[david.kennedy]

I'm glad we all can have fun while debating.

I have a question for you guys about HD audio and I apologize for possibly hijacking the thread.

What does Kodi do with a movie that has HD audio but the hardware being used doesn't support it or the TV?

What if the hardware supports it but the receiver its ran to doesnt?

If the display or amp doesn't support HD Audio bitstreaming, then you disable it and are left with DD/DTS legacy bitstreaming. (DTS HD-MA/HRA has a DTS legacy core which is used with additional streams to construct the DTS HD-MA/HRA stream, Dolby True HD has an accompanying DD track I believe, which isn't use for the True HD stream but is there 'hidden'?)

If your amp does support PCM multichannel audio, but not HD Audio bitstreams, then there is also the possibility that Kodi can decode Dolby True HD to PCM multichannel. (Incidentally this allows the Pi 2 to playback 48kHz (and 96kHz) Dolby True HD tracks losslessly, even though it can't bitstream). DTS HD-MA/HRA can't be decoded in Kodi, only the DTS core can be bitstreamed or decoded to PCM.

If the display or amp doesn't support DD/DTS bitstreaming, then Kodi will decode the DD or DTS either to PCM 5.1, or PCM 2.0. (Or in some cases the Dolby True HD will be decoded to PCM - as mentioned above)

Additionally if your amp or display only supports DD bitstreaming and doesn't support DTS bitstreaming (or AAC, or PCM multichannel etc.), or PCM multichannel, then Kodi has a Dolby Transcode option where DTS, AAC, FLAC, PCM multichannel (or 2.0) audio is decoded and then recoded to Dolby Digital for bitstreaming. This, for instance, allows you to watch DTS movies on an amp that only has Dolby support, or watch Freeview HD (UK OTA HD) 5.1 movies even though AAC 5.1 is used for broadcast and almost never supported by amps.

Hi Noggin,

This was great info and I think it answers my question but I just want to double check as I don't have a clue about Audio. I have an OLED TV which decodes Dolby 5.1 and DTS and I really like the idea of getting a Sonos playbar to go with my Sonos Play 1.

Obviously Sonos doesn't handle DTS so are you saying if I have a DTS mkv file and I play it via Kodi on the Shield it will play on the playbar in Dolby 5.1 if I configure it to do so in Kodi's settings?

If so how would this set up work so I can get my head around it. Do I hook the shield up to the TV via HDMI for video then hook the shield up to playbar via optical out for sound? What if I then want to play regular tv without the shield but still use the playbar. Would i then need to connect the playbar directly into the tv rather than into Shield? This switching could be annoying.

Unless! the tv is hooked up to the playbar permanently and Kodi sends Dolby 5.1 via the shield into the tv (even if it is DTS) then the tv sends this to the playbar thus no need to change any leads?

Apologies if I'm missing something obvious here. I'm UK based so don't have a shield yet so can't play around.

Thanks