Issue with Dolby Digital from blu-ray player

[rawpowerocks]

I was wondering if anybody may be able to help me.

My setup is a Sony blu-ray player, which is connected to my Sony TV via hdmi. I also have a Sonos Beam soundbar connected to the TV via hdmi arc.

When I play a blu-ray disc movie which has DTS audio I get no audio through the Sonos Beam because it is not compatible with DTS. The Sonos Beam reports the audio in is DTS and it is not supported. That is exactly what I was expecting, so no surprises for me there.

This is what my issue/problem is....

The blu-ray player has audio settings. One of those settings is 'Dolby D Compatible Output' which I then turn on. This setting says it converts DTS audio to Dolby Digital for output. But even after turning this setting on my Sonos Beam still reports the audio in is DTS not Dolby Digital, which seems weird to me as it should report Dolby Digital. Am because its receiving DTS I still have no audio.

The only way I seem to get audio through the Sonos Beam is by putting the blu-ray player 'Digital Audio Output' setting to PCM rather than auto. Then I can actually hear the movie. But the Sonos Beam then reports that the audio in is Stereo 2.0.

Why can't I get Dolby Digital from my blu-ray player to the Sonos Beam? Any ideas to what my problem is? Am I missing a setting somewhere that I need to adjust? 

Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated as its driving me nuts

[rawpowerocks]

actually think I have just worked out a way to control the Sonos volume using the TV remote. Will have to play around more with this over the weekend and see if using the optical connection rather than arc is the solution

[merseyswine]

An optical link won’t support lossless audio. It’s really not worth having a swanky sound system like a Sonos if you have to resort to an optical link for the sound. I really think you need a TV that supports eARC, although that might not be the best news.

with me, it was the other way around. I bought a Sony 55AG 4K TV and a 4K Blu-ray player. Then I found that my poor old sound system couldn’t cope, so I had to spend £900 on a new one.

[rawpowerocks]

@merseyswine  If the TV works ok between the Sonos and the freeview via HDMI arc why do you think it is the TV?

p.s just had a quick google and it appears the Sonos Beam is only arc compatible not earc

[merseyswine]

Why do I think the problem lies with the TV?

well, the sort of audio stream that is coming from a Freeview box is not the high-tech lossless sound that the Blu-Ray player is capanke  of generating. The latter needs eARC.

however, I had forgotten that his sound system is a Sonos Beam and not a Sonos Arc, which reduces the “sound”ness of my argument. Still, a mere arc TV is not going to be able to pass through  the likes of Dolby TrueHD encoded sound.

[rawpowerocks]

Im not trying to pass through Dolby TrueHD. Im trying pass through Dolby Digital 5.1. The freeview box seems to not have a problem with a tv channel that is broadcast with Dolby Digital 5.1 but the Sony blu-ray player does

[royabrown2]

@rawpowerocks 

Try something in Dolby 5.1 from Netflix if you can, first from the TV, and then the same material from Netflix on the BluRay player.

See if the TV version is good, and the BluRay version bad, or what.

[rawpowerocks]

@royabrown2  I have just had the chance to try this out.

So I disconnected everything from the TV except the Sonos Beam. So the setup is Sony TV with Sonos Beam connected via HDMI arc and that's it.

I just tried playing Jurassic Park on the Netflix app on the TV. According to the info on Netflix the movie is 5.1. According to the Sonos Beam it is receiving Dolby Digital 5.1. I am having the same issue as when I try to play a blu-ray. I play the movie (on Netflix) and set it up to good volume level but when something with fx or such happens the fx are way to loud again.

So the Sony blu-ray player isn't the problem as in this set up it is not even connected.

So the next most logical thing for me to try is to turn the 'Dolby Dynamic Range' setting on the TV for the app input to 'compressed', given that the movie is Dolby. But to my surprise, setting it to compressed or standard is making absolutely no difference.

So I disconnect the Sonos Beam leaving the Sony TV as the only thing in the chain. So using the TV's internal speakers. Then I find the 'Dolby Dynamic Range' setting on the TV now works. 

So any ideas what is going on here? 

[dimchris85]

The covert DTS to Dolby Digital setting does not work as expected for me either.

The only way it worked is from the coax output.

I connected the blu ray player to my tv by HDMI and my soundbar directly to the coax output of the player by using a coax to optical converter.

However this was successful only with my TV. When I connect the same HDMI to my projector the setting does not work again, I suspect because the projector does not report 5.1 support.

This setting is supposed to force dd output but it does not seem to do this.

I am sure that this is a firmware issue.

[royabrown2]

@dimchris85 

I describe above how I have demonstrated the DTS to DD conversion option working on my Sony BDP-S6700.

So whatever any issue might be, it is not an issue with the Sony BluRay player.

However, to have this option produce sound output, I had to go into the audio options on my Samsung TV, ensure Bitstream was set there rather than PCM, and then actively choose Dolby Digital there, rather than DTS.

No-one in this thread has yet indicated if Sony Android TVs have any comparable settings that may need to be checked, and possibly adjusted.

[dimchris85]

Allow me to disagree with this.

The setting is supposed to convert dts to dolby always.

My tv handles dolby sound correctly which means that if dolby sound is passed from the player the tv forwards it to the sound bar.

If dts was actually transcoded to dolby then the tv would handle the signal the same way.

My theory is either that ur tv actually transcodes to dolby or there is an issue when the two devices agree to the codec and thats why u have to set it manually.

Anyway this does not explain why the coaxial output on one device outputs dolby but when I use the same cable to the projector it changes to dts again.

The coaxial output should not depend on the hdmi since it's supposed to be connected to the av receiver.