[willowgate]

Hi,

My AV Receiver, Pioneer Elite SC 25, support some audio formats like, DD5.1,Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, but it doesn't support ACC audio file. With my WDTV, my setting is HD Audio Passthrough (Bitstreaming), the AV Receiver decode the audio. But with the ACC file the output is like stereo.

I would like to know if I buy a KODI box like (Amazon Fire TV 2 4K, WeTek Core or ASUS Chromebox) if the sound will be outputted in Digital format with ACC file and not in stereo ?

PS: Also, I hesitate again between the 3 boxes, can you help me to pick the best one?

Thnaks a lot and I await your response.

Regards,
Willow

I think you mean AAC? If so there are no amplifiers that I know of that will accept AAC over HDMI - so you can't send AAC over an HDMI cable as a bitstream like you can DD/DTS/True HD/DTS-HD MA etc.. Like FLAC and other multichannel audio formats that can't be bitstreamed you have two options to hear them in multichannel :

1. Decode to PCM 5.1/7.1 and output as multichannel PCM over HDMI. This will not lose you any audio quality (all you have done is decode it before the amp not in the amp) and is a good solution.
2. Transcode to Dolby Digital. This is only a good idea if your hardware doesn't support 1. as you will be introducing another lossy process, however if you are using Toslink or your Kodi box only supports PCM 2.0 output, then it's the only other option for 5.1 output. (You won't get 7.1 via Dolby transcoding)

5.1 AAC is used in the UK on our HD terrestrial service. When I watch Freeview HD shows with 5.1 AAC audio Kodi decodes the audio to 5.1 PCM and outputs that over HDMI for me. Works fine on a Chromebox and Raspberry Pi 2/3 as both support 5.1/7.1PCM. This is much less well supported on Android - though the Wetek Core will do multichannel PCM output. I don't think the Fire TV Stick will do PCM multichannel, so you'd probably have to transcode if the Kodi Android build on th Fire TV supports it.

Thanks alot for your help! The Amazon Fire TV 2 (4K) has the following audio specifications:

- Audio Supported: Dolby Audio, 5.1 surround sound, 2ch stereo, and HDMI audio pass through up to 7.1

- Format Supported: AAC-LC, AC3, eAC3 (Dolby Digital Plus), FLAC, MP3, PCM/Wave, Vorbis, Dolby Atmos (EC3_JOC)

So do you think I will be able to use your first option with this box or I have to go with the Chromebox?

Thanks again for your help!

Regards,
Jonathan