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 5533]

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 5533]

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 yesterday at 12:48 AM by yocker

[FrostByte 5533]

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 yesterday at 03:19 AM 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 5533]

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 yesterday at 08:26 AM 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 yesterday at 01:07 PM 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. 

[FrostByte 5533]

You have got to be the only one I've ever heard of who thinks transcoded 384 kbps AC3 sounds better than TrueHD Atmos because that's what you're getting using the Samsung app. 

Also, the server has nothing to do with it since the sound goes from the Shield to the soundbar.  All the server is doing is passing it through unless it's transcoding.  You can run Emby server on an old PC and no graphics card as long as it's not transcoding.

9 hours ago, marriedman said:

If going through the soundbar, you get native audio codec compatibility, but no DSP effects applied to the audio stream.

 

The Shield passes the audio to the soundbar DSP just fine.  As long as you turn off Dolby Audio Processing in settings and check all the supported audio codecs your soundbar supports the audio is sent bitstreamed and untouched.  If you don't do that of course it will be modified.  What you get is multi channel PCM if you don't set up your Shield correctly.

[Robnaeyaert 22]

19 hours ago, FrostByte said:

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.

 

@FrostByteI have a few dumb questions please based on your answer.  Here goes

 

Question 1 - I have my XBOX-X going directly into my TV which is then cabled via eARC to my HW-Q990c soundbar.  Given your reply above do I have that backwards and should I connect my XBOX-X directly to my HW-Q990c soundbars HDMI 1 port to get advantage of the XBOX dolby features?  Basically have I cabled this wrong?

 

Question 2 - I have my Intel NUC PC (my Emby Media Server) directly connected via HDMI 1 to my Soundbar.  I purchased a HDMI 2.1 cable today and I'm going to replace my current HDMI cable (which I suspect is not fast enough) with my new 8K 2.1 HDMI cable.  So given I was asking about nVidia Shield PRO to get the best sound, can I achieve the same thing wiht  my NUC Windows PC (Emby server) directly connected to my Soundbar with the 2.1 cable and forego needing to purchase the nVidia Shield?

 

Thoughts?  Thanks Rob 

 

 

[FrostByte 5533]

5 hours ago, Robnaeyaert said:

 

@FrostByteI have a few dumb questions please based on your answer.  Here goes

 

Question 1 - I have my XBOX-X going directly into my TV which is then cabled via eARC to my HW-Q990c soundbar.  Given your reply above do I have that backwards and should I connect my XBOX-X directly to my HW-Q990c soundbars HDMI 1 port to get advantage of the XBOX dolby features?  Basically have I cabled this wrong?

 

Question 2 - I have my Intel NUC PC (my Emby Media Server) directly connected via HDMI 1 to my Soundbar.  I purchased a HDMI 2.1 cable today and I'm going to replace my current HDMI cable (which I suspect is not fast enough) with my new 8K 2.1 HDMI cable.  So given I was asking about nVidia Shield PRO to get the best sound, can I achieve the same thing wiht  my NUC Windows PC (Emby server) directly connected to my Soundbar with the 2.1 cable and forego needing to purchase the nVidia Shield?

 

Thoughts?  Thanks Rob 

 

 

If you connect your Xbox directly to your soundbar what you will gain is TrueHD Atmos/DTSHD playback because the TV won't pass those through.  If you don't have any games with Atmos or use Emby on your Xbox then I can't think of any benefit to hooking it up like mine.  You will probably lose the ability to place a shortcut on the Home which goes directly to the Xbox too.  At least with my version of Tizen you can't have a different shortcut to each HDMI port on your soundbar.  Just one and then you have to swap ports with your remote if needed.

How you hook up your server doesn't have anything to do with the format of the sound file you're getting.  A very slow connection can cause things to transcode and buffer but a file which is transcoded is going to be the same 384kbps AC3 format no matter how you have it set up.  It's the client which determines the format by what it supports, not the server. 

Since the Samsung app is running on the TV itself the server knows what codecs your TV supports by what the client tells it.  Those formats are indicated by the tables in your TV's user manual.  If the client doesn't support or passthrough a certain codec then it will request a transcode from the server no matter how nice of an audio system or server that you have. 

Each codec costs Samsung money and your TV has just what's needed to stream movies from apps like Netflix online which is why it supports things DD+ Atmos.  Soundbars support more formats because of things like UHD players which are meant to be directly connect to them.  So, there's really no need for Samsung to pay for those decoders/encoders twice.

