Support NeoGAF

[Stiler]

Everything, especially if it's good value. I'm looking for the X900E of audio solutions if that helps lol.

I recently built up my HT this past year and went through researching and trying to find the best bang for the buck sound systems.

The two companies that I kept hearing about for this were SVS and HSU.

SVS is probably one of the easiest companies to buy from because they offer free shipping both ways and give you 30 days trial. So you can legit order a full HT setup, get it delievered and then listen to it for a few weeks and decide how you like it. If you don't you can send it back and lose no money.

HSU is the company that many recommend for their subwoofers, they have some AMAZING subwoofers that pack a lot of punch for the price.

I ended up going with the SVS ultra bookshelves myself and found a good deal on their SB12 subwoofer and then some Elac a4's for atmos, but that was a bit over 1k.

You should be able to find some reasonable ones in that price range from both companies.

Also q acoustics is another company that came up quite a bit for reasonable prices and decent systems.

 

[RedAssedApe]

HDR aside is there a lot of content being put up by Netflix in 4K? I'm assuming most if not all of the newer seasons for their originals?

 

[RedlineRonin]

HDR aside is there a lot of content being put up by Netflix in 4K? I'm assuming most if not all of the newer seasons for their originals?

Yup, your assumption is correct.

And then there's some other random stuff like some documentaries and some non-Netflix TV shows like Blacklist.

 

[Mrbob]

HDR aside is there a lot of content being put up by Netflix in 4K? I'm assuming most if not all of the newer seasons for their originals?

Search HDR in Netflix and I think all the 4k shows and movies will show up.

Maybe you can just search 4k but i haven't tried it yet.

Edit: Yeah I just checked searching 4k brings up 4K shows and movies. HDR just brings up HDR10 and Dolby Vision shows and movies.

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

There is an update today for the 900e. Dunno what it does just yet but it's the second update I've gotten since I bought the TV. The first really improved cable TV picture quality on Comcast.

 

[MrJames]

I'd guess there's no way to tool up a factory, take your already limited yields, and cut the panels down to that size and still be able to price (and actually sell) at enough of a premium for that to make sense.

Like, most people in the market for a 32" TV aren't going to pay double/triple for a 32" OLED.



Damn. Will prolly have Atmos too. I really need to get on ordering a 203

Yes, Atmos is confirmed as well.

 

[RedlineRonin]

Yes, Atmos is confirmed as well.

Oh lordy me.

My Anthem AVM 60 is coming Saturdayish. I need a couple more channels for full Atmos and a 203 yet, but that will happen shortly.

I actually saw GotG Vol 2 in an Atmos theater when it came out and it sounded absolutely incredible. 100% sold me on Atmos.

Not sure if it sold the fiancee though... =)

 

[Mrbob]

My receiver is actually Atmos compatible but I'm trying to determine how I would do it. Wouldn't I have to mount two speakers high up on the wall?

 

[RedlineRonin]

My receiver is actually Atmos compatible but I'm trying to determine how I would do it. Wouldn't I have to mount two speakers high up on the wall?

Imagine you're sitting in the middle of the room.

You choose either 2 or 4.

With 4, you mount a front left and right 45 degrees, on ceiling, in front of you, and one left and right, 45 degrees behind you.

If you do 2, it's just one left and right directly above you.

Will try to find a diagram quick....

E: Here's 7.1.4

And 5.1.2

Also fronts that point to the ceiling and "reflect" off the ceiling are a thing, but I'm highly suspect of that approach.

 

[Stiler]

My receiver is actually Atmos compatible but I'm trying to determine how I would do it. Wouldn't I have to mount two speakers high up on the wall?

There's multiple ways to do atmos and setups for it.

The easiest and cheapest way (which is what I did) was buying atmos enabled modules, which sit on top of your front and rear speakers (or you can put them on their own stands). I went with the Elac A4 modules. These reflect the sound off the ceiling and are the easiest way to get atmos sound.

