Sound Modes on Marantz SR6011

[akbaree]

I have a Marantz receiver SR 6011. Through HDMI ARC, I have connected the receiver with my LG OLED TV that supports ATMOS.

On the remote of my Marantz receiver, I have sound mode selection that always shows me 4-5 options - Stereo, Dolby Surround, DTS Neural:X, Multi CH Stereo, and Virtual. Some of these are auto explanatory like Stereo and Multi Ch Stetreo and I use them I am listening to Music via Spotify Connect.

But when I am watching a movie on Netflix, this gets a little confusing. I have been using Dolby Surround. When the movie has Atmos, how do I select the sound mode on the receiver to play Atmos?

 

[Leemix]

I have a Marantz receiver SR 6011. Through HDMI ARC, I have connected the receiver with my LG OLED TV that supports ATMOS.

On the remote of my Marantz receiver, I have sound mode selection that always shows me 4-5 options - Stereo, Dolby Surround, DTS Neural:X, Multi CH Stereo, and Virtual. Some of these are auto explanatory like Stereo and Multi Ch Stetreo and I use them I am listening to Music via Spotify Connect.

But when I am watching a movie on Netflix, this gets a little confusing. I have been using Dolby Surround. When the movie has Atmos, how do I select the sound mode on the receiver to play Atmos?

ARC is very limited, some TVs and AVRs can do Dolby Digital+ which can do a lossy atmos but check if you have the TV sound output set up right.
What sources do you use and have you connected the, all to the TV?


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[akbaree]

Thanks for you quick reply.
I currently don't have any other inputs in to the receiver except ARC. On the TV I have set up the output to ARC and it has two options for the signal - PCM and Auto. It was set to PCM, and I changed to Auto. Now I see Dolby Digital+ in addition to Dolby Surround option..

I also have a chromecast audio connected to the audio input for CD to play music.

On your point that ARC is limited and as my receiver doesn't support eARC, how do I enhance the audio experience on my system? Most streamers like Fire TV or Chromecast or Roku use the ARC channel only. Do I need a blueray player that supports streaming connected to one of the non ARC HDMI ports?

 

[Leemix]

Thanks for you quick reply.
I currently don't have any other inputs in to the receiver except ARC. On the TV I have set up the output to ARC and it has two options for the signal - PCM and Auto. It was set to PCM, and I changed to Auto. Now I see Dolby Digital+ in addition to Dolby Surround option..

I also have a chromecast audio connected to the audio input for CD to play music.

On your point that ARC is limited and as my receiver doesn't support eARC, how do I enhance the audio experience on my system? Most streamers like Fire TV or Chromecast or Roku use the ARC channel only. Do I need a blueray player that supports streaming connected to one of the non ARC HDMI ports?

AudioReturnChannel is only between the TV and AVR, it isnt used by anything else. Usually its best to connect streamers like Fire TV/AppleTV and such in directly to the AVR but at the moment its only on bluray discs you find uncompressed soundtracks like Dolby trueHD (and Atmos version of it). Streaming is done in lossy Dolby Digital+ and you get that from the tv through ARC now.


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[akbaree]

Thanks. I was reading this article - https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/dolby-atmos-sound/ and now understand that on streaming apps Atmos is delivered over lossy Dolby Digital+. If I select Dolby Digital+ on the receiver, can I assume that I am playing Atmos? Of course my ears are not that trained. I can enjoy good movie soundtrack but honesly I am not sure if I can differentiate Atmos from standard 7.1. At least not right now.

I am also trying to understand what is the best option for streaming

1. Built-in apps on my LG OLED TV: the Prime and Netflix apps support 4K, HDR and Atmos contents but I am limited by ARC. Of course as you said in your post above, currently it doesn't matter because all streaming apps only deliver Atmos on Digital+ and it is supported by ARC.
2. Using 4K apps that come built-in with Blue Ray players: In the future if the streaming platforms start delivering Atmos audio over TrueHD, (and assuming that the platform app on the player supports TrueHD) then I can take advantage of better audio quality over "Digtal+ and ARC"?
3. Have a dedicated streamer like Fire TV Cube or Shield?

