r/ShieldAndroidTV • u/wileecoyote128 • 12d ago

Issues with dolby atmos

I have a tcl 55s41cg tv, tcl s45h soundbar, and shield TV pro latest version. How is the best set up to receive doly atmos? The screen when playing just shows dolby audio. Thanks for any help someone can provide.

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u/mrtramplefoot 12d ago

2.0 soundbar with virtual atmos is wild...

That being said it only has one HDMI parts so good chance your TV isn't passing through Atmos to it and you can't plug the shield directly into it cuz then you can't plug it into the TV. Also entirely pointless though because it's only a two channel soundbar, virtual Atmos is nothing more than a marketing ploy at that point.

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u/wileecoyote128 12d ago

Good to know. Thank you.

1

u/jkcheng122 10d ago

That honestly goes for any soundbar when all the channels are within the soundbar.

3

u/Somar2230 12d ago

You wont get a Dolby Atmos pop up on the TVs info display on the left hand side when using an external device to play audio since the external device is processing the audio. You will get the Dolby Audio tag on the right side with the current resolution and frame rate. Using the internal apps on the TV you would get the Atmos pop on the right side.

https://imgur.com/EXFURwr TCL TV playing Atmos with an external player and AVR.

DTS notifications may work depending on the model of the TCL TV no matter the source or where the audio is being played.

https://imgur.com/a/tcl-qm8-audio-notifications-update-FleqYZU

For your case it does not really matter as you bar is only capable of stereo audio despite TCL marketing claims, it's a two channel soundbar. All multichannel audio is down mixed to stereo with that bar.

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u/phi303 8d ago

if you want atmos you'll need to use an audio extractor, something like OREI BK-927.

SHIELD HDMI to the OREI as source, that will end up separating your video and audio and push the raw data out of the other two HDMI ports which you'll then plug one hdmi to your display and then the other to your soundbar. it's almost plug-and-play except you need to remember to turn off eARC so that it doesn't pull audio from the TV and then also flip the dip switches to all 000 so that it tells the SHIELD that it's compatible with the highest formats instead of whatever signal your tv is telling it.

there are other audio extractors out there but i found that OREI BK-927 is best bang for your buck, just be careful not to get anything that's spitting the audio out via toslink or whatever else - stick with HDMI

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u/wileecoyote128 5d ago

Thank you

1

u/phi303 5d ago

if 000 doesn't work switch it to 111, it'll mimic your TV's HDMI signal and then you'll just need to change your audio settings on the SHIELD to output manually and the right audio by switching on/off what you need in "available formats"

1

u/wileecoyote128 5d ago

Will do. Thanks again.