Minix Neo-U1 Review

[parambir]

Straight will give you unadulterated 5.1 in the movie audio stream however multiple reviews of these recievers prefer using drama or standard profile when using the yamaha DSP.

Agreed and understood. Standard profile is better in my opinion.

Surround decode should only be used when up covering 2 channel audio to 5.1 using dolby pro logic II movie.

Yes it says so in the manual too. If you want to convert 2ch to 7.1 use surround decode. But since all my movies (so far) are in 5.1 or 7.1 I guess Straight or Sur Decode will hardly make any difference in playback except for probably Sur decode will ad some more logic to distribute sound.

Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[Audiodoc]

Yes you can

 

[parambir]

Is there any way to configure app updates from play store automatically even if I am connected on cable to my Internet from Minix and not through wifi. Its funny that Android being developed for mobile devices recognises WiFi as faster network and not the cable connected to device.

 

[neoonwheels]

You might as well need to set 'Passthrough' in the sound settings (Android). MINIX as far as I remember did not support passthrough on 'HDMI'. However they claimed to have supported it through optical out.

 

[Audiodoc]

This is a brief explanation describing the difference between multichannel audio. True versus recreated.

True multichannel audio is of the following variants.

Dolby digital, dts, dolby digital ex, DTS es, dolby atmos, DD hd, DTS hd, DTS HD master audio. These are multi channel formats 5.1 to 7.1 or more in case of atmos. The reciever does not need to up convert. Just decode the Bitstream via hdmi or optical. Minix supports both.

A point here is that optical supports only 5.1 DD or dts while latest hdmi supports all.

Up converted multichannel audio is when the reciever converts 2 channel audio into fake 5.1 or 7.1 channel.
The technical jargon in this is dolby prologic, dolby prologic II, DTS neo, logic 7 etc. In these emulations the DSP does some permutations and combinations to up convert to 5.1 or 7.1.

I can explain prologic to make it a little clear as I used to DIY such systems a decade back. In prologic you subtract the left and right signals and give it a 3db boost as well as delay and send the same to surround speakers while you add the left and right channels and decrease the signal by 3 db aND seND the signal to center channel. This is the simplest up converting system. Modern systems can do many more things with DSP however they will never reach the channel separation os true multichannel audio.

 

[parambir]

You might as well need to set 'Passthrough' in the sound settings (Android). MINIX as far as I remember did not support passthrough on 'HDMI'. However they claimed to have supported it through optical out.

Yes. Minix supports audio passthrough which I enabled in Xbmc. Now my receiver shows 5.1 audio incoming.

 

[parambir]

This is a brief explanation describing the difference between multichannel audio. True versus recreated.

True multichannel audio is of the following variants.

Dolby digital, dts, dolby digital ex, DTS es, dolby atmos, DD hd, DTS hd, DTS HD master audio. These are multi channel formats 5.1 to 7.1 or more in case of atmos. The reciever does not need to up convert. Just decode the Bitstream via hdmi or optical. Minix supports both.

A point here is that optical supports only 5.1 DD or dts while latest hdmi supports all.

Up converted multichannel audio is when the reciever converts 2 channel audio into fake 5.1 or 7.1 channel.
The technical jargon in this is dolby prologic, dolby prologic II, DTS neo, logic 7 etc. In these emulations the DSP does some permutations and combinations to up convert to 5.1 or 7.1.

I can explain prologic to make it a little clear as I used to DIY such systems a decade back. In prologic you subtract the left and right signals and give it a 3db boost as well as delay and send the same to surround speakers while you add the left and right channels and decrease the signal by 3 db aND seND the signal to center channel. This is the simplest up converting system. Modern systems can do many more things with DSP however they will never reach the channel separation os true multichannel audio.

Thanks doc for the input. I remember having read this somewhere. I suppose with various permutations I have been able to resolve the mystery. Now I play all my movies using straight settings on receiver. This sends original channels to the speakers they are intended to go. For my mp3 I either select dolby pro log music or 7ch stereo. Both of these options upconvert them to all 7 speakers. Though I found 7ch stereo a little louder than dolby pro logic music.