What ports to best play 5.1 & 5.1.4 audio & video files?

#1

  • The following music, sounds great in surround sound (5.1):

    1. Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
    2. Peter Gabriel - UP
    3. Elton John - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

  • The following music, sounds great in 3D immersive sound (5.1.4):

    1. Bluray: Hans Zimmer: Live In Prague (2017, Dolby Atmos)

Will the following setup play in 5.1 & 5.1.4 audio?

When the HDMI port is the only port active in the RS130’s I/O Settings & the RS130 port has an HDMI 2.1 cable connected to my Anthem AVM 90 prepro HDMI input, (plus my AVM 90’s HDMI eArc output is connected to my TV’s HDMI eArc input):

  1. when I play a FLAC file that has surround sound or Dolby Atmos/TrueHD, will RS130 output the surround sound / 3D sound to my AVM 90 for playback? (or will the AVM 90 only received 2 channel (stereo) audio for playback?)
  2. also, what is the audio bit-depth, sample-rate & data rate (e.g., is it 24-bit 192kHz, 900kbps?)

Same two questions (above), regarding when the RS130 plays an mkv video file? Plus, is the video sent “source direct” (i.e., no video processing)?

What happens when both RS130’s HDMI & i2s are active?

With RS130 HDMI Output active & i2s active: If the RS130 HDMI port is connected to my AVM 90 and the RS130’s i2s port is connected to another AVM 90 HDMI input, will video play on my TV & audio play on my AVM 90’s ESS9038PRO DAC?

If so, what is the audio format (5.1/5.2.4) and the audio bit-depth, sample-rate & data rate?

If not, if I connect HDMI directly to my TV’s HDMI Input & i2s to my AVM 90’s HDMI input, will this work (i.e., video is displayed on TV & what is the audio format, bit-depth, sample-rate, and data rate?)

#2

@joyofmvid

Question 1: depends on what you use to play the files. If using Roon via HDMI, Roon will send 2.0, 5.1, or 7.1 depending on how it’s setup.

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Question 2: you can only select one type of outputs at once: USB OR HDMI OR COAX/SPDIF/AES

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#3

Currently, I plan to use the RoseConnect app. Thanks for the Roon perspective, I may need to use Roon to achieve my goal.

Regarding Question 2, your comment differs from Rose RS 130 HDMI video and audio - #5 by Lindkar

I am now muddled. @ROSEHAN Please clearly specify how to connect/setup RS130 to achieve the three goals expressed below

My goals are:

  1. To play an audio file as is (as is: audio format (2.0, 5.1, 5.1.4) and as is: bit-depth, sample-rate & data rate – I read FLAC files are played at 900kbps (is this true for RS130)

  2. To play a video file (source direct) with best audio quality – I read the best audio quality is 2 channel audio via the i2s port (is this true)

  3. To play a video file (source direct) with audio “as is”

#4

@joyofmvid

To play a surround format you need to have a player that can send FLAC 5.1/7.1 files — I use Roon, I believe you can use RoseConnect for this.
You also need to connect to/use a DAC/processor to decode your 5.1/7.1 file — for you this is your AVM over HDMI.

I think you will find you need to switch inputs manually on the Rose if you wan to use that as the streamer for both surround (HDMI) and (COAX) for best 2 channel quality. I have tested this as recently as today. Rose does not support HDMI and COAX or even USB all enabled at the same time. It’s one of the three.

If someone else knows different please share.

#5

Indeed, HDMI is the only output that can carry multichannel to an AVR. To do that, you will need to have passthrough enabled. For 2 channel, you can use multiple options.

#6

Hence, to achieve my audio/video goals :

  1. To play an audio file as is (as is: audio format (2.0, 5.1, 5.1.4) and as is: bit-depth, sample-rate & data rate – use HDMI to TV with eArc to AVM 90 (without a video in stream, hopefully this will work with my TV) ← With RS130 passthrough option ON, RS130 should be sending audio on HDMI

  • 2a. To play a video file (source direct) with best audio quality – try HDMI to TV & i²s to AVM 90 HDMI ← this should work: on the IO Settings display the HDMI port is NOT in the same grouping as the 2-channel audio ports (ie, AES, Digital Outs, USB & i²s). ← set RS130’s passthrough to be off to prevent audio on HDMI ← thus, causing RS130 to output to only one port. (Note: AVM 90 doesn’t care if the RS130 passthrough is ON; the AVM 90 will be set to get audio from the i²s HDMI & thus ignoring eArc audio)

  • 2b. To play the best audio quality, use i²s to AVM 90 HDMI

  1. To play a video file (source direct) with audio “as is” (same as goal 1)

Note: The above will require I mute audio, then manually switch audio port, then toggle mute off.

#7

Hi! Audio only should work via the HDMI but why would you want to output audio only to a TV. I do understand outputting it to an AVR. In addition, there are many that are of different opinions when using either the i2s, AES/EBU or USB to play 2 channel audio. What is best, I cannot say. I use USB with fibre and it works great. However, in that case it does not benefit from the excellent internal clock of the RS130. HDMI works at least with the USB - that I have tried.

1 Like
#8

My bad. Yes, HDMI to be connected to either the TV or Preamp.

BTW, I created a post in the “2024 Wishlist”, requesting HiFi Rose to create a Multi-Channel toggle button/icon. See Time for a 2024 Wish list? - #36 by joyofmvid