The Shield and Xbox (at least newer versions of them) both can passthrough things like TrueHD Atmos if hooked up directly to an audio device which support them. There is a handshake between the two devices which the client device then acknowledges.  That can't be done if hooking an Xbox or Shield directly to your TV so you don't gain much as far as audio goes doing it that way.  

If you are on the fence and think you may not need lossless audio then I would at least have an alternate audio file in my videos.  Having a 640 kbps ACS track or an even better EAC3 track in your files will not only sound better than the transcoded one from the server but it will eliminate any on the fly transcoding which can slow down any streaming.  All you need to do then is preselect the alternate track before clicking play. 

If you have the tools to make an EAC3 5.1 or 7.1 track (especially with Atmos) it can actually sound pretty good at higher bitrates when using a soundbar.  I've got a lot of files with 1536kbps EAC3 7.1 Atmos tracks which are harder to tell the difference from TrueHD Atmos on my soundbar.  If you have a nice expensive audio system, then you really should run Emby off something other than the TV.  Why would you pay thousands of dollars and not listen to the best.

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                              : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
Format profile                           : Blu-ray Disc
Codec ID                                 : A_EAC3
Duration                                 : 1 h 56 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 8 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs Tfl Tfr
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 1.25 GiB (2%)
Title                                    : DDP Atmos 7.1
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Complexity index                         : 16
Number of dynamic objects                : 15
Bed channel count                        : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration                : LFE
Dialog Normalization                     : -27 dB
compr                                    : -0.28 dB
Center mix level (cmixlev)               : -3.0 dB
Surround mix level (surmixlev)           : -3 dB
dmixmod                                  : Lo/Ro
ltrtcmixlev                              : -3.0 dB
ltrtsurmixlev                            : -3.0 dB
lorocmixlev                              : -3.0 dB
lorosurmixlev                            : -3.0 dB
Dialogue normalization, average          : -27 dB
Dialogue normalization, minimum          : -27 dB
Dialogue normalization, maximum          : -27 dB

 

[Robnaeyaert 22]

42 minutes ago, FrostByte said:

If you connect your Xbox directly to your soundbar what you will gain is TrueHD Atmos/DTSHD playback because the TV won't pass those through.  If you don't have any games with Atmos or use Emby on your Xbox then I can't think of any benefit to hooking it up like mine.  You will probably lose the ability to place a shortcut on the Home which goes directly to the Xbox too.  At least with my version of Tizen you can't have a different shortcut to each HDMI port on your soundbar.  Just one and then you have to swap ports with your remote if needed.

How you hook up your server doesn't have anything to do with the format of the sound file you're getting.  A very slow connection can cause things to transcode and buffer but a file which is transcoded is going to be the same 384kbps AC3 format no matter how you have it set up.  It's the client which determines the format by what it supports, not the server. 

Since the Samsung app is running on the TV itself the server knows what codecs your TV supports by what the client tells it.  Those formats are indicated by the tables in your TV's user manual.  If the client doesn't support or passthrough a certain codec then it will request a transcode from the server no matter how nice of an audio system or server that you have. 

Each codec costs Samsung money and your TV has just what's needed to stream movies from apps like Netflix online which is why it supports things DD+ Atmos.  Soundbars support more formats because of things like UHD players which are meant to be directly connect to them.  So, there's really no need for Samsung to pay for those decoders/encoders twice.

The Shield and Xbox (at least newer versions of them) both can passthrough things like TrueHD Atmos if hooked up directly to an audio device which support them. There is a handshake between the two devices which the client device then acknowledges.  That can't be done if hooking an Xbox or Shield directly to your TV so you don't gain much as far as audio goes doing it that way.  

If you are on the fence and think you may not need lossless audio then I would at least have an alternate audio file in my videos.  Having a 640 kbps ACS track or an even better EAC3 track in your files will not only sound better than the transcoded one from the server but it will eliminate any on the fly transcoding which can slow down any streaming.  All you need to do then is preselect the alternate track before clicking play. 

If you have the tools to make an EAC3 5.1 or 7.1 track (especially with Atmos) it can actually sound pretty good at higher bitrates when using a soundbar.  I've got a lot of files with 1536kbps EAC3 7.1 Atmos tracks which are harder to tell the difference from TrueHD Atmos on my soundbar.  If you have a nice expensive audio system, then you really should run Emby off something other than the TV.  Why would you pay thousands of dollars and not listen to the best.

