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I have a Sony Android tv with Freeview and that outputs at Dolby digital 2.0 and 5.1 as expected, pcm sound is only using the beam and not the rear Sonos speakers, so I’d say it’s definitely a humax problem and not Sonos, the only time the rears work is Dolby digital 5.1.
Wheelmon – 17 hours ago »
GrahamY – I’ve replied to your DM.
Just a point: I take it you’ve been to Settings > Device Preferences > Sound > Select formats.
I tried both ‘Auto’ and ‘Manual’ but it made no difference.
On ‘Auto’ it switches on ‘DD’, ‘DD+’ and ‘DTS’. My TV can handle just those three’ so there is some sort of recognition. From this I think we can assume that Humax do intend for it to provide what we need. It’s just not actually doing it in practice!
Hopefully it’ll be sorted in the next firmware update as you say.
The Sonos App normally shows “Audio input: ‘Stereo PCM 2.0’ or ‘Dolby Digital 2.0’ or ‘Dolby Digital 5.1’.”
As it is it’s showing:
MS12 On : everything ‘Dolby Digital 5.1’
MS12 Off: everything ‘Stereo PCM 2.0’
Yes I have tried all the various combinations under manual/auto and each time get unsatisfactory results. I am using an Onkyo receiver, so this problem is not specific to Sonos.
Barry – 9 hours ago »
Humax Towers have been reading this thread and asked me to post the following:
Freeview channels do not have Dolby Digital Audio – the actual transmission is AAC 5.1 if it is multi-channel.
(Most of contents have 2-channel AAC, but sometimes AAC 5.1 is transmitted. AAC is MPEG-4 audio, a different format from Dolby.)
In case of Android TV, AAC multi-channel audio will be decoded by STB, and send PCM output to audio device according to capability.
– If the receiver supports multi channels (usually AVR), then the output will be PCM 5.1
– If the receiver supports stereo (TV), the output will be PCM stereo.
– The legacy STBs will transcode AAC 5.1 to DD 5.1.
MS12 options should be off – and if everything is ok, correct format should be PCM 5.1, and Sonos App should display PCM 5.1 as well. (Not PCM 2.0 nor DD 5.1)
I searched with “Sonos PCM 5.1”, there was a software update from Sonos side recently : https://support.sonos.com/s/article/3521?language=en_US
11/10/2020 : “Sonos Arc now supports multi-channel LPCM surround sound through an eARC connection.”
So, I think Sonos Software update may help – and it would be interesting to see the result.
If I set MS12 to off, I only get PCM 2.0 output, never 5.1 – even when the channel is sending 5.1 (checked via other DTV and by switching MS12 to on). I have an Onkyo receiver, so this issue is not specific to Sonos.
What’s puzzling me is if Freeview doesn’t do Dolby Digital audio then who does?
My Sony TV on its own is sending Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1 on all HD channels and Stereo PCM 2.0 on all SD channels (and Radio) to sound system. Exactly the same with the DTRT2100 > Sony TV. (Both with speech from centre speaker and rear speakers working).
With the Aura it’s more a question of what you’re going to sacrifice than what you’re going to get. The choice is MS12 On or MS12 Off. Neither being satisfactory.
I’ll see what Humax say if they reply to my email. My question is : is it a software or a hardware problem? Not sure whether that’s the right terminology. What I mean is can it be fixed with an update or am I stuck with it as it is?
Just a minute ago I switched to & fro several time between TV and Aura on Channel 204 which is currently in DD 5.1 (according to the Sonos App when on TV).
The difference in the audio is unbelievable!
On TV it is true surround sound with speech from centre of sound bar and not from rear speakers. On Aura the speech comes out of all speakers and no separation. Also the volume has to be turned up twice as much. Sonos App shows Stereo PCM 2.0 . You can’t tell what anybody’s saying because it’s all in a big soup.
Apologies for repeating the same facts.
Further update just received from Humax Towers:
We apologize for your inconvenience, and can confirm a software update is necessary to solve the situation.
In summary:
• Audio for Freeview HD channel is AAC (2.0 or 5.1)
• Aura provides PCM 5.1 for AAC multi-channel, if MS-12 transcoding option is off.
• But if a user uses ARC (not eARC) or S/PDIF, PCM multi-channel is not supported due to the limited bandwidth – Probably this is the case of Sonos Beam, and it is our mistake to miss it.
• As PCM 5.1 is in general better output, we’ll keep it as default operation, but will provide additional option to enable DD 5.1 transcoding,.
For the time being,
• Please use HDMI connection for Audio Devices instead of S/PDIF, whenever possible.
• Recommended connection : Aura – (HDMI) – AVR – (HDMI) – TV, if it is supported.
Wheelmon – 1 day ago »
It seems that with MS12 ON everything (incl SD and radio) comes out as a ‘made up’ 5.1 which only actually works with 5.1 transmitted programmes if you’re using a surround sound system. Humax suggest this setting is used with just the TV on its own.
The ‘fault’ lies with MS12 OFF (quote: “recommended when you use additional audio device”). Humax go on to say “..You can enjoy its original sound…..”. This certainly is not happening as everything now comes out in Stereo 2.0 regardless of the transmitted format and when the transmission is DD 5.1 the volume drops considerably and the speech isn’t ‘right’. My tech knowledge is limited but shouldn’t ‘speech’ frequencies be channelled separately?
Hopefully Humax can see this but perhaps they need a nudge.
All the content including Video audio, audio description and subtitles etc is transmited within a container and is simply copied to the hard disk as is. It’s the job of the tuner to extract the digital data for this channel from the mux.
When you replay a recording. The tuner is not needed it simply presents the complete data stream to the boxes mpeg decoders.
