5.1 audio with soundbar & Roku

General Discussions
1

I got a 2.1 soundbar for Xmas and wow does it make a difference watching TV.

While watching movies and TV shows on cable box or on Roku through Amazon or Netflix the sound is crisper and you can hear the surround sound. I can put it at a volume level of 10 and its good.

Going over to Plex on my Roku Premier +, well my blu-ray rips don’t sound that great. AAC Stereo they sound good loud, but you don’t hear any surround. But when I select 5.1 DTS it is hard to tell. The volume level is also very low. At level 10 on the soundbar is very low. Need to pump it up to about 15-20 to get something ok.

I was wondering if anyone has any tips improving this?

I have the soundbar hooked to the HDTV using the optical cable.

I rip the blu-ray using makemkv, then use handbrake to reduce the file size. For audio I select 5.1 DTS to AAC Stereo and also add 5.1 DTS to Auto Passthrough or AC3 Passthrough.

3

Is there a reason why the audio from Cablebox movies and audio from Roku with other movies apps sound better? But Plex is not equal?

I understand what you are saying about center speakers etc. I went online and looked it up.

If i was getting equal sound levels I settle for that.

5

Actually I have found that if you set your Roku to stereo (you still get Dolby 2.1) then Plex sound that is supposed to be 5.1 is correctly down mixed and then sounds fine. That is the center channel is pretty much split between left and right and, if your left and right speakers are correctly positioned (pretty much assured with most soundbars), everything sounds fine.

Of course my old ears may be more forgiving than younger more sensitive ears so YMMV.