Fire Stick + 5.1 Home Theater?

[Aereldor]

So I've got a Fire stick, considering upgrading to a Fire stick 4k. However, I've had some issues getting 5.1 surround sound out of it.

 

My TV is a Samsung HU-7000 and my home theater receiver is a samsung HT-7750 (5.1). 

 

The TV has 4 HDMI ports, one of which supports ARC and all of which support 4k. It also has an optical audio out.

 

The receiver has optical audio in, and 2 HDMI inputs. 

 

I can get 5.1 audio when I use the TV's internal netflix app, with the home theater connected via the HDMI ARC port. 

 

I can get 5.1 audio when I connect the Fire Stick to one of the HDMI inputs on the receiver, but that's limited to 1080p. It won't do 4k. 

 

Is the only way to get 4k video and 5.1 audio to connect the fire stick to the HDMI-ARC port, and connect the TV to the receiver via optical?

 

[circeseye]

welcome to "arc/earc"

you can try adjusting the output in the tv's audio settings

Look for a setting that lets you change "bitstream" to "PCM" or vice versa

but its arc so, good luck

[Aereldor]

22 hours ago, circeseye said:

welcome to "arc/earc"

you can try adjusting the output in the tv's audio settings

Look for a setting that lets you change "bitstream" to "PCM" or vice versa

but its arc so, good luck

Why does ARC suck?

 

Also, I know the TV supports 5.1 audio output via ARC since that's what connects the receiver to the TV... But idk if it'll support 5.1 input, so I can connect the fire stick to the ARC port and get 5.1 out from the TV via the optical... Any ideas of ARC supports that input?

 

Also, the only other option seems to be a physical, active box that converts a 4k HDMI + 5.1 audio signal into separate 4k video and optical audio... Which costs a fair bit.

[circeseye]

3 hours ago, Aereldor said:

Why does ARC suck?

 

Also, I know the TV supports 5.1 audio output via ARC since that's what connects the receiver to the TV... But idk if it'll support 5.1 input, so I can connect the fire stick to the ARC port and get 5.1 out from the TV via the optical... Any ideas of ARC supports that input?

 

Also, the only other option seems to be a physical, active box that converts a 4k HDMI + 5.1 audio signal into separate 4k video and optical audio... Which costs a fair bit.

why does it suck? because majority of the time its a pain to get to work right. especially from a outside source. tv apps using arc/earc usually work.

but getting a input to work right with arc/earc can be a pain in the ass and again IF you get it to work the audio video is out of sync most of the time

 

and yes the inputs support 5.1 and better input.

 

 

in all honesty id replace the receiver over using optical. you get 4k AND way better surround formats. optical you can only get basic dolby and dts. which in all honestly sucks in channel separation. optical isnt even true 5.1

 

 

[Aereldor]

7 hours ago, circeseye said:

why does it suck? because majority of the time its a pain to get to work right. especially from a outside source. tv apps using arc/earc usually work.

but getting a input to work right with arc/earc can be a pain in the ass and again IF you get it to work the audio video is out of sync most of the time

 

and yes the inputs support 5.1 and better input.

 

 

in all honesty id replace the receiver over using optical. you get 4k AND way better surround formats. optical you can only get basic dolby and dts. which in all honestly sucks in channel separation. optical isnt even true 5.1

 

 

Ah, yeah ARC works with the tv apps. 

 

How do you mean optical isn't true 5.1?

[circeseye]

11 hours ago, Aereldor said:

Ah, yeah ARC works with the tv apps. 

 

How do you mean optical isn't true 5.1?

optical is compressed audio doing surround, it can only do stereo uncompressed. hence why at most it can only do basic dolby and dts (bandwidth limitation). channel separation in surround is sub par compared to hdmi. 

hdmi 5.1 and better each channel is uncompressed and "raw". so the audio on each channel are correct. no compressing it to send and device having to uncompress it to which quality and such diminishes.

there is a big difference when listening to optical surround vs hdmi 5.1

[Aereldor]

2 hours ago, circeseye said:

optical is compressed audio doing surround, it can only do stereo uncompressed. hence why at most it can only do basic dolby and dts (bandwidth limitation). channel separation in surround is sub par compared to hdmi. 

hdmi 5.1 and better each channel is uncompressed and "raw". so the audio on each channel are correct. no compressing it to send and device having to uncompress it to which quality and such diminishes.

there is a big difference when listening to optical surround vs hdmi 5.1

I'm okay with compressed surround. I'm reading that the ceiling is a bitrate of around 800. Even after 10 years as a musician, the difference between that and lossless isn't obvious to me, even if it's on 5 channels.