Denon AVC-4700H - Sky Q Atmos Zone 2 Query

[Razglaws]

Morning all

A newbie here and I have asked this on the Denon 4700H owners thread but thought I'd open it up to the floor to see if others are having the same issue ............

My old panasonic plasma tv gave up a few weeks ago, so went out and got a new philips 65”OLED 805 HDMI 2.0 arc (absolutely brilliant now calibrated by Steve Kemp, absolutely superb and I cannot recommend highly enough !)
Connecting sky q UHD box (non HDR box, arguing with sky currently to get new HDR box), UHD 4k BD player and the TV to my old yamaha receiver, didn’t work due to lack of hdcp 2.2, so a brand new Denon 4700 is now in place.
Dali zensor 5.1 set-up with additional x 2 ceiling speakers in main room and also x 2 speakers in zone 2 kitchen.

My main issue that I can't seem to fix, neither can Denon 1st attempt but ongoing, my friendly online retailer who i bought the Denon from is trying their best and are being v helpful and even ran it past a sky engineer yesterday, who was fixing a sky mini box issue, all to no avail so far.

So I have:
Denon running fiscal hdmi to my Philips 65OLED805 TV. This TV doesn’t have hdmi 2.1 but don’t think this is the issue.

Sky Q UHD box (the non HDR box, as sky won’t upgrade me as yet – separate story), this is running a new fiscal hdmi cable to the Denon, into the CAB/Sat input. Sky Q box is set to UHD 2160p 10 bit picture output (picture brilliant !) and also set to Dolby Digital Plus for the digital audio output HDMI, this gives me Dolby atmos on zone 1.

Denon is linked to my dali zensor 5.1 speakers plus x 2 ceiling speakers correctly connected via Denon, with the ceiling speakers connected to Height 1. When I play a Sky Q Atmos channel, I get Dolby Atmos over the 7.1 in my front room, so all good.

I also have a zone 2 set up in the kitchen which is part of the same overall open plan lay-out, these are x 2 qacoustic bookshelf speakers, these are connected to the Denon correctly via the Height 2 connections.
The Denon set-up is Amp Assign = 7.1ch + zone 2. & also zone 2 set up has hdmi audio = through and channel = stereo.
When I play a sky q SD channel, I.e. bbc 1 channel 101, I get stereo on zone 1 as expected and I also get zone 2 as stereo and this works with sound from both.
But when I play a sky q channel with either dolby or dolby atmos, I get dolby or dolby atmos on zone 1 (excellent), but zone 2 drops off with no sound at all !

I also have a UHD blu-ray player (non Atmos & vision) connected to the denon amp via a fiscal hdmi cable to blu-ray input, when playing that back I get DTS-HD on zone 1, but nothing at all on zone 2 either ?

Help !

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Jamie]

The nest you'll get currently is your source switching to stereo if Zone 2 is involved, the audio and video format has to be compatible with with both zones if playing simultaneously.

Do you still have the old Yamaha AVR you mentioned?
Personally after having issues similar to yours (forcing the devices you want to listen to in stereo on zone 2 is a workaround but a pain) I now have my zone 2 speakers running their own amp with HDMI. The Zone 2 HDMI output from my main amp carries both audio and video to zone 2 and is connected to an input on my second amp.

 

[Jamie]

Actually I've just had a look at the manual which says this.

Setting the input source of ZONE2 as the “Source” allows you to play the same content in MAIN ZONE and in ZONE2, regardless of the type of input signal.

Set the input source of ZONE2 as the “Source” by pressing the ZONE2 SOURCE button on the main unit.

If the MAIN ZONE input source is changed while ZONE2 is selected as the “Source”, then ZONE2’s input source will be changed to mirror the MAIN ZONE’s input source.

So try setting the zone 2 to source rather than an actual named input.

 

[Razglaws]

Actually I've just had a look at the manual which says this.



So try setting the zone 2 to source rather than an actual named input.

Genius !
a simple thing that I overlooked and also didn't see in the manual.
All good and works perfectly now !!!

Many, many thanks

 

[DANRB]

Genius !
a simple thing that I overlooked and also didn't see in the manual.
All good and works perfectly now !!!

Many, many thanks

@Razglaws Hi, just wanted to clarify if you put a 5.1 digital signal into the amp and then pump that out of zone 2 or HEOS it DOES downmix from 5.1 to 2ch stereo?

 

[Razglaws]

Bit of a weird one, the app shows that it pumps out whatever is playing on zone 1 into zone 2.
So if it’s dolby digital on zone 1, the app shows dolby digital on zone 2, with the same speakers showing green.

all I know is both my left and right bookshelf speakers are working fine in the kitchen / zone 2.
My understanding is the Denon will only push stereo to zone 2 and I don’t know any other amps that will push 5.1 or 7.1 etc to zone 2 aswell as zone 1, so guessing the app is just mirroring zone 1 ………
But I’m no expert ……..

hope that helps

 

[dante01]

You can facilitate multichannel audio in more than one zone, but only if using the dedicated scond HDMI zone output to convey the HDMI audio signal to another multichannel AVR in another zone.

The audio second zone is limited to 2 channel stereo and if engaging this relative to the same source as being portrayed in the main room then both the main room and zone 2 eill be stereo. Denon do also suggest that some sources may need to be set to output just 2 channel PCM in order for the AV receiver to be able to portray that source via the second audio zone. The AV receiver can downmix multichannel sources, but doesn't do so with all sources if and when you engage the second audio zone.

From the manual:

If the input for ZONE2 is set to a specific source (like CBL/SAT), only analog signal or 2-channel PCM signal input (from HDMI connectors or digital connectors (OPTICAL/
COAXIAL)) can be listened to from ZONE2. To playback HDMI signal other than 2-channel PCM in ZONE2, set “HDMI Audio” to “PCM”. (v p. 265)
2-channel PCM signals are output from a device connected to the input source selected for ZONE2 and can be played back in ZONE2. In this case, the MAIN ZONE audio will also be converted to 2-channel PCM signals if the MAIN ZONE and ZONE2 are set to the same input source. However, depending on the playback device, the playback signal may not be converted to PCM even if this setting is configured.

 

[Razglaws]

You can facilitate multichannel audio in more than one zone, but only if using the dedicated scond HDMI zone output to convey the HDMI audio signal to another multichannel AVR in another zone.

The audio second zone is limited to 2 channel stereo and if engaging this relative to the same source as being portrayed in the main room then both the main room and zone 2 eill be stereo. Denon do also suggest that some sources may need to be set to output just 2 channel PCM in order for the AV receiver to be able to portray that source via the second audio zone. The AV receiver can downmix multichannel sources, but doesn't do so with all sources if and when you engage the second audio zone.

What dante01 said ………