Enabling Multichannel PCM over HDMI

[plasticflowers]

Hi,
I was hoping you can help. Is there a way to enable multichannel PCM over HDMI? Currently, I'm only getting 2 channels out (left and right). I have AC3 and DTS downmix set to pass through.
I have a zgemma H7 running openvix 6.0.008.

[adm]

Hi,
I was hoping you can help. Is there a way to enable multichannel PCM over HDMI? Currently, I'm only getting 2 channels out (left and right). I have AC3 and DTS downmix set to pass through.
I have a zgemma H7 running openvix 6.0.008.

Most of the UK broadcast Freesat is DD2.0 (stereo) and my AV surround sound amp decodes it as Dolby Pro Logic II (surround sound encoded in a stereo stream). Some of the main flagship programs on the BBC HD are Dolby Digital 5.1 but its a rarity.
Similarly Freeview is mostly AAC 2.0 on HD channels.

Edit
If you are reading this soon after I'm posting then BBC TWO HD "The Hundred Women's Final" cricket seems to be in DD5.1 - and maybe the following Men's Final cricket until about 9:30pm. On Satellite

[plasticflowers]

Most of the UK broadcast Freesat is DD2.0 (stereo) and my AV surround sound amp decodes it as Dolby Pro Logic II (surround sound encoded in a stereo stream). Some of the main flagship programs on the BBC HD are Dolby Digital 5.1 but its a rarity.
Similarly Freeview is mostly AAC 2.0 on HD channels.

Edit
If you are reading this soon after I'm posting then BBC TWO HD "The Hundred Women's Final" cricket seems to be in DD5.1 - and maybe the following Men's Final cricket until about 9:30pm. On Satellite

I'm trying to play Avi files that have 7.1 sound. It works fine from a laptop running Linux using HDMI PCM to output the sound in 7.1 but openvix plays it only through 2 channels.

[twol]

Can you run mediainfo against the file and display output?

[plasticflowers]

I've been testing multiple files including these, all with the same result
https://www2.iis.fraunhofer.de/AAC/multichannel.html

[ronand]

The H7 can't do multichannel AAC and I'm not sure what enigma2 box can.

[plasticflowers]

Is there a reason it will handle it over optical sdif but not hdmi?

[Joe_90]

There is no way S/PDIF will carry multichannel PCM. It can only handle two PCM channels, perhaps at 96kHz or 192kHz, depending on hardware. It will pass compressed Dolby or DTS multichannel audio. Any of my engma receivers will pass multichannel AC3 (Dolby 5.1) over HDMI. I have never had any success in playing uncompressed PCM multichannel on my enigma boxes. I use a proper media player if I need to playback PCM multichannel. As @adm points out, multichannel audio on UK sat is AC3 and is AAC on terrestrial. I have no experience with AAC terrestrial audio, so can't comment, but AC3 surround playback on BBC and CH4HD is fine over HDMI from enigma.

[plasticflowers]

Thank you both