The next way is mounting speakers to the wall, these are called height speakers.

IE:
https://www.svsound.com/pages/prime-elevation

The last, and most expensive (but best way) to do atmos is in-ceiling mounting them.

After you decide which way works best for you you have to figure out how many you want and what your receiver supports.

The receiver is going to be what determines how many speakers you can get, if your receiver supports say, 9 channels, that is going to limit you to 9 speakers. So you can have either a 7.x.2 setup with just two atmos speakers, or a 5.x.4 setup with 4 atmos speakers.

Also fronts that point to the ceiling and "reflect" off the ceiling are a thing, but I'm highly suspect of that approach.

They work, just have to set them up right and tweak things to get the sound good. They aren't going to be as good as direct in-ceiling atmos speakers of course, but they work.

Review of the elac a4's for example:
http://avproductreviews.com/elac-a4-debut-review

 

[Mrbob]

Cool, thanks to both for the info. The modules might be the way to go since I have a couple floor stand speakers up front. Not sure if I want to mount anything to the wall. What module speakers should I look for? I found these doing a quick search:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_580SK...a&awnw=g&awcr=57767060425&awdv=c&awug=9019428

Also looking at the web page for my receiver I think it's 7.2 so I can only get one pair of module speakers?

https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/av_receivers_amps/rx-v681_u/index.html

I use 5.1 right now, so I'm assuming 5.1.2 would be ok.

Edit: I was going to say these look interesting and then I noticed you posted a review above for the Elac:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_970A4/ELAC-Debut-A4.html?tp=66302

 

[BumRush]

RedlineRonin, you'd definitely win player of the week as far as I'm concerned. Really helpful stuff.

 

[RedAssedApe]

Search HDR in Netflix and I think all the 4k shows and movies will show up.

Maybe you can just search 4k but i haven't tried it yet.

Edit: Yeah I just checked searching 4k brings up 4K shows and movies. HDR just brings up HDR10 and Dolby Vision shows and movies.

thanks

hmm netflix original anime in 4k+hdr. i want to watch that just to see what kind of improvements you can even get out of that

 

[RedlineRonin]

Cool, thanks to both for the info. The modules might be the way to go since I have a couple floor stand speakers up front. Not sure if I want to mount anything to the wall. What module speakers should I look for? I found these doing a quick search:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_580SK...a&awnw=g&awcr=57767060425&awdv=c&awug=9019428

Also looking at the web page for my receiver I think it's 7.2 so I can only get one pair of module speakers?

https://usa.yamaha.com/products/audio_visual/av_receivers_amps/rx-v681_u/index.html

I use 5.1 right now, so I'm assuming 5.1.2 would be ok.

Yeah so what the 7.2 indicates for your AVR is that you can drive 7 channels of amplification and the .2 is 2 separate subwoofers (self amplified).

Long story short, you'll run 5.1.2 (or 5.2.2 if you have a second sub)

5 mains, 1 sub, 2 atmos. And to your point, modules sound like the best fit.

E: On paper, I like that the Onkyo's in your first link have a bit deeper frequency response (90 hz) vs the Elac (180 hz) as the Dolby standard (and THX for that matter) is generally 80 hz. In practical terms, your ears would tell you whether that matters or not. Not sure what Crutchfields return policy is, but you could A/B both and send one back. Or if you aren't overly concerned, i'd probably just go with whichever is cheaper.

RedlineRonin, you'd definitely win player of the week as far as I'm concerned. Really helpful stuff.

=)

Home Theater is kinda my jam, but given the choice between audio and video, I find audio far more fascinating.

And I just picked up a C7, which is now of course necessitating an upgrade for pretty much every link in the chain (except speakers)

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

Imagine you're sitting in the middle of the room.

You choose either 2 or 4.

With 4, you mount a front left and right 45 degrees, on ceiling, in front of you, and one left and right, 45 degrees behind you.

If you do 2, it's just one left and right directly above you.

Will try to find a diagram quick....

