I have an Xbox Series X, a PS5 and a PC with an RTX3070 connected to my CX passing audio back to the RXV583 via eARC. I would prefer to connect these directly to the receiver (along with the ATV) but then I’m limited to 60hz. I originally hoped that removing the TV and eARC from the equation might speed things up a bit, but handshake speed seems about the same when directly connected and it still throws up the DTHD step of the process. I don’t fully trust the eARC implementation of the 583 as it was patched in years after release with a FW update.
Thanks for your replies by the way, I massively appreciate it.
I have noticed this switching between audio formats too.. I'm running xbox and Apple TV through an lg c1 via earc to the rx-v6a.
so I have gone through the combinations of audio input/output on the LG, and whilst there was an firmware update last week, I have been wondering if its a problem with the LG arc/earc or the Yamaha.
I have also tried the LG "digital sound output" settings PCM, Auto, Pass through and it doesn't really make a difference.
Despite the "PCM/Dsur" display, I would be able to get Atmos out of my Apple TV in Apple Music when required. I also use infuse7 and with downloaded dolby trailers and Dolby Atmos/vision assets to test with, and the results are always mixed.
on xbox, I do get Atmos on video apps, since I set it to "bitstream out", as well as the dolby app works as expected. Games that actually support Atmos, such as COD Warzone, always did switch to Atmos. It was all other games that had me wondering (eg Destiny 2)-- is it 5.1, is it LPCM, etc?
On Apple TV with infuse 7:
- TrueHD 7. 1 files are still interpreted as "PCM", but sound like they're multi-channel atmos
- Even DTS-X samples sound pretty good, and are "PCM" (infuse/Apple TV must be converting this to LPCM)
- Apple TV+ does display as Atmos/PCM which is as expected because the Apple TV settings actually states the best output would be "multi-channel LPCM".
When I switch the LG to ARC, it forces a lossy bitstream, with both Apple TV and xbox showing "Atmos/DD+" or "DD/DD+" (or whatever)-- but I'm not sure if the TV then is signalling the xbox/Apple TV to output the lossy signal, or if its its remuxing(?)/ down-mixing the output to the receiver.
However, after some trial and error, I think by switching the LG from arc to EARC and "rebooting" the receiver (I do it from the web setup screen), I HAVE been able to:
- get the xbox to display Atmos/DD+ in games with EARC. such as Destiny 2.
- have my Apple TV (eg Apple TV+ shows in Atmos /Vision) output recognised as "Atmos/DD+" instead of "Atmos/PCM"
- Get the tv apps such as YouTube to output "Dolby/DD+" (as opposed to stereo PCM), which is quite a surprise
also, sometimes a full reboot of the TV seems to work (I haven't figured out exactly what fixes/causes the problem)
According to LG settings help, the DTV output being set to "Auto" means that it will try different formats for the one that works-- I note this because, although I've also tried forcing a particular type, it makes no difference-but may be why the Yamaha cycles through different sound formats on the display
I have tried the various Dolby Vision/Atmos media files which sometimes show Atmos, sometimes not, through infuse 7, but its hard to determine if its the software player that causes these problems.
So I think there's definitely an issue with LG EARC (the CX and C1 firmwares are quite similar-- at least their issues are), which can send the wrong handshake to the attached devices, resulting in a different audio signal format (bitstream or LPCM, or at worst possibly just stereo PCM)
but the Yamaha ALSO may also not be able to handshake correctly, and gets stuck, until its reset via a reboot.
Its confusing because there are two potentially buggy pieces of hardware here, and very little in the way of diagnostic information.
EDIT: I went to check all this after writing this post, but a reboot of the receiver isn't needed. Switching the HDMI input format from bitstream to PCM back to bitstream again (and set for EARC), now seems to output a signal that the receiver correctly displays (DD/DSur, DD/DD+, Atmos/DD+ , etc. worked for me (again)
HDMI Input: bitstream (and switching to PCM and back when needed)
EARC : on
DTV audio: auto
HDMI output: Passthrough