Help on choosing encoder - PC(Kodi) vs 12 year old Receiver - For AAC Audio 5.1

[arnprasad]

Hi All,

Its summer holidays time and hence I downloaded lots of movies to watch with my kids. FYI I do have subscriptions to all major OTT platforms.. just that I prefer downloading and watching to have a seamless experience.

My Pioneer 1020K is from 2010 and max it can decode is DTS-HD master audio, Dolby True HD. There is no mention of AAC. Many of the downloaded movies have AAC. When I query for DTS on TPB - these are 20+GB files vs 2-3 GB for ones with AAC 5.1.

Now DTS and Dolby are easy - I choose allow passthrough in Kodi settings and my receiver decodes the signal and also displays DD or DTS as the case may be.

However when I play these containers with AAC - I see a PCM on the receiver display ( its same whether I enable or disable audio passthrough)

did some online reading on AAC 5.1 but cannot figure out whether to allow audio passthrough or not on Kodi to get the best sound effects. Please advice.

Edit:

Per this page, AAC is converted to AC3 - in that case when passthrough is selected and AC3 receiver enabled - shouldnt I see DD on my receiver display....it stays at PCM only

Talk:Audio settings - Official Kodi Wiki

kodi.wiki

 

[spirovious]

Hi All,

Its summer holidays time and hence I downloaded lots of movies to watch with my kids. FYI I do have subscriptions to all major OTT platforms.. just that I prefer downloading and watching to have a seamless experience.

My Pioneer 1020K is from 2010 and max it can decode is DTS-HD master audio, Dolby True HD. There is no mention of AAC. Many of the downloaded movies have AAC. When I query for DTS on TPB - these are 20+GB files vs 2-3 GB for ones with AAC 5.1.

Now DTS and Dolby are easy - I choose allow passthrough in Kodi settings and my receiver decodes the signal and also displays DD or DTS as the case may be.

However when I play these containers with AAC - I see a PCM on the receiver display ( its same whether I enable or disable audio passthrough)

did some online reading on AAC 5.1 but cannot figure out whether to allow audio passthrough or not on Kodi to get the best sound effects. Please advice.

Edit:

Per this page, AAC is converted to AC3 - in that case when passthrough is selected and AC3 receiver enabled - shouldnt I see DD on my receiver display....it stays at PCM only

Talk:Audio settings - Official Kodi Wiki

kodi.wiki

Though I dont use kodi, there must be option to set 5.1 out when using aac. In MPCHC, you can get 5.1 out when set pc speaker out as 5.1.

 

[arnprasad]

Thanks. I need to do some more research although whether I pass through or not, I seem to hear discrete 5.1.

got another question through. My Pioneer 1020K is 7.1 although I got 5.1 set up. i was wondering if a PC can decode atmos and send 5.1.2 to my receiver and if I add two more speakers to my receiver can the extra 2 speakers be the .2 for Atmos? My receiver may not know its Atmos - but say its getting 7 discrete channels from PC - I am guessing it will pass it to the seven speakers and say if I have the two extra speakers on the ceiling - can it be Atmos? Whatever reading I have done - they say Atmos is just Dolby True HD but different placement and my receiver does recognize Dolby True HD

There is a mouth watering 440 USD deal on the Onkyo 6100 and 400 dollar deal on Yamaha V6A (both costco versions). was wondering if I can use a desktop and existing receiver to replicate as close to Atmos as possible. This will save me from all the begging and pleading for someone to get those receivers from Costco and I certainly do not want to spend 80K+ buying one in India.

I am no audiophile and hence even an Atmos "Like" is good enough although I dont want to use the old virtualization processing already available on my Pioneer.

Was just reading the review of the latest spider man movie and they are saying its UHD disk is reference quality both for Audio and Video. dont have a 4K projector, but it will be fun to experience the reference quality Atmos audio.

Also most articles on Atmos only mention OTTs like Netflix or streamers like Roku or Apple TV. No one talks about playing a file from the desktop. Guess because those are "downloaded" files. Like this one. I was googling whether a RX 570 can decode Atmos

How to know if you're actually getting Dolby Atmos sound | Digital Trends

Dolby Atmos can be a great surround sound experience. But just because your gear bears an Atmos label, that doesn't mean you've got Atmos sound. Here's why.

www.digitaltrends.com

 

[spirovious]

I need to do some more research although whether I pass through or not, I seem to hear discrete 5.1.

got another question through. My Pioneer 1020K is 7.1 although I got 5.1 set up. i was wondering if a PC can decode atmos and send 5.1.2 to my receiver and if I add two more speakers to my receiver can the extra 2 speakers be the .2 for Atmos?

Ideally with pass through option,avr can't decode aac as it may not have codecs.In that case you need to select 5.1 out in kodi and may get aac 5.1 to avr same as encoded in movie file.

Now to get atmos, if software allows channel swapping,then probably its possible. How? Simple just rearrange surround back as atmos and may software send atmos to rear surround. One FM has posted that he tried similar method for his 2 setup,but not atmos,just 5.1.

 

[arnprasad]

Thanks. I had posted on AVSforum same time as below:

Can we use a PC with a graphics card and an old receiver...

www.avsforum.com