No Dolby Digital 5.1 with Netflix

5.1 DD+ can't be sent over a legacy optical connection. It needs to be HDMI 1.3 or later.

 

If the netflix movie is 5.1 dolby digital-I receive it with optical cable to my Yamaha and Pioneer receivers-make sure in the tivo settings/audio that you have dolby selected (not "other" which will output only PCM)

 

ALSO- I have 2 optical inputs on my receivers. When I 1st hooked up the TIVO I was getting Netflix through the TV optical OUT to the AV1 input on the receiver(optical 1 input as an example). I was getting PCM sound only (I guess it was like a PASS THRU) from the TV to the receiver. I soon discovered I was not receiving 5.1 Digital. I then used the 2nd optical cable from the TIVO optical OUTPUT to the 2nd Receiver OPTICAL INPUT (AV2).

BOTTOM LINE: You must use the optical ouput on the TIVO to the optical input on the receiver and switch to that receiver input when viewing NETFLIX. If your receiver doesn't have 2 optical inputs then you should ONLY use the one from the TIVO to the receiver (your cable and netflix etc should output 5.1 digital.

 

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The OP didn't say 5.1 DD+. He(she) was only talking about plain vanilla 5.1 Dolby Digital which can most definitely be carried over optical.

 

The problem is most of the Netflix 5.1 is in DD+. But what is inconsistent is sometimes the TiVo will output it as DD and sometimes as DD+. (While some of the other netflix devices I have will output DD+ all the time for the 5.1 content.)

And maybe that is why the OP has issues with it. If the TiVo is sending out DD+, it will not go over the optical connection, so there will be no audio. While if it sends out DD you will get audio from the optical connection. The TiVo has been inconsistent with it's audio output from Netflix since the upgrade to the new APP which allows for DD+ output.

 

I guess my initial reply was a bit disjointed (hard to understand). I had the same problem. When I hooked up my Tivo's I assumed that since I already had the Optical output from my TV to the receiver that I would get 5.1 DD since the TIVO broadcast video signal runs through the TV-NOT SO. I (like you) would get 5.1 DD from the TV programs (because the optical output from the TV is connected to an optical input on the receiver) but not from NETFLIX (unless I used my SMART TV wireless dongle instead of TIVO for my Netflix). So, again-you MUST connect an OPTICAL CABLE FROM your TIVO optical output and to another OPTICAL INPUT on your RECEIVER- I then received 5.1 DD on NETFLIX-TV- all! (if program is 5.1 DD of course)

I still have the optical out from the TV to the other optical input on the receiver in case I would rather use my SMART TV for streaming-then I just switch to that input on the receiver. Also, I have the TIVO HDMI ouput to a different HDMI input( HDMI 2) on the tv. I have it configured this way so that I can turn off the receiver on occasion and just listen through the TV speakers. I hope this helps-depending on your receivers inputs/outputs and your TV's you may have to experiment-but right now I'm thinking that you DO NOT have an optical cable running from your TIVO to your receiver ( your TV optical out to your receiver-won't work (you will, however, get PCM pass-through and can set up pseudo-fake surround utilizing your receiver features-which I don't care for)- except for TV broadcasts which will output 5.1 DD.

 

What season of White Collar did you try, the early episodes are not in DD on Netflix. Try an episode from season 3 and I think you'll get DD.

 

Seems like you had it hooked up correctly from the start=
I haven't noticed anything on netflix that's DD+- if it indicates 5.1 DD then my receiver lights up "Dolby Digital" on the display. If the show/movie does not indicate 5.1 DD my receiver will indicate PCM and then I simply adjust the audio signal to Dolby Pro logic movie mode/ neo 6 Cinema/ 5 channel stereo etc.. (not as great as pure 5.1 DD but tolerable). I also have the option of running the HDMI cable through my receiver from the TIVO and out to the TV, but for some reason the picture is a bit degraded (my receivers are new and 3D capable). You would think that with a digital signal it's either there or not-must be a bandwidth issue. Great picture with the HDMI from TIVO directly to the TV (we are only OTA since we dumped Dish network after MANY years). Sorry-a bit off subject!

 

Everything I watch on Netflix with 5.1 is in DD+ from my Roku2 . What is weird is that sometimes the TiVo will send out 5.1 DD like it is getting a DD track from somewhere and sometimes it will send out 5.1 DD+ from the same title. Like the title has a DD+ and a DD track but the user only has the option to choose stereo and 5.1. They don't have an option to choose DD or DD+.