just got a new soundbar and need some tips on connectivity please

[smipx]

Hi all,

I have an H7S coupled with a Samsung UE49MU7000 TV. To date I have connected my old AV system to the TV and the H7S to the TV - both via HDMI and the Surrond system has been left in Dobly Prologic and I was quite okay with that. The old AV system just blew up so I had to rush out and get a replacement. I chose a soundbar for ease of use (no trailing wires) but got the best I could afford at the moment and it is not a bad unit with 3 discrete channels L,C,R and a pair of inbuilt upward firing speakers i.e. a Samsung HW-Q700A - 3.1.2 system with Dolby Atmos/DTS:X and backward compatible with DD+ etc..). I didn't shell out the extra £250+ for the wireless rear speakers (yet) and porbably never will.

I completely get that I am not going to get "proper atmos" or proper DTS:X as all the speakers are inside the bar (apart from the subwoofer that is) but I want to get the best I can with what I have and I have a connectivity question. To get the best sound possible from the H7S with what I have, should I now connect the Zgemma to the (non ARC) HDMI port on the TV or the (non ARC) HDMI port on the Soundbar (and then the Soundbar to the TV via the ARC HDMI ports) or should I continue to plug the H7S directly into the TV. The TV is not eARC by way. The soundbar also has an optical port (as does the H7S).

Given that the TV cannot decode ATMOS (but can deal with DD+) via a USB stick but the Soundbar can is there any possible way I can download a movie with ATMOS and get the soundbar to decode itto at least give some impression of ATMOS or not?? The Soundbar has no USB input for Movie files so my only choice is the H7S (transfer files via FTP to it to play them) or via the USB port in the TV. As its not eARC I appreciate that I will only ever get lossy ATMOS anyway (via HDMI).

From the native ZGemma H7S side 99% of what I watch is recorded content from the Satellite feed / Terrestrial feed but I do like to donwload some to the PC and watch them by whatever the best way is (normally by copying them to the H7S or popping them in a portable drive and plugging them into the TV. Don't need anything more on that front because its so infrequent. Also.... I don't watch the TV's inbuilt freeview hardly ever (and if I do then I don't care about the sound at all as I only really ever use it for Red button text with the sound on mute).

Thanks guys :-)
Paul

[ronand]

You should be able to get DD+ with Atmos audio from your TV via the ARC port (on the amazon prime app at least - I'm not sure if netflix on the sammy supports it - and you would need the top tier subscription as well). Also you would need to make sure the sound bar is witched on before starting the app on the tv. It wont really matter where you plug the H7 into as it doesn't do much in the way of lossless multichannel never mind atmos. File playback from TV sets is generally poor so I wouldn't be expecting much there. You might invest in a 4k bluray player - a lot of discs have atmos audio tracks.

[smipx]

Thanks Ronand. I was kind of hoping that "somehow" I could download an atmos movie (e.g. an atmos sampler or a full "atmos" movie from some unmentionale places) and test the "atmos" element of the soundbar to try and judge if its worth bothering with / upgrading other bits of kit sooner rather than later. Looks like I would not be able to do that easily

I don't really want to get a 4k Bluray player as I don't own any Bluray disks and never plan on getting any (and would never get it past the wife) but..... I guess I could get a UHD media player that supports Atmos/DTS:x where I could dump my movie files to play on the soundbar. That would work right? I am guessing thee are such things available?? In the olden days I did just that with a sumvision Micro 3 for 1080 content...

[smipx]

also.... regarding the comment about the H7s and lack of any lossless multichannel - I did not realise that. I assumed because it was UHD it would have DD+ over the HDMI Rookie error :-)
That being the case would I be better to connect the H7S with a toslink for the sound as well as with the HDMI or am I clutching at straws...

[ronand]

UHD video has nothing to do with supported sound formats. Enigma2 receivers are fairly basic as media players. It can do DD+ but thats not lossless. TrueHD is Dolbys variant of that and the H7S doesn't support it. And the H7S wont play back atmos either so forget that one. If you want to play back surround sound with atmos from files then get something like an nvidia shield. A toslink or optic fibre is not an upgrade against hdmi.

[smipx]

It can do DD+ but thats not lossless. ........ If you want to play back surround sound with atmos from files then get something like an nvidia shield.

