Sound bar basics

[all4dom 101]

Not to sound stupid but I'm thinking about eventually getting a soundbar for my living room & family room. A lot of my media has audio for dts master & true hd but I've never had a reciever. I was reading up on sound bars & my question is can a soundbar with dolby atmos play those audios without transcoding? From what I'm reading, it says it does. I've also read that my tv needs to have hdmi 2.0 minimum. My tvs are older & dont have 4k or dolby vision but I'm hoping this year I can replace them without breaking the bank. Thanks everyone.

[Deathsquirrel 745]

Yes, if your soundbar reports that it can decode and playback an audio format then Emby will pass it along without transcoding.  I have a 5.1 soundbar in my bedroom that supports those formats, hooked to a 2017 shield and never get transcoding of ripped DVD and blu-ray content.

That said, the sound quality of soundbars is wildly inferior to a receiver and speakers of the same cost.  I don't recommend them for your primary movie-watching place but they're just fine for secondary TVs.  They're much better than the TV speakers in almost all cases.  For your primary watching location work on building at least a 3.1 audio setup using a receiver and separate speakers.

[all4dom 101]

Thanks I'll start looking at receivers. I know onkyo was always an affordable solution.