Media Player/USB movies do not play in 5.1 surround through A/V system

Jules Whiskey · Nov 10, 2017

Unfortunately, I had to replace my old Sony A/V system due to loose HDMI connections. I purchased an Onkyo 5.2 receiver as its replacement. I have a 5.1 speaker setup.

I have a cable box, Blu-ray player, and Xbox One connected to the corresponding inputs on the rcvr... the HDMI Arc output going directly to the tv. The rcvr only allows HDMI audio input from the GAME selection (no optical or other). Other inputs (TV, Blu-ray,
...) will accept other types of audio input, but I have only been using HDMI. All my other devices produce 5.1 sound just fine.

Games are playing in 5.1 sound, Blu-rays are good, but when I try using the Media Player app with a 5.1 movie from a USB flash drive, I can only achieve 2-channel stereo sound coming out of both the front L/R and rear L/R speakers. This did not occur with
my Sony receiver. I have always had the Xbox audio setting to HDMI 5.1 uncompressed.

After perusing your forums and Google searches, I've tried a bunch of different suggested settings from others to no avail. I see that this has been an issue for a while.

Can you please give me some direction on how to get the 5.1 sound from the Media Player with my new system? Is this ever going to be fixed?

:)

Silvamord · Nov 10, 2017

Surround Sound Complications

Hello Community,

I would like to consider myself a Techie but when I setup my Xbox One I got for a present I only ran into frustration and issues.

Equipment & Setup:

Xbox One plugged into a Sony Receiver via HDMI. Receiver plugged into TV via HDMI cable.

Xbox One set to 5.1 uncompressed (as suggested via researching this online). Receiver states 3/2.1 PCM - I set it to PLII Movie, thus 5.1 Surround Sound.

Issue:

Hulu app will not play 5.1 surround sound, only FL & FR speakers.

Previews on a Blu-Ray wouldn't play 5.1 surround sound but the actual movie would.

Pandora will only play through FL & FR speakers, no sub.

Netflix will play 5.1 surround sound. Games will play 5.1 surround sound.

Confusion:

Why are some items playing surround sound and others are not? My previous console had no issues playing Hulu at 5.1 surround sound with same HDMI setup. My other devices I'm using on the receiver are playing 5.1 surround sound just fine.

Seeking help with this. I would hate to return the Xbox One due to something as trivial as Audio. Especially since a device as simple as my Chromcast and PS3 had no issues whatsoever. But if I can't solve this within the week I will have to return for a
PS4.

Thank you ahead of time for your help and support with this,

Tom

Silvamord · Nov 10, 2017

Hulu not working Surround Sound

Hello Community,

I would like to consider myself a Techie but when I setup my Xbox One I got for a present I only ran into frustration and issues.

Equipment & Setup:

Xbox One plugged into a Sony Receiver via HDMI. Receiver plugged into TV via HDMI cable.

Xbox One set to 5.1 uncompressed (as suggested via researching this online). Receiver states 3/2.1 PCM - I set it to PLII Movie, thus 5.1 Surround Sound.

Issue:

Hulu app will not play 5.1 surround sound, only FL & FR speakers.

Previews on a Blu-Ray wouldn't play 5.1 surround sound but the actual movie would.

Pandora will only play through FL & FR speakers, no sub.

Netflix will play 5.1 surround sound. Games will play 5.1 surround sound.

Confusion:

Why are some items playing surround sound and others are not? My previous console had no issues playing Hulu at 5.1 surround sound with same HDMI setup. My other devices I'm using on the receiver are playing 5.1 surround sound just fine.

Seeking help with this. I would hate to return the Xbox One due to something as trivial as Audio. Especially since a device as simple as my Chromcast and PS3 had no issues whatsoever. But if I can't solve this within the week I will have to return for a
PS4.

Thank you ahead of time for your help and support with this,

Tom

RICH6826 · Nov 30, 2017

5.1 films should be outputting as 5.1 if all your games are etc. The problem is normally when your film is only 2.0 and you would expect the amp to upscale it to use 5.1. The most noticeable thing is the centre speaker not being used. I WISH they'd sort
this out. They need to make the xbox either:

a) only send out 2.0 stereo sound when the media is only stereo or

b) have the Xbox upscale the original stereo source to your chosen number channels (speakers).

I would suggest that your media on the USB stick may only just be stereo and that's why you're getting the output you are. The "fix" for this is to set the sound output in your xbox settings to just stereo (you can change it back after the film). This
will allow the amp to actually receive just a stereo signal and upscale to use all your speakers as you want. The PS4 works the same way. Bit of a backwards step from the older PS3 that changed output based on the source. Not everything is progress...

RICH6826

5.1 films should be outputting as 5.1 if all your games are etc. The problem is normally when your film is only 2.0 and you would expect the amp to upscale it to use 5.1. The most noticeable thing is the centre speaker not being used. I WISH they'd sort
this out. They need to make the xbox either:

a) only send out 2.0 stereo sound when the media is only stereo or

b) have the Xbox upscale the original stereo source to your chosen number channels (speakers).

I would suggest that your media on the USB stick may only just be stereo and that's why you're getting the output you are. The "fix" for this is to set the sound output in your xbox settings to just stereo (you can change it back after the film). This
will allow the amp to actually receive just a stereo signal and upscale to use all your speakers as you want. The PS4 works the same way. Bit of a backwards step from the older PS3 that changed output based on the source. Not everything is progress...

whitco10

Same issue here. 5.1 worked fine with the USB tuner prior to the NXOE update. I've had to update two xboxes and both times immediately after the update 5.1 OTA functionality was lost. Surround is enabled in my TV settings but it has no effect. Surround
still works fine for games, movies etc.

ForestalPython5

**SOLVED**

So turns out you don't need a TV to act as a hub/AR with these Sony HT cinema sound systems. The xbox one will output 5.1 through the optical and the Sony HT-RT4 will pick up and play all the channels correctly.

Both Bitstreams DTS + Dolby work fine.

**BE AWARE**

I was trying to test the 5.1 surround sound on several platforms giving me incorrect results:

- Youtube DOES NOT PLAY IN 5.1 (5.1 test videos etc...)

- Plex Media Streaming (Make sure the film/video you are playing is streaming with a 5.1 audio track, NOT AAC Stereo etc..

To confirm my 5.1 surround sound i used a BlueRay Disc with 5.1 Dolby on the back of the case. I also used Netflix streaming with films streamed in 5.1 audio.

Hope this helps someone out there!

skyzoo5

You may have to access your AVR's menu to make sure your surround (back) speakers are on. Even though I have mine set-up to automatically detect the surround sound of the media I'm playing I have to go in my menu settings to ensure my surround back speakers
are on. Example would be, I play a movie that is 5.1 and my AVR will see that it's Dolby Digital. Well the back surround speakers aren't used in 5.1 so I go into my AVR menu and set my back surrounds as default when ever a 5.1signal is detected. I have
a Denon AVR 4806CI

ArminatorX

The persistent storage should be able to hold the data of way more than 6 BR Movies before it needs to be cleared.

The persistent storage for the BluRay player is not for holding whole movies. It's just a small storage area for "bookmarks", so you can insert a movie disc you watched before, and the console will be able to continue where you left off before, or allows
you to jump to scenes you marked earlier.

Again: The Xbox One is not a dedicated media player. Primarily, it is a gaming console with added media capabilities.

That means: you can attach USB storage devices with MP3, MKV or MP4 movies and music, and play that from the USB drive with no problem.

You don't need to copy anything to the console. Simply plug in the USB drive with your music and videos on it, and play it through the Xbox media player.

Media Player/USB movies do not play in 5.1 surround through A/V system