[SOLVED] Dolby Atmos/TrueHD output from my UHD Player (Panasonic UB820) not being recognized properly by my AVR (Marantz SR6014)

[Home Theater Dummy]

EDIT: This issue has been solved. see solution below.

HELP ME FIX DOLBY ATMOS!

I HAVE A Panasonic UB820 paired with a Marantz SR6014. It is configured as a 5.1.4 Atmos system.

Dolby Digital+ Atmos Tracks are played normally from my 2020 Roku Ultra. (as well as the SmartTV apps built-in to the TV)

 

But after popping in Top Gun: Maverick into my UHD player I noticed I was getting some weird Dolby DD with a surround back channel as the signal???

 

So I switched in LOTR on UHD because I know that I've used it before on this equipment and the Dolby Atmos has worked.

I have The same problem. 

It's recognizing it as a completely different signal even though my UHD player sends it sending out  True HD

Which makes me think if I can get Dolby Atmos working on streaming it's definitely a problem with something in the player settings but for the life of me I can't figure out what.

 

 

note: I did notice the other day that somehow the resolution output had switched from 4K to 480, so I had to fix that. But after messing around with the settings I can't find any reason why it wouldn't be outputting as the proper format. Audio out is set to bitstream, and secondary audio is disabled.

Note: all firmware is updated,

and I already tried resetting to default setting.
 

I have attached some screenshots:

 

 

 

 

Quote

 

as it turns out after being in support chat with a Panasonic rep it was a FACTORY RESET, rather than a default settings reset, that fixed the issue
I'll post the steps here in case anyone has the same issue

1. Turn the Unit off
2. Press and hold the [OK], [Y], & {B} buttons on the remote at the same time for more than 5 seconds
   "00 RET" is displayed on the unit's display
3. Press the arrow right ► Right Arrow button repeatedly on the remote control until “08 FIN” is displayed on the unit’s display.
4. Press and hold the [OK] button on the remote control for more than 5 seconds.
   
   After this you will start with the easy setup guide as normal.
   
   now it shows that it is sending out a TrueHD signal, and my AVR is seeing a Dolby Atmos True HD is being received. All is well

 

[circeseye]

ive been reading through this thread
https://www.avsforum.com/threads/official-panasonic-dp-ub820-824-owners-thread-no-price-talk.2990966/page-475

 

you have everything set up right from what i see and read.

the only thing i see is the panasonic doesnt support atmos
This unit supports high bit rate audio (Dolby®
Digital Plus, Dolby ® TrueHD, DTS-HD High
Resolution Audio TM and DTS-HD Master Audio TM)
adopted in BD-Video.

https://valueelectronics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Panasonic_DP-UB820_USA_user_manual_edited_A.pdf

 

so im guessing you need to set your marantz to upscale the audio to atmos. and its set to play whats being sent to it.

[Home Theater Dummy]

It does support atmos. I've had it work many times before, most recently less than a week or so ago.
Sending TrueHD as a bitstream to the AVR. The AVR should AT LEAST recognized the TRUEHD signal coming from the player, but is still doing this weird Dolby DD with a Surround Back Center???

Panasonic's product page validates Atmos via bitstream. Which is what I have it set to.
But for some reason its sending Dolby Digital as its output???

[Hairless Monkey Boy]

You seem to be aware already, but I thought it worth making explicit for anyone who comes across this thread, and also because you said this which does not track:

 

Quote

Which makes me think if I can get Dolby Atmos working on streaming it's definitely a problem with something in the player settings

 

"Atmos" is 2 different things that are handled differently. You can have support for one and not the other. There's the Dolby Digital Plus version of Atmos which is lossy and is what you will get from streaming services. TVs and streaming devices like the Roku tend to have better support for this type. Then there's the TrueHD version of Atmos which is lossless and what you will find on UHD blu-rays. Roku does not support TrueHD Atmos which I personally found out the hard way (and is why I have a Shield now).

 

The simplest solution may be that your AVR is configured to output a TrueHD Atmos signal differently than it is configured to output a Dolby Digital Plus Atmos signal. My Denon AVR has a Direct/Auto selector mode which will either send the input unchanged, or auto choose the best output option. Does your AVR have anything like that?

 

Also, that "(decode and bitstream output)" parenthetical concerns me. It may mean that the TV cannot passthrough TrueHD Atmos, it must decode it and alter the format before sending it along. My Samsung TV was like that for some DTS formats, it could not pass them through, but would first decode them and convert them to Dolby Digital 5.1.

[Home Theater Dummy]

3 hours ago, Hairless Monkey Boy said:

You seem to be aware already, but I thought it worth making explicit for anyone who comes across this thread, and also because you said this which does not track:

 

 

"Atmos" is 2 different things that are handled differently. You can have support for one and not the other. There's the Dolby Digital Plus version of Atmos which is lossy and is what you will get from streaming services. TVs and streaming devices like the Roku tend to have better support for this type. Then there's the TrueHD version of Atmos which is lossless and what you will find on UHD blu-rays. Roku does not support TrueHD Atmos which I personally found out the hard way (and is why I have a Shield now).

 

The simplest solution may be that your AVR is configured to output a TrueHD Atmos signal differently than it is configured to output a Dolby Digital Plus Atmos signal. My Denon AVR has a Direct/Auto selector mode which will either send the input unchanged, or auto choose the best output option. Does your AVR have anything like that?

 

Also, that "(decode and bitstream output)" parenthetical concerns me. It may mean that the TV cannot passthrough TrueHD Atmos, it must decode it and alter the format before sending it along. My Samsung TV was like that for some DTS formats, it could not pass them through, but would first decode them and convert them to Dolby Digital 5.1.

The main issue was that I could now tell that the problem lied with the UHD player.

I didn't need the TV to passthrough Atmos because I was running to a receiver. Further diagnosis shows that the UHD player was actually sending out a Dolby DD signal even though I selected a TrueHD format.  This is a problem that had never occured before until recently.

Anyways. I was able to solve the issue after speaking with a customer support chat. 


as it turns out after being in support chat with a Panasonic rep it was a FACTORY RESET, rather than a default settings reset, that fixed the issue
I'll post the steps here in case anyone has the same issue

1. Turn the Unit off
2. Press and hold the [OK], [Y], & {B} buttons on the remote at the same time for more than 5 seconds
   "00 RET" is displayed on the unit's display

Press the arrow right ► Right Arrow button repeatedly on the remote control until “08 FIN” is displayed on the unit’s display. Press and hold the [OK] button on the remote control for more than 5 seconds.

After this you will start with the easy setup guide as normal.

now it shows that it is sending out a TrueHD signal, and my AVR is seeing a Dolby Atmos True HD is being received. All is well