E: Here's 7.1.4

And 5.1.2



Also fronts that point to the ceiling and "reflect" off the ceiling are a thing, but I'm highly suspect of that approach.

The problem for me, is it's just too many speakers. Especially if you have speakers of significant size.

IMO you really have to have a room dedicated to Home Theater for Atmos to look appropriate. Then again, most AV enthusiasts I see on AVS taking pictures of their setups have incredibly tacky looking rooms.

 

[RedlineRonin]

The problem for me, is it's just too many speakers. Especially if you have speakers of significant size.

IMO you really have to have a room dedicated to Home Theater for Atmos to look appropriate. Then again, most AV enthusiasts I see on AVS taking pictures of their setups have incredibly tacky looking rooms.

Oh, absolutely agree.

I've thought that 7.1 was honestly too much since it's introduction.

Unless you literally have a rectangular box of a room dedicated for it, it's an almost impossible configuration in any normal living room/family room. And that's before you add Atmos.

 

[Mrbob]

Yeah I haven't gone to 7 speakers because I have no space to do so, especially with wiring.

I'm hoping those Klipsch reference wireless are the future where other manufacturers jump in. I want some floorstands, center channel, sub, etc. Having it all in a wireless package and high quality is a game changer.

 

[jstevenson]

Damn, the Guardians Dolby Vision news is going to make me buy the Oppo, isn't it?

 

[ss_lemonade]

The easiest and cheapest way (which is what I did) was buying atmos enabled modules, which sit on top of your front and rear speakers (or you can put them on their own stands). I went with the Elac A4 modules. These reflect the sound off the ceiling and are the easiest way to get atmos sound.

How well does that even work? I've been thinking of doing the same since I have an atmos compatible receiver, but I'm worried that it just won't be effective

 

[Theonik]

Also fronts that point to the ceiling and "reflect" off the ceiling are a thing, but I'm highly suspect of that approach.

It's much better than downfiring speakers for most spaces unless your ceiling is made of dampening material. You need at least 3 meters from your downfiring speakers to get the correct effect. The original idea was designed for large theatres where you would suspend your speakers about 3m from the listener but wouldn't mount them to the ceiling.

The problem for me, is it's just too many speakers. Especially if you have speakers of significant size.

IMO you really have to have a room dedicated to Home Theater for Atmos to look appropriate. Then again, most AV enthusiasts I see on AVS taking pictures of their setups have incredibly tacky looking rooms.

You can get a very good Atmos experience with 4 upfiring main speakers and a centre channel.
The Pioneer Elite Speakers are a great affordable solution for that. 5.2.4 is a pretty good experience and you can then upgrade to 7.2.4 with adding two speakers if you can afford to.

 

[Mrbob]

Potential dumb question but I don't have to change modes on my receiver if a movie only supports 5.1 and not 5.1.2? Like if a movie is just dolby digital it just won't have any access to the atmos speakers and work normally like a 5.1 setup.

 

[Reckoner]

At that price point, I doubt this TV sells much. What they should've done is sell smaller sized OLEDs (32-50") if they wanted to reach consumers in the low-end market. I'm trying to figure out who this is targeting because this makes no sense.

I would get one for my bedroom and I bet a lot of people would too

 

[Theonik]

Potential dumb question but I don't have to change modes on my receiver if a movie only supports 5.1 and not 5.1.2? Like if a movie is just dolby digital it just won't have any access to the atmos speakers and work normally like a 5.1 setup.

Your receiver should support two modes for this situation, it should allow you to just use a 5.1 setup disabling the up channels or use Dolby or DTS technology depending on which is in use, to try and extend to 5.1.2.

The down speakers are setup exactly as you would for DD 5.1 or DTS.
As an aside, do make sure you set up speaker distances as recommended when designing your system and prefer a receiver that comes with a calibration mic for proper surround effect.

 

[killroy87]

Not a Dolby disc yet, but DV exists on Netflix and it works fine.

