Advice please - getting the maximum from my EMBY Setup / Samsung HW-Q990C (Atmos and TrueHD)

[Robnaeyaert 22]

Hi Emby - long time user and support @Robnaeyaerthere.

I need some advice please.

I want to get the max out of my soundbar (Samsung HW-Q990c) and I think I need a nVidia Shield but I don't want to waste money so can someone please help?

Here is my setup

• Emby Server running on a Windows NUC PC with media USB drives hanging off the server 
• Emby Client running on my 75" 2022 Samsung Art Frame (Samsung Emby client app)
• Samsung HW-990c connected to the eARC output on my TV

 

I have loads of TrueHD / Atmos media and I'm not sure I'm getting the full benefit from my hardware to enjoy Atmos etc.  Sometimes my Soundbar says "Atmos" when I play media and sometimes it doesn't and I'm getting suspicious that my setup is not leveraged to take full advantage of the audio. 

Someone said (and I read online) I may need a nVidia Shield Pro as a "player" as it will ensure my audio is maximised.  I get the feeling I'm missing out here and not using my HW-990c to it's fullest potential.

Could someone like @Luke, @FrostByteor anyone please give me a steer on how to configure this as I don't want to waste money on another appliance if I don't need to?

 

Cheers rob

[FrostByte 5531]

Yes, the Shield is probably still the best thing you can get today to maximize your audio experience.  When using the Samsung app from the TV you are limited to the audio codecs supported by your TV and anything else will be transcoded.

To see what codecs your TV supports see the charts in the back of your user's manual like this

https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/specifications/media-specifications/2025-tv-video-specifications.html

The Atmos you're seeing now is only Dolby Digital Plus with Atmos which is common with online streaming services like Disney+, Netflix, etc.  Anything sourced from UHD will be TrueHD Atmos (or DTS:X, etc) and get transcoded which means you lose all the height layers.

When using a Shield, you get the most out of it when connected directly to your soundbar like indicated below.  Since the app is running on the Shield it can use the audio codecs supported by it.  The soundbar then passes the video to your TV.

Shield > HDMI > Soundbar > HDMI/E-ARC > TV

The TV will not passthrough these codecs either if you connect the Shield directly to it.

In addition to all the audio codecs the Shield supports it also supports more subtitle formats like PGS which is the format used on UHD video.  The only thing you lose is HDR10+ as the Shield doesn't support that as of now.

 

 

 

[FrostByte 5531]

Oh, if you do have something sourced from a streaming service which has HDR10+ and DD+ Atmos you could always play it using the Samsung app still and anything else use the Shield.  That's what I do if I know what I'm going to watch ahead of time.  I think AppleTV, Amazon, HULU, Paramount+, and recently now Disney+ are using HDR10+ for a lot of things.

 

[yocker 1737]

17 minutes ago, FrostByte said:

Oh, if you do have something sourced from a streaming service which has HDR10+ and DD+ Atmos you could always play it using the Samsung app still and anything else use the Shield.  That's what I do if I know what I'm going to watch ahead of time.  I think AppleTV, Amazon, HULU, Paramount+, and recently now Disney+ are using HDR10+ for a lot of things.

 

Samsung and their f.ed up refusal to support Dolby Vision even though Dolby has pretty much won that format war.
Oh well, at least most have HDR fallback and the loss isn't that big.

Btw %¤#%# Samsung for adding adds in the menus that you have to click over to switch HDMI input!
Plus their built quality leaves a lot to be desired.

Edited 14 hours ago by yocker

[FrostByte 5531]

Just now, yocker said:

Oh well, at least most have HDR fallback and the loss isn't that big.

Ya, I really don't see much difference between HDR10 and HDR10+ either.  If I had to lose one, it would be HDR10+ and keep any lossless audio via the Shield.

[Robnaeyaert 22]

1 hour ago, FrostByte said:

Yes, the Shield is probably still the best thing you can get today to maximize your audio experience.  When using the Samsung app from the TV you are limited to the audio codecs supported by your TV and anything else will be transcoded.

To see what codecs your TV supports see the charts in the back of your user's manual like this

https://developer.samsung.com/smarttv/develop/specifications/media-specifications/2025-tv-video-specifications.html

The Atmos you're seeing now is only Dolby Digital Plus with Atmos which is common with online streaming services like Disney+, Netflix, etc.  Anything sourced from UHD will be TrueHD Atmos (or DTS:X, etc) and get transcoded which means you lose all the height layers.

When using a Shield, you get the most out of it when connected directly to your soundbar like indicated below.  Since the app is running on the Shield it can use the audio codecs supported by it.  The soundbar then passes the video to your TV.

Shield > HDMI > Soundbar > HDMI/E-ARC > TV

The TV will not passthrough these codecs either if you connect the Shield directly to it.

In addition to all the audio codecs the Shield supports it also supports more subtitle formats like PGS which is the format used on UHD video.  The only thing you lose is HDR10+ as the Shield doesn't support that as of now.

 

 

 

Thanks @FrostByteand for everyone for the help but I’m a little confused over the setup and connections please. 
 

