topic Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead? in Android TV

Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Jecht_Sin — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:01:34 GMT

In Android 7.0 DTS passthrough was working at least with Sony's Video app. Now all I get in my AVR from it and also Plex is no audio signal at all. What happened, instead of fixing it they removed DTS passthrough definitively?

UPDATE: Actually it is much worse than that. I tried few videos with HiRes audio (Dolby True HD and DTS HD MA) and I get no audio from my AVR. If I select the speakers the videos with TrueHD have the audio heavily stuttering. DTS doesn't play at all.

Re: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

stormyuk — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:07:10 GMT

A couple of questions I have as I am curious.

1. Is it just DTS or does it affect DD too?

2. Is it HDMI only or Optical too?

3. Is it only when "audio system" is selected via menu or if "TV speakers" is picked too?

This is probably the key reason I have not upgraded as I need 5.1 passthrough via Optical from the internal video app..

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Kuschelmonschter — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:30:51 GMT

Situation is as follows...

With Oreo, Sony introduced API support for DTS and DTS-HD (DTS Core only for ARC and S/PDIF). That hasn't been the case in Nougat and before. The Video app used some private APIs which worked. The new APIs however do not work. When using them, you either get silence in the best case, or in the worst case it breaks something along the A/V pipeline, requiring you to restart the TV to get proper media playback working again.

I found several workarounds:

- disable passthrough

- disable passthrough for DTS formats if separate settings exist (e.g. Kodi)

- switch digital audio output format to PCM

- switch audio output to TV speakers

So question is why does Sony introduce new APIs and leave them broken? It is indeed worse now as the BRAVIA pretends to support DTS publicly which breaks Plex support for example which previously transcoded DTS to DD but now thinks that the TV can actually do DTS... while it can't...

Re: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Kuschelmonschter — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:19:42 GMT

@stormyuk schrieb:
1. Is it just DTS or does it affect DD too?

DTS only. However, when trying to output DTS, media playback might break entirely, requiring you to reboot the TV to get it working again.

2. Is it HDMI only or Optical too?

Both.

3. Is it only when "audio system" is selected via menu or if "TV speakers" is picked too?

Workarounds already discussed in the above posting.

Re: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

stormyuk — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:29:08 GMT

Thanks for the info, think I will still not upgrade then.

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Jecht_Sin — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:31:00 GMT

@Kuschelmonschter wrote:
Situation is as follows...

With Oreo, Sony introduced API support for DTS and DTS-HD (DTS Core only for ARC and S/PDIF). That hasn't been the case in Nougat and before. The Video app used some private APIs which worked. The new APIs however do not work. When using them, you either get silence in the best case, or in the worst case it breaks something along the A/V pipeline, requiring you to restart the TV to get proper media playback working again.

I found several workarounds:
- disable passthrough
- switch digital audio output format to PCM

Sorry, how? In Video or general settings, I mean. Not sure I have ever seen the options.

- disable passthrough for DTS formats if separate settings exist (e.g. Kodi)

That one was working fine, I remember!

- switch audio output to TV speakers

Not working, as I wrote in the update. It heavily stutters with TrueHD audio. I mean, I just briefly tested it, out of curiosity to see if it was finally fixed and it seems worse than before

So question is why does Sony introduce new APIs and leave them broken?

My question is why Sony doesnt give us the option to get a rid of Android TV and replace it with a thinnier OS (like the one of the XE70), obviously including a fully working YouTube app (with HDR and BT.2020 included) which is all I need as smart part of my TV at this point. Unless they fixed Android TV on the Master Series, sure (but I don't know why, somehow I doubt it).

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Kuschelmonschter — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 09:39:11 GMT

@Jecht_Sin schrieb:
Sorry, how? In Video or general settings, I mean. Not sure I have ever seen the options.

It is somewhere in the BRAVIA's sound options. Don't know it by heart.

@Jecht_Sin schrieb:
Not working, as I wrote in the update. It heavily stutters with TrueHD audio.

Which app? Video? As far as I can remember, it does not support True HD at all, even in case of BD where True HD has an AC3 compatible core. I just get silence in case of the Video app (same as with Nougat). Kodi is able to extract the AC3 core for passthrough and also to decode it to PCM.

The TV does not pretend to support True HD. So it is up to the respective app to decode and output as PCM or extract the AC3 core for passthrough. Nothing broke there. It is still the same as it has always been.

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Kuschelmonschter — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 10:12:41 GMT

Keep in mind that after having tried DTS passthrough, the BRAVIA might be in a inconsistent state afterwards. So better reboot the TV.

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

stormyuk — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 10:52:40 GMT

PCM output is definatly available as I have played around with the android sound settings (Home, Settings, Sound, Advanced?) because my old AV reciever can sometimes "warble" with DD5.1 Netflix/Amazon and I think its some incompatibility with DD+ which I can't seem to defeat. There is an option to set the output from Compressed to PCM, my AV receiver then just resorts to good old, old Dolby Pro Logic (fake 5.1).

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Kuschelmonschter — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 10:52:59 GMT

@stormyuk schrieb:
because my old AV reciever can sometimes "warble" with DD5.1 Netflix/Amazon and I think its some incompatibility with DD+ which I can't seem to defeat.

Also in sound option there is this setting for Dolby output. You can set it from DD+ to DD. The BRAVIA is able to extract DD from DD+ and output that to AVRs which can't properly cope with DD+. Doesn't that help?

