Hi,
With each new video, I learn something new.
That’s especially true since my last video
in which I thought I was testing HDMI eARC
connection, but as it turns out, I was actually
testing just the ordinary ARC.
So in my previous video, I used LG 2019 TV
and Denon’s X1600H A/V receiver to see which
audio formats would pass from the TV to the
receiver via HDMI ARC connection. During this
test, I was able to get Dolby Atmos within
Dolby Digital Plus from Netflix, Prime Video
and even from TVs media player.
However, what I learned from your comments
is that to get this I do not need enhanced
audio return channel - ordinary ARC would
do the job. The reason for this is that streaming
services in order to save on bandwidth are
sending out Dolby Atmos within lossy Dolby
Digital Plus which is something ARC can handle.
This table from Dolby’s developer website
clearly shows this, but as I have the equipment,
I thought to verify it.
So I hooked up my Denon AVR-X1300W A/V receiver
which only supports ARC and guess what - I
got exactly the same results as before. I
got Dolby Atmos within Dolby Digital Plus
on all three sources I tested. What is interesting
is that in this configuration I was getting
Dolby Atmos in Netflix without the need to
use the trick from my previous video - by
switching from internal to external speaker
during the playback.
Okay, now that we have this clarified, it’s
time to test eARC!
TV’s media player doesn’t support lossless
audio formats such as Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD
Master Audio, so I did the test in the following
way. I connected Panasonic’s Ultra HD Blu-ray
player DP-UB450 to the TV on HDMI 1 and kept
HDMI cable connected between the TV and Denon
X1600H. I adjusted sound output to Bitstream
on the player and turned on eARC on the TV.
To test Dolby Atmos I tried Mad Max: Fury
Road and for DTS:X I used A Beautiful Planet,
both on UHD Blu-ray.
Result: eARC was working! I got Dolby Atmos
within lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS:X within
lossless DTS-HD Master Audio without any issues.
Though you can this without the need for eARC
in the first place by connecting the player
directly to the receiver, still it is nice
to confirm eARC connection working perfectly
in this scenario.
And that’s all I wanted to share with you
in this video. Thanks again for all your helpful
comments and let me know if you would like
that I make more videos like this in the future
with different TVs and receivers.
Once again thanks to LG representative office
in Croatia and to company Ronis for giving
me enough time to play with these exciting
new products.
See you in my next video.
