[RKCRLR]

I asked this question in another section but didn't get any responses so I thought I'd try here.  

When I'm watching US ATSC TV programs transmitted in Dolby Digital, Kodi transcodes (if that is the right term) the audio and my receiver (Onkyo TX-NR646) shows the input as 5.1 PCM and shows the output as 5.1.2 Dolby Surround.  I have passthrough enabled but I've been told this is normal.  

If I record the same show my receiver shows both the input and output as 5.1 Dolby Digital when I'm watching the recording.  However, there is a slight delay before the audio starts again when I skip forward or back.  

If I tell Kodi in the system audio settings that I do not have a Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver then my receiver shows the input as 5.1 PCM when playing a recording and shows the output as 5.1.2 Dolby Surround.  However, the audio delay is eliminated during skipping.  

From a practical standpoint am I losing any audio quality by having Kodi transcode the Dolby Digital to 5.1 PCM?

[noggin]

I asked this question in another section but didn't get any responses so I thought I'd try here.  

When I'm watching US ATSC TV programs transmitted in Dolby Digital, Kodi transcodes (if that is the right term) the audio and my receiver (Onkyo TX-NR646) shows the input as 5.1 PCM and shows the output as 5.1.2 Dolby Surround.  I have passthrough enabled but I've been told this is normal.  

If I record the same show my receiver shows both the input and output as 5.1 Dolby Digital when I'm watching the recording.  However, there is a slight delay before the audio starts again when I skip forward or back.  

If I tell Kodi in the system audio settings that I do not have a Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver then my receiver shows the input as 5.1 PCM when playing a recording and shows the output as 5.1.2 Dolby Surround.  However, the audio delay is eliminated during skipping.  

From a practical standpoint am I losing any audio quality by having Kodi transcode the Dolby Digital to 5.1 PCM?

This is normal - Passthrough of AC3/DD hasn't supported in Live TV on Kodi for many years.  What happens instead is decoding to 5.1 PCM (*) which is the standard HDMI uncompressed audio format.  All that is happening is that Kodi is decoding DD to 5.1 PCM rather than your AVR (your AVR would decode the DD to PCM itself otherwise).  In many used cases there should be no quality difference between decoding in Kodi and decoding in your AVR.

If you stick with PCM output for recordings as well - then, as you say, your AVR doesn't give you the delay (which is probably caused by it constantly switching between PCM and DD decoding).  

The only possible disadvantage to this is if your broadcasters use dynamic audio metadata (more than just 2.0/5.1 switching) in the DD stream on a show-by-show basis (I don't believe PBS, ABC, CBS and NBC do as that would require affiliates to receive network metadata and handle it properly, Fox is slightly different as the network deliver pre-encoded transport streams but I haven't heard that they do.). If that's the case then that metadata will not be passed to your AVR - which may impact some 'late night listening' modes if they use the DialNorm (Dialog Normalisation) information in the stream.  I doubt it's a major issue.

I believe that the reason PCM decoding is used rather than DD passthrough in Live TV is that it is easier to cope with reception errors in the PCM domain (you can error conceal in PCM)  than in the compressed domain (where you can't easily error conceal and instead have to drop or repeat compressed packets to replace any that were missing because of interference in a less than perfect transport stream you received off-air)

(*) Technically DD to PCM conversion is usually described as decoding rather than transcoding - as you are not re-encoding it to a new codec - you are decoding it to the most standard basic audio format (PCM) that is uncompressed.  You are not introducing a quality loss in the way that Transcoding to a lossy format would.

[RKCRLR]

I asked this question in another section but didn't get any responses so I thought I'd try here.  

When I'm watching US ATSC TV programs transmitted in Dolby Digital, Kodi transcodes (if that is the right term) the audio and my receiver (Onkyo TX-NR646) shows the input as 5.1 PCM and shows the output as 5.1.2 Dolby Surround.  I have passthrough enabled but I've been told this is normal.  

