5.1 Audio output ??

[Anonymous User]

Hi there ....

Having had a lengthy 'web chat' with one of The NOW help persons, they assured me that the Black Now box should output a 5.1 Dolby signal .... Which I was failing to get, so .... After several hours of fiddling with settings on both my AV amp & resetting the Now box a couple of times, I'm still not convinced a 5.1 output is happening.

Within the settings/audio menu I've tried both the 'auto detect' ..... Which did as it said & recognised the HDMI could carry DD and DTS .... And also manually set the audio at DD (along with all the other settings) but alas all that is being fed from the Now box appears to be stereo.

Has anyone out there managed to configure a 5.1 output & inform if I'm missing something really simple & stupid !

Thanks in advance for any info

Cheers

[Anonymous User]

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 1) Does the box rely on the tv to transcode from HE-AAC to DD?

A) I have no idea but passthrough, to me, indicates there is no conversion or transcoding of any sort between the Now TV box and the TV, i.e. the signal source goes through without any changes whatsoever.  

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That is what I would have thought. Then why can't the receiver pick up the signal? Why does it have to pass through a TV first (an open question @ukbobboy,  I know you don't have the answer here)? It is as if the box has been specifcally implemented to reject receivers.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi @Anonymous User,

In the case of surround-sound, Freeview does not utilise the Dolby Digital audio format at all it only offers AAC audio format, which comes in the form of (High-Efficiency) HE-AAC to be precise.

From what I understand, it's now a mandatory requirement for all 'high-def' and 'std-def' channels that are broadcast via the following multiplexes: PSB3, COM7 and COM8 to use HE-AAC audio only, whether it be 2 channel (stereo) or 5.1 channel (multi-channel).

Unfortunately, it's not possible for surround-sound amplifiers to decode multi-channel HE-AAC bit-streams because the vast majority of them don't have the necessary AAC decoder chip-sets to decode such bit-streams. So to get around this lack of support, major DVB-T/T2 television and set-top box manufacturers offer 'in-built' multi-channel HE-AAC -to- multi-channel Dolby Digital transcoding. Sadly, it would appear that the NOW TV 'smart' boxes to not offer such 'in-built' transcoding abilities.

For those who don't know... It might be worth pointing out that not all content from the likes of BBC 1 HD, BBC2 HD, ITVHD, Channel 4 HD and Channel 5 HD is available in multi-channel surround-sound. Indeed all content from ITV HD (inlcuding movies) is only available in 2 channel stereo - bad ITV...

[Anonymous User]

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@SeeMoreDigital wrote:

In the case of surround-sound, Freeview does not utilise the Dolby Digital audio format at all it only offers AAC audio format, which comes in the form of (High-Efficiency) HE-AAC to be precise.

From what I understand, it's now a mandatory requirement for all 'high-def' and 'std-def' channels that are broadcast via the following multiplexes: PSB3, COM7 and COM8 to use HE-AAC audio only, whether it be 2 channel (stereo) or 5.1 channel (multi-channel).

Unfortunately, it's not possible for surround-sound amplifiers to decode multi-channel HE-AAC bit-streams because the vast majority of them don't have the necessary AAC decoder chip-sets to decode such bit-streams. So to get around this lack of support, major DVB-T/T2 television and set-top box manufacturers offer 'in-built' multi-channel HE-AAC -to- multi-channel Dolby Digital transcoding. Sadly, it would appear that the NOW TV 'smart' boxes to not offer such 'in-built' transcoding abilities.  

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Hi @SeeMoreDigital

Thanks for your response.

I am aware that it is broadcast in HE-AAC, following on from my discussion with ukbobboy, does that mean that if I were to passthrough to a (5.1 passthrough capable) TV that I still won't get 5.1, or does the TV transcode the signal while "passing through"?

If it doesn't, what is the point of the box having "Digital over HDMI (7.1 and 5.1 surround pass through)" capability? If Now TV content is all stereo and there is no way to transcode HE-AAC, and I am not aware of any other content that can be provided from the box that is in 5.1, what is there to passthrough?

[SeeMoreDigital]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

...does that mean that if I were to passthrough to a (5.1 passthrough capable) TV that I still won't get 5.1, or does the TV transcode the signal while "passing through"?

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As far as I'm aware, televisions can't be set-up to transcode audio from one format to another for externally connected HDMI devices.

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@Anonymous User wrote:

...If it doesn't, what is the point of the box having "Digital over HDMI (7.1 and 5.1 surround pass through)" capability? 

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The 'capability' would have been there if the Freeview platform offered Dolby Digital audio or even Dolby Digital Plus audio, instead of AAC audio. But sadly they don't. The 'capability' would also have been there if the NOW TV platform offered Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus audio. But sadly they don't either...

Hopfully, future NOW TV hardware devices will resolve such issues.