Can't find a way to get 5.1 with living room setup

[tomini]

Hello,

I noticed that my dads setup isn't capable of Dolby 5.1, but just L/R spread to 5.1... Connected devices that he wants to be 5.1 are:

• PS4 (PS5 in future) which has DIGITAL/OPTICAL (and maybe HDMI Dolby is possible too)
• Raspberry Pi 4 (has only HDMI...maybe there is some HAT add-on, but that's another spending)
• Set-top box/TV channels (not that important, but it would be cool - has HDMI and DIGITAL/OPTICAL OUT)

I wanted to upgrade to other receiver as he doesn't want to swap speakers, because (and I quote) "they are just fine for me". But those speakers are 3 ohms and I couldn't find any receivers that support 3 ohm speaker sets.

So I figured out that "new" (can be used) receiver and speakers are inevitable. But big ooof. Every listing for receiver I found and doublechecked it's manual...it turns out that they support audio over HDMI, but not how I want it. They take the audio signal and pass it to HDMI OUT (to the TV).

Last affordable receiver I found is Sony STR-DG520 and it says this:

So DIGITAL OUT from TV back to the receiver? It's messy, but okay...I will get my 5.1 aud~ ooooh nooo! Dad's TV outputs only 2.0 via OPTICAL...well, if I understand it correctly:

Do I understand this correctly and this receiver won't have 5.1 audio that would be outputted from Raspberry over HDMI to receiver, which would pass it to TV? It would pass even the audio to TV and not to connected speakers...and if I connected DIGITAL OUT from TV to receiver, it would only send 2.0 channel audio?

I'm willing to go for any receiver (+speakers either separately or with it) for 400$, but it has to work with previously mentioned devices on our Samsung TV (PS50A457P1DXXH) and allow us to finally enjoy 5.1.

Is there a way to make it work with some receiver or is it necessary to upgrade even the TV? HDMI ARC is the new hot thing if I'm correct...

 

Thanks a lot!

[tomini]

4 minutes ago, Benji said:

eARC would be the next hot thing, but only HDMI 2.1 supports it. The previous ARC only supports two-channel PCM, compressed Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS base audio (if even that, my TV only supports Dolby Digital Plus for example). Given the fact that Blu-ray uses lossless audio for 5.1 and 7.1 (either Dolby TrueHD or DTS HD Master Audio) that have a significantly higher bandwidth, a TV will, if you're lucky, only proceed the embedded base Dolby Digital or DTS base codec (and most TVs don't support DTS), so you'd need to plug your Blu-ray player, Raspberry Pi and console directly into the HDMI ports of your AVR (Sony), but it has too little ports. The TV won't really proceed anything else because ARC has way too low bandwidth compared to eARC and thus has very limited formats. Plug the Blu-ray player into the AVR and the HDMI Out of your AVR into the ARC-supporting port in your AVR. But it appears as though your old AVR doesn't even fully support ARC because it isn't listed in the specifications, it only seems to output 2ch PCM. My TV, for example, outputs 5.1 Dolby Digital base audio to my AVR if either a TV channel or the connected device (Xbox One S) plays 5.1 audio, your AVR can't accept such signals so devices connected to the TV's HDMI ports will only output stereo.

So is this unsolvable? I need to correct you - > neither my TV or the receiver support ARC. I just mentioned it if I would need new TV, but that is a waaay ahead.

 

I was hoping that HDMI OUT from my device to HDMI IN on the receiver, it will pull 5.1 audio from that HDMI and video will go from HDMI OUT of the receiver to HDMI IN on my TV. In case of PS4 it will be easy as it has DIGITAL/OPTICAL OUT.

[tomini]

26 minutes ago, Benji said:

That does usually work for compressed audio up to 5.1 with ARC, but since neither your TV nor your AVR support it, you won't be able to get it running. And even if your TV had support for ARC, your AVR still doesn't. You'll need to plug your input devices right into the HDMI or Optical In ports of your AVR. Since the AVR only supports compressed/lossy codecs anyway, it doesn't matter what devices' audio output is plugged in to HDMI and which is TOSLINK because they both only support compressed codecs on your AVR either way. What Samsung means with their system that you have seen outputting 5.1 is basically just support for proprietary Anynet+ (Samsung) hardware, both input and output devices. Since that isn't given, I'd say it's not possible in your case to get it done over the TV itself if you've already unsuccessfully tried connecting the devices over HDMI to the TV and your TV to the AVR over Optical.

