ARC Audio vs. blu ray audio in HT quality difference?

[X man]

Is there any difference in audio quality thru ARC to AVR or from Bluray/other source to AVR?

I play 4K HDR files on my Sony X9000e directly through USB drive since my older Sony Bluray or AVR (Marantz SR6005)cant deal with 4K. I used ARC channel to my AVR to play the sound for my HT.

I have however found sound quality of audio played through Bluray or pen drive of my bluray player better..even if I were to use basic Dolby 5.1 option for both.

 

[elangoas]

Is there any difference in audio quality thru ARC to AVR or from Bluray/other source to AVR

Yes.. There is limitation with ARC functionality, as it can't send lossless soundtrack (DTS-HDMA, Dolby True HD, Atmos, Dts X) back to AVR.. It is capable of only lossy sound tracks (DD, DTS)..

eARC feature of HDMI is supposed to solve this, but i guess both the TV & the AVR need to have the feature for it to work..

To avoid this, get a Android TV box ( less than 5K) and plug it directly to AVR.. So the AVR receives lossless soundtracks, instead of the lossy route thru ARC from TV..

 

[X man]

Thanks.. so even a 5.1 Dolby will sound different though ARC and from Bluray player.. Any suggestions for android Tv box.? Also what would be the connections be like for playing a 4K file as my AVR does not have 4K - will need to feed 4K to TV directly via HDMI i presume and what about sending sound to AVR then?

 

[elangoas]

Thanks.. so even a 5.1 Dolby will sound different though ARC and from Bluray player..

If you play a movie with Dolby True HD from bluray player to TV (or) thru TV directly, ARC has the limitation to send HD audio odec to AVR, so it will down-convert to lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 and sends it to AVR..

Any suggestions for android Tv box.?

There are too many choices and hard to suggest a particular model.. However any Tv box with 2/3GB RAM will be able to handle the 4K codec's..

Also what would be the connections be like for playing a 4K file as my AVR does not have 4K - will need to feed 4K to TV directly via HDMI i presume and what about sending sound to AVR then?

If the AVR doesn't have 4K, then you have limited options IMO.. If you connect the Android TV Box to your TV directly for 4K, most Android TV box have optical out.. Optical out also has limitation to handle lossless sounds.. It can handle lossy soundtracks, which is the same as HDMI-ARC.. So no benefit..

if you have a PC, then you can add a graphics card which would usually have multiple video output options.. HDMI, displayport and DVI.. So you can use the HDMI to AVR to get lossless sound and use displayport to HDMI adapter for 4K (If that will work)..

On a side note, a 4K capable AVR, even an entry level should solve your connectivity issues..

 

[X man]

Thanks

 

[spirovious]

Source player is important here.TV has to handle many thing and bluray player is a dedicated source.Most of the time bdp would sound better than TV.

 

[rajbha24]

tanix tx3 mini is good option i m using it from past 11 months it plays 4k hdr 10bit x265 like charm you throw anything it plays smooth like butter
2gigs ram 16gigs internal go for it 3k totally worth it