 

[Leemix]

Thanks. I was reading this article - https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/dolby-atmos-sound/ and now understand that on streaming apps Atmos is delivered over lossy Dolby Digital+. If I select Dolby Digital+ on the receiver, can I assume that I am playing Atmos? Of course my ears are not that trained. I can enjoy good movie soundtrack but honesly I am not sure if I can differentiate Atmos from standard 7.1. At least not right now.

I am also trying to understand what is the best option for streaming

1. Built-in apps on my LG OLED TV: the Prime and Netflix apps support 4K, HDR and Atmos contents but I am limited by ARC. Of course as you said in your post above, currently it doesn't matter because all streaming apps only deliver Atmos on Digital+ and it is supported by ARC.
2. Using 4K apps that come built-in with Blue Ray players: In the future if the streaming platforms start delivering Atmos audio over TrueHD, (and assuming that the platform app on the streamer supports TrueHD) then I can take advantage of better audio quality over "Digtal+ and ARC"?
3. Have a dedicated streamer like Fire TV Cube or Shield?

Atmos is only an addition to Dolby trueHD and Dolby Digital+, its not really a fully separate format and unless you have height or top layer speakers the atmos placement of sounds up above wont be done and everything stay in the normal bed layer. That was a bit clumsy, atmos move some of the sounds up to height and top speakers instead of playing them in the normal 5.1 or 7.1 speakers.

Apps in bluray players generally suck and dont give any benefit over streamers (or TV apps for the kost part). When or if lossless formats come to streaming im sure dedicated streamers will start to support that.

A dedicated streamer like Fire TV, shiels, roku, appleTV and so on is usually considered the best way to stream.

 

[akbaree]

I was thinking in this same direction. Thanks for your help.

Every once in a while I get carried away and start thinking that high end blue ray players like Oppo 203 (and the ones from Panasonic, Pioneer) can be answer but they are not the answer to my problems. I will be happy with a good blue ray player like Sony X700/800 and a dedicated streamer when it becomes necessary. Right now I can live with the built-in apps in my TV for streaming media.

For music I already have a Chromecast audio. I use Plex for streaming flac files from my personal collection and for anything else Amazon Music and Spotify which is anyways lower bit rate music. But at least with Chromecast audio I avoid bluetooth. In India we don't have Tidal or Amazon Music HD right now.

One last question... In future if I end up buy a stick based streaming device, I can connect it to my receiver instead of TV's HDMI port - right? I thought it might be possible but let me also do some online fact finding.

 

[Leemix]

I was thinking in this same direction. Thanks for your help.

Every once in a while I get carried away and start thinking that high end blue ray players like Oppo 203 (and the ones from Panasonic, Pioneer) can be answer but they are not the answer to my problems. I will be happy with a good blue ray player like Sony X700/800 and a dedicated streamer when it becomes necessary. Right now I can live with the built-in apps in my TV for streaming media.

For music I already have a Chromecast audio. I use Plex for streaming flac files from my personal collection and for anything else Amazon Music and Spotify which is anyways lower bit rate music. But at least with Chromecast audio I avoid bluetooth. In India we don't have Tidal or Amazon Music HD right now.

One last question... In future if I end up buy a stick based streaming device, I can connect it to my receiver instead of TV's HDMI port - right? I thought it might be possible but let me also do some online fact finding.

Yes, i use my appleTV connected to the processor, i have everything connected to the processor. Including an oppo 105 and a 203 but those are only used for bluray discs because the appletv is much better at streaming.

Unless you have problems with ARC, TV apps are fine but so many have problems getting that to work (and continue to work).

Edit: P.S. Im from Norway the country Wimp (Tidal) came from originally

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[Pogre]

I don't like using my tv as a source and never use arc. My TV is pretty much only used as a monitor and I use my receiver to switch between sources.

 

[akbaree]

I don't like using my tv as a source and never use arc. My TV is pretty much only used as a monitor and I use my receiver to switch between sources.

Thanks.
The Netflix and Amazon Prime apps are very well integrated on my LG OLED TV. So I don't really see an issue right now except for ARC limitation which also, as mentioned in an earlier post, is not an issue unless TrueHD is available on these streaming platforms. For now, I will wait before buying a streamer.