Shield TV Emby App surround sound is downmixed locally ... no DTS/TRUEHD...

[Racerx1977 5]

Hello Emby Community,

 

I have a problem with playing video files with digital surround sound on the emby app. 

 

My setup:

Shield TV pro (8.1.1)

Denon AVR-X2300W

Sony TV

Epson Beamer

 

all connected with HDMI

 

Emby Server 4.3.1.0

Emby App 1.7.78g

 

 

I tried with files from https://thedigitaltheater.com/dolby-trailers/ (City Redux (Lossless)  MKV H.264 1080p  Dolby TrueHD 7.1) but it's the same as with all my other movie files...

 

The video plays but there is no digital surround sound, my AVR reports 2-channel input and you only hear sound from the 2 front speakers... playing the same file with Kodi on the Shield TV is working fine and i get TrueHD, DTS:X or whatever the video has as input on the AVR and sound is on all speakers...  

 

When playing the video, the overview on the server says it's direct playing on the Shield TV.

 

On the nerds info while playing the video it says: Audio-Codec: TRUEHD (local downmix) 

I guess there is the problem, but i have no idea what causes this - and I want to repeat with Kodi i can passthrough the sound to my AVR - it seems the emby app does not recognize my Shield TV / AVR setup correctly... there is no passthrough settings anywhere in the emby app settings...i only found the audio output and that is on "automatic"

I choose passthrough on all the surround formats in the Shield TVs audio settings page - working with Kodi...

 

I sent a report from the emby app at 22:54 (german time) on the 02.03.2020 the emby user was MCWZ and i was just playing that video again - several times to get the screenshots... 

 

Edit (forgot to mention when opening the topic):

cleared data... cleared cache... powercycle the Shield with AVR already on... reinstalled the app... nothing works

 

 

I'm working for some weeks on this issue now and can't get it to work. I'm stuck.... please have a look at it, maybe I oversee some point... I was looking at the forums and couldn't find any other helpful topic's or other user reporting this... most other users have a not DTS capable system or the file was just not DTS-HD but they thought it would be...

 

I appreciate your help and many thanks in advance for any help you are able to provide

Racerx1977

 

Question offtopic: Does clearing the cache of the emby app, clear all the logs?

embyserver.txt

Edited March 2, 2020 by Racerx1977

[FrostByte 5202]

I had the exact thing happen to me a couple days ago, but running beta.  ebr thinks it may be an issue where the receiver/soundbar isn't coming up quick enough and thus everything gets downmixed.

 

Try to power cycle your Shield with the receiver already on.

 

If that doesn't work I ended up deleting the app and reinstalling. Now everything is working fine.

[Racerx1977 5]

I already did that (forgot to mention, sorry...), but to double check i just did again...but it doesn't help... cleared data... cleared cache... powercycle the Shield with AVR on... nothing works.

 

Thanks for your hints

[FrostByte 5202]

You tried deleting the app also and reinstalling?  Sorry, if I missed that

[Racerx1977 5]

You did not miss it, i forgot to mention it, sorry... i added it to the initial post just now, for other new readers...

[FrostByte 5202]

Ok, you're at least the third person I've seen with this issue recently.  There's another thread in the beta section too.  I noticed we all have the new Shield experience 8.1.1 and I've never had this issue before loading that.  Could be just coincidental though

[Racerx1977 5]

I had the issue before 8.1.1 already - i was hoping to get it resolved, when I seen this update... but there was a time when it worked... but i don't know when it stoped working sadly... could have brought a hint...

Edited March 3, 2020 by Racerx1977

[Luke 38848]

Have you considered the audio settings on the device correctly? There is a down mix option in the app. Is that enabled?

[ebr 15438]

Exactly how are the items connected together?

 

The app is being told the system does not support any advanced audio codecs.

[Racerx1977 5]

Well... i found the cause, or at least it's working now....

 

In the Shield TV settings the supported sound formats were manually configured - don't know why i did it, but i never thought that manually setting the device to be capable of all sound formats would result in Emby not detecting digital sound formats capability at all... i set the setting to auto detect again and emby works as expected and the passthrough options are available again... it's reproduceable and probably not intended that way...

 

Maybe this should be looked at, or put on a low prio todo list... at least we have a topic and others may find the solution and it helps them.

 

Kodi never bothered the auto or manually setting...

 

I really love emby and don't regret i got the lifetime license - i read the hevc decoding problem will be sorted soon, even better - Great work!

 

Thanks for your time and help

 

Offtopic question: Is there a way to change or create themes myself for the Shield TV Emby App, besides the preinstalled ones? a hint in the right direction would be great...

Edited March 3, 2020 by Racerx1977

[Luke 38848]

Thanks for the feedback!

[ebr 15438]

Setting the device back to "auto" was going to be my next suggestion to you.  Well done.

 

I don't think there is much we can do here but we can look into it.  I think when you set it to force like that, then the Android system just throws its hands up and says "I don't know" when we ask it what is supported.

[divide_by_zero 7]

This weekend I installed a new entertainment center and front speakers, and after doing that everything worked fine last night. But today every single file I tried just showed as PCM on the receiver. Foolishly spent lots of time troubleshooting before I searched here (including lots of *cold* boots). And as suggested here, rebooting the Shield with the receiver on fixed the issue -- hallelujah.

 

@@FrostByte , you are awesome, thank you!

[TonioRoffo 4]

Hello,

I want to report the same issue.

