TV Box Pro & Dolby Atmos

[Reign_in_Beard]

Hey all.

I’ve just moved over and have a TV Box Pro. I read that it should be capable of Dolby Atmos.

I have it set up via HDMI into my Soundbar and then into the TV. (My TV just has arc). When I use the Netflix and Amazon Prime apps, the labelling on them only shows 5.1. The info from my soundbar shows them playing in Dolby Digital rather than Atmos. The HDMI audio is set to surround. 

I have temporarily swiped my Son’s Apple TV and have it set up the same way. It displays the labelling correctly as Dolby Atmos and plays in Dolby Atmos as the soundbar info displays it.

I’m stumped as to what it could be. I did wonder if my set up may mean I need a higher bandwith cable for the box, as my sons one is a 48gbps one. Do you think it might be that?

[Minkey1]

Excellent summary 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[Midnight_Voice]

@Minkey1 

Your gut feeling is plausible, and the proof would be finding something that plays in Atmos via HDMI to the amp, but something lesser via the TV.

But that might be (a) quite tricky to find and (b) dependent on the model of TV in question.

However, the amp’s raison d’etre  is getting the best audio it can off an HDMI input, and carrying out the well-understood process of passing the video out to a well-understood HDMI In on the TV.

Whereas in the other direction, the TV whose raison d’etre is video handling has to pass the audio intact over the kludge that even eARC still is, and hope it can negotiate its passage successfully, while its mind is really on its video handling.

Your gut feeling may very well be based on an appreciation of which alternative is likely the best for audio here 😛

[Minkey1]

Ha! I’m old school. Source > amp - audio > 7.1 set up + video > TV (LG C3) works for me😉

Unless it’s the wife watching Corrie. Then the telly suffices on its own.

[Midnight_Voice]

@Minkey1 

I have a wife who notices when the surround goes off, both a blessing and a curse.

In the dear dead days of Sony Centres, she was heard to exclaim in one “Ooh yes, let’s have a subwoofer!” and I think several bystanders would have proposed to her on the spot 😛

Most of our stuff is connected via the TV, but the UHD BluRay goes direct into the single HDMI in on the GX soundbar.

LG have this so well thought out that just starting the UHD player makes the setup configure itself ‘old school’ to play BluRays, and it nearly always puts itself back TV-first afterwards 😛

[Minkey1]

Well, she’s a keeper and no mistake 😉

I love that story. Used to go in the Leeds Sony Centre almost weekly. Had hifi kit, mp3 players, TVs. Last CRT was a 32” Sony which took 2 of us to lift, connected to a Sony DVD pro logic box. Happy days.

Switched to Samsung when Sony TVs became *so* expensive, then to LG last year. Been a year of change. Long time Google Home kit and Pixel user. Now jumped to Alexa kit and iPhones, and indeed BT to EE.

Not every change totally for the better😉

Happy on the kit side tho. AV is Denon, 7.1 is Cambridge Audio, sources Panasonic UB820, EE Pro box, and Apple TV.

OP, sorry for going off on a tangent. I do it a lot these days. It’s my age 🤦🏼‍♂️

[Midnight_Voice]

@Minkey1 

I’ll see your 32” CRT Sony, and raise you a 36” Digital Sony CRT set that was a three man lift 😛

We just wanted it simple, no AV with it, but the audio was so awful that we had first the Sony Centre dealer, and then a rep from Sony in, who said the audio was ‘within spec’, but most users of it ran it through an AV. We said we didn’t want that, thank you.

But fortunately, this was very early days of digital, and Sony had got the rules wrong, so every day when you turned it on, all the channels were swapped around. Despite a couple of goes, Sony were unable to fix this, so we were able to reject the TV and get our money back.

We hadn’t cared much about the channel swapping; but it was a fortunate excuse to get rid of it because of the audio that Sony wouldn’t agree was unacceptable 😛

The poor Sony Centre took a bit of a bath, apparently, but for us, that was between them and Sony 😢

[Minkey1]

Oh dear. Always liked their stuff, and never had a problem with it. It just became too expensive for my budget .They do some lovely TV’s, amps, and earphones tho - according to What Hi Fi. 

[Midnight_Voice]

@Minkey1 

Sony sets have the best picture in the game - they can get more out of an LG panel than LG can, but the internals of their sets rather let them down. I’m active on the Sony Community, though my Sony TV dates from 2015, when I was beta testing it, and it had to be relegated to the study in favour of a Samsung three days before Christmas, due to a family revolt. But in fairness to Sony, they did get it right in the end, and it still has a lovely picture, though it still has a number of 2015 limitations that Sony only ironed out in later years, such as how the YouView interface works.

But I’m an LG man now, though Samsung seem to be getting back on top after a few years of sets which were not quite as good as the LGs.

[Minkey1]

The Samsung 49KS8000 we had had an awkward 3 point stand, and annoyingly, would actually play ads for its own channels on switch on. The only way to stop it was to delete them from the guide.

Our LG55C3 looks great and has good PQ but its WebOS is clunky compared to the Samsung. Got it for a good price w 5yr warranty at JL. It’s abt the biggest we can cater for and overall we’re happy with it.