264 videos at 23.975 (or whatever that rate is) and looks great. A pi2 or chromebox is mostly goign to be faster, but sometimes that "faster" means better deinterlacing of lower quality video/etc as well, as others have already mentioned.

[johne]

Ok my bad i'm watching via a kodi addon so the streams are via online source, i'm on a 50mb connection and i'm using ethernet not wifi

i think the streams are maybe SD which i'm guessing would be the issue, rather than the RP1

i'm in the UK

[da-anda]

If you happen to have a keyboard attached to your PI, could you press the "O" button while watching such a TV channel and maybe post a screenshot of it? Or if you manage to read and understand the info displayed, of which codec, resolution and bitrate is the stream in question?

[johne]

Ok, i'll have a go with adding the information

[da-anda]

@johne - alternatively you could enable debug logging and play such a TV stream - the stream details will get logged then. Follow this link to see how to get a Debug Log

[johne]

Ok i've done the easy option and taken a photo with the information

hope it shows what i need

[popcornmix]

Ok i've done the easy option and taken a photo with the information
hope it shows what i need

Yes, it shows low resolution (640x360) and very low bitrate (0.14Mb/s) and so you should expect low quality video.
No player is going to make that look good (a smaller TV might help...)

[johne]

Yep when i saw that information i guess it was the resolution, i have tried HD streams at 1080 but seems like the buffer can't keep up i'm on 50mb connection, could that be the rpi1 struggling to handle that amount of data through ethernet

[popcornmix]

Yep when i saw that information i guess it was the resolution, i have tried HD streams at 1080 but seems like the buffer can't keep up i'm on 50mb connection, could that be the rpi1 struggling to handle that amount of data through ethernet

Remember that there are two ends of an internet connection (and a lot of stuff in between). The server you are connecting to may well be the bottleneck, as it needs an upload rate of (video_bitrate * number_of_users) and often that is a problem (especially at popular times of the day).

Internet streamed HD is typically not very high bitrate (a few Mbit/s is common) which is not going to be a problem even for Pi1.

[wrxtasy]

Internet streamed HD is typically not very high bitrate (a few Mbit/s is common) which is not going to be a problem even for Pi1.

Especially if the Internet video is sourced from questionable sources. You cannot expect to get quality streams for nothing, that just the way the world works.

[hewligun]

Ok guys questions. I know there was problem with the rpi1 and DTS audio. Is that an issue with the rpi2? I am looking to run Aeon nox with cover art and all that fun pretty stuff that comes along with it. As well as 720P tv shows and 1080P movies. Will I run into sluggishness and lag or will I get a silky smooth experience. If this is not the device I can get this with, whats the smallest, cheapest low powered solution This can be achieved with?

Also The device preferably can be run on wireless but wired will be ok.

[speedwell68]

Ok guys questions. I know there was problem with the rpi1 and DTS audio. Is that an issue with the rpi2? I am looking to run Aeon nox with cover art and all that fun pretty stuff that comes along with it. As well as 720P tv shows and 1080P movies. Will I run into sluggishness and lag or will I get a silky smooth experience. If this is not the device I can get this with, whats the smallest, cheapest low powered solution This can be achieved with?

Also The device preferably can be run on wireless but wired will be ok.

I didn't know there was a problem with the RPI 1 and DTS audio. I have 3 and they cope with it pretty well. The RPI 2 is a much faster and smoother device than the RPI 1 and it is better still with modest overclocking and a bit of tweaking.

[noggin]

Ok guys questions. I know there was problem with the rpi1 and DTS audio. Is that an issue with the rpi2? I am looking to run Aeon nox with cover art and all that fun pretty stuff that comes along with it. As well as 720P tv shows and 1080P movies. Will I run into sluggishness and lag or will I get a silky smooth experience. If this is not the device I can get this with, whats the smallest, cheapest low powered solution This can be achieved with?

Also The device preferably can be run on wireless but wired will be ok.

The Pi 2 will happily bitstream Dolby and DTS audio, and will happily decode Dolby, DTS, Dolby True HD and DTS HD-MA/HRA audio to multichannel PCM (or stereo if you wish). It runs Aeon Nox. The GUI isn't quite rendered at the same high frame rates as an Intel solution like the Chromebox. However it still works functionally, with nowhere near the same number of long pauses that the original Pi had. (And it costs the same...) It has enough CPU power to be able to do stuff like run a VPN, or run a DVB decryption algorithm and PVR backend at the same time as providing full functionality. It is also the only Kodi platform that supports 3D MVC replay and Frame Packed output at Full HD. I am very happy with the Pi 2 as a Kodi solution, though I do run a Chromebox as well.

If you want a totally fluid GUI then a Haswell Celeron solution may be a better bet - so a Chromebox, Zotac BI 320 etc. These will also bitstream Dolby True HD and DTS-HD MA/HRA - but won't handle 3D MVC at the moment. They are quite a lot more expensive though - particularly if you have a Raspberry Pi already (so have a PSU, keyboard, mouse etc.) (People will chime in about the ODroid C1 - but I can't recommend it because it doesn't yet have 1080/50p or 1080/60p HDMI output without sound and/or vision glitches in my experience)

[hewligun]

Ok guys questions. I know there was problem with the rpi1 and DTS audio. Is that an issue with the rpi2? I am looking to run Aeon nox with cover art and all that fun pretty stuff that comes along with it. As well as 720P tv shows and 1080P movies. Will I run into sluggishness and lag or will I get a silky smooth experience. If this is not the device I can get this with, whats the smallest, cheapest low powered solution This can be achieved with?

Also The device preferably can be run on wireless but wired will be ok.

The Pi 2 will happily bitstream Dolby and DTS audio, and will happily decode Dolby, DTS, Dolby True HD and DTS HD-MA/HRA audio to multichannel PCM (or stereo if you wish). It runs Aeon Nox. The GUI isn't quite rendered at the same high frame rates as an Intel solution like the Chromebox. However it still works functionally, with nowhere near the same number of long pauses that the original Pi had. (And it costs the same...) It has enough CPU power to be able to do stuff like run a VPN, or run a DVB decryption algorithm and PVR backend at the same time as providing full functionality. It is also the only Kodi platform that supports 3D MVC replay and Frame Packed output at Full HD. I am very happy with the Pi 2 as a Kodi solution, though I do run a Chromebox as well.

If you want a totally fluid GUI then a Haswell Celeron solution may be a better bet - so a Chromebox, Zotac BI 320 etc. These will also bitstream Dolby True HD and DTS-HD MA/HRA - but won't handle 3D MVC at the moment. They are quite a lot more expensive though - particularly if you have a Raspberry Pi already (so have a PSU, keyboard, mouse etc.) (People will chime in about the ODroid C1 - but I can't recommend it because it doesn't yet have 1080/50p or 1080/60p HDMI output without sound and/or vision glitches in my experience)

Thank you for this great response. I was under the impression the Pi 1 had issues with certain audio on 1080P files and caused it to be choppy. Good to know it seems to not be an issue on the Pi 2. Have you happened to try the pi 2 with pseudo tv?