E-ARC to Optical - DD 5.1 low latency

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

Alexrose1uk

Soldato
Joined
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Milton Keynes
Hi all,
Before I go scouring the internet to try and find something relatively affordable that'll do this, I figured I'd see if someone already knows of something which'll do what I want.

In the bedroom I have an LG C3 OLED which is fantastic. I've got it paired with a slightly older LG soundbar with wireless rear speakers, over optical. That will take Stereo LPCM via Optical, OR Dolby Digital 5.1. It doesn't have Arc/E-Arc and therefore the only way to support true surround on it, is by passing it DD via Optical.

Unfortunately the LG C3 does not have an option as far as I can see to take in an LPCM 5.1, and convert it to DD to output to the Optical port, so all I get is stereo LPCM over optical unless the source itself is DD.

I was hoping there might be an adaptor to take EARC LPCM 5.1 transcode it to DD and then output via Optical, so I can easily get 5.1 for my Switch and PC, which output in LPCM.

It'd save me having to consider replacing the soundbar as otherwise it does exactly as needed; the Switches especially just don't offer a DD option, and saves me having to worry about Dolby software on the PC to output as DD there also. Now that Switch 2 is here, it'd be nice to resolve this in a way that doesn't involve replacing the soundbar.

Thanks in advance.
 
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If im understanding that thread correctly, its more it'll passthrough DD 5.1, BUT not to reencode an incoming lpcm 5.1 signal to dolby digital for onpass via Optical, so the DD being recieved from my Xbox is fine, but it can't reencode/compress the LPCM 5.1 its receiving from the PC or Switch 1/2 to an AC3/DD signal.

It's that re encode of lpcm that's the hard bit. Apparently there's a device called the SHARC that can do it but the damn thing is very expensive. :(
 
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This is not an optical, tv, or soundbar thing.

If you want 5.1 then you need to do it at source. Optical doesn’t have the bandwidth for LPCM5.1 so it needs compressing.

So it sounds like your pc is not encoding into DD - you can get software to do it, it’s in the windows store.

The switch probably has a way to do Dolby output, it’ll be a setting there.
 
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The Switch has absolutely no way to output Dolby Digital, they didn't pay for the licensing. It's been that way since the Switch 1 in 2017, and hasn't changed with the Switch 2.
 
Alexrose1uk said:
The Switch has absolutely no way to output Dolby Digital, they didn't pay for the licensing. It's been that way since the Switch 1 in 2017, and hasn't changed with the Switch 2.
Click to expand...

Well that is gash. They have great games but their hardware is always naff.

In that case, you need an encoder that can work on LPCM 5.1 and change to DD live - the problem being the DD licence for the encoder would make it probably more expensive than just a new soundbar.

You’d probably also need a way to adjust for time sync issues.
 
stuman said:
Well that is gash. They have great games but their hardware is always naff.

In that case, you need an encoder that can work on LPCM 5.1 and change to DD live - the problem being the DD licence for the encoder would make it probably more expensive than just a new soundbar.

You’d probably also need a way to adjust for time sync issues.
Click to expand...

Easier just to get a AVR, I can do what you're wanting with my AVR no problem, expand stereo PCM to 7.1, expand DTS & Dolby Digital 2.0 to 7.1 etc
 
Unfortunately no room where this setup is located for an AVR, and it wouldn't work with the wireless rear speakers anyhow.

I've pretty much consigned myself to having to look at a new soundbar at some point, and just stick with stereo for the switch atm.

To be clear it wasn't that I wanted to expand stereo. I wanted to reencode LPCM 5.1 to AC3 so it could be passed to the soundbar.

Right now most streaming apps offer Dolby as does the Xbox, the PC can be forced to, but that's not an option at all with the Switch, and was trying to work out a way around this using E-ARC, by getting a box to re-encode all incoming audio to DD and onpassing via stereo.

As said, there's a box that does it, called the SHARC, but by the time ive bought that, Id be better off upgrading to a higher end soundbar.
 
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Alexrose1uk said:
Unfortunately no room where this setup is located for an AVR, and it wouldn't work with the wireless rear speakers anyhow.

I've pretty much consigned myself to having to look at a new soundbar at some point, and just stick with stereo for the switch atm.

To be clear it wasn't that I wanted to expand stereo. I wanted to reencode LPCM 5.1 to AC3 so it could be passed to the soundbar.

Right now most streaming apps offer Dolby as does the Xbox, the PC can be forced to, but that's not an option at all with the Switch, and was trying to work out a way around this using E-ARC, by getting a box to re-encode all incoming audio to DD and onpassing via stereo.

As said, there's a box that does it, called the SHARC, but by the time ive bought that, Id be better off upgrading to a higher end soundbar.
Click to expand...

Get a new soundbar then, one with DSP that'll expand.

The same thing will happen in a few years, you'll have to change the soundbar again, junking the sub and speakers because it's all tied in to each other. There aren't many slimline/small AVR's generally all 40cm or so width. Nothing around like the Wiim Amp size but 5.1 or at least to my knowledge there isn't
 
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