As far as the box is concerned it’s a perfect replica of the original broadcast stream. Any of the options that were originally transmitted should be selectable exactly as if you were watching the original live broadcast.
If the original broadcast was from a HD channel then your TV may not be able to handle the Dolby Digital audio used by HD broadcasts.
SD channels use mpeg1 layer 2 audio. Changing the digital audio out option from surround to stereo should recode Dolby Digital your TV cannot cope with to mpeg 1 layer 2 audio.
A side effect is that the Aura box volume control will now control the volume.
Thank you Barry and thank you Humax, I now have renewed hope. The Aura is so user friendly compared with the FVP5000T which I only kept for a few months.
As Martin Liddle said earlier “if Humax continue to fix bugs for a while longer, then the Aura may well turn out to be the best box they have produced since the HDR-FOX T2”. I’ve had quite a few Humax’s over the years, until recently via BT, and have great faith.
Barry – 20 hours ago »
Further update just received from Humax Towers:
We apologize for your inconvenience, and can confirm a software update is necessary to solve the situation.
In summary:
• Audio for Freeview HD channel is AAC (2.0 or 5.1)
• Aura provides PCM 5.1 for AAC multi-channel, if MS-12 transcoding option is off.
• But if a user uses ARC (not eARC) or S/PDIF, PCM multi-channel is not supported due to the limited bandwidth – Probably this is the case of Sonos Beam, and it is our mistake to miss it.
• As PCM 5.1 is in general better output, we’ll keep it as default operation, but will provide additional option to enable DD 5.1 transcoding,.
For the time being,
• Please use HDMI connection for Audio Devices instead of S/PDIF, whenever possible.
• Recommended connection : Aura – (HDMI) – AVR – (HDMI) – TV, if it is supported.
That is great news and indeed I am using ARC via HDMI to the TV and then to the receiver, but also tried SPDIF direct to the Onkyo receiver. I am happy to test a beta if that is possible.
Just one observation. I have been using Sky HD and now SkyQ for many years via HDMI ARC and never had any problems or bandwidth issues with 5.1 content. Indeed, with Aura and MS12 On, the 5.1 surround sound works fine via ARC.
Thanks
Graham
Graham, your last sentence prompted me to say that for the time being I’m using that setting, but when there’s no 5.1 transmission I have “Digital Audio” set to Stereo for much clearer speech. This of course is the case most of the time. If however I am aware that I’m watching a 5.1 prog I can switch to “Surround” quite easily. Worth it if it’s a film or such.
Wheelmon – 36 mins ago »
Graham, your last sentence prompted me to say that for the time being I’m using that setting, but when there’s no 5.1 transmission I have “Digital Audio” set to Stereo for much clearer speech. This of course is the case most of the time. If however I am aware that I’m watching a 5.1 prog I can switch to “Surround” quite easily. Worth it if it’s a film or such.
Yes, I am doing the same until Humax Towers provide a fix
Barry – 2 days ago »
Further update just received from Humax Towers:
We apologize for your inconvenience, and can confirm a software update is necessary to solve the situation.
In summary:
• Audio for Freeview HD channel is AAC (2.0 or 5.1)
• Aura provides PCM 5.1 for AAC multi-channel, if MS-12 transcoding option is off.
• But if a user uses ARC (not eARC) or S/PDIF, PCM multi-channel is not supported due to the limited bandwidth – Probably this is the case of Sonos Beam, and it is our mistake to miss it.
• As PCM 5.1 is in general better output, we’ll keep it as default operation, but will provide additional option to enable DD 5.1 transcoding,.
For the time being,
• Please use HDMI connection for Audio Devices instead of S/PDIF, whenever possible.
• Recommended connection : Aura – (HDMI) – AVR – (HDMI) – TV, if it is supported.
I can confirm that when I stop using ARC and instead use Aura -> Onkyo -> TV then the surround sound works as expected and auto-switches. And even 2.0 sources, the central voice comes out the central speaker. The only downside with this configuration is that I now lose 4K (because the Onkyo receiver only works with HD) and also I now get more glitches (e.g. occassionally no sound or picture on power-on requiring reboot etc), So would like to go back to using ARC.
I would still like Humax to fix the underlying issue where the Aura does not auto switch between 2.0 and 5.1 when using ARC. This seems to work fine with all other sources. I have emailed Humax Support, but still received no response after three days. What is the best way of getting in touch with Humax?
Thanks
Graham
Just posting by way of an apology to grahamlthompson for not responding to your detailed post 23 Feb. Thankyou for that. It coincided with the report from Humax Towers. I have limited technical knowledge on the subject and have been piecing it together bit by bit.
At the end of the day I really just need to know whether the Aura will ever be compatible with the Sonos ‘Beam’ system post Humax’s proposed update. The same problem as that of Tommy1976 who started this thread.
I had emailed Humax Support on 22nd of Feb but have not yet received a reply. I gave them a link to this forum so they probably won’t reply directly.
I now impatiently await the outcome with fingers crossed.
I have just seem a mention on another thread of a proposed public update release on or around the 19th May.
Would this be a firmware update to include the addition of Dolby Digital 5.1 output with MS12 turned off? This was suggested by Humax Towers via Barry on 23rd Feb on this thread.
Wheelmon – 4 mins ago »
I have just seem a mention on another thread of a proposed public update release on or around the 19th May.
Would this be a firmware update to include the addition of Dolby Digital 5.1 output with MS12 turned off? This was suggested by Humax Towers via Barry on 23rd Feb on this thread.
This post?
https://myhumax.org/forum/topic/my-aura-issues-three-weeks-of-ownership#post-89287
It was posted in April. The 12th April update was first expected in the week commencing the 19th April.
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