Surround sound not working

loserspearl · Dec 11, 2015

My setup is a little complicated but it should work just fine. My cable box goes into the Xbox via HDMI, the Xbox goes to the TV via HDMI, and the TVs optical audio out goes to the audio receiver. I do it this way so that all A/V content pushing to the TV
should come out as surround sound. All devices have been set to surround (TV, cable box, Xbox, and audio receiver) sound but there are two things I'm not sure about. 1) When trying to use 5.1 uncompressed from the HDMI audio out the Xbox gives an error, something
like my device does support surround sound (meanwhile my TV does support surround sound) so I am forced to use bitstream (not sure what the difference is) and 2) TVs SPDIF (optical audio) setting can be either RAW or PCM, regardless neither is pushing the
HDMI bitstream audio in as surround out via optical, it is stuck in stereo.

Cable box: Verizon QIP 7232

TV: Element ELEFT436

Surround Sound Receiver: Sony BDV E370

Before I had optical audio coming from the Xbox to the audio receiver; surround sound worked flawless when on optical bitstream/dolby digital out, but this will neglect any other device I want to connect to my TV such as my laptop. For some reason the bitstream
audio out over HDMI is stereo (not surround) but the bitstream audio out over SPDIF (optical) audio is surround. Can anyone explain why I can't get surround sound with the optical audio coming from the TV?

:)

The Lion Turtle · Dec 11, 2015

XB1 Surround Sound Issue

The Xbox One doesn't currently output surround sound. However, Microsoft is working on it and will be updating the Xbox One to output in surround sound soon.

support.xbox.com/.../digital-sound-not-working

Higher4Hire · Dec 11, 2015

Surround Sound Not Working

Ok, I found something. If I select "Stereo Uncompressed" in sound setting in Xb1, my AVR gives me the "Dolby PLII Movie" and "DTS Neo:6 Cimena" output options. Selecting this, I get output form whole 5.1 system, but the Input signal detected by AVR is only
a 2 channel input. I believe my Marrantz is taking the uncompressed stereo and converting it into 5.1 output. This is also the case with the videos I played back through chromecast. Is this pure surround or just a lot of sound from all the speakers.

In contrast, if I select 5.1 uncompressed in audio setting in XB1, the input is detected as 5.1, but output is only from front, center and sub. I am getting super confused.

TobyHoover · Dec 11, 2015

Most TVs dumb down incoming surround-sound audio signals to a stereo when outputting via it's optical out, unless the signal is from it's internal tuner.

So in basic English, if you plug a surround sound device into your optical in on the tv, it converts the surrurant sound signal to stereo. If you want to get surround sound from your Xbox you need to plug it in to a receiver or another device that will
not down convert the signal.

here is a good article to read:
www.cnet.com/.../20-tvs-tested-which-sets-can-pass-surround-sound-to-a-sound-bar

I have this prob on my TV as well, so I use a Sony Receiver or my Turtle Beach headsets, that have surround or simulated surround.

Sadly Element is not known for making high end devices and this is an issue that plagues most TVs except the high end and very high end, and even then it's a feature that still does not appear to often.

Glu10Free

Are they surround sound? My DX12s are simulated surround sound and it works really well.

Higher4Hire

Ok, I found something. If I select "Stereo Uncompressed" in sound setting in Xb1, my AVR gives me the "Dolby PLII Movie" and "DTS Neo:6 Cimena" output options. Selecting this, I get output form whole 5.1 system, but the Input signal detected by AVR is only
a 2 channel input. I believe my Marrantz is taking the uncompressed stereo and converting it into 5.1 output. This is also the case with the videos I played back through chromecast. Is this pure surround or just a lot of sound from all the speakers.

In contrast, if I select 5.1 uncompressed in audio setting in XB1, the input is detected as 5.1, but output is only from front, center and sub. I am getting super confused.

TobyHoover

Most TVs dumb down incoming surround-sound audio signals to a stereo when outputting via it's optical out, unless the signal is from it's internal tuner.

So in basic English, if you plug a surround sound device into your optical in on the tv, it converts the surrurant sound signal to stereo. If you want to get surround sound from your Xbox you need to plug it in to a receiver or another device that will
not down convert the signal.

here is a good article to read:
www.cnet.com/.../20-tvs-tested-which-sets-can-pass-surround-sound-to-a-sound-bar

I have this prob on my TV as well, so I use a Sony Receiver or my Turtle Beach headsets, that have surround or simulated surround.

Sadly Element is not known for making high end devices and this is an issue that plagues most TVs except the high end and very high end, and even then it's a feature that still does not appear to often.

Misses Quinzel

Hey there, Higher4Hire! Since you have a more detailed post
here, I'm going to lock this one down so we can keep your support all nice and organized.

Thanks for understanding.

Higher4Hire

I have other devices connected to my Marrantz, namely chromacast and 3d blue ray player. I jus tried playing a video on youtube through chromecast. It was an iron man 3 trailer, in hd and Dolby sound. When I play this video through chromecast, my AVR shows
me the sound output options of "DOLBY PLII MOVIE" and "DTS NEO:6 cinema" in addition to "multi Chn stereo". Playing the video on either Dolby or DTS gives me proper surround sound. Then I tried playing the same video on xb1 youtube. This time the sound options
were "multi Chn in" and "multi Chn stereo". Playing the video in multi Chn outputs sound from only front, center and sub. Surround speakers don't output any sound. I tried selecting bitstream, and select DTS/ Dolby there, but same result. I don't know what
my xb1 is doing this?

Surround sound not working