Are you saying to get the maximum I purchase a nvidia Shield and plug it into the hdmi input on my soundbar and make sure the Emby app on the nvidia shield sees my Emby windows server and to watch content on Emby I need to switch to the soundbar hdmi port (with the nvidia shield connected) and watch my content from there?

basically ditching my Samsung TV app all together?

and that “passes” the video to my tv automatically?

I just need to get my head around how it’s all practically hooked up please. 

[yocker 1737]

54 minutes ago, Robnaeyaert said:

Thanks @FrostByteand for everyone for the help but I’m a little confused over the setup and connections please. 
 

Are you saying to get the maximum I purchase a nvidia Shield and plug it into the hdmi input on my soundbar and make sure the Emby app on the nvidia shield sees my Emby windows server and to watch content on Emby I need to switch to the soundbar hdmi port (with the nvidia shield connected) and watch my content from there?

basically ditching my Samsung TV app all together?

and that “passes” the video to my tv automatically?

I just need to get my head around how it’s all practically hooked up please. 

Yes.

Nvidia Shield -> Soundbar -> TV. Assuming that your soundbar has HDMI in ports and not just a single (E)Arc port.
If the soundbar only has an (E)Arc port you might be out of luck as the Samsung TV most likely won't pass through many formats  like 7.1, TrueHD and others.
 

[Lessaj 528]

You would also need to make sure the soundbar supports passing 4K HDR/DV in that setup (it looks like that soundbar does that). Mine only does 1080p but I have the shield hooked up to the TV and the soundbar to the eARC port and it passes all the formats, except unfortunately LG no longer passes DTS with the 2025+ models. However the Shield will automatically convert it on output, so it's still direct playing and not transcoded by the server. TrueHD passes through fine.

Edited 12 hours ago by Lessaj

[Robnaeyaert 22]

6 minutes ago, yocker said:

Yes.

Nvidia Shield -> Soundbar -> TV. Assuming that your soundbar has HDMI in ports and not just a single (E)Arc port.
If the soundbar only has an (E)Arc port you might be out of luck as the Samsung TV most likely won't pass through many formats  like 7.1, TrueHD and others.
 

Yes my HW-Q990c has eARC and 2 x HDMI Ports.

I believe this soundbar supports most formats - do I need to check that also?  Again I dont want to waste money

[yocker 1737]

12 minutes ago, Robnaeyaert said:

Yes my HW-Q990c has eARC and 2 x HDMI Ports.

I believe this soundbar supports most formats - do I need to check that also?  Again I dont want to waste money

It looks to me that the soundbar supports 4K 120hz, HDR10+ and all the sound formats. So you should be ready for a Nvidia Shield (IMO get the Nvidia Shield Pro 2019).

Getting the best movie viewing experience is sadly never neither cheap nor easy. The industry has it down to a science to squeeze every penny out of you for every little upgrade or extra feature you want.

[FrostByte 5531]

Agree with the others.  That soundbar is very good as far as soundbars go and should support everything you have for sound as long as you hook it up like we suggested.

I've got mine setup like that with my Shield and Xbox going into my Samsung soundbar and e-ARC out to the TV.  My soundbar displays the ATMOS or DTSX symbols for all my movies/series even my Atmos music files work.

And definitely get the Shield Pro 2019.  The tube is only 32 bit, has less memory, etc and will struggle at times.  I've seen a lot of people in the forum return the tube style because they were unhappy and then get the Pro.

As long as you stay away from anything compressed with AV1 you will most likely never see any transcoding again either.

Edited 7 hours ago by FrostByte

[yocker 1737]

4 hours ago, FrostByte said:

 

As long as you stay away from anything compressed with AV1 you will most likely never see any transcoding again either.

AV1 really is a shit show compatibility wise. 

No one seems to want to support it, or at least be seen doing it, other than Intel.

Edited 2 hours ago by yocker

[marriedman 100]

14 hours ago, Robnaeyaert said:

• Emby Server running on a Windows NUC PC with media USB drives hanging off the server 
• Emby Client running on my 75" 2022 Samsung Art Frame (Samsung Emby client app)
• Samsung HW-990c connected to the eARC output on my TV

<snip>

  I get the feeling I'm missing out here and not using my HW-990c to it's fullest potential.

I am in a similar situation. I have a 77" Class OLED S90D paired with HW-Q990D, but I run on Emby on an Ubuntu server. I think the sound quality is excellent, however sometimes it just feels like something is "missing" when transcoding DTS audio.  So I did the Nvidia shield thing. It does direct play, but it sounded far less boombastic and almost tinny. Then I bought a Intel NUC 13 PRO (NUC13ANKi5000) that I put Bazzite on. I find it better than the Shield, but still not as good as the transcoded Samsung app+soundbar. From what I can tell from reading other forums is that if you are using the Emby app on the TV, it has access to the internal DSP that makes it sound objectively better. If going through the soundbar, you get native audio codec compatibility, but no DSP effects applied to the audio stream.

Honestly, it's a lot of work troubleshooting. For me, in the long run, it's just not worth the time. The transcoded movies sound great or at least better than the direct playback. And 90% of the time, the TV is playing older TV shows or media that doesn't matter if it is even surround sound.