On the website https://www.rtings.com there is good information about about what specific audio codecs are supported by a Smart TV, in the “Audio Passthrough” section of the review. This typically includes info about regular Dolby Digital (AC-3) and DTS, as well as Dolby TrueHD, Atmos, DTS-HD MA, and DTS:X.
Look up your own model there, and scroll down to “Audio Passthrough”. Below is an example of a recent Samsung model:
This is a good example of why you should go:
Client (shield tv) > receiver > Tv
Mind you, the Apple TV converts everything to PCM, and I imagine every tv could pass that through to a soundbar.
One popular scenario for this topic (in my experience) is where someone wants to use the TV’s onboard apps, such as the increasingly-popular Roku-integrated TV’s, and they want to know what’s supported natively via ARC/eARC. There is at least one current model that can output everything via eARC, including TrueHD and DTS-HD MA. It’s kind of a “best of both worlds” situation, in theory at least.
Also, you’re of course correct about the connection order of Shield → Receiver → TV, it’s basically the best option if you want full playback of every audio codec. But with some models (like the Samsung example above!), even if you don’t care about lossless codecs, they apparently didn’t even pay for basic DTS functionality, which would affect things like a cheap Roku Stick+ that can handle DTS otherwise.
++1 for the rtings link.
That’s not completely true. It can pass through or convert to several Dolby bitstream formats.
You’d think so, it’s a straightforward format.
But until eARC, HDMI ARC only had the bandwidth to accommodate stereo PCM. The reverse ARC path didn’t have the bandwidth to support more channels.
And still today there are complicated reasons why even the Q80 mentioned above has limitations. The built-in apps are physically connected differently from the external HDMI ports, so audio output options are limited compared to an external source.
Another web site to try is displayspecifications.com
