No DTS on Sony AndroidTV

[EduardoSantos 40]

Any movie with DTS audio stream gets transcoded though it used to play and passthrough to soundbar.

Already checked TV/Emby configs.

Was there any changes on this? 

[ptre 2]

Certain Sony TVs have issues with DTS HD MA Passthrough. For example: https://github.com/CiNcH83/bravia_atv2/issues/57

It does not affect all DTS signals so maybe when it worked, you played something else than DTS HD MA.

Edited December 4, 2020 by ptre
Some grammar mistakes fixed.

[EduardoSantos 40]

Thanks for your response!

The issue relates to pure DTS audio streams. That's not DTS HD or MA.
And it used to play nice some weeks ago.

 

Edited December 4, 2020 by EduardoSantos

[Luke 42077]

Hi there, can we please look at an example? Thanks.

[EduardoSantos 40]

Following are log files from the instalation. Please ask for any additional info.

 

embyserver.txt ffmpeg-remux-f3756896-7041-4de1-b26e-0a5c4a1a238a_1.txt hardware_detection-63742764143.txt

[ebr 16169]

Hi.  Your TV does not report support for DTS so it is being converted to a format it does support (Dolby).

It is not transcoding.  Just remuxing and converting audio.

[Siutsch 9]

Same problem here.

I made a FW Update for my Sony XF90 TV to Android 9.

I think it can be the reason.

But I haven't found any settings to change that within the Sony Android GUI.

Edit:
It is a problem with new FW 6.7140:
https://community.sony.at/t5/android-tv/erfahrungen-mit-pie-atv2-fw-6-7140/m-p/3727479

Unfortunately the DTS formats were removed from the HDMI-ARC device info (see AudioDeviceInfo.getEncodings) in the Pie firmware. Apps that rely on this info (e.g. Plex) therefore don't do a pass-through for DTS anymore.

Apps that use the Trial&Error principle (e.g. Kodi) can still output DTS formats via Passthrough. The pre-installed Media Player is also capable of this. Even DTS-HD is among the supported formats. This works by extracting and outputting the DTS-compatible core, but unfortunately this does not work without errors. With DTS-HD MA 24-bit, there are constant dropouts up to the complete stop of the audio output.

Perhaps Emby can use the Trial&Error principle too, that Kodi uses?
Or you can make the settings manually if necessary?

Thanks.

 

Edited December 5, 2020 by Siutsch

[ebr 16169]

It is a bug in the firmware that will be corrected by the manufacturer.  Putting in "force" options just lead to people turning them on and then spending time troubleshooting why their audio doesn't work.

[Siutsch 9]

I don't think that Sony will "correct" that.

Maybe you can provide a manually configurable file where you can do something like that?

[arrbee99 1815]

Excuse the ignorant question, but I guess if I've got Shield > Soundbar > X90f (whether updated or not), I'm not affected by this ?

[ebr 16169]

5 minutes ago, arrbee99 said:

Excuse the ignorant question, but I guess if I've got Shield > Soundbar > X90f (whether updated or not), I'm not affected by this ?

No, you would not be.

[arrbee99 1815]

Thanks.

Also, more generally, would anyone know - presumably it is a bug which can hopefully be fixed as opposed to some kind of deliberate removal which would presumably stay ?

[ebr 16169]

16 minutes ago, arrbee99 said:

Thanks.

Also, more generally, would anyone know - presumably it is a bug which can hopefully be fixed as opposed to some kind of deliberate removal which would presumably stay ?

That article links to a supposed "bug" report but I don't know if that is official. It is possible that it was removed deliberately for licensing reasons, I guess.  Does the TV have an official "DTS" logo on the box?

[arrbee99 1815]

Haven't dug out the box yet, but found this on https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/sony/x900f

[EduardoSantos 40]

I understand a firmware can be a real showstopper.

But it seems to me passthrough wouldn't require a DTS logo.

What if other apps (eg. stock media player), using the same firmware, could play files passing throught DTS?

Just tested this and it works fine: hooked a pen drive containing the same mkv provided when Luke asked for more details. The stock media player just played the file and tv passedthrough DTS audio to the soundbar.

Edited December 7, 2020 by EduardoSantos

[EduardoSantos 40]

1 minute ago, EduardoSantos said:

I understand a firmware can be a real showstopper.

But it seems to me passthrough wouldn't require a DTS logo.

What if other apps (eg. stock media player), using the same firmware, could play files passing throught DTS?

Just tested this and it works fine: hooked a pen drive containing the same mkv provided when Luke asked for more details. The stock media player just played the file and tv passedthrough DTS audio to the soundbar.

Info: soundbar connects to tv by HDMI/ARC

[FrostByte 5392]

Have you tried disabling "Allow video playback that requires conversion without re-encoding" on the server?  

 

 

[Siutsch 9]

Thanks for Emby for Android TV Beta: v1.8.56g which fixes "Modify Exo DV support for Sony TVs ".

I hope it does, what i think!

Siutsch.

[EduardoSantos 40]

13 hours ago, FrostByte said:

Have you tried disabling "Allow video playback that requires conversion without re-encoding" on the server?  

 

 

Done that. 
Got no sound when playing.

[HanzoX7 11]

My XBR-55805E is in the same boat. Started noticing the DTS tracks would not passthrough to my STR-DH790 amp perhaps a few weeks ago. Can't say if after the recent firmware update for sure, but most likely the culprit. The transcoding worked transparently to my ears, at least. I'd be willing to test the beta app, if someone can send it over...

[FrostByte 5392]

7 hours ago, HanzoX7 said:

My XBR-55805E is in the same boat. Started noticing the DTS tracks would not passthrough to my STR-DH790 amp perhaps a few weeks ago. Can't say if after the recent firmware update for sure, but most likely the culprit. The transcoding worked transparently to my ears, at least. I'd be willing to test the beta app, if someone can send it over...

The latest apk is usually in the first post here:

 

[HanzoX7 11]

I just got around testing the APK on my TV and no luck. On movies with DTS tracks stats for nerds says DTS (software decode) and my amp says PCM. Same movie in Kodi, my amp says DTS... Not sure if version 1.8.62 includes the fix from 1.8.61. Although, it says "Properly software decode DTS when not passing through nor converting", so I guess it's doing the right thing, just not what I would expect.

Edited December 27, 2020 by HanzoX7

[ebr 16169]

3 minutes ago, HanzoX7 said:

and my amp says PCM

That is just the raw audio.  How many channels?

[HanzoX7 11]

2 minutes ago, ebr said:

That is just the raw audio.  How many channels?

The amp says PCM 2 channels. The source DTS track has 6 channels. This is from the TV back to the amp through ARC... 

[ebr 16169]

1 hour ago, HanzoX7 said:

TV back to the amp through ARC

Okay, yeah, that isn't going to support multi-channel PCM so it is getting mixed down.  This is why we have the convert option - so you can get at least 5.1 out of these items by converting them to DD.