TV & Home Theater

[MIKIEMIKE]

I have a sony ht rt3 soundbar (a 5.1 channel with 3 drivers on the bar and 2 separate surround drivers) connect to my tv via hdmi arc. The soundbar have dolby digital capabilities while the tv can output up to dolby digital plus but currently is set to output dolby digital to match the soundbar's capability. The problem is, via Bluetooth, I can get sound from all the channels but via the hdmi, sound only comes from the bar even when streaming a netflix 5.1 film. What could be the issue?

[MIKIEMIKE]

This only disables the CEC capabilities on the soundbar side. Mine was a sony soundbar with an infinix tv. I came to realise that when setting up the two, I had created a Bluetooth connection between the two before opting for HDMI ARC. That Bluetooth connection between the tv and the soundbar remained active even though the soundbar was not on BT mode. Now, when you switch off the tv it doesn't go off completely but starts initiating BT connection with the soundbar; waking up your soundbar even though the tv seems to be in sleep or standby mode. This communication between the tv and the soundbar goes on and off for some reason....to cut the long story short, I removed my soundbar from the list of Bluetooth connected devices on my tv and have never had the issue again! My CEC is still fully enabled and can control my soundbar via tv remote and the work just perfectly fine. Hope this was helpful

[MIKIEMIKE]

Just to add on the issue, the only time I get true dolby surround with all the channels working is when I connect my laptop to the tv via hdmi then stream the movie from my laptop. Otherwise, for all the channels to work, I have to change output audio format to PCM which do not sound great at all!

[CalebH-BBY Social Media Specialist]

Good morning, Mike!

Thanks for writing to us and welcome to our online Forums! From what I can see, this is actually something I've somewhat ran into before. I have an LG soundbar that sometimes doesn't use all the channels when watching Hulu. In a case like this, it actually ended up being a software incompatibility. I just needed to try downloading the newest update that came out and boom - that was it!

In your case, it seems to be a little more complex. Just to make sure I'm on the same page, it looks like it works as intended over Bluetooth and hooked up to your laptop. At the end of the day, it depends mostly on the type of media being consumed. For example, if I'm watching a movie on Netflix and it's not compatible with 5.1 audio, it'll probably just default to a 2.1 format. I hope that makes sense. So, I would definitely try different forms of media on a few platforms. You've done some great troubleshooting so far. If my idea doesn't pan out, there's a possibility of a software or hardware defect in here. But, we can check that out when the time comes.

I hope this helps out!

Best,

[MIKIEMIKE]

Thank you. But am talking of....same movie on Netflix can do 5.1 on my laptop but on the android tv Netflix app...it won't

[cr_client]

What Android TV are you using?  That might help the forums narrow down a possible cause and/or solution.

Netflix's official position is that all parts of the audio chain need to support Dolby Digital Plus in order for 5.1 surround to work on the Android TV app.

There's obviously something about the way the Laptop is outputting the audio that allows it to push through 5.1 over HDMI to the TV then through to the Soundbar.

[CalebH-BBY Social Media Specialist]

Mike,

Thank you for this update! Does it give you the option on your TV to select 5.1? If so, does the soundbar just not output it then?

Thanks,

[MIKIEMIKE]

The TV I have is an Infinix X1 android tv, capable of outputting up to Dolby digital plus (at least that's what the specs say). The soundbar is a Sony HT-RT3 with 5.1 channels with up to Dolby digital capabilities. What I am getting from your point is that all the equipment have to be Dolby digital plus capable for me to get the 5.1 surround sound, but it gets me wondering why when watching movies on the Movies & TV app on the windows laptop, I get the Dolby Audio sign and the 5.1 surround sound working perfectly. Is the problem with the TV settings, the soundbar or the Netflix app? Thank you!

[CalebH-BBY Social Media Specialist · Accepted solution]

Good morning, Mike!

These are awesome questions! And thank you for the context on the hardware itself. It's entirely possible that the laptop's Netflix settings are set to 5.1 surround sound and the TV's app is not. I would make sure that the audio selected on the TV is correct. Assuming you're testing the same movie/TV show on both the laptop and TV, the only variables remaining would be the TV settings or Netflix app settings. If we're not able to get it with these ideas, I do have a couple more we could fall back on. 

Please let me know what you think and find out!