Philips Android 10 2021 model not able play Atmos

[info_lukas_hajek_cz]

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Hi, i have new 2021 Philips TV model 65OLED806 with soundbar Philips B97/10.
This set perfectly plays Dolby Atmos from BluRay player or Netflix app via E-ARC connection.

But in Plex there is strange problem - i am not able play Dolby Atmos with whatever settings. I hlave set sound passtrough on, but Dolby Atmos sound leaves TV out with stereo PCM format. In TV i have set passtrough too. Like i sad, Netflix APP is play Atmos just OK, but plex not.

Any suggestions? Thanks foi any tips.

[FordGuy61]

Buy an Nvidia Shield Pro or an Xbox One.

There are two forms of Atmos for home theaters: a) Streaming Atmos, used by Netflix, etc, is Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 + Atmos; b) Blu-ray Atmos, found on discs, is TrueHD 7.1 + Atmos.

TV manufacturers do not let TV based apps pass TrueHD audio over HDMI-eARC to attached sound bars, receivers, etc. Therefore, when you use the Plex app on the TV, the Plex Media Server has to transcode the audio to a supported format.

Some TV manufacturers support TrueHD passthrough for devices attached to HDMI inputs. That is why TrueHD + Atmos works when you use your Bluray player.

Streaming from Netflix works as it uses Dolby Digital Plus + Atmos, which TV manufacturers support passing from TV apps over HDMI-ARC/eARC.

There are two off the shelf streaming devices that support TrueHD + Atmos, The Nvidia Shield and the Xbox One. If you go with the Shield, purchase the Pro, not “tube” model. The tube model has problems with high-bit rate media such as 4K HDR Blu-ray rips with TrueHD audio.

This thread has additional information:

[INFO] Plex, 4k, transcoding, and you - aka the rules of 4k

NOTE: for 2022 – Plex has come a long way since this FAQ was originally written, HW transcoding has become more available and more stable, and tone mapping was recently added to address the hdr/sdr color conversion issues. The first 4 ‘rules’ generally are no longer as important as they once were, but may still be a good thing to bear in mind. Dolby Vision, is an entirely other mess. THIS thread/FAQ is NOT about DV. DV work is still in progress, and there are no perfect TV’s or external devic…

[info_lukas_hajek_cz]

@FordGuy61

TV manufacturers do not let TV based apps pass TrueHD audio over HDMI-eARC to attached sound bars

Wow, thanks for exact info! I see.

“TV manufacturers do not let TV based apps pass TrueHD audio over HDMI-eARC to attached sound bars” - do you know why?

[FordGuy61]

@info_lukas_hajek_cz

do you know why?

I have never seen a definitive statement.

Complete & total speculation on my part: Money. They would have to pay additional licensing fees to Dolby for little or no return on the investment (I have no knowledge of Dolby’s licensing structure for any of their products).

The amount of customers that want the capability is very small compared to the number of TV they sell. If they have to pay the license fee per set, whether or not it is used, then it adds to their Cost of Goods Sold, which reduces their profit per set, and TV profit margins are very thin to begin with.

It is the same reason TV sets have 100 Mbps Ethernet ports instead of 1 Gbps ports. The incremental cost is small, but when you sell millions, it adds up and very, very few people use the Ethernet port on the back of their set.