Sound Issues

[HDMental]

Hello newbie here. Please don't shoot me down for being a tad (ok totally) green on this issue, there is nothing I could find online to help, so here I am.
I have a Venz V10 Pro, but I cannot get sound to work through my old tv via hdmi (pioneer 506d).
I've switched to passthrough and pcm but still nothing, when playing a mkv file via a plugged in external hard drive.
Is it just a simple case of the box needs to be put through a dts amp etc? Hope some nice person can help.

[Joe_90]

You should start by setting your Venz to PCM. Then check that your TV plays the navigation sounds (clicks) as you navigate through the menus. If your TV is an older model it's unlikely that it will accept anything except PCM (or maybe Dolby Digital) on its input HDMI port. You can usually check this by going into the setup menu on your TV and checking the HDMI settings.

If you don't have an AV amp and are using the TV sound only, then passthrough is not an appropriate setting as this will (in theory) send multichannel DTS/DD5.1 or whatever over HDMI which your TV won't process properly. It should handle PCM.

As regards passthrough, I have found the Venz Pro very "hit and miss" as regards what it will handle on android Marshmallow. Ordinary DD 5.1 is ok as is ordinary DTS. Anything with high definition sound is not handled properly. I now use it for Kodi only, using the Libreelec builds. There are other threads in this section which show you how to use those on a separate USB stick or SD card which will allow you to try out Libreelec without blowing away the internal android firmware.

[HDMental]

I had it on PCM, and yes I can hear the clicks navigating through menus etc, but once I try playing a mkv with DTS then silence.

[Joe_90]

You could try an OTA (over the air update) from the Venz menu. But, as I said, high end DTS and Dolby support is not stable on android. What are you using to play the file? Can you see the image ok?

[HDMental]

1. OTA Done and it stated I have the current Firmware.
2. External Portable Hard Drive playing a mkv of said film etc.
3. Can see image crystal clear.
I used to have a crappy £30 android box and that played films 99% no problem, which is slightly weird.
When I play a film the DTS logo (if applicable) pops up in the top right hand corner.
Looks like its going on eBay.
But thanks for your help and patience.:D

[DaMacFunkin]

There will be a setting to downmix or pass through, for example in kodi, every audio format sd and HD can have its own audio setting.

[Joe_90]

That's what I was asking when I asked what he was using to play the play the mkv file (e.g. Kodi). Depending on the actual Kodi version it does not play nice with android Marshmallow for passthrough. That's a deliberate design decision by the Kodi devs due to non-compliant firmware on Marshmallow. I found that the older Jarvis (Kodi V16) versions were a lot more usable, although I dd get occasional lockups. The Libreelec build is very stable though as it's using its own linux environment and has no dependencies on the android build apart from the remote.conf file. I'm using that full time now on the internal flash, having first backed up the android environment should I ever want to go back to it. It's a super little box for media playback providing it is given the right software environment. It now plays all my stuff from NAS and is 4k compliant for when I upgrade my telly! I don't really miss the android Youtube, Netflix etc. as my TV will actually do that.

[HDMental]

OK now I understand, what am I playing the MKV through...well there is two options kodi, movie player..would it work if I used VLC? But I will try the Libreelec thingyamagig whatsit doodaa lol...I'm so new to this. Anyways I'll give it all a go. Cheers Folks!

[Joe_90]

If you are using Kodi there is a settings menu where you specify the number of channels of output (depends on your speaker configuration - in your case 2.0 would be appropriate to start with) and also whether you want to use passthrough or not. In your case as it's just a TV connection I would suggest no passthrough.