Not sure if my setup is pretty unique, but I have the same Roku going to all TVs in my house via HDbaseT wiring in the walls. Most of the time I want to watch things in 5.1 in the living room, but if I am in one of the other rooms then the 5.1 audio produces no sound (I would think it would still just play 2 channels out of the 5.1)… anyways, it would be nice if I could from the menu force to transcode the audio to 2.0 or 2.1 and keep video direct play.
Is this possible?
I know I can set Roku to 2ch instead of 5.1 but its a huge pain in the ass to switch back and forth, requires Roku restart and doesnt always stick (sometimes reverts back to 5.1 if it detects a 5.1 system is connected).
Sounds like a cool setup! I can only see two options here, and you mentioned one.
Change the Audio Mode in the Roku audio settings to Stereo. This should not revert on reboot, no require restarting the Roku… Also note, having these audio settings set to auto with this setup could cause anomalies as it may confuse the Roku of the HDMI capabilities. e.g. usually a Roku is plugged into one device (TV/amp) to detect the capabilities/codecs.
Depending on the Roku model, you can change volume modes during playback. Setting the volume mode to anything other than off will force the Roku into stereo mode. (you may have to restart playback after changing this).
I have Roku 4 (first model to support 4K) released in 2015. Based on the link you provided it doesnt have this feature… bummer.
Is there a plan to add this feature, or some way I can hack in an option to downmix to stereo? This is something Plex has capability of doing right? This is something that happens during transcodes? So its just a matter of surfacing the option to force it to do it? The option to do it for video is already there (by selecting lower bandwidth instead of direct stream), any chance an option can be added to sound?
