I did a LOT of research before buying this QNAP NAS and even went back and forth with QNAP tech support prior to buying it. They assured me that the TVS-871 could handle DTS-HD at its HDMI port. Well, if it can, I cannot get it working. I’ve been researching and googling for 3 days and I cannot find anything that works. I’ve tried Kodi 16/17 and that doesn’t work.
It seems to me that PulseAudio may be the culprit but I don’t know for sure. All I know is I backup all of my BluRay movies to MKV’s and wanted the QNAP NAS solely for a BluRay Library so I could connect it straight to my Home Theater Receiver. My receiver is a Denon AVR4520ci which is more than capable of decoding 8 channel audio.
What am I doing wrong? What are the correct settings. Likely what I will do is uninstall Plex Media Server and uninstall Plex Home Theater from the QNAP and start from scratch with them. Just need to know what I need to do. Do I really need to ssh into the NAS and mess with disabling Pulse and enabling ALSA or whatever it is?
IF YOU ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY GETTING DTS-HD AUDIO FROM YOUR TVS NAS…READ THIS POST
Anybody who is reading this trying to solve the same problem I was, this post is for you. It is February of 2017 and the current firmware version on my QNAP TVS-871 is 4.2.3. I am using the Plex Media Server installed right on the NAS. I am now able to get my Denon AVR-4520 receiver to show it is receiving full DTS-HD MA & TrueHD (not PCM). This is accomplished with a custom client created by none other than the brilliant Father Mande/Philippe (thanks dude…you rock!!). I am going to post the steps I took in order to get this working below. It is VERY simple…no need to Telnet or SSH in. No Putty, just a different Plex client than what QNAP offers in their HD Station. From what I can gather, Philippe has taken care of all the custom coding that was required to disable PulseAudio (which cannot handle 8 channel passthrough).
The steps I took to make it work:
My step 1 was to wipe my whole system by doing a factory reset but that’s likely not necessary. I chose to do it simply because I had no data on the drives except one of my backed up BluRays I was using to test. I assume this wouldn’t be necessary for others though unless they chose to.
Install (or verify that it’s already installed) HD Station. I disable ALL HD Station apps. Definitely disable the Plex client that is offered within HD Station.
Extract the Plex Client zip to your desktop. The file should be a QPKG file.
Navigate to the desktop of your NAS and click on HD Station. Once there, you should see a area that says “Install Manually”. Click the “BROWSE” button to the right of that box and locate the QPKG file from step 4 above. Click Install. See pic below.
Once the custom client is installed from step 5, go to your screen connected via the NAS HDMI output. I assume you all have a usb keyboard and mouse connected to your NAS at this point. See my pic below that shows the installed custom client. Click on that custom client to open it.
Navigate to the settings/preferences within the custom plex client you just opened. Within the gear/sprocket (third option down on the far left of your screen) you will see Audio Output as an option. Select that and change the settings to match these two screenshots below.
If it doesn’t work right away, after using these settings, try the other options in Audio Output Device. Whereas mine in the pic shows HDA Intel MID, HDMI #0, there will be other options. For sure it ISN’T any of the options that include the words PulseAudio.
That’s literally all I did. After days of pulling my hair out and researching a solution (and trying to teach myself how to “SSH” into my new $3k investment) I finally posted to this forum and I’m glad I did. Thanks again to Dane for pointing me in the right direction and of course to Philippe for EVERYTHING! The main reason I am posting this summary is the date. When I was searching for a solution, I kept coming across a LOT of old posts that never ended up being applicable or helpful.
Thanks, Dane! Just out of curiosity, what would the benefits be to PMP over the Open-PHT? I just skimmed through the 10 page post about QPKG 1.2.2.2 and I cannot immediately identify what the advantages would be.
Honestly, (like many others I assume) after days of wanting to rip my hair out not getting HD audio to work, I was content to have watched my first movie on it last night.
Only thing I noticed while watching the movie was a video glitch. I really don’t know how to explain it. Imagine if you were to draw a horizontal line across your screen separating the top half of the movie from the bottom half of the movie. Then, shift the top half to the right or left for about 1 second. This video “hiccup” happened about 10-15 times that I noticed during the movie. I’ve played a few other movies since then and it happens on a few others as well. I feel quite confident it’s not the file, I’m leaning towards a setting in the client but have been so happy things are now working, I haven’t messed with anything yet.
Anyways, the point of me explaining that was to see if perhaps you were aware if PMP 1.2.2.2 was seeing any similar issues or if Open-PHT could be the culprit for it?
Problem: Pulseaudio only provides 2.0 or 2.1 PCM output to audio video receiver
Fix: Prevent pulseaudio from reloading when killing it and reload ALSA audio allowing to enable Passthrough Audio in Kodi settings and VLC Media Player v3.0 to send DTS 5.1, DD 5.1 or PCM 5.1 sound to Audio Video Receiver
Change client.conf
sudo nano /etc/pulse/client.conf
Change “; autospawn = yes” to “autospawn = no”
Copy client.conf to ~/.config/pulse/
sudo cp /etc/pulse/client.conf ~/.config/pulse
(optional) If Audio is a little bit crackling change default.pa
Thanks for these posts. I am trying to get my TS-453B to pass DD 5.1 from its HDMI connect. I can get my TiVo and Apple TV to output 5.1 over HDMI, but not the QNAP so far. I tired PMP last night - stereo output. Perhaps I chose the wrong HDMI passthrough output. Will try OpenPHT (1.8.0) tonight…
@djstretch7
Many thanks for saving me hours of searching and for posting your excellent guide. I can finally play my blu-ray MKVs in glorious HD Audio!!
@dane22
Thanks for the recommendation of PMP however I wasn’t able to find a setting for audio passthrough so it didn’t work for me. However I’m perfectly happy with Open-PHT as it works with everything I’ve thrown at it so far. Plus if it’s no longer being developed it’s unlikely to be broken by a future update
I Use PMP 2.1.1 for QNAP (same result with PMP 1.3.8)
I find a solution to get DTS/DTS HD Master/DTS:X sound settings : HDA Intel/HDMI in my case, and desactive sound return (remote control).
Sound is OK but with trueHD / Atmos, my YSP-5600 speaker, see TrueHD, but not sound, perhaps a problem with QNAP Profiles ?
Someone can confirm it’s solve the problem ? (DTS / DTS/HD / AAC)
@cool120 said:
I Use PMP 2.1.1 for QNAP (same result with PMP 1.3.8)
I find a solution to get DTS/DTS HD Master/DTS:X sound settings : HDA Intel/HDMI in my case, and desactive sound return (remote control).
Sound is OK but with trueHD / Atmos, my YSP-5600 speaker, see TrueHD, but not sound, perhaps a problem with QNAP Profiles ?
Someone can confirm it’s solve the problem ? (DTS / DTS/HD / AAC)
Ooooooh my God cool120, YOU SAVED ME
This is THE answer I was loooking for ages !!! This Passthrough issue turned me mad, I tested A LOT OF things with no effect, except loosing my time
The minute I deactivate “sound return” I got my DTS back on my AVR !!!