Power Rangers 2017 disc has it, it's the first live action film with it. Despicable Me 1 and 2 have it as well.

I'm just curious how you know DV is running instead of HDR10. How do you check?

 

[Stiler]

How well does that even work? I've been thinking of doing the same since I have an atmos compatible receiver, but I'm worried that it just won't be effective

It works fine, definitely creates a "bubble" like sound around you.

You just have to make sure you set them up right.

When I first set mine up through my Denon 4300 receiver it went through setup and it only had height speakers or ceiling for atmos, I put it as height speakers and after a few days and thinking "hmm, doesn't sound right...." I found out you had to go into the options and enable the atmos modules manually and then select them and set it up, sounded a lot better after that.

Also got to make sure you angle them right (you want the front ones to bounce off in front of you and the back ones to bounce off right behind you. Also got to watch how high you put them, you don't want them too high on your ceiling, mine's 8ft and it recommends about 4 ft minimum from your ceiling.

 

[Mrbob]

Your receiver should support two modes for this situation, it should allow you to just use a 5.1 setup disabling the up channels or use Dolby or DTS technology depending on which is in use, to try and extend to 5.1.2.

The down speakers are setup exactly as you would for DD 5.1 or DTS.
As an aside, do make sure you set up speaker distances as recommended when designing your system and prefer a receiver that comes with a calibration mic for proper surround effect.

Ok cool thanks.

Power Rangers 2017 disc has it, it's the first live action film with it. Despicable Me 1 and 2 have it as well.

I'm just curious how you know DV is running instead of HDR10. How do you check?

I don't have those discs but on my TV (LG OLED) it displays a prompt on screen whenever a hdr format used. If it's HDR10 you see HDR, Dolby Vision has a Dolby Vision prompt, HLG a HLG prompt, etc.

 

[RedlineRonin]

It's much better than downfiring speakers for most spaces unless your ceiling is made of dampening material. You need at least 3 meters from your downfiring speakers to get the correct effect. The original idea was designed for large theatres where you would suspend your speakers about 3m from the listener but wouldn't mount them to the ceiling.

Dolby Atmos recommendation is 2.3-3.6M (7.5 - 12 ft) for overhead speakers. Most US homes have ceilings anywhere from 8 to 10 ft.

Why would dampening material be required?

 

[Mrbob]

If anyone is concerned I found another review of the Elac A4s here and they sound like they might be the way to go for Atmos:

http://www.xtremeplace.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=229666.0

They look extremely wide though lol. I'll have to measure the width of my floorstand speakers.

RedlineRonin wouldn't mind if you read that review and chimed in. You seem on top of all thing audio related.

 

[III-V]

Dolby Atmos recommendation is 2.3-3.6M (7.5 - 12 ft) for overhead speakers. Most US homes have ceilings anywhere from 8 to 10 ft.

Why would dampening material be required?

Not sure what the reference here is, but to take a stab at it: placing them in your ceiling does effectively create a very large 'speaker cabinet' and will change the frequency response to a little bit or a lot more to accentuate the low frequency components. Should not be an issue with a good calibration algorithm.

 

[ascii42]

Out of curiosity on wireless surround systems I came across this which was a fun read.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-HNj018nF3HW/learn/wireless-surround-sound.html

That Klipsch reference system is a monster but is 3 Grand. Maybe one day.

No Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio support seems weird, given the name, but otherwise yeah that'd be awesome.

 

[RedlineRonin]

Not sure what the reference here is, but to take a stab at it: placing them in your ceiling does effectively create a very large 'speaker cabinet' and will change the frequency response to a little bit or a lot more to accentuate the low frequency components. Should not be an issue with a good calibration algorithm.

Right, which all standard receivers are equipped with (to varying degrees of effectiveness). And considering that overwhelmingly, the speakers are going to be playing likely well above 80hz at most times, I wouldn't foresee that being an issue.

