Help with AVR connections....

[oHUTCHYo]

I'm migrating from a Pi3 to an Nvidia Shield with the intention of trying to enjoy some 4K goodness. My setup is...

• 65" Samsung KS8000
• Yamaha YSP2500
• Synology 218+ + 2x4TB Red
• Pi3 -> Nvidia Shield

I understand my YSP2500 does not allow HDR passthrough. This scuppers my plans somewhat as everything is connected to the YSP2500, then in to the TV.

I can't quite get my head around a solution, if one even exists. If I connected the Shield directly to the TV, would I then be limiting what audio I can play? If I tried to play a HDR file via passthrough, would the source just not allow it to be played?

There is a newer model, a Yamaha YSP2700 which supports HDR, but would prefer to avoid spending any more money at this stage.

 

[oHUTCHYo]

Any reason you can't just turn the av receiver on?

But yeah, to answer your question about playing content with HDR when via passthrough, it would just play it without HDR. My old AV receiver was the same.

What connections are on the shield? You could always go to the TV direct then TV to the amp via optical or something (depending on your av receiver connections) so you still get the full audio

Thanks mate. When it plays without the HDR does it impact visual quality (other than the obvious lack of HDR?). No optical on the Shield unfortunately. However I did consider an Xbox One X now that Kodi is available...hmmmm

 

[oHUTCHYo]

...Ive ordered the Xbox One X instead of the Shield. If I was going to pay £180 for Shield I may as well pay the extra and have a games console too

Thanks for your advice mate, I'll give optical a try amongst the other options also.

 

[oHUTCHYo]

You won't gain anything media wise from the One X, as it won't bitstream audio which is the only thing you're really missing from the shield -> tv setup. Is your synology using NFS not SMB? Because Kodi UWP is NFS only.

You'll have to sacrifice audio or video one way or another, and considering it's just a sound bar I'd sacrifice audio. Shield -> TV direct with HDMI so you get 4k HDR then use optical or ARC to get the audio to the soundbar.

Thanks Chris - Ive cancelled the Xbox minutes after I placed it as know the Shield will tick more boxes from a media player perspective. Your comments are reassuring, thank you!

Hopefully the optical solution works, as despite (I think) it only downsampling to 5.1 audio ultimately its only a soundbar and shouldn't be too of a discernible downgrade. Id prefer better visuals/HDR first and foremost.