Audio #2
ID                                       : 3
Format                                   : E-AC-3 JOC
Format/Info                              : Enhanced AC-3 with Joint Object Coding
Commercial name                          : Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos
Format profile                           : Blu-ray Disc
Codec ID                                 : A_EAC3
Duration                                 : 1 h 56 min
Bit rate mode                            : Constant
Bit rate                                 : 1 536 kb/s
Channel(s)                               : 8 channels
Channel layout                           : L R C LFE Ls Rs Tfl Tfr
Sampling rate                            : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate                               : 31.250 FPS (1536 SPF)
Compression mode                         : Lossy
Stream size                              : 1.25 GiB (2%)
Title                                    : DDP Atmos 7.1
Language                                 : English
Service kind                             : Complete Main
Default                                  : No
Forced                                   : No
Complexity index                         : 16
Number of dynamic objects                : 15
Bed channel count                        : 1 channel
Bed channel configuration                : LFE
Dialog Normalization                     : -27 dB
compr                                    : -0.28 dB
Center mix level (cmixlev)               : -3.0 dB
Surround mix level (surmixlev)           : -3 dB
dmixmod                                  : Lo/Ro
ltrtcmixlev                              : -3.0 dB
ltrtsurmixlev                            : -3.0 dB
lorocmixlev                              : -3.0 dB
lorosurmixlev                            : -3.0 dB
Dialogue normalization, average          : -27 dB
Dialogue normalization, minimum          : -27 dB
Dialogue normalization, maximum          : -27 dB

 

 

Sorry @FrostBytewhat I'm *really* asking is ---- Can I play TrueHD/Lossless Atmos media directly from my NUC PC (Emby Server) or my XBOX-X to avoid having to fork out for an nVidia Shield Pro?  The only reason I'd entertain purchasing a nVidia Shield Pro is to get the most out of my HW-Q990C which you rightfully comment I paid lots of money for.  I'm pulling my hair out trying to work out the best config given all the limitations of the TV being able to pass the signal to the soundbar and transcoding.

I just want the best audio experience with what I have is possible.  1 x HW-Q990c + 1 x NUC PC running Emby Server + 1 x XBOX-X all connected to a 2022 Samsung Artframe TV

 

Thanks again

 

[FrostByte 5533]

5 minutes ago, Robnaeyaert said:

 

Sorry @FrostBytewhat I'm *really* asking is ---- Can I play TrueHD/Lossless Atmos media directly from my NUC PC (Emby Server) or my XBOX-X to avoid having to fork out for an nVidia Shield Pro?  The only reason I'd entertain purchasing a nVidia Shield Pro is to get the most out of my HW-Q990C which you rightfully comment I paid lots of money for.  I'm pulling my hair out trying to work out the best config given all the limitations of the TV being able to pass the signal to the soundbar and transcoding.

I just want the best audio experience with what I have is possible.  1 x HW-Q990c + 1 x NUC PC running Emby Server + 1 x XBOX-X all connected to a 2022 Samsung Artframe TV

 

Thanks again

 

You can only get TrueHD Atmos if the client has the encoder/decoder which supports TrueHD Atmos and is connected directly connected to a device with a decoder/encoder which supports TrueHD Atmos. Or, all devices in-between can also passthrough TrueHD.

Since you are currently playing movies from your TV client no you will never get TrueHD Atmos that way because it doesn't have the necessary decoder/encoder to send it to your soundbar.

Now if you connect your Xbox to your soundbar and use the Emby Xbox app then yes, you can get TrueHD Atmos.  

You probably can also try to add a client on your NUC which then plays your movies.  Then it will all depend on your NUC hardware and whether it can passthrough TrueHD since the client would then be on your NUC and connected to your soundbar.  It all depends on the client hardware though, not the server (unless the server is also your client).

So yes, you probably have options now which you can try.

[Neminem 1786]

I really wonder how much time OP has waited, for answers instead of just trying

Turning on the Xbox and swapping ports fore those 2 cables

[One2Go 125]

If you want to save time and get 99% of the content formats decoded on the client there is only one, NVidea Shield TV Pro. Life is too short to drink bad wine, coffee and futz with device or component settings. I have an ntel NUC, Google Chromecast, Roku and Shield TV Pro connected to the Denon receiver and 90% of the playback goes via the Shield. Power up devices, navigate Emby and hit play, Enjoy the beverage and snack of choice.