No 5.1 on Tivo HD?

bitpusher · 08-27-2008, 12:05 PM

Hello,

I'm a new Tivo HD user. I connected the entire system and everything works great except that I have yet to witness any 5.1 audio coming in to my home theater system.

I connected the optical cable and the normal 2-channel sound works fine. I'm getting OTA channels only.

I thought that I remember that some OTA programs were 5.1 when I connected my home theater directly to my plasma TV.

Can anyone confirm that 5.1 can be recorded/played back on Tivo HD, and can anyone confirm that 5.1 can be broadcasted on the digital stations?

Any suggestions?

thanks!

BP

ilh · 08-27-2008, 01:14 PM

5.1 definitely works on HD channels.

Is there any chance in Settings / Sound, you have it set to PCM only rather than Dolby Digital?

greg_burns · 08-27-2008, 03:04 PM

Do you have the optical coming straight from the Tivo to your receiver? Or do you have it going to your TV then on to your receiver? Most TVs will only output 2.0 when connected that way. (Mine is like that, even though the TV will output 5.1 for stuff it tuned itself.)

steve614 · 08-27-2008, 05:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilh

Is there any chance in Settings / Sound, you have it set to PCM only rather than Dolby Digital?

I would be willing to bet that this is the problem.
IIRC, PCM is the default setting on a new Tivo.

bitpusher · 08-07-2009, 02:31 PM

Thanks for the replies.

I have the audio set to Dolby (not PCM) on my TiVo HD (which is connected only to an OTA antenna).

My audio amplifier only registers 2 audio channels coming in via the optical cable, which makes sense for Dolby (2 incoming channels get phase-decoded to 4).

So it seems that TiVo does not offer 5.1 audio but rather just Dolby Digital?

thanks,

BP

sgip2000 · 08-07-2009, 02:38 PM

Most 5.1DD audio is usually seen on the "Prime Time" shows.

greg_burns · 08-07-2009, 02:45 PM

How times flies!

You are going straight from the Tivo to your receiver with your optical cable? (Not to the TV then on to the receiver?)

Some of my OTA channels only broadcast DD 2.0, not DD 5.1.

But Tivo HD/S3 definitely supports 5.1 when it sees it.

fyodor · 08-07-2009, 02:49 PM

I had this problem (TV only outputting 2.0) when connecting my parents' TV and CableCo DVR to their home theater. Connecting the DVR directly to the home theater (as opposed to connecting the DVR to the TV and the TV to the receiver) fixed the problem.

F

Quote:

Originally Posted by greg_burns

How times flies!

You are going straight from the Tivo to your receiver with your optical cable? (Not to the TV then on to the receiver?)

Some of my OTA channels only broadcast DD 2.0, not DD 5.1.

But Tivo HD/S3 definitely supports 5.1 when it sees it.

bitpusher · 08-07-2009, 02:49 PM

Ok. Thanks for the info. It sounds like I just need to keep my eyes peeled for OTA programs that are broadcasting 5.1. I've never noticed 5.1 coming from the TiVo (about a year), but I mostly record the late night comedy shows which don't register as 5.1 on my amplifier.

Edit: Oh yes, my amplifier is directly connected to the TiVo HD using the optical cable.

greg_burns · 08-07-2009, 02:57 PM

Download an Amazon HD movie, it should be in 5.1 if it is an HD version.

Not sure you can download the HD ones from Amazon's website though. I think you may still have to do it from the Tivo interface. Anybody know? Haven't played with it since they announced the HD downloads.

AbMagFab · 08-07-2009, 03:03 PM

If you're using HDMI for video, you need to make sure to set your AVR to not pass audio to the TV.

Of course, if you're using HDMI for video, I can't imagine why you'd use optical for audio...

bitpusher · 08-07-2009, 04:03 PM

OMG! I must be getting old.

After looking at the cables again, I realized that I had my amplifier set to TV input (thus PCM) instead of the TiVo optical input. (When setting up my Harmony remote a year ago, I must have just guessed wrong and then assumed it was working because there was sound.)

Anyway, at least I'll be enjoying my 5.1 going forward!

Thanks for your help--I would have just been going on assuming TiVo was 2-channel if it wasn't for your feedback.

BP

jstrazz · 08-07-2009, 04:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by greg_burns

Download an Amazon HD movie, it should be in 5.1 if it is an HD version.

Not sure you can download the HD ones from Amazon's website though. I think you may still have to do it from the Tivo interface. Anybody know? Haven't played with it since they announced the HD downloads.

Yes... You can.

bitpusher · 08-07-2009, 04:37 PM

Hello,

Now that I got my 5.1 working, I notice that there are low-volume clicks when changing channels or turning the TiVo on or off. I didn't hear this when I was getting PCM 2-channel audio from the HDMI->TV->RCA jacks. Has anyone noticed this and/or have a fix for it?

Also, the TiVo button-click audio went away. Is that not an option with 5.1 optical audio?

@AbMagFab: My Yamaha amplifier is from about 2004, and my Panasonic Plasma is from about 2007. I looked in to it back in 2007 and determined that my TV's HDMI specifications won't pass 5.1, only 2-channel. Let me know if you think I should investigate further. My amplifier has no HDMI inputs.

thanks!

BP

greg_burns · 08-07-2009, 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitpusher

Also, the TiVo button-click audio went away. Is that not an option with 5.1 optical audio?

No. Tivo can't mix the sound effects into the digital sound like it could with analog. You'll only here the sound in the menus.

bkdtv · 08-07-2009, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitpusher

Now that I got my 5.1 working, I notice that there are low-volume clicks when changing channels or turning the TiVo on or off. I didn't hear this when I was getting PCM 2-channel audio from the HDMI->TV->RCA jacks. Has anyone noticed this and/or have a fix for it?

Clicks on a A/V receiver are usually caused by a receiver switching between analog and digital inputs. This noise is caused by physical movement of a switch inside the receiver.

When you switch channels, or when you do some trickplay operations, there is a break in the signal. Some receivers interpret this as a loss of digital so they switch over to the analog input to look for a signal there. When that happens, you hear a click. Every modern receiver I've seen allows one to restrict a source to a specific digital input, so it does switch over to the analog input during trickplay or a channel change, but your older receiver may not be able to do that.

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitpusher

Also, the TiVo button-click audio went away. Is that not an option with 5.1 optical audio?

You won't get TiVo sounds on Dolby Digital channels. TiVo does not have the hardware to inject its sounds into the Dolby Digital bitstream. It can only pass the Dolby Digital bitstream as is.

bitpusher · 08-08-2009, 05:16 PM

I solved the clicks problem. My amplifier was set to compress the audio (e.g., night-time quiet mode). Once I turned this off, the clicks disappeared. So it seems my amplifier signal processing was inserting the clicks in specific conditions.

lastdeadcat · 08-09-2009, 01:21 AM

AbMagFab--If you have an A/V receiver that doesn't HDMI, you have to get audio to the A/V receiver some way. If it takes optical digital that use that connection for audio and an HDMI input for video direct from the TiVo to the TV.

My A/V receiver is like that, so I connect that way. I use an Harmony universial remote to control the system. It just changes the TV input for the TiVo on the TV instead of using the A/V receiver. Video just bypases the A/V receiver.

When their is no program sound going out,my receiver plays the TiVo sound effects, but not if there is program sound. Pause, skip, replay and play sounds don't come through, but other TiVo sounds do.