Newbie LG C1 sound setup help [ PC HDD - Soundbar - Tv ]

[Andy67972]

Hello,

I just bought my first ever smart tv, an LG OLED65C11LB.
Right now I use it with my PS5, Netflix and I also want to watch 4k movies from my PC but I get the "video does not support audio" message with no sound when playing from the PC hdd.
I learned about the notorious problem with DTS and TrueHD for the LG C1 models and I suppose that's the main problem.
At the moment I don't have a soundbar, although I want to get one in the near future (maybe pair it with a subwoofer and rear speakers down the line) and I read that it could solve the issue by processing the audio before it reaches the TV speakers.
The only way I kind of got it to work now is by using Plex, which I think converts the audio, although the video glitched at times when I tried watching a movie this way, I need to test it more.

My questions are:

1. If I get a soundbar, will that fix the problem?

2. How am I supposed to have everything connected in order to play UHD on my tv from my PC's hdd with good audio?
Do I just need to plug in an HDMI 2.1 cable in the eARC slots on my TV and Soundbar (assuming the soundbar has eARC support)?

3. What about the PS5, how should I connect it to the Tv or the soundbar?

4. If a soundbar can solve the issue, is the Bose 900 Soundbar a fair option since it has eARC and trueHD support?

5. Am I overlooking something or is there a better option to have everything setup so that I can watch UHD content from my PC, streaming platforms and use the PS5 efficiently?

I'm new to most of the things I wrote above and I appreciate any bit of help, correction or suggestion.
Thanks in advance!

 

[next010]

LG ARC = Dolby 5.1 (+ Atmos) and PCM 2.0 stereo
LG eARC = Same as above with Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (+ Atmos) and PCM 7.1

DTS is simply not supported nor does the internal video player on LG WebOS support passing TrueHD/PCM 7.1 audio even with eARC supported.

So Dolby 5.1 is the most you can get with TV Plex or Emby clients, if you can live with that.

When playing video via PC use Kodi, it should downmix audio stereo.

1. Yes if it can decode Dolby TrueHD, DTS, DTS-MA etc.

2. Connect the media player set top box or PC direct into the soundbars HDMI input so it ignores ARC/eARC limits.

2b. Alternatively, connect STB/PC direct to the TV and pass Dolby 5.1, TrueHD 7.1 and use Kodi's built in transcoder to convert DTS 5.1 into Dolby 5.1 audio.

3. Ideally to the TV, if all goes well use PCM 5.1 for games, you can get audio lag using other formats.

4. You'd want to check reviews and ensure it supports those features over eARC.

 

[Andy67972]

I tried installing Kodi but apparently I can't on the LG C1 due to its webOS but I read about a workaround with a chromecast device so I will order one to try to install it that way.

I will drop the BOSE 900 soundbar since it lacks DTS support and I might get the Samsung Q950A, kind of ugly but at least it seems to support more formats:
eARC Yes
Dolby Atmos Yes
Dolby Digital Yes
Dolby Digital Plus Yes
DTS Yes
DTS:X (eARC only) Yes
Dolby TrueHD (eARC only) Yes
DTS-HD MA (eARC only) Yes
5.1 PCM (eARC only) Yes

I suppose this soundbar wont give me trouble when it comes to reading audio, on paper at least.

@next010 Thank you very much for the help!

 

[Andy67972]

This is one of those issues I mentioned when streaming with plex from my PCs HDD. This only happens when watching certain videos in 4k, if I switch to 1080p then the video doesn't glitch. Any idea what could be the cause?

 

[next010]

Kodi is not supported on WebOS or Chromecast. You must install Kodi on your PC and connect PC direct to the TV via HDMI or get a set top box that runs Kodi like OSMC Vero 4K+.

As to Plex most likely a transcoding issue or network bandwidth issue if your using WiFi on both TV and PC, try ethernet if possible.

Give Emby a try as well and see if that works any better its similar to Plex.