Which app to use for Google TV?

[FrostByte 5551]

2 hours ago, tattler said:

Thanks for testing! I appreciate it. This is actually what I have been talking about: Emby server is transcoding the video, not Shield. If you play the same movie in ATV you should notice that Emby server is direct playing with TrueHD Atmos and Shield is converting it to AC3. I can see it in the Sonos app.

In my case, if I turned on the convert to dd option, Shield will convert it to DD 2.0. Same Shield settings and same movie, ATV version results in Shield converting it to DD 5.1. I can see this in the Sonos app. It is a huge difference in audio.

Okay, I think I can duplicate and understand what you are wanting now  

So, you want the hardware to convert to surround and NOT the server, correct?  In the end you get AC3 5.1 either way, but you're saying the quality is better when it's converted by the hardware to surround.  I tend to agree. Also, everything I'm seeing online on the nVidia page says the Shield can only convert to 16bit PCM and lacks the encoder to convert to anything else. 

Are your Android settings like mine above? 

When I set mine like above, then I'm still getting surround using AndroidTV (and SFN says TrueHD is direct playing as you say) but it's being converted to something because I lthen ose Atmos.  I just can't tell the stereo format because my soundbar doesn't display anything but Atmos and DTSX (otherwise that spot is blank) unlike your Sonos which tells you it's AC3 5.1. 

However, when using the new app and using the above settings then I'm getting stereo unless I select "convert unsupported surround" in the app which then forces the server to convert to AC3 5.1. 

BTW you can also get AndroidTV to tell the server to transcode to AC3 by lying and changing your Android settings saying it supports TrueHD, DTSHD, and DTS and then unselecting those audio formats within the AndroidTV app playback settings (they aren't there unless you change your Android settings first), but you don't want the server to do the converting.  Both apps should sound about the same then.

Edited 1 hour ago by FrostByte

[CBers 7654]

3 hours ago, tattler said:

Thanks for testing! I appreciate it. This is actually what I have been talking about: Emby server is transcoding the video, not Shield. If you play the same movie in ATV you should notice that Emby server is direct playing with TrueHD Atmos and Shield is converting it to AC3. I can see it in the Sonos app.

In my case, if I turned on the convert to dd option, Shield will convert it to DD 2.0. Same Shield settings and same movie, ATV version results in Shield converting it to DD 5.1. I can see this in the Sonos app. It is a huge difference in audio.

Something is amiss in your setup, either on the Shield itself, or the settings in the ATV app, as the Shield should NOT be doing any transcoding/downmixing, as it can only downmix to PCM 2.0, not anything else. 

 If you have unsupported audio, then the server should be remuxing it to DD. 

I have a Sonos Playbar and the server remuxes unsupported audio to DD. 

Edit: I have just played the original AVATAR movie that has TrueHD 7.1 audio and both the ATV app and the Universal Android app both remux the audio to DD 5.1, whilst direct playing the video. 

Can I suggest that you check your settings again. 

Thanks. 

Edited 1 hour ago by CBers