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Multi-channel Audio Part 2

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Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2

#11

Post by wfleming »

qozoq wrote: post #8

VLC and other PC based software has always left me with just as many problems - if not more - regarding picture quality, as well as audio. The gold standard for me - this goes for three TVs going back 12 years - has always turned out to be to use the TV's own media player app, in conjunction with a solid DNLA server. Otherwise it's gripes over finding the ideal combination of TV picture settings AND OS display settin…

Similarly, I wrestled for years with getting good results out of Kodi/XBMC. It was mostly good but never entirely reliable and took a lot of fiddling to get to that stage. I recently switched to Jellyfin with the Android TV client app on my TV, and so far it’s been better results with almost zero fiddling.

Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2

#12

Post by mysteria »

recursive wrote: post #7

I'm a grumpy old man, and no one can ever make me care about any audio transport fancier than analog stereo. To my dismay, it's getting hard to find TVs that can even provide usable stereo output without some kind of extra decoder box or something. Luckily, last time I bought a TV, I was still (barely) able to find one that had a headphone jack, which I use as a stereo line out.

Some TVs have a SPDIF output that you can connect to a D/A converter, but that's also an external box which you don't want. The thing here is that modern TVs typically have an integrated Class D amp for their speakers that has a direct I2S input for the DSP. The TV manufacturer doesn't bother adding in a seperate D/A chip on the board as it doesn't need it.

The good thing though is that those cheap $10 HDMI audio extractors work well for this use case if you have a playback device that outputs PCM over HDMI. As a side note those extractors are also a great way of getting 5.1 surround sound from a HTPC running the Dcaenc DTS encoder [1] into an old pre-HDMI AVR.

1. https://gitlab.com/patrakov/dcaenc

Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2

#13

Post by thescriptkiddie »

recursive wrote: post #7

I'm a grumpy old man, and no one can ever make me care about any audio transport fancier than analog stereo. To my dismay, it's getting hard to find TVs that can even provide usable stereo output without some kind of extra decoder box or something. Luckily, last time I bought a TV, I was still (barely) able to find one that had a headphone jack, which I use as a stereo line out.

This might be off-topic, but I'd like to use this opportunity to complain that basically every modern home theater setup has like hundreds of milliseconds of audio latency.

Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2

#14

Post by hapticmonkey »

qozoq wrote: post #8

VLC and other PC based software has always left me with just as many problems - if not more - regarding picture quality, as well as audio. The gold standard for me - this goes for three TVs going back 12 years - has always turned out to be to use the TV's own media player app, in conjunction with a solid DNLA server. Otherwise it's gripes over finding the ideal combination of TV picture settings AND OS display settin…

I’ve tried various methods for playing media files on my TV over the years. I’ve settled on an AppleTV with the Infuse app as my gold standard.

I used to use Kodi, but got tired of endless minor issues and UI skins that haven’t evolved since 2005.

PCs have also been left behind when it comes to HDR, Dolby Vision, and streaming options due to DRM.

Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2

#15

Post by timc3 »

qozoq wrote: post #8

VLC and other PC based software has always left me with just as many problems - if not more - regarding picture quality, as well as audio. The gold standard for me - this goes for three TVs going back 12 years - has always turned out to be to use the TV's own media player app, in conjunction with a solid DNLA server. Otherwise it's gripes over finding the ideal combination of TV picture settings AND OS display settin…

I try to buy whichever is considered the best at the time and consider a TV to be a 2000Euro upwards purchase. But every TV needs the settings tweaked and a lot of its processing turned off. The quickest way to get there is to start with the tweaks others have done from video forums. Get to that to a reference point.

Then buy a good source like an Apple TV for streaming, a BluRay HD if you like disks or a OSMC Vero to run kodi. They should require very little changes or setup.

I think the audio is more challenging.

Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2

#16

Post by NoPedantsThanks »

adanto6840 wrote: post #5

Somewhat tangential, but here's a cool somewhat open-source project related to Dolby Atmos: https://cavern.sbence.hu/cavern/ https://github.com/VoidXH/Cavern The visualizer, which is what I was _most_ interested in (along with software decoding) is written in C# and the rendering is done in Unity -- both things I valued & thought were cool. In theory, you could build a DIY multi-channel "receiver" with this type of s…

[dead]

Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2

#17

Post by OJFord »

thescriptkiddie wrote: post #13
recursive wrote: post #7

I'm a grumpy old man, and no one can ever make me care about any audio transport fancier than analog stereo. To my dismay, it's getting hard to find TVs that can even provide usable stereo output without some kind of extra decoder box or something. Luckily, last time I bought a TV, I was still (barely) able to find one that had a headphone jack, which I use as a stereo line out.

This might be off-topic, but I'd like to use this opportunity to complain that basically every modern home theater setup has like hundreds of milliseconds of audio latency.

Is that the same 'every' that have wireless speakers or 'soundbars'?

Because I'm pretty sure mine doesn't. I hate it, I'm the first to point it out or only one bothered by it. I haven't done anything (other than run Audyssey) to stop it, it just hasn't been a problem as far as I can tell.

And I know you're exaggerating, anyone would notice 'hundreds of milliseconds', but still.

Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2

#18

Post by baxuz »

adanto6840 wrote: post #5

Somewhat tangential, but here's a cool somewhat open-source project related to Dolby Atmos: https://cavern.sbence.hu/cavern/ https://github.com/VoidXH/Cavern The visualizer, which is what I was _most_ interested in (along with software decoding) is written in C# and the rendering is done in Unity -- both things I valued & thought were cool. In theory, you could build a DIY multi-channel "receiver" with this type of s…

I'm having trouble figuring out what cavern is exactly. Does it somehow relate to Dolby Access? https://www.microsoft.com/p/dolby-access/9N0866FS04W8

That is, is it an audio renderer that does player side mixing into N channels? Dolby Access does it for headphones and for up to 7.1 surround systems

I'm new to this whole audio format thing and I'm just trying to figure out how things work, as all of the Dolby stuff is very "magic behind a licence fee"

Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2

#19

Post by baxuz »

hapticmonkey wrote: post #14
qozoq wrote: post #8

VLC and other PC based software has always left me with just as many problems - if not more - regarding picture quality, as well as audio. The gold standard for me - this goes for three TVs going back 12 years - has always turned out to be to use the TV's own media player app, in conjunction with a solid DNLA server. Otherwise it's gripes over finding the ideal combination of TV picture settings AND OS display settin…

I’ve tried various methods for playing media files on my TV over the years. I’ve settled on an AppleTV with the Infuse app as my gold standard. I used to use Kodi, but got tired of endless minor issues and UI skins that haven’t evolved since 2005. PCs have also been left behind when it comes to HDR, Dolby Vision, and streaming options due to DRM.

Thinking of going the nvidia shield route as Apple TV isn't able to play back overhead Atmos content. Infuse mixes the Atmos objects into a PCM stream but that has no overhead channels.

Re: Multi-channel Audio Part 2

#20

Post by hapticmonkey »

baxuz wrote: post #19
hapticmonkey wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve tried various methods for playing media files on my TV over the years. I’ve settled on an AppleTV with the Infuse app as my gold standard. I used to use Kodi, but got tired of endless minor issues and UI skins that haven’t evolved since 2005. PCs have also been left behind when it comes to HDR, Dolby Vision, and streaming options due to DRM.

Thinking of going the nvidia shield route as Apple TV isn't able to play back overhead Atmos content. Infuse mixes the Atmos objects into a PCM stream but that has no overhead channels.

Correct. If you have an atmos setup then the AppleTV will convert TrueHD atmos and DTS:X to PCM. It will play back Dolby Digital Plus atmos however, from web rips etc.

It’s a shame because everything else about the AppleTV is such a nicer experience.

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