If I record the same show my receiver shows both the input and output as 5.1 Dolby Digital when I'm watching the recording.  However, there is a slight delay before the audio starts again when I skip forward or back.  

If I tell Kodi in the system audio settings that I do not have a Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver then my receiver shows the input as 5.1 PCM when playing a recording and shows the output as 5.1.2 Dolby Surround.  However, the audio delay is eliminated during skipping.  

From a practical standpoint am I losing any audio quality by having Kodi transcode the Dolby Digital to 5.1 PCM?

This is normal - Passthrough of AC3/DD hasn't supported in Live TV on Kodi for many years.  What happens instead is decoding to 5.1 PCM (*) which is the standard HDMI uncompressed audio format.  All that is happening is that Kodi is decoding DD to 5.1 PCM rather than your AVR (your AVR would decode the DD to PCM itself otherwise).  In many used cases there should be no quality difference between decoding in Kodi and decoding in your AVR.

If you stick with PCM output for recordings as well - then, as you say, your AVR doesn't give you the delay (which is probably caused by it constantly switching between PCM and DD decoding).  

The only possible disadvantage to this is if your broadcasters use dynamic audio metadata (more than just 2.0/5.1 switching) in the DD stream on a show-by-show basis (I don't believe PBS, ABC, CBS and NBC do as that would require affiliates to receive network metadata and handle it properly, Fox is slightly different as the network deliver pre-encoded transport streams but I haven't heard that they do.). If that's the case then that metadata will not be passed to your AVR - which may impact some 'late night listening' modes if they use the DialNorm (Dialog Normalisation) information in the stream.  I doubt it's a major issue.

I believe that the reason PCM decoding is used rather than DD passthrough in Live TV is that it is easier to cope with reception errors in the PCM domain (you can error conceal in PCM)  than in the compressed domain (where you can't easily error conceal and instead have to drop or repeat compressed packets to replace any that were missing because of interference in a less than perfect transport stream you received off-air)

(*) Technically DD to PCM conversion is usually described as decoding rather than transcoding - as you are not re-encoding it to a new codec - you are decoding it to the most standard basic audio format (PCM) that is uncompressed.  You are not introducing a quality loss in the way that Transcoding to a lossy format would.

Thanks!

[movie78]

My Shield just updated to Kodi 19 in the release note it stated that Kodi 19 support Dolby vision, has any tried it yet on their compatible system as I am debating on pulling the trigger on lg oled TV

On the official v19 builds DV is only available via addons for streaming services which supports it so Netflix, Amazon Prime & Disney+ are the main ones I'm aware of. DV support from files is restricted to MP4 on the official builds so mkv/iso is not possible, however there has been unofficial work to get DV playback from mkv (not sure on iso state in the unofficial builds)) working and for that you need the builds discussed at https://forum.kodi.tv/showthread.php?tid=360018 but hopefully that work will make it's way into the official builds for v20 but there still a lot of work to be done before it's in a state that can be accepted in the official builds.

Thank you very much for the information, this is really a great progress and I hope that this will be added in the official Kodi release.

[clockwerk]

Yes.
Yes.

Hi, I think you mean HDR - SDR tone mapping?
Choose a 4K output resolution that uses rec2020 only and not HDR10 compatible, the Shield then automatically maps.

It still sends the signal no matter what. How do I make KODI BLOCK all HDR metadata from going through the hdmi cable?

Bump

[Wagg]

I just upgraded from a 2015 Shield to a 2019 Pro. I installed the recent Matrix release and set it up to output everything at 4k (whitelisted the proper refresh modes and enabled auto switching) so I can use AI Upscaling yet I’m still having a terrible judder. I also had a judder with both my 2015 and 2017 Shields as well.

I installed Nova Video Player and am having very little to no judder with it. Anyone know why this is?

