AV player/streamer (Hardware) for 9.2 playback

[sandeeprawat]

Hi FMs,

After finishing my 5.1 audio setup during covid, I thought of upgrading my visual experience as well and ordered Toshiba U7980 (would have loved CX instead). Now I realised that my AVR only supports 4K pass-through without HDR support so I'll have to rely upon ARC.
I don't like ARC fully as I sometime enjoy listening to music while keeping tv off which won't work with ARC (i do have another full HD fireTv as well that I can connect to avr so not that big of a problem but still)

Keeping this in mind I was thinking of upgrading to an AVR with 9.2 (or even 11.2) channels but I am not sure what hardware do I need to output 9.2/11.2 channel audio along with Dolby Vision HDR+ etc? Also what media (BD? maybe) and where would I get this media to enjoy this setup.

Thanks in advance.

 

[sandeeprawat]

Bump! Can't believe 0 response on a thread in HFV . Need to start talking about FALD vs OLED.

 

[vikas pathak]

Hi FMs,

After finishing my 5.1 audio setup during covid, I thought of upgrading my visual experience as well and ordered Toshiba U7980 (would have loved CX instead). Now I realised that my AVR only supports 4K pass-through without HDR support so I'll have to rely upon ARC.
I don't like ARC fully as I sometime enjoy listening to music while keeping tv off which won't work with ARC (i do have another full HD fireTv as well that I can connect to avr so not that big of a problem but still)

Keeping this in mind I was thinking of upgrading to an AVR with 9.2 (or even 11.2) channels but I am not sure what hardware do I need to output 9.2/11.2 channel audio along with Dolby Vision HDR+ etc? Also what media (BD? maybe) and where would I get this media to enjoy this setup.

Thanks in advance.

Hi,

You can use apple TV 4k. It supports all latest audio and visual formats and best out there. You can stream Netflix, Prime video etc on this.

If you had collection of bluray and dvd then you can opt for bluray player or xbox one.

 

[rksingh1]

tv off which won't work with ARC

I don't think so - ARC won't play any role when you just want to use AVR for listening to music, provided you have all the things connected to AVR. (Need to understand your setup)

but I am not sure what hardware do I need to output 9.2/11.2

Can you please clarify, not sure what the question is? Most of the items of Prime are 5.1, some Netflix and YouTube content are Atmos enabled. Y

ou must have excellent source that is mastered at 7 channel for your AVR to distribute the signals accordingly. Blue Ray, is best option, other than that, you can buy full movies from various online platform or play 7.1 content from your harddisk or kodi if you have such content.

 

[sandeeprawat]

I don't think so - ARC won't play any role when you just want to use AVR for listening to music, provided you have all the things connected to AVR. (Need to understand your setup)

It was like if I want to play music on YouTube and turn tv off (FTV stick is connected to tv so it won't work). Anyways not a major issue as I do have another fire tv connected to avr now and looks like tv has an audio only mode as well so all good.

Can you please clarify, not sure what the question is? Most of the items of Prime are 5.1, some Netflix and YouTube content are Atmos enabled. Y

ou must have excellent source that is mastered at 7 channel for your AVR to distribute the signals accordingly. Blue Ray, is best option, other than that, you can buy full movies from various online platform or play 7.1 content from your harddisk or kodi if you have such content.

Yeah I was asking if there are any input sources/media that provides 9.2 channels?
UHD Bluray TruHD will give 7.1 only right?

If I buy 9.2 AVR, what do I need to I use all the channels effectively ( for example do I need to get an Auro-3D Blu-ray disk and a player that supports auro-3d or as long as I can play Dolby Atmos that is good enough to use those 11 channels as Atmos is object based so it should be able to use lot more speakers).

Hope this clarifies.

 

[rksingh1]

input sources/media that provides 9.2 channels?

Input sources won't have channels, it'll have mastered audio either in DD, DTS, DD TrueHD, DTS HD, DTS:x or Atmos level.

Each of these audio configuration have different encoding which the AVR processes and routes to respective speaker channel. So a DD or DTS can be routed to 5.1, 5.2, 7.1, 7.2 or even 9.1/9.2 for an overkill in home use. TrueHD or HD can make use of 7 channel surround sound. Now if the audio is dts:x or Atmos, the setup can be any that I mentioned above plus .2 or .4 depending upon your ceiling speaker count. So if you have 9 surround speakers and 4 ceiling speakers, 9.2.4 setup can be driven by 13.2 channel AVR with a dts:x or Dolby Atmos audio encoding.

All blueray (well most of them) have Atmos and/or DTS:x encoding so you can make use of 13.2 channel setup. There is also lot of content on kodi or similar streaming services that'll offer Dts x or Atmos, enabling you to use all 13 channels.

Now, how useful are these in a home setup is a totally a different question.

 

[spirovious]

What I understand from 1st post is that you want to enjoy HDR which your AVR do not support.Some 4k BD players do come with dual HDMI out. So HDR out can be connected to TV and other HDMi to avr for audio.If such player has inbuilt streaming capability, you purpose is solved.

 

[edjamesx]

It was like if I want to play music on YouTube and turn tv off (FTV stick is connected to tv so it won't work). Anyways not a major issue as I do have another fire tv connected to avr now and looks like tv has an audio only mode as well so all good.

If you have any media player (like Nvidia shield ) , you can initiate youtube playback then turn off Tv. But you need to turn on tv once for initiating music /youtube playback.
I have HTPC connected to AVR, and i login remotely from my mobile then play youtube or music. (this way ,No need of any TV or display).

Most of the AVRs now a days have direct connectivity to online music channels (where we need to get paid subscription example :HEOS in denon) , by this way also one can use simply AVR to enjoy music. Also one can use WIFI /bluetooth streaming for music from mobile or any gadgets.

Most of the AVRs support playback from USB. HDD drive. This is another option to play music without using any additional device or display.

If I buy 9.2 AVR, what do I need to I use all the channels effectively ( for example do I need to get an Auro-3D Blu-ray disk and a player that supports auro-3d or as long as I can play Dolby Atmos that is good enough to use those 11 channels as Atmos is object based so it should be able to use lot more speakers).

Hope this clarifies.

Dolby Atmos content support max 9.1 (5.4.1) channel ( rarely 11.1 channels (7.4.1)) ,,anything above AVR will expand same sound to additional channels.
But with 9.1 channel AVR also we can get nice atmos sound cutting out Surround back left /Right. If you have very big room then only need Surround back channels.
Also There are not much Atmos source contents available as of today with Blue ray discs and OTT also.
Considering this 9.1 channel AVR should be more than sufficient for home use , and most of the AVRs have capability to expand to 11.1 channel by adding additional power amp , That we may go for it if needed in the future.

Keeping this in mind I was thinking of upgrading to an AVR with 9.2 (or even 11.2) channels but I am not sure what hardware do I need to output 9.2/11.2 channel audio along with Dolby Vision HDR+ etc? Also what media (BD? maybe) and where would I get this media to enjoy this setup.

Thanks in advance.

You can look for many options for media playback
1.NVidia Shield Pro Tv
2.Gaming consoles ( xbox one x )
3.Dedicated Home Theater PC Build
4.Blueray Player
5. Apple media box

Hope this helps.