If anyone is concerned I found another review of the Elac A4s here and they sound like they might be the way to go for Atmos:

http://www.xtremeplace.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=229666.0

They look extremely wide though lol. I'll have to measure the width of my floorstand speakers.

RedlineRonin wouldn't mind if you read that review and chimed in. You seem on top of all thing audio related.

I think they're probably the right call for most folks. Logistically, it just isn't realistic for most people to mount speakers in ceiling. To the point made by Stiler above, it will be important to consider how the "bounce" will direct and what angles they're set up at.

Take this picture as example:

Because the angle at which the speakers you're looking at is fixed, the only variable you're able to adjust is moving the speakers they will sit on forward or backward. And the same goes for the ones that would theoretically be behind. It would certainly be easier to deal with if you only did 2, instead of 4.

No Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio support seems weird, given the name, but otherwise yeah that'd be awesome.

Oh wow. I didn't even contemplate that when reading the article. Took it as a given. Not the end of the world; you'd simply decode to LPCM on board your source device. But yes, a very weird omission for something that certainly targets a high end market.

 

[OG_Original Gamer]

Power Rangers 2017 disc has it, it's the first live action film with it. Despicable Me 1 and 2 have it as well.

I'm just curious how you know DV is running instead of HDR10. How do you check?

Fate of the Furious as well.

 

[Stiler]

Potential dumb question but I don't have to change modes on my receiver if a movie only supports 5.1 and not 5.1.2? Like if a movie is just dolby digital it just won't have any access to the atmos speakers and work normally like a 5.1 setup.

It depends on your receiver, what modes it supports, and how many speakers you have.

If you play it via direct mode for instance and just want to hear the normal audio as it was intended to be that's what it'll do.

However if you have more speakers then the movie (IE you have an atmos setup and the movie is playing it 5.1) there's modes that will up-mix it to your setup, such as DTS Neural X for instance.

Best to look at your a/v receiver's manual and see what modes it is and it should tell you what they do.

 

[e90Mark]

Power Rangers 2017 disc has it, it's the first live action film with it. Despicable Me 1 and 2 have it as well.

I'm just curious how you know DV is running instead of HDR10. How do you check?

Right, just saying I haven't used one yet, but there is Dolby Vision content on Netflix. The TV just says Dolby Vision instead of HDR. I have a C6.

 

[killroy87]

Right, just saying I haven't used one yet, but there is Dolby Vision content on Netflix. The TV just says Dolby Vision instead of HDR. I have a C6.

Ah, that's what I was curious about. Thanks!

 

[SOLDIER]

I just ran into an annoying problem right now, and I'm not sure what the cause might be. I'm hoping someone here can help me out.

The problem is that my ARC connection between my TV and Home Theater suddenly stopped working. Came home from work, things were working as usual, turned off the TV, had dinner. Came back, turned everything back on, no audio at all. Also, my TV and HT, which would turn on and off simultaneously thanks to the ARC connection, no longer shut on/off at the same time. I have to turn both on using their respective remotes.

I tried re-enabling ARC on both the TV and HT, but the problem persists. The receiver still outputs audio for devices connected to it directly, and I can also get audio through an optical cable (though last I checked, going the optical route gives you lower quality surround sound, correct?). The TV's internal speakers still work as well. I can't figure out which of the two devices is to blame for this.

My TV (LG Electronics OLED55E6): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CDD4J58/?tag=neogaf0e-20

My Home Theater (Yamaha RX-V381BL): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BY7YOAY/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Please help me out.

 

[RedlineRonin]

I just ran into an annoying problem right now, and I'm not sure what the cause might be. I'm hoping someone here can help me out.

The problem is that my ARC connection between my TV and Home Theater suddenly stopped working. Came home from work, things were working as usual, turned off the TV, had dinner. Came back, turned everything back on, no audio at all. Also, my TV and HT, which would turn on and off simultaneously thanks to the ARC connection, no longer shut on/off at the same time. I have to turn both on using their respective remotes.

