Playing DTS Audio from DLNA source\NAS

Skiddley

Skiddley

Skiddley

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Could someone explain my options here, basically my TV (2016 Panasonic Viera) does not have DTS support natively, but the media I have access to via DLNA (ethernet) is encoded with AC3 (current default) DTS, DTS-HD, True-HD etc depending on title in question. There is always AC3 available, and generally multiple other audio tracks of higher quality. I wanted to upgrade from the TV speakers - but knowing what path will enable DTS etc isn't clear;

Two considered options;
- I believe, that a DTS certified soundbar connected to the TV via ARC will not play DTS as the TV would only supply the AC3 track to the soundbar, and not provide the other audio tracks as alternatives.
- Some A/V receivers have DLNA clients built in, but it's unclear if they would allow the playback of video and streaming of video content to the TV, whilst they play back the HD audio.

In my case, I'm playing H.265 encoded video within MKV containers.

The current A\V model seems to miss the mark when it comes to streaming of high-quality content from network sources - which is clearly the future direction. Odd!
 
not sure on all the tech terms but .. i have my files on my Nas in another room the other end of the house , the nas in that room is hooked up to a mede8ter but i also share the nas with the DX by Ethernet.

like you the tv would read some audio files but not all , so i installed Plex onto the xbox and all is good now
 
Skiddley said:
So esentially, you're sidestepping the TV's restrictions by using the Xbox as the DLNA client.
Click to expand...

Yes. That is what he is doing, and is what I am also doing. I use Xbox Ones as my DLNA clients. I also run Plex to do this. Works fine for me, and never really have an issue with audio or video codecs. But I am not running 4K or Atmos/DTS:X files.
 
xs2man said:
Yes. That is what he is doing, and is what I am also doing. I use Xbox Ones as my DLNA clients. I also run Plex to do this. Works fine for me, and never really have an issue with audio or video codecs. But I am not running 4K or Atmos/DTS:X files.
Click to expand...


have you tried the media player on the xbox yet ? i've not , but i noticed it last night , might have a play with it tonight
 
Yes, I have tried it. And often use it. But I use it more with the Serviio DLNA server I run at the same time as Plex. I prefer to use the media player for TV shows generally, because I use Serviio on my lounge TV which is too old for apps like Plex, but runs Serviio better. And I like how I have set up Serviio to display content.

Plex has a nicer GUI though, and has other features, like when you are looking at a movie, you see the cast, and can click on them to see what else they have appeared in, in your collection. Which is a nice feature.
 
Cheapest solution might be to get a Blu-ray player that can manage DLNA and x265. Connect it to your network, then to your amp, then from the amp to the TV.

A better but more expensive solution might be to look at building a full media player from an Intel NUC. It will be upgradable, future proof for new codecs, powerful enough for transcoding, etc.
 
Steampunk said:
Cheapest solution might be to get a Blu-ray player that can manage DLNA and x265
Click to expand...
not sure there are any ? leastways the Pan ub400 4k player £140 will not play x265 media on a usb stick or via streaming (they have locked the 4k disc hardware out)
and they are only putting x265 h/w decode into 4k machines ....I had had high hopes for that as a panacea solution.
but otherwise with both 4k netflix+amazon on board , but no vudu 4k Pan is pretty good.
(Nucs going to have to be kaby lake for 4k streaming services)
 
Xbox One S? They are pretty cheap now. I picked mine up for £130 second hand recently. Looked like new. As before, I don't have any 4K content, or 4K displays, so can't check on that. But they do have a 4K BR drive, and are forever updating stuff. Plus its a games console also. If that sort of thing is of any interest to you.

I recently upgraded both my xbox ones to xbox one s' because of the 4K drive (for the future), and the fact I got them both cheap.

I did get a new one, but with the black friday sales, and after selling my old original xbox one with 6 old games I never played, I ended up paying £80 all in. But for that £80 I got Forza 7, Star Wars Battlefront II and Assassins Creed Origins into the bargain, as well as 3 other games, so I didn't lose out on the overall number of games, and got 3 new AAA games I really wanted anyway. And the other xbox change up saw me making a fiver and a controller for swapping an old 1TB xbox for a 4 month old Xbox One S albeit only 500GB, but was blue rather than the usual white.
 
Steampunk said:
Cheapest solution might be to get a Blu-ray player that can manage DLNA and x265. Connect it to your network, then to your amp, then from the amp to the TV.

A better but more expensive solution might be to look at building a full media player from an Intel NUC. It will be upgradable, future proof for new codecs, powerful enough for transcoding, etc.
Click to expand...


I already have a NAS that can do all of that....but I don't want it in the living room particularly. It's a shame, as the interface is clean on the TV - the last thing I want to introduce is complexity for the sake of it (an optical drive I'll never use for playing discs, or a console....all just to get a licensed DLNA client). I really dislike having multiple remotes, and having to explain to people which HDMI source you need to go to for this and that - want it all in one place dammit :)

Isn't there a tiny media player box i can get, with a slick interface, good integration with the TV, ethernet and HDMI to the TV and AMP that does h265, 4K and all the audio codecs? :D...i guess that's the Xbox..
 
NVIDIA Shield is a good media device will do 4K HDR/h265/ all audio codecs, runs Plex/emby etc without an issue. I got one for £90 second hand, looks like you can pick up a new one for around £140
 
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What I did until recently is use the HDMI out from the Plex app on the TV (LG TV with webOS) to an AV amp. It would work more easily with ARC on HDMI but my AV was the last model before that was offered so I have to use Optical out to the AMP.

The source was a DIY NAS running the Synology OS with PLex running as a DNLA source.

More recently I bought a QNAP 453B which has HDMI out to the TV as it's sat in the same AV cabinet and now use the HDMI passthrough to send AC3/DTS to the AMP via the TV Optical out again. I would use Plex but it keeps the QNAP from entering standby so now use a build of MyKodi side loaded onto the QNAP. Same principals apply but it did take some fiddling with options in the software and the AV amp to get ti all working.
 
bimbleuk said:
What I did until recently is use the HDMI out from the Plex app on the TV (LG TV with webOS) to an AV amp.
Click to expand...

Presumably the TV didn't support DTS, but would it pass it to the AV amp?

I use Mezzmo on my NAS, and the more I look into the Nvidia Shield, the more this looks like a good option, as it's Android based and therefore supports the Mezzmo Android App that has much better integration with the Mezzmo media server than the basic DLNA client on my TV. ...as well as supporting passthrough of all the Audio Codecs to an A/V receiver unlike (presumably) the TV.
 
Yes look at your TV options and it should be able to output the audio only to various options and it will preserve the audio signal so the end point can process it. ARC simplifies the process I presume but I had to resort to optical out.

Even better I would have plugged the QNAP directly into the AV amp and then passed on the video signal to the TV. For some reason though it refuses to show the QNAP desktop so it may be time to get a new AV amp! I'll wait for HDMI 2.1 to come out.
 
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