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

stormyuk — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 11:03:09 GMT

@Kuschelmonschter wrote:
@stormyuk schrieb:
because my old AV reciever can sometimes "warble" with DD5.1 Netflix/Amazon and I think its some incompatibility with DD+ which I can't seem to defeat.
Also in sound option there is this setting for Dolby output. You can set it from DD+ to DD. The BRAVIA is able to extract DD from DD+ and output that to AVRs which can't properly cope with DD+. Doesn't that help?

Unfortunately not, its as though Netflix and Amazon ignore that switch and still output DD+ regardless of if the TV is set to DD or DD+. Files on USB/Network in DD5.1 play fine with no problems, DTS too (as long as Oreo isn't on ;)).

Its odd as both Netflix and Amazon both have this odd "warble" like a slight popping usually when certain music is playing, theme tunes and stuff especially. Very odd and very annoying. I need to upgrade my AV reciever at some point.

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Itom86 — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 14:48:19 GMT

They should leave the whole OS behind because they are clearly incompetent...

Let them make the hardware and put a good Android TV box in every single box free of charge 😂

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Jecht_Sin — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 08:20:13 GMT

@stormyuk wrote:
PCM output is definatly available as I have played around with the android sound settings (Home, Settings, Sound, Advanced?)

Nope, I can't find it anywhere. I only have the option DD/DD+.

@Kuschelmonschter I have rebooted the TV and tried. I have two folders in my USB where I keep 4K HDR demos, and in the other HiRes audio demo. I am quite sure (99,99% sure) Video was playing all of them, extracting the core audio I suppose. And direct playing DTS audio. Now anything that isn't AC3 or EAC3 (DD or DD+) is silent, with the AVR showing no signal at all.

Same with Plex, with the couple of videos I tried (only a couple because Plex has become unplayable. It stutters, crashes, hangs. Even after a factory reset - before installing Oreo).

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Kuschelmonschter — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 11:29:11 GMT

@Jecht_Sin schrieb:
Nope, I can't find it anywhere. I only have the option DD/DD+.

You are still looking in the wrong place I suppose. Should be something like this.

@Kuschelmonschter I have rebooted the TV and tried. I have two folders in my USB where I keep 4K HDR demos, and in the other HiRes audio demo. I am quite sure (99,99% sure) Video was playing all of them, extracting the core audio I suppose. And direct playing DTS audio.

I also have a large collection and I went through it before updating to Oreo as I read about those issues on reddit already. DTS indeed worked well on Oreo via the Video app. DTS was passed as-is, and for DTS-HD, the core has been extracted and passed. For True HD, I got no audio at all, neither AC3 core nor decoded PCM. Kodi can still do both.

Same with Plex, with the couple of videos I tried (only a couple because Plex has become unplayable. It stutters, crashes, hangs. Even after a factory reset - before installing Oreo).

Haven't done any extensive testing with Plex on Oreo so far. But you for sure need to disable passthrough (either via the mentioned system setting or inside Plex itself) when playing something with DTS or you will get into trouble. That you didn't have to do under Nougat.

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

stormyuk — Thu, 07 Feb 2019 13:34:32 GMT

@Jecht_Sin I think it might be only visable from certain profiles, I recall some oddities with PCM option not showing in certain situations, like from HDMI inputs (I assume they expect you to change the input device maybe?). It is definately available on the Video (Apps) profile with my XE9005. I have switched to PCM a few times with both Amazon Prime and Netflix due to my previously discussed issue.

Maybe there is an Auto setting hiding it somewhere as suggested above.

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Jecht_Sin — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 07:31:48 GMT

@Kuschelmonschter wrote:
@Jecht_Sin schrieb:
Nope, I can't find it anywhere. I only have the option DD/DD+.
You are still looking in the wrong place I suppose. Should be something like this.

Oh, all right. I had forgot about that one. It play DTS HD 5.1/7.1 as PCM 2.0 switching it to PCM. Actually my AVR now always shows PCM 2.0. Too bad that what was working as "Auto 1" now can either stutter or being silent (I tested a couple of videos). And what was silent in "Auto 1", i.e. Dolby TrueHD, is still silent.

Ok, I officially give up, it isn't worth my time. My Apple TV 4K with Infuse does a perfect job playing all of them. So who cares..

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

Kuschelmonschter — Fri, 08 Feb 2019 07:33:08 GMT

@Jecht_Sin schrieb:
Oh, all right. I had forgot about that one. It play DTS HD 5.1/7.1 as PCM 2.0 switching it to PCM. Actually my AVR now always shows PCM 2.0.

That's the compromise, yes. You can't do more than PCM 2.0 over ARC or S/PDIF due to bandwidth limitations.

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

SnAkEs1210 — Fri, 12 Apr 2019 07:10:40 GMT

Yes, I'm having this same problem. Playing anything with more than 2 channels on either the native video app or kodi causes the film to firstly play without audio and then the film starts to stutter before the tv crashes altogether.

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

costin_iatan — Tue, 16 Apr 2019 07:44:31 GMT

May I ask what would be the final concusion on Oreo? Should I update or not?

Is it even possible to skip the update?

Betreff: Oreo: DTS passthrough definitively dead?

SnAkEs1210 — Mon, 27 May 2019 10:32:12 GMT

Dts pass through has now been fixed via the latest update. The arc issue has also been fixed. The update is available to download from the Sony website and install via USB stick.