I tried re-enabling ARC on both the TV and HT, but the problem persists. The receiver still outputs audio for devices connected to it directly, and I can also get audio through an optical cable (though last I checked, going the optical route gives you lower quality surround sound, correct?). The TV's internal speakers still work as well. I can't figure out which of the two devices is to blame for this.

My TV (LG Electronics OLED55E6): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01CDD4J58/?tag=neogaf0e-20

My Home Theater (Yamaha RX-V381BL): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01BY7YOAY/?tag=neogaf0e-20

Please help me out.

How long have you had these two devices set up together with ARC?

Potential dumb question but I don't have to change modes on my receiver if a movie only supports 5.1 and not 5.1.2? Like if a movie is just dolby digital it just won't have any access to the atmos speakers and work normally like a 5.1 setup.

The mode you'd be looking for is "Surround Decode" (Sur. Decode on your remote). It will cycle through various decoders. Use Dolby Surround for Dolby content and Neural: X for DTS content. It's page 68 in your owners manual.

 

[SOLDIER]

How long have you had these two devices set up together with ARC?

About six months?

 

[RedlineRonin]

About six months?

Have you had the issue before? I'm genuinely not too surprised; unfortunately, HDMI is a pita when it comes to enabling CEC for devices to use HDMI to communicate together. It's generally recommended to turn it off and simply go optical out of the TV back to your AVR.

You can try resetting both devices to factory defaults, but that can be a pain to reprogram stuff. Troubleshooting HDMI handshake issues is often just a trial and error guessing game of turning on and off the HDMI CEC in each device.

E: Looks like it's called "Simplink" in your TV and "HDMI Control" in your Yamaha.

 

[SOLDIER]

Have you had the issue before? I'm genuinely not too surprised; unfortunately, HDMI is a pita when it comes to enabling CEC for devices to use HDMI to communicate together. It's generally recommended to turn it off and simply go optical out of the TV back to your AVR.

You can try resetting both devices to factory defaults, but that can be a pain to reprogram stuff. Troubleshooting HDMI handshake issues is often just a trial and error guessing game of turning on and off the HDMI CEC in each device.

E: Looks like it's called "Simplink" in your TV and "HDMI Control" in your Yamaha.

Yeah, I'd rather not have to resort to factory resets, especially with all the picture settings I customized on the TV.

But again, does going optical mean a loss in audio quality? I could have sworn I read that.

 

[RedlineRonin]

Yeah, I'd rather not have to resort to factory resets, especially with all the picture settings I customized on the TV.

But again, does going optical mean a loss in audio quality? I could have sworn I read that.

Nope. No loss in quality for you.

 

[SOLDIER]

Nope. No loss in quality for you.

You certain? Sorry, I don't mean to doubt you, I just could have sworn that it was recommended to go direct HDMI for surround sound audio.

If there's no difference whatsoever, then optical would probably make things easier, but it doesn't entirely sit right with me to leave it unfixed.

 

[ThoseDeafMutes]

Do UHD discs that feature DV HDR degrade gracefully to HDR10, or do they simply go non-HDR when played without DV support?

 

[nogoodnamesleft]

You certain? Sorry, I don't mean to doubt you, I just could have sworn that it was recommended to go direct HDMI for surround sound audio.

If there's no difference whatsoever, then optical would probably make things easier, but it doesn't entirely sit right with me to leave it unfixed.

"While there is a difference between Dolby Digital and those high-res lossless formats that are HDMI audio only and cannot be output via optical out, the difference isn't as pronounced as you might expect. On a decent system, with decent speakers, you might notice that the high-res formats are a little more open, a little smoother sounding.

On lesser gear, it's a lot less likely you'll hear a difference. Most sound bars, for example, lack the fidelity to do anything with the additional resolution. Many don't accept those formats at all."


Your system will be fine with optical out.

 

[Mrbob]

From what I understand hdr10 support it's required on every 4k uhd disc and Dolby vision is optional, so there should be a hdr10 mode to use. I don't have a dual hdr10/dv disc yet though.

