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Multi channel surround in web app on remote connection?


jachin99

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jachin99

I tested this with edge but didn't get great results.  Is there a way to get 5 or 7 channel surround on a remote client via the web app?  Thanks

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Hi, the web app is certainly capable of playing 5 and 7 channel audio tracks both in and out of your home network.

However, whether the browser actually plays it multi-channel or down-samples to stereo, that we have no control over.

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Browsers don't do audio passthrough, except I believe Edge with ac3. They pretty much all decode to pcm, and in the process of doing so they may also downsample to stereo.

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jachin99

Ok thanks.  I'm wondering if edge for Win 7 doesn't have the same codec support as edge for Win 10.  Maybe that is the issue. 

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  • 1 month later...
heffeque

Ah, I was just testing surround on browsers (just installed DSM 7 with latest Emby beta) and noticed that bass/LFE channel is 100% non-existent when playing on browser (Firefox in my case).

Read this and went to Edge and... voilà!

I have my computer plugged into an Onkyo 5.1.2 Atmos system.
Windows 10 has the "Dolby Atmos for home theater" option, but it's really not good at all, so I just stick to the 5.1 option without the height speakers and do passthrough whenever possible.

Tried the "Dolby Atmos Amaze" video and it works as 5.1/7.1 on Edge 89. On Chrome 89 it works in Stereo. Both on Edge and Chrome bass is "okey-ish" but I'm certain that it's either Window's fault, or the audio driver... but definitely not Edge's or Chrome's fault because it sounds exactly like when I use a local player on 5.1 without passthrough.

Tried "DTS:X Out of the box" (DTS:X) and also "THX Eclipse Long 4K" (DTS) just in case, and it was stereo on both Edge and Chrome.

With Firefox 87 on the other hand, for some strange reason the bass/LFE channel is not "okey-ish", it's just plain 100% non-existent, on both Dolby and DTS formats. The only bass coming out is from the other channels, not from the ".1" channel.

I thought that it was Emby transcoding audio and missing out on the bass/LFE channel, but nope: now I know that it's Firefox's fault... Thanks Luke!

Out of curiosity I went to this page: https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/multichannel.html ...and 5.1/7.1 is working OK on Edge, Chrome and even Firefox! Bass channel included!

So to sum up:

  • AAC surround:
    • Works on all browser
  • Dolby:
    • Works on Edge
    • Downmixes to stereo on Chrome
    • Downmixes to stereo and losses the whole bass/LFE channel on Firefox
  • DTS:
    • Downmixes to stereo on Edge and Chrome
    • Downmixes to stereo and losses the whole bass/LFE channel on Firefox

It would be nice if Firefox upped their game in the multi-channel support department, but taking into consideration the amount of money Microsoft and Google have vs what Mozilla has... it could be worse I guess.
Still I'm happy with having Firefox as my main browser. I'll just know that Edge gives better sound results than the rest.

Thanks again for pointing me to the right direction!

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1 hour ago, heffeque said:

Ah, I was just testing surround on browsers (just installed DSM 7 with latest Emby beta) and noticed that bass/LFE channel is 100% non-existent when playing on browser (Firefox in my case).

Read this and went to Edge and... voilà!

I have my computer plugged into an Onkyo 5.1.2 Atmos system.
Windows 10 has the "Dolby Atmos for home theater" option, but it's really not good at all, so I just stick to the 5.1 option without the height speakers and do passthrough whenever possible.

Tried the "Dolby Atmos Amaze" video and it works as 5.1/7.1 on Edge 89. On Chrome 89 it works in Stereo. Both on Edge and Chrome bass is "okey-ish" but I'm certain that it's either Window's fault, or the audio driver... but definitely not Edge's or Chrome's fault because it sounds exactly like when I use a local player on 5.1 without passthrough.

Tried "DTS:X Out of the box" (DTS:X) and also "THX Eclipse Long 4K" (DTS) just in case, and it was stereo on both Edge and Chrome.

With Firefox 87 on the other hand, for some strange reason the bass/LFE channel is not "okey-ish", it's just plain 100% non-existent, on both Dolby and DTS formats. The only bass coming out is from the other channels, not from the ".1" channel.

I thought that it was Emby transcoding audio and missing out on the bass/LFE channel, but nope: now I know that it's Firefox's fault... Thanks Luke!

Out of curiosity I went to this page: https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/multichannel.html ...and 5.1/7.1 is working OK on Edge, Chrome and even Firefox! Bass channel included!

So to sum up:

  • AAC surround:
    • Works on all browser
  • Dolby:
    • Works on Edge
    • Downmixes to stereo on Chrome
    • Downmixes to stereo and losses the whole bass/LFE channel on Firefox
  • DTS:
    • Downmixes to stereo on Edge and Chrome
    • Downmixes to stereo and losses the whole bass/LFE channel on Firefox

It would be nice if Firefox upped their game in the multi-channel support department, but taking into consideration the amount of money Microsoft and Google have vs what Mozilla has... it could be worse I guess.
Still I'm happy with having Firefox as my main browser. I'll just know that Edge gives better sound results than the rest.

Thanks again for pointing me to the right direction!

Hi, yes you're on the right track in terms of browser support and I agree about Firefox. Thanks for the feedback !

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heffeque

Just a quick note about browser support:

It seems that (at least in my case) "direct playing" videos with very high bitrate (>37 Mbps, such as "THX Genesis UHD" h.264 376MB video) don't work either on Edge nor on Chrome.
No problem whatsoever playing same very high bitrate videos on Firefox.
I also tried on Android Chrome vs Android Firefox to rule out a problem with my computer or with Windows, and same result (stuck on Chrome, OK on Firefox).

Seems that browsers have some work to do:

  • much audio work pending on Firefox, partly also on Chrome
  • video work pending on Chromium based browsers

Let me know if you find the same problems!

Anyway... either way, there's not much that you can do on your side, other than recommend using the native Apps, though the WebApp can be pretty handy on some occasions.

Cheers!

Edited by heffeque
  • Thanks 1
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