Soundbar for Plex / Nvidia / DTS

[dannysmith43]

Hi,

Apologies for this as I think something similar has been posted in the past (several times maybe). I have a specific question if somebody doesn’t mind answering…if you can of course

I am finding that DTS 5.1 movies on Plex (not tried any other player in fairness) have booming great sound but very low vocals. Sound is coming through my Panasonic TV with it’s mediocre speakers (via Nvidia Shield v1).

I thought/think better sound might be the answer, so I started looking into a soundbar to improve the sound of the vocals when playing movies in DTS, but after reading a few other posts here and elsewhere, I am stuck on the following;

Do I need a soundbar that is 3.1 or above (with the centre channel that deals with vocals/speech)?
Do I need a soundbar that can decode DTS?
Can I live with a low-mid end soundbar that’s 2.1 with or without DTS decoding?
Will “night mode” or “vocal mode” work on a soundbar like the above to achieve what I need?

I’m sure it’s not a Plex specific issue but I’m sure there must be some audio-types that can shed some light on this.

Many Thanks in advance!

Danny

[FordGuy61]

@trumpy81

Do I need a soundbar that can decode DTS?

Yes. If you intend to play DTS audio, then you need a soundbar that supports DTS. Your TV also needs to have an audio passthrough option that allows DTS. Some TV’s will only passthrough DTS audio as PCM.

If you use a soundbar, find one with multiple HDMI inputs and attach the Shield TV to the soundbar instead of the TV. This takes the TV out of the equation as far as audio is concerned, so no worries if TV can passthrough dts or other audio formats. It also lets you direct play media with lossless audio such as TrueHD and dts-HD MA, which is not possible with Shield connected to TV (assuming soundbar supports those audio formats).

[FordGuy61]

@trumpy81

Are you saying if the Shield is connected to a receiver, then the receiver to a TV, all via HDMI, the audio from the Shield loops through the TV?

I’m going to disagree with you on this one, unless I’m misunderstanding something.

My setup: Shield <-HDMI-> Denon AVR-X4300H <-HDMI-> LG B7 OLED

There’s no way the audio from the Shield loops through the TV. The Denon processes the audio, sending it to the attached speakers, and passes the video to the TV.

The Denon clearly identifies the source of the audio. When I’m using the Shield it shows the HDMI port to which the Shield is attached. When I’m watching OTA broadcast TV(*) & using HDMI-ARC to feed audio to the Denon, it shows the HDMI port to which the TV is attached.

I can move the receiver <-> TV HDMI cable to a non-ARC HDMI input on the TV. I lose ARC, but audio from the Shield still plays via the Denon.

(*) OTA Broadcast TV - meaning I have an antenna attached and am using the TV tuner. I do not mean the Plex Live TV / DVR feature.

[dannysmith43]

Thanks for the information guys. A decent A/V receiver is about £200+ and that doesn’t include the speakers bit outside of my budget. I was looking at a refurb soundbar for around the £100 mark

Not sure about the TV & DTS, I’m wondering if I can bypass the TV by using HDMI ARC from Soundbar to TV and Optical to the Shield, that should be direct? I can then use the optical input and bypass the TV altogether, I’ll lose the CEC part but I can live with that. Although from what you’ve both said, I’ll need 5.1 to separate the speech, not what I wanted to hear but certainly helps.

Thanks for the input guys.

[jester_tenet]

@trumpy81

Probably not. At least you would not be satisfied with such a soundbar.

2.1 channels is the same as stereo, but adds a faux LFE (woofer) channel (the .1 in the 2.1 designation.)

I’m not sure thats true - I think the .1 indicates the subwoofer, so that ‘2.1’ means 2 speakers + a subwoofer (not a faux channel). If something is being sold as 2.1 and the .1. is faux, then I would stay away from that product.

The sticking point is going to be the dynamic range of the speakers. Adding a real .1 could help as it removes the bass from the front speakers, rather than making the range too great (from low to high).

IMHO, adding more speakers is likely to help (as they split the dynamic range) but its an expensive route to go down and may not suit every user

[dannysmith43]

Please hijack away, I’m getting some great info here
I’ve found 3.1 system that DTS decodes, does HDMI ARC and optical in…it doesn’t get rave reviews but I’m no audiofile and it must be better than the TV speakers right?!

https://www.panasonic.com/uk/consumer/home-entertainment/home-cinema-systems/sc-htb688.html

Any thoughts from the room? It kinda ticks all the boxes, other than it’s a bit hit and miss with some, expectations too high maybe?!

Thanks all

[jester_tenet]

@trumpy81

Stereo audio does not carry an LFE channel, it is 2 channel only, therefore 2.1 uses a faux channel to generate the LFE (subwoofer channel).

This is done through electronic filtering of the Left + Right audio channels where the bass frequencies are directed to a third amplifier that drives the subwoofer to give you 2.1 channel audio.

This is not a true channel as in 5.1 for example where all 6 channels of audio are carried separately.

5.1 channel audio consists of:

Left Front + Center Front + Right Front + Left (side or rear) + Right (side or rear) + LFE (subwoofer).

7.1 channel audio consists of:

Left Front + Center Front + Right Front + Left (side) + Right (side) + Left (rear) + Right (rear) + LFE (subwoofer).

Ah, I see what you mean now - I admit I am in a world of pedantry … sound input != speaker set-up. So, yes, stereo doesn’t have LFE (and it is created), but that doesn’t mean I can’t have a 2.1 setup, where the sub is indeed a real sub