The mode you'd be looking for is "Surround Decode" (Sur. Decode on your remote). It will cycle through various decoders. Use Dolby Surround for Dolby content and Neural: X for DTS content. It's page 68 in your owners manual.

Well that's easy then I leave it on surround decode as it is.

 

[RedlineRonin]

You certain? Sorry, I don't mean to doubt you, I just could have sworn that it was recommended to go direct HDMI for surround sound audio.

If there's no difference whatsoever, then optical would probably make things easier, but it doesn't entirely sit right with me to leave it unfixed.

"While there is a difference between Dolby Digital and those high-res lossless formats that are HDMI audio only and cannot be output via optical out, the difference isn't as pronounced as you might expect. On a decent system, with decent speakers, you might notice that the high-res formats are a little more open, a little smoother sounding.

On lesser gear, it's a lot less likely you'll hear a difference. Most sound bars, for example, lack the fidelity to do anything with the additional resolution. Many don't accept those formats at all."


Your system will be fine with optical out.

Yup, this is pretty much your answer.

ARC doesn't support lossless audio, or said another way, the limitations on HDMI through ARC are different than those for normal HDMI in to a receiver.

This'll be addressed in HDMI 2.1.

Also, point well made about quality of gear being an important part to actually resolving the additional detail lossless audio offers.

I agree with you, it sucks that it's kind of a bandaid and not the permanent fix you want, but that's why HDMI is kind of a shitty standard; it's digital to enable copyright protection first, and everything else (including stability and interoperability) second. Which is admittedly a bit pessimistic...

 

[SOLDIER]

Yup, this is pretty much your answer.

ARC doesn't support lossless audio, or said another way, the limitations on HDMI through ARC are different than those for normal HDMI in to a receiver.

This'll be addressed in HDMI 2.1.

Also, point well made about quality of gear being an important part to actually resolving the additional detail lossless audio offers.

I agree with you, it sucks that it's kind of a bandaid and not the permanent fix you want, but that's why HDMI is kind of a shitty standard; it's digital to enable copyright protection first, and everything else (including stability and interoperability) second. Which is admittedly a bit pessimistic...

Alright, thanks for letting me know.

It's probably best this way, since the receiver would often have trouble automatically switching to the correct audio source when I bounce between one device and the other.

I would also just plug in my PS4 directly to the receiver, though I believe the last time I tried that I got a warning that the receiver didn't accept a certain form of HDR, which is why I kept it plug to the TV (plugging it to the receiver might have also taken care of the handshake issues I keep getting).

 

[RedlineRonin]

Alright, thanks for letting me know.

It's probably best this way, since the receiver would often have trouble automatically switching to the correct audio source when I bounce between one device and the other.

I would also just plug in my PS4 directly to the receiver, though I believe the last time I tried that I got a warning that the receiver didn't accept a certain form of HDR, which is why I kept it plug to the TV (plugging it to the receiver might have also taken care of the handshake issues I keep getting).

Yeah rule of thumb is generally to turn all that stuff off in any HDMI device. It's great in theory; ARC, automatically turn devices on and off etc, it just almost never works that way in practice.

It's the one part of HDMI that should be better, because CEC's been in the standard since late 2000's. Here's hoping it's better in 2.1....

 

[Tal Shiar Agent]

Bought bias lights for my Vizio, turns out the USB port is powered even when the TV is off...

 

[DangerMouse]

Do UHD discs that feature DV HDR degrade gracefully to HDR10, or do they simply go non-HDR when played without DV support?

Yeah. The 4K Blu-ray spec requires HDR10 for HDR with the inclusion of other types on top like Dolby Vision as optional. So HDR10 is like a base layer on discs with Dolby Vision, and these new discs that have started coming with Dolby Vision will be able to drop to HDR10 for players/TVs that don't support Dolby Vision.

Old article on the format that mentions it too:
https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/ultra-hd-blu-ray-specs-dates-and-titles/