Dolby digital through telly woes

[_dobbo_]

So I have a Panasonic LCD which I have connected to my Sky box and Fire stick with HDMI.

The TV is connected via optical lead to a Dolby Digital amplifier.

When I connect a USB drive to the TV and watch something encoded with DDS or Dolby Digital the amplifier switches over to the correct mode and I get full surround experience.

When I watch something on the firestick or on Sky, the amplifier is stuck in "stereo" mode.

The sky box is set to output dolby digital, as is the firestick. So it seems like when the TV gets an HDMI input it can't pass through the dolby digital to the amp, yet clearly the TV understands dolby digital as files played straight of the telly work fine.

I could re-cable everything through the amp to solve this but I don't really want to, so does anyone have any ideas?

[legzr1]

Makes more sense to use the amp as a switching box - you'll get surround on all inputs then just a single feed to the TV.

If that's no use to you then it sounds like a setting on the TV needs attention - years since I've used Panasonic but look at HDMI settings and see if you can extract the DD signal from the HDMI feed.

[varsas]

It's not uncommon for TV's (especially slightly older ones) to not pass-through DD/DTS. I have a 2015 LG950V and that does pass through DD/DTS as long as the optical output is not set to PCM (which really means stereo)

[_dobbo_]

I've had a poke around in the settings but no joy in the "sound" section, will dig further in the HDMI options didn't really think to look there.

Want to avoid pulling cables and moving the fire stick as I'll have to buy an hdmi adapter cable since the firestick won't fit in the back of the amp without making the whole thing stick out three inches further than it currently does.

The amp tends to get powered off at the mains when not in use which is my main reason for wanting to avoid it, as I'm assuming it won't pass through an HDMI signal when powered off. But I guess I can live with it if it's my only option!

[legzr1]

The last few amps and processors I've used will pass through last selected input when in standby but not sure about totally powered down. Might be worth trying before ripping all the cabling out.

Not the eloquent solution but why not leave the firestick where it is where it's working and use the amp for HDMI inputs that aren't working through the TV?

[speedking31]

Short USB extension lead to connect the firestick?

I always have to turn my firestick off if not in use because as it powers up it grabs the focus of the amp and I get no sound from the standard TV feed, which is a pain.

[Gary C]

This is a pain.

Look up Sonos Playbar and tv Dolby pass through , lots of upset people.

It was apparently a restriction placed on the implementation of hdmi to limit perfect copying of video streams, and a lot worth like this but it's patchy. Samsungs almost always don't pass through, some sony's do. Some tv's of the same model but different regions/ages do different things.

I have a Samsung shdtv hu55ue8200 and it dosent pass through but plays 5.1 from the internal digital sources, mad !

[_dobbo_]

Thanks all for the replies - Gary yours in particular suggests it might be the rewire route I need to go down.

It's not the end of the world, I can get one of those little L shaped HDMI things for the fire stick and it will sit where I need it to.

[chris285]

I had an older Samsung TV and it didn't pass through the true signal as stated, got a new TV when that played up to a newer 4k LED one from Samsung and it now does true pass through of the codec

I am planning on getting my denon amp setup in my new house to replace the current setup when i have sorted some speakers

[mackie1]

Support is so patchy that I think passing HDMI through your audio device is the only reliable way to do it. It's mad that Sonos don't support HDMI on their TV products IMO. Sony are great for this - my sound base has 3x HDMI inputs and supports everything up to and including DTS-MA an Dolby TrueHD.