I didn't try it...
And what about the first screenshot? Does the Sony STR-DG520 only play audio via TOSLINK/DIGITAL IN?

So I have to get TOSLINK from TV (which is unsupported as you said)...or (and the only way) get amplifier or amp HAT for the Raspberry to get TOSLINK/DIGITAL OUT from Raspberry to the receiver?

Or is there some easy converter that splits HDMI to HDMI+TOSLINK OUT?

 

Otherwise what would you suggest? Get a new TV as well?

Thanks

[tomini]

22 minutes ago, Benji said:

Honestly, I don't really care about what the manual says because they say a lot of bullshit. Anynet+ is just Samsung's name for HDMI CEC, yet they say it only works with Samsung devices (even though it's just a marketing name), which your AVR actually doesn't support as well. My Pioneer AVR and my Toshiba TV work perfectly fine together, remarkably well actually over what Toshiba calls "REGZA Link". But the HDMI CEC (Anynet+) won't work anyway because your AVR doesn't support it. TOSLINK from the TV, on the other hand, is actually supported, yes, I never said it wasn't. What I read as being incompatible is the TV taking the 5.1 sound (compressed sound from the HDMI inputs) and outputting it over HDMI (due to the lack of ARC, either that or they call their "Anynet+" ARC, which isn't unusual because TVs that support CEC usually also support ARC, they just don't call it that), but according to the manual it should work (taking in the regular audio signal from the HDMI port, because HDMI always had audio support) and then the TV passes it out over TOSLINK. It reads as though it should work. If you have a TOSLINK cable, why don't you try it?

I don't have the receiver.

I thought about it and why would the receiver have HDMI inputs, when it wouldn't take audio from them? So it has to take audio from HDMI inputs. It's just me overcomplicating the manuals.

 

What are you talking about CEC and ARC? It's a 2007 TV...leave ARC out of it, please. You are confusing the heck out of me

 

if the receiver doesn't support Anynet+ (CEC) then what? It won't autoswitch to the input when device is powered on? Or it won't accept the signal at all?

Anynet+ is just autoswitch feature, isn't it?

[tomini]

4 minutes ago, Benji said:

Pretty much, yeah. You won't have volume control, automatic input switch and turning the AVR on/off with the TV. That's what CEC (or, as Samsung calls it, "Anynet+") does. Apparently, your TV only supports Dolby Digital 5.1 for the integrated digital TV tuner, so tough luck. You'll need to connect your devices to the AVR to get 5.1 audio.

F the Anynet+, I don't even use the controller to manage more devices, just the auto input switch is sometimes handy.

My dad thought that the Sony I found will be able to work with the Sony speakers we have for the Sony DVD. After I told him that new speakers are still nescessary...he bailed out. Too bad.
I can't find any semi-recent receiver that supports 3 Ohms. It's like this spec is so specific it only was on 1st party solutions back in the day.

So the whole project is just scrapped...

[tomini]

3 minutes ago, Benji said:

It's rather "F your old hardware", because with the ARC standard that has been introduced in HDMI version 1.4, every input device would actually support ARC and thus the TV taking 5.1 signals in and outputting them back to the AVR without an additional cable.

Yeah, I'm sorry that nothing can be done besides buying new hardware that actally supports what you want.

Just for the future when the topic is opened and someone could find it not very helpful with such sad end:
What should someone like me buy? Well, both TV and new Home Cinema... But which specs should he look out for? Let's ignore audiophile specs for speakers and screen specs for TV...as this is really dependant on current pricing, availability and other stuff...
What features and specs should people look for (like the HDMI-ARC)? Are there newer versions of ARC? Some other QoL features that could bring down amount of cables?
Or if you have some experience around speakers and audio hardware - even specific tips could be helpful to some.

Thanks

[tomini]

12 minutes ago, Benji said:

In terms of AVR you should basically just look for the impedance, obviously, and that it has support for the codecs and features you want/need and the proper inputs. For TVs to just support ARC? Any TV newer than 2012 that cost more than 500$ at that time has ARC support. My TV is a 499€ model from 2011 and has support for it. If you want eARC you'll need a TV and AVR that support HDMI 2.1. Other than that, nothing really.

Thanks a lot

Impedance - you mean so speakers have same ohms as AVR, right? Or do you mean to look for specific impedance value? For example "8 ohms are best in 500$ range"...