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Meanwhile, no model of Chromecast seems to support even playing back Netflix in 5.1.

by XorNot 5y ago

izacus 5y ago
All of them support that in fact, no need to make things up. They send Dolby Digital / Dolby Digital+ (AC3/EAC3) signal via HDMI.
- kuschku 5y ago
  They just don’t support Dolby TrueHD or 5.1 PCM
- XorNot 5y ago
  Yes, people keep saying this. I have run several models of Chromecast with Netflix direct to receiver units, through newer HDMI cable, into my very nice splitter box which will give me 7.1 analog outputs...it doesn't work. It is specifically the Chromecast, because my Sony Blu-Ray player can do it just fine without so much BS. Near as I can tell, the Chromecasts manage to completely evade outputting anything useful and this is a well-reported problem. At this point, I have no idea what signal they imagine they send, but somehow it's never any of the rather diverse set I can receive.
  - nitrogen 5y ago
    I had the same problem with a Roku. The Roku claims to support 5.1 passthrough, but in every conceivable hardware and settings page configuration it only outputs stereo for all the streaming services, even if the movie shows "5.1" on the purchase screen. This includes trying a fully HDCP and Dolby licensed AVR, or a splitter like you mentioned, etc.
  - izacus 5y ago
    > At this point, I have no idea what signal they imagine they send, but somehow it's never any of the rather diverse set I can receive. I'm pretty sure they imagine to send the signal that's specified in the specs and I mentioned - Netflix/Prime use a Dolby Digital+ (EAC3) stream which gets output from the Chromecast and your box most likely doesn't support. Not sure what your BR player can do, but it most likely doesn't send that. Complaning that Chromecast doesn't support outputting a signal in a format compatible with your other hardware is fine, but that does not mean it doesn't support 5.1 output at all.
- Avamander 5y ago
  That support is very likely very limited and it's easy to stumble upon something in your setup that makes it not work. I know for a fact that some TV's can't send received DD+ audio from HDMI to an external speaker setup. So... DD+ on crappy internal TV speakers is "support"? Let's also please avoid the discussion how people should have had done more research before their purchase(s), it's not like any of this is properly documented.
  - izacus 5y ago
    Yes, sending 5.1 audio stream to your DD+ stream to your TV _is_ support (and for example, will work with pretty much every DD+ supporting AVR out there). The fact that your TV then destroys it cannot be an issue with the original hardware no matter how much you want to hedge on it in your last sentence. Chromecast can't change the fact that your TV messes up the signal.
    - Avamander 5y ago
      I didn't say it wasn't support, I said it's limited. Not to mention there are use-cases like projectors, where such a limitation is even more likely to exist. It is an issue with the original hardware to rely on something it can't detect and doesn't have fallbacks for. Chromecast can absolutely change what physical outputs it offers. Say instead of talking about relying on DD+ passthrough, it lacked the support for YCbCr 4:2:2 and required RGB 8:8:8 from all displays, then that too would be something Chromecast does wrong.

Meanwhile, no model of Chromecast seems to support even playing back Netflix in 5.1.

by XorNot 5y ago

Meanwhile, no model of Chromecast seems to support even playing back Netflix in 5.1.

All of them support that in fact, no need to make things up. They send Dolby Digital / Dolby Digital+ (AC3/EAC3) signal via HDMI.

kuschku 5y ago
They just don’t support Dolby TrueHD or 5.1 PCM
XorNot 5y ago
Yes, people keep saying this. I have run several models of Chromecast with Netflix direct to receiver units, through newer HDMI cable, into my very nice splitter box which will give me 7.1 analog outputs...it doesn't work. It is specifically the Chromecast, because my Sony Blu-Ray player can do it just fine without so much BS. Near as I can tell, the Chromecasts manage to completely evade outputting anything useful and this is a well-reported problem. At this point, I have no idea what signal they imagine they send, but somehow it's never any of the rather diverse set I can receive.
- nitrogen 5y ago
  I had the same problem with a Roku. The Roku claims to support 5.1 passthrough, but in every conceivable hardware and settings page configuration it only outputs stereo for all the streaming services, even if the movie shows "5.1" on the purchase screen. This includes trying a fully HDCP and Dolby licensed AVR, or a splitter like you mentioned, etc.
- izacus 5y ago
  > At this point, I have no idea what signal they imagine they send, but somehow it's never any of the rather diverse set I can receive. I'm pretty sure they imagine to send the signal that's specified in the specs and I mentioned - Netflix/Prime use a Dolby Digital+ (EAC3) stream which gets output from the Chromecast and your box most likely doesn't support. Not sure what your BR player can do, but it most likely doesn't send that. Complaning that Chromecast doesn't support outputting a signal in a format compatible with your other hardware is fine, but that does not mean it doesn't support 5.1 output at all.
Avamander 5y ago
That support is very likely very limited and it's easy to stumble upon something in your setup that makes it not work. I know for a fact that some TV's can't send received DD+ audio from HDMI to an external speaker setup. So... DD+ on crappy internal TV speakers is "support"? Let's also please avoid the discussion how people should have had done more research before their purchase(s), it's not like any of this is properly documented.
- izacus 5y ago
  Yes, sending 5.1 audio stream to your DD+ stream to your TV _is_ support (and for example, will work with pretty much every DD+ supporting AVR out there). The fact that your TV then destroys it cannot be an issue with the original hardware no matter how much you want to hedge on it in your last sentence. Chromecast can't change the fact that your TV messes up the signal.
  - Avamander 5y ago
    I didn't say it wasn't support, I said it's limited. Not to mention there are use-cases like projectors, where such a limitation is even more likely to exist. It is an issue with the original hardware to rely on something it can't detect and doesn't have fallbacks for. Chromecast can absolutely change what physical outputs it offers. Say instead of talking about relying on DD+ passthrough, it lacked the support for YCbCr 4:2:2 and required RGB 8:8:8 from all displays, then that too would be something Chromecast does wrong.