I also had my audio settings choosing my AVR capabilities manually, and dolby processing off.  Shield is at version 8.1.1.

Locally downmixing was shown and couldn't fix until I put the shield to autodetect and reboot the shield with the receiver turned on. 

While this was happening, other apps (netflix) were working as expected, bitstream was detected as dolby digital + on most material.

I'm trying a few iterations of running and closing apps, etc, to see if the issue can be repeated so this can be debugged by the emby team.

[Luke 38848]

On 8/14/2020 at 2:05 AM, TonioRoffo said:

Hello,

I want to report the same issue.

I also had my audio settings choosing my AVR capabilities manually, and dolby processing off.  Shield is at version 8.1.1.

Locally downmixing was shown and couldn't fix until I put the shield to autodetect and reboot the shield with the receiver turned on. 

While this was happening, other apps (netflix) were working as expected, bitstream was detected as dolby digital + on most material.

I'm trying a few iterations of running and closing apps, etc, to see if the issue can be repeated so this can be debugged by the emby team.

Hi there @TonioRoffo thanks for the info. How did you have the shield configured before?

[rbjtech 4816]

I took a quick look but could not re-create the issue on my setup  :-

Shield v 8.1.1

Emby Client - 1.8.24g

Emby Server - 4.4.3.0

Shield > Receiver > LG TV (All CEC enabled)

I had it in Auto, but forced it to Manual and rebooted.    Results were no different - all formats played just fine.

Could this be a CEC capability issue ? - As CEC via the Shield is used to turn on the receiver and TV automatically AFTER the Shield has turned on, presumably they also send data to one another via this channel ?

 

 

 

[ebr 15438]

1 minute ago, rbjtech said:

Could this be a CEC capability issue ? - As CEC via the Shield is used to turn on the receiver and TV automatically AFTER the Shield has turned on, presumably they also send data to one another via this channel ?

Not that directly but it does matter what order devices are turned on.  If your Shield (or whatever) comes up before the audio receiver (or whatever is producing audio) is awake and able to respond to it, then the Shield will not get accurate audio capabilities from it.

[TonioRoffo 4]

All, I think it might be a HDMI capabilities issue.  The TV downstream of the receiver might report 2 channels, as indicated above.

This probably happens because of some HDMI passthrough that Pioneer turns on as soon as CEC is activated.  So if the shield connects via the passthrough, it gets my TV's capabilities and decides that is 2.0 PCM.

Thanks for looking into it.  As always in tech, very hard to pinpoint what/who/where the source of a problem is.

 

Edited August 18, 2020 by TonioRoffo

[rbjtech 4816]

1 minute ago, ebr said:

Not that directly but it does matter what order devices are turned on.  If your Shield (or whatever) comes up before the audio receiver (or whatever is producing audio) is awake and able to respond to it, then the Shield will not get accurate audio capabilities from it.

The Shield Remote is used as the 'on' device which wakes the Shield, which then turns on the Receiver, which then turns on the LG.    This all happens within a fraction of a second mind you - but at that point nothing is 'operational' as such, maybe 4 seconds later the Receiver and LG are 'ready'.   So I'm not sure when the Shield/Emby does it's sound 'negotiations' ?  At boot or when you run the App ?

[ebr 15438]

Yes, if you've got a modern receiver and it is hooked up like this:

Shield (or whatever) -> Receiver -> TV

And the receiver isn't on when the Shield is awakened then the Receiver input will pass through to the TV and you will get the capabilities response from the TV.

[ebr 15438]

2 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

The Shield Remote is used as the 'on' device which wakes the Shield, which then turns on the Receiver, which then turns on the LG.    This all happens within a fraction of a second mind you - but at that point nothing is 'operational' as such, maybe 4 seconds later the Receiver and LG are 'ready'.   So I'm not sure when the Shield/Emby does it's sound 'negotiations' ?  At boot or when you run the App ?

The app checks right before playback - but it is asking the system and when the system actually obtains that information, I'm not 100% sure but, based on anecdotal evidence, it appears to be at startup/wake time for the device.

[rbjtech 4816]

ok - this makes some logical sense. 

So if you set it to manual, then the sound capabilities are negotiated when you first turn it on - if your receiver is 'off' but TV 'on' then you are going to get what your TV can provide which is likely PCM 2.0.  Emby then reads this from the Shield - and thus you only get Stereo.  If your receiver is 'on' during the initial Shield start (as mine is/was) then the Shield has the multi-channel capability recorded anyway - so Manual does not make any difference.

If set to Auto, then as above the sound capabilities are negotiated when you first turn it on but Automatically change when the Receiver is turned on/acknowledged by the Shield and thus supersedes the previous PCM 2.0 setting.   Now when Emby is started it can use the multi-channel sound.

So in summary - leave it on Auto ! 

[ebr 15438]

1 minute ago, rbjtech said:

So in summary - leave it on Auto ! 

That is certainly true for 99% of cases.

2 minutes ago, rbjtech said:

So if you set it to manual

Exactly what are you setting to "manual"?

[rbjtech 4816]

1 minute ago, ebr said:

Exactly what are you setting to "manual"?

The Shield 'Advanced Sound' options - where you set it to 'Manual' and then pick all the CODEC's from the list.

[ebr 15438]

Just now, rbjtech said:

The Shield 'Advanced Sound' options - where you set it to 'Manual' and then pick all the CODEC's from the list.

Ah, okay.  Yeah, that sounds like a recipe for having things not work properly...