Hi ronand,
Thanks for all of that - very helpful. I was looking at the Shield Pro as you were probably writing this so that shows I am getting a grasp of this new strange world of sound beyong prologic :-)
As it stands today though the comment about DD+ on the H7S not being lossless is music to my ears (for now) as from what I have read, my soundbar utilises its upwards firing speakers in DD+ as it has a kind of simulated atmos mode to cater for that "crummy" setup. Additionally, the TV can also take an atmos movie file on a portable hard drive directly (and keeping H7S out of the mix) as long at the drive is USB 3 and the file is H.265 (Main/Main10) and the total bitrate is =>80mbps. It uses the DD+ wrapper/track in the file to transmit a DD++ experience (transmits a lossy version of actual atmos data to the bar) and the bar is meant to display "atmos" when it does and do some extra things (which will do me in the short term).

Time to play :-)

thanks for all the pointers - Champion!
Paul

[smipx]

Just a little update. The Soundbar I have is pretty awsome if you get the right source material. The Zgemma H7S is much much better at handling the UHD sound than the TV is so for the best experience I suggest the following setup:

Old Setup (that worked fine with Dolby Prologic/PCM:
- Zgemma to TV HDMI
- Sound System (old one) to TV HDMI (ARC)
I tried it this way with the new soundbar and, while okay, it was not great and the sound was also having lip sync issues

Optimal (New) Setup:
- Soundbar (that can decode DTS-MA/DTS:X and DOLBY-HD Atmos etc.) to TV via HDMI (ARC) i.e. the soundbar is made the HUB of the operation.....
- Zgemma TO SOUNDBAR!! so that the TV is not inbetween the sound output and the source - this lets the soundbar decode the DTS-MA and DOLBY-HD Atmos to the best of the capabilities - Zgemma set to Passthrough
To view the Zgemma - select the source on the SOUNDBAR to HDMI. The Soundbar does its magic with the sound and then passes the image to the TV via HDMI
The TV (with things like iPlayer) still works with the soundbar when the ZGemma is turned off due to the HDMI (ARC) from the TV to the Soundbar.

I just watched a Dolby Full-HD version of Bladerunner (a rip i stumbed across on the web) and the sound (while not native ATMOS as that would be impossible) was pretty awsome - sounds from the Rear and from above etc. The soundbar takes the AC3+ and does a psuedo surround and it works very well. 100x better than my old system and pretty impressive for a 3.1.2 solution with no Rear Speakers for £250 (after Samsung £200 cashback).

The Soundbar was set to "Adaptive" mode.

I also watched (tested) a DTS version of the same (DTS-MA) film and the sound was nowhere near as good.

Both files were full fat massive Blueray Full HD rips (one was 30Gb the other 50Gb)
I now have a dedicated portable drive plugged in to the USB 3.0 port on the Zgemma and a couple of cables so I can leave the cable it plugged in to it for ease of access. It's formatted to exFAT and I installed the exFAT drivers on the Zgemma.
Process - Unmount drive, disconnect, take to Windows computer, plug in, transfer movie files, unmount in Windows, plug back in to Zgemma, reboot Zgemma, Mount it again (in Movielist press menu and mount it there, navigate to drive in Movielist and away you go).

The Zgemma is a little slow with the files if you pause and start again (as they are massive and the transfer rates are most likely at the top end of what the Zgemma can handle over HDMI) but as long as you are careful about skipping, pausing etc. then its perfectly use-able.

:-)

[smipx]

Actually - I take it all back. The Zgemma keeps freezing on the playing of the files.
Shame really but hey-ho.
I can't justify the cost of a Shield Pro so will have to do without 2160p and DD+ 5.1 :-(

Does anyone know what the maximum the Zgemma can handle without freezing? I mean in terms of Mbps video rate / Audio rate (as I am assuming that if its advertised as 2160p capable then some form or another of a 2160p file should really work without freezing). If I know the maximum's then I can make aure all of my rips / downloads are below that threshold or re-trascode them down from Dolby-HD to a bitrate and format that the zgemma would be happy with.

The specs state:
Support 4K- 2160p
MPEG-2 / H.264 and H.265 Hardware Decoding
HD HEVC / H.265 2160p60 Main-10 multi-format decoder

I guess you were right all along ronand - I should not have bothered - ha ha... Still - I had fun doing it and learned a little too.

:-)

[ronand]

Copy the files to an internal HDD.

[smipx]

Dead right ronand. Thanks for that tip. The files play perfectly when copied to the internal HDD. Even the Fast Forward x4 x8 etc (I prefer the buttons but I wanted to give it a good test!).
I will copy the files over via winscp instead directly to a folder in the movies folder. A bit slower but who cares - it happens overnight :-)

[ronand]

Its much quicker to copy them using the media browser from the external drive to the internal one.