Help with AVR connections....

oHUTCHYo · 18 Jan 2018 at 07:54

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.

Steedie · 18 Jan 2018 at 09:47

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

oHUTCHYo · 18 Jan 2018 at 10:41

Steedie said:
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

Steedie · 18 Jan 2018 at 10:49

You could go HDMI to the TV from the Shield, then TV to the amp via optical, which would do the same thing.

And you'll get exactly the same picture just as you say, without HDR. So on my LG TV, it just wouldn't enable HDR picture settings etc and tell me it's an HDR signal but the content played and looked fine. Then when I'd turn the receiver on, HDR would become enabled and you'd see the difference.

oHUTCHYo · 18 Jan 2018 at 11:48

...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.

Chris1712 · 18 Jan 2018 at 12:20

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.

oHUTCHYo · 18 Jan 2018 at 12:37

Chris1712 said:
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.

lucid · 18 Jan 2018 at 13:40

The lack of any AV output other than HDMI on the Shield does hurt your options. With a coax or optical out you'd at least have DD and DTS.

There is a way you can get this though. There are devices around that can sit in-line between the HDMI Out of a source device and the HDMI In of a TV and strip out the audio without harming the picture resolution or messing up the HDR/HLG content. They're called Audio De-embedders. The rub is though that that the ones that do HDR/HLG are not cheap, but certainly cheaper than buying a new audio system at the same quality as your YSP.

Atlona does the HDR-M2C ($450 USD), HDFury does the AVR Key ($149 USD). Exchange rates and distribution pricing being what it is, my guess is that the Dollar prices will convert pretty much 1:1 to Sterling on specialist low volume items like this.

I noticed that there is a used Atlona on Ebay with a Buy-it-Now of £164. I can't be 100% certain, but I think I saw an AVR-Key for sale from a guy in Northern Ireland on AVForums classifieds a few days ago.