PS5 - No 5.1 Surround/Dolby/DTS on Pioneer VSX-826 on BD but available on games

burningrage

Novice Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2020
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Points
1
Age
44
Location
Australia
Hi all,

I am new to this forum so I apologize if this has been asked before but my search in this forum seems to indicate my situation is different and I am wondering if anyone here can assist.

I have a Pioneer VSX826 which is obviously not eARC enabled but ARC enabled. I have a PS5 and XBox One X sitting next to each other. I recently got a new TV Q800T Samsung (2020). For reference PS5 is hooked to HDMI 2.1 Port 4 while XBox One X is hooked to HDMI 2. AV receiver is hooked to Port 3 which is marked eARC on my TV. My Port 4 cable is HDMI 2.1 (Monster). All others are using HDMI 2.0 cables.

My 5.1 Dolby/DTS Test subject for a game is FF7 Remake - This works perfectly. Surround sound works.

My test subject for a movie is the new 4K UHD Weathering With You (Chapter 15 for the storm sound). This BD disc has a DTS True Master marking on it.

I have set my Q800T to do just Passthrough (No automatic) in the audio setting. I have also set the Output Device to TV. The priority format is set to Bitstream (DTS). When I do this, my AV suddenly shows the Dolby/DTS icon.

This is where the problem starts.

For some reason, when playing the BD, the dolby/dts icon disappeared and my AV briefly shows PCM. Looks like my PS5 switched my BD to PCM on play but back on Dolby/DTS on PS5 Homepage. As the result, even though the BD can play 5.1, it plays only in what I suspect is 2.0 PCM. I also did not forget to change the setting while playing the BD so the audio is "Bitstream"

I played this BD in my Xbox One X with the appropriate setting (Passthrough, Dolby, etc) and Weathering with You Played in majestic 5.1 Surround Sound.

So the problem is with PS5.

I did the same with The Greatest Showman BD. With PS5, it didn't even play any sound until I set the setting while playing the movie back to PCM. With XBox, it played the movie in the glorious 5.1 without an issue.

What I found difference when reading this forum is no one is mentioning any cross hardware comparison. In my case, I compared it with my Xbox One X.

I tried everything and I am running out of ideas. I must admit, this is a steep learning curve for me but if there is anyone here that can shed some idea, it would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Zz
 
Samsung Q800T does not support DTS via ARC (see audio pass-through section).

Xbox uses an audio transcoder to convert the DTS (which you cannot disable) so that's why it likely works.

Neither the PS5 or Xbox are top tier BD players and PS5 consumes a lot of power in BD playback.

I would highly recommend getting a dedicated BD player like one of Panasonics UB-820 models for far less power consumption and it has a dedicated HDMI audio out so you can bypass the TV ARC so video stays direct to the TV but audio goes to the Pioneer.

The Q800T's eARC port only supports Dolby TrueHD, its missing DTS-HD too.
 
Hi Next010,

Thank you for the explanation. I now understand what is happening.

Thank you for the recommendation too. I shall give it a thought considering I now have 2 effective BD Player (and one of them actually works - XBox One X)

From what you are saying, it would seem an updated AV Receiver (8k) that supports both DTS-HD and Dolby Digital / TrueHD as well as rewiring the cables so my PS5 goes to AV Receiver first could also solve the problem.

The Greatest Showman BD has Dolby Digital mark on it. I shall test that tomorrow on both the two consoles and see how that goes. Of course I would change the audio setting in PS5 to Bitstream (Dolby). Weathering With You only has DTS-HD.

Thank you once again.

Zz
 
Hi Next010,

Thank you for the explanation. I now understand what is happening.

Thank you for the recommendation too. I shall give it a thought considering I now have 2 effective BD Player (and one of them actually works - XBox One X)

From what you are saying, it would seem an updated AV Receiver (8k) that supports both DTS-HD and Dolby Digital / TrueHD as well as rewiring the cables so my PS5 goes to AV Receiver first could also solve the problem.

The Greatest Showman BD has Dolby Digital mark on it. I shall test that tomorrow on both the two consoles and see how that goes. Of course I would change the audio setting in PS5 to Bitstream (Dolby). Weathering With You only has DTS-HD.

Thank you once again.

Zz

A good BD disc player would be a far more cost effective approach, then spending a lot of money on an 8K receiver.
  • consumes only a fraction of the power the consoles do.
  • no need to replace the Pioneer AVR
  • supports Dolby Vision HDR & HDR10+
  • better image quality for SDR and with HDR optimizer on the panny even for HDR10
  • separate input on TV so best video settings can be applied Sony refuse to support ALLM for some reason.

PS5 is not a top of the line BD disc player, fine game console but middle of the road BD disc player, Xbox barely any different.
 
Last edited:

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom