Tech Tuesday: Unlocking the Power of Dolby 5.1

[harkpabst]

The eARC works great for stereo - this monitor has smart TV apps built in so by using eARC, I don't have to change inputs if I use the built in apps (my wife and I watch TV in my offices when they kids are playing on the living room TV)

In theory, Battlefield should be able to send Dolby Digital without an encoder but I'm not sure exactly how it works.

8 channel PCM is clearly not possible.

I miss my old surround setup and have been thinking about going to a Marantz Cinema 70s...

Just to be perfectly clear and not leave any ambiguities: WiiM devices do not support eARC but just ARC.

Fittingly, the only multi-channel format supported is Dolby Digital (AC3). No Dolby Digital+, no Atmos, no nothing.

 

[mrmx]

Fittingly, the only multi-channel format supported is Dolby Digital (AC3). No Dolby Digital+, no Atmos, no nothing.

Does it support AAC 5.1? It seems from this post that it does, even though AAC 5.1 is not Dolby AFAIK. Is there a list somewhere of the exact audio formats supported?

 

[harkpabst]

Does it support AAC 5.1? It seems from this post that it does, even though AAC 5.1 is not Dolby AFAIK. Is there a list somewhere of the exact audio formats supported?

This reads like the AAC file ist not played back from the WiiM device directly, the term "passthrough" is a bit ambiguous.

WiiM does support AAC, of course, but according to the standard AC-3 is the only audio codec for Dolby Digital.

 

[mrmx]

It's a video file (mp4), played on the TV and audio passed through to the Wiim. The question is does Wiim support multichannel (5.1) AAC?

 

[Burnside]

It's a video file (mp4), played on the TV and audio passed through to the Wiim. The question is does Wiim support multichannel (5.1) AAC?

I haven’t seen anywhere that WiiM supports anything other than DD5.1 which it will either downmix or play in WiiM DD5.1 setup. You’re probably better raising a ticket to WiiM via the more/feedback section in the WiiM app and ask them directly.

 

[DoubleTap]

Just to be perfectly clear and not leave any ambiguities: WiiM devices do not support eARC but just ARC.

Fittingly, the only multi-channel format supported is Dolby Digital (AC3). No Dolby Digital+, no Atmos, no nothing.

Right.

I did manage to get my Wiim Pro into a group with my Amp Ultra last night - I didn't have any speakers to connect and when my PC was the source, there was no difference, but when I switched the monitor over to the built in smart TV apps and played a movie on Prime Video, it was able to get Dolby working (but again, I only had L/R speakers)

The app said there was 800ms latency and there was significant audio delay in the movie. This persisted in both the movie and in a PC game (when I switched back) until I dissolved the group.

Perhaps the latency issue could be worked out and this could be a neat solution for a micro theater but for my purposes, I think I'm going to get a decent AVR that will let me run my L/R speakers on an external amp.

 

[Wiimer]

Right.



The app said there was 800ms latency and there was significant audio delay in the movie.

Does changing the delay to 70 ms in the APP not solve the lip-sync problem?

 

[DoubleTap]

Does changing the delay to 70 ms in the APP not solve the lip-sync problem?

I didn't try it - I think I assumed the delay was the difference between the Wiim Amp Ultra and the Wiim Pro and since I didn't have extra speakers, I didn't think it was an issue

 

[Wiimer]

I didn't try it - I think I assumed the delay was the difference between the Wiim Amp Ultra and the Wiim Pro and since I didn't have extra speakers, I didn't think it was an issue

"Group audio delay" in app is a feature that improves lip-sync. It differs from audio sync.

 

[DoubleTap]

"Group audio delay" in app is a feature that improves lip-sync. It differs from audio sync.

yeah, without more speakers, none of the latency issues were of interest at the time - I just wanted to see what the overall feature looked like.