Edit- So I think I’ve discovered that all the other players I’ve tried like VLC, Nova and Plex all run smoothly- they all use ExoPlayer. No microstuttering at all. I’m not sure why I’m having so much trouble getting smooth playback on my various Shields but I always have. I really would like to get Kodi working properly mainly because of all it has over the others I’ve listed. Right now it’s unwatchable.

[leodido]

Hey guys, I'm coming for some help accessing an nfs share from my shield.

From Kodi I managed to add the folders of my nfs shares which it finds when browsing from within Kodi, the super strange thing is that it manages to see most files but there a few mkv it doesn't recognise. I mounted the share on my mac and it has no issue there.

I'm not sure what is up, I checked permission and all files have the same owner/group and permission so I don't understand why some files are ignored.

EDIT: Here is a log https://paste.kodi.tv/naqujasopu
EDIT2: Well re-installing kodi and fixing file/folder names of my nfs share fixed it.

[looun]

hi, i need a VOD device with RCA S/PDIF coaxial audio output (not optical - TOSLINK). Some one have tried a usb - DAC with double SPDIF out working with shield?

 like this:


thanks.

[noggin]

hi, i need a VOD device with RCA S/PDIF coaxial audio output (not optical - TOSLINK). Some one have tried a usb - DAC with double SPDIF out working with shield?

 like this:


thanks.

This is another route : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tendak-Switcher...07YCZYRB3/

It's an HDMI audio extractor with Coax and Toslink optical SPDIF outputs, and will extract the audio from HDMI sources as well as the ARC feed from your TV, and pass the UHD HDR (*) video on to your TV.  You can get cheaper ones for HD - though many of those are Toslink only so would also require a Toslink to coax converter.

(*) I haven't used this device - though I have used Toslink-only HD and UHD equivalents.

[movie78]

Is BD-Menu supported on the Shield Pro?

[KILOCHARLIE]

Just picked up a 2019 shield after being a fire tv user for years. I’m a Kodi novice and was running 18.3 on the FTV.

Are there any tips or guides for what is best suited for the shield please or does anyone have any recommendations please? I want to make best use of my 5.1.2 AVR setup and looking forward to the higher quality audio such as DTS ma and Atmos. Thanks in advance

[RKCRLR]

There's a Kodi 18 v 19 thread on the Nvidia Shield TV forums, you may want to check there.  There were some comments about micro-stuttering with v19.  
I'm running v19 OK but I only use Kodi for OTA stuff and music.

[hdmkv]

Mounted shares not showing up and SMB not working were two issues when Kodi 19 first came out w/Shield TV, but looks like there's a resolution to SMB issue now. What about ability to add mounted shares as with Kodi 18?

[Bobbybuilder59]

Can anyone help, I've got 2019 shield TV Pro and updated to Kodi 19. I get sound stuttering on every video i play untill I pause and restart several times. I have set refresh to 24hz and sync to display is on. I'm running through Sony receiver to Benq tk850 projector. The reason I don't use passthrough is because my projector doesn't do 23.976hz only 24, 50 and 60hz. This setup worked purfect on Kodi 18. Many thanks.

[movie78]

Is there a support for HDR10+ ? 

Quote:Video
ID :1
Format :HEVC
Format/Info :High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile :Main 10@L5@Main
HDR format :SMPTE ST 2094 App 4, Version 1, HDR10+ Profile B compatible
Codec ID :V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Duration :2 h 0 min
Width :3 840 pixels
Height :1 600 pixels
Display aspect ratio :2.40:1
Frame rate mode :Constant
Frame rate :23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space :YUV
Chroma subsampling :4:2:0
Bit depth :10 bits
Default :Yes
Forced :No
Color range :Limited
Color primaries :BT.2020
Transfer characteristics Q
Matrix coefficients :BT.2020 non-constant
Mastering display color primaries isplay P3
Mastering display luminance :min: 0.0001 cd/m2, max: 1000 cd/m2
Maximum Content Light Level :899 cd/m2
Maximum Frame-Average Light Level :92 cd/