HR FLAC 5.1 SONY TV or SHIELD to BLUESOUND through ARC won't work
#1
Hi all,

After reading all I could about FLAC, 5.1, ARC, I feel I need some extra help here.

In neither setup below, I am able to play my 24bit(192kbps) FLAC 5.1 library. It is plugged in the SHIELD (USB) and I can NAS it to Kodi on my TV and then send it to my Bluesound (N330) receiver. Needless to say, all software is up-to-date (both on the receiver, SHIELD, and TV). Those are the possible setups:

1) SONY TV AF8 to Bluesound N330 (ARC HDMI - not eARC).
2) NVIDIA SHIELD to SONY TV (HDMI4) and then to Bluesound N330 (as in 1.)

The library is always converted to 2.1. I played around as much as I could with passthrough (Bluesound supports DOLBY (Ac3), so that one is activated in Kodi).

Can anyone shed some light on why I cannot hear multichannel from my FLACs? I was expecting KODI to transcode my high-res multichannel FLACs to AC3 (DOLBY 5.1) and then just play, but I can't make it work. Any help is appreciated.

More info:
As for KODI: 
channels 4.1 (bluesound is 4.1 not 5.1)
passthrough YES
   AC3 YES
   DTS/eAC3/others NO

For the Sony TV:
It outputs multichannel from Netflix or Amazon to the Bluesound just fine through the same ARC HDMI.

Thank you so very much!
Ed
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#2
ARC can only handle 2 channel PCM which is what FLAC files will be decoded to, as ARC is only capable of sending compressed 5.1 audio from Dolby Digital & DTS. For Multichannel PCM eARC is required (although TV specs need to be carefully check as not all manufacturers do it) so you can't do it over how you have your devices connected together.

Your 2 options:

1. If you want to keep original audio fidility as much as possible then you need to connect the Shield ​directly to the Bluesound receiver. Then set:

Number umber of channels: 5.1 (as receiver should down convert, if it doesn't work then try 4.0)

2. If you're not bothered about keeping the original audio fidility then the other option that would allow you to leave how things are presently connected is to transcode all PCM audio to Dolby Digital. To do you will need to set the following:

Number umber of channels: 2
Dolby Digital (AC3) capable receiver: enabled
Enable Dolby Digital (AC3) transcoding: enabled (note this will only show up in settings after Number of channels to 2 has been set
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#3
(2021-07-06, 11:10)jjd-uk Wrote: Number umber of channels: 2

Hi jjd-uk,
Thanks for your great answer. I appreciate that. Given my receiver has only 1 HDMI, I cannot plug my SHIELD as I'd have to unplug the TV (unless I am missing a clever way of doing it?).

I will try option 2 in hopes Bluesound will be able to, through their app, play the FLACS HR at some point.

Quick clarification: Why is the number of channels set to 2 (as I want 4.1/5.1)? Is that a "trick" to ensure the transcoding from FLAC to AC3?

Many thanks!
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#4
Number of channels always confuses the novice as it is not immediately intuative to people who don't understand the way audio transmission works. Everything in the top half (above the Passthrough settings) related to how PCM audio is handled, thus number of channels is the number of PCM channels the connection can handle, this is also used as a way to express the bandwidth the connection can handle. PCM is uncompressed audio and is the basic building block of all digital audio, however DD/DTS are compressed audio, so in the spce 2 PCM channels fit DD/DTS can fit 5.1.

Probably to easiest way to think of it is to imagine your email provider only allows messages of 10MB (arbituary number as example) and all your documents are 4MB in size, thus you can only send 2 (with a bit left over for overheads), however if you zipped (compressing as DD/DTS would do) the documents they would go down to 1.5MB per document, allowing you to send 6 in an email.

So we only unlock the transcode setting when channels is set to 2, as if the connection can handle 5.1 PCM then transcoding is pointless, so when the transcode option is selected Kodi will trancode the PCM to Dolby Digtal on the fly (compressing it) so it can pass down the the HDMI ARC connection, so it takes the PCM 5.1 and trancodes it to DD 5.1.
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#5
(2021-07-06, 12:13)jjd-uk Wrote: Number of channels always confuses the novice as it is not immediately intuative to people who don't understand the way audio transmission works. Everything in the top half (above the Passthrough settings) related to how PCM audio is handled, thus number of channels is the number of PCM channels the connection can handle, this is also used as a way to express the bandwidth the connection can handle. PCM is uncompressed audio and is the basic building block of all digital audio, however DD/DTS are compressed audio, so in the spce 2 PCM channels fit DD/DTS can fit 5.1.

Probably to easiest way to think of it is to imagine your email provider only allows messages of 10MB (arbituary number as example) and all your documents are 4MB in size, thus you can only send 2 (with a bit left over for overheads), however if you zipped (compressing as DD/DTS would do) the documents they would go down to 1.5MB per document, allowing you to send 6 in an email.

So we only unlock the transcode setting when channels is set to 2, as if the connection can handle 5.1 PCM then transcoding is pointless, so when the transcode option is selected Kodi will trancode the PCM to Dolby Digtal on the fly (compressing it) so it can pass down the the HDMI ARC connection, so it takes the PCM 5.1 and trancodes it to DD 5.1.
Great. It works perfectly!

Indeed, it compressed to DD (so not FLAC 24Bit/192kbps), but that's secondary now. I am afraid that the setup I have (TV -> Bluesound) won't allow for any other solution. As there is no way to connect the SHIELD to Bluesound directly (without the TV), I need to wait for Bluesound to come up with a way of handling the HR FLACs internally using their app.

Thanks for your knowledge.
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#6
(2021-07-06, 15:06)edbarbaro Wrote: As there is no way to connect the SHIELD to Bluesound directly (without the TV), I need to wait for Bluesound to come up with a way of handling the HR FLACs internally using their app.

Not strictly true, but it would involve buying another bit of kit such as https://hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/ which is far from being a cheap upgrade so probably not worth it for you. Plus you'd need to be very sure the Bluesound will accept more than PCM 2.0 as not all receivers do
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#7
(2021-07-06, 15:37)jjd-uk Wrote:
(2021-07-06, 15:06)edbarbaro Wrote: As there is no way to connect the SHIELD to Bluesound directly (without the TV), I need to wait for Bluesound to come up with a way of handling the HR FLACs internally using their app.

Not strictly true, but it would involve buying another bit of kit such as https://hdfury.com/product/4k-arcana-18gbps/ which is far from being a cheap upgrade so probably not worth it for you. Plus you'd need to be very sure the Bluesound will accept more than PCM 2.0 as not all receivers do
Again, you have been more than helpful! Thank you for clarifying all these topics.
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