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WazMeister
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

5.1 surround not working (CCU & TV optical)

Hello, 

 

I have my 5.1 surround sound headset into my TV optical,  to the 5.1 receiver and works fine watching movies, the dolby light comes on. 

 

In stadia it won't come. On,  says 5.1 not supported?  Have Pro, 4k and 400mb Internet speed.

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3 Replies
JohnZoidberg
Gold Stadia Guide
Gold Stadia Guide

Hello @WazMeister 

Similar issues have come up before, but since the details here are slightly different, it's worth discussing again. The optical output supports 5.1 channels only when they are compressed using something like Dolby Digital. It doesn't have enough capacity to carry 5.1 channels of uncompressed PCM audio. This is also true of the coaxial version as well as vanilla ARC over HDMI. It can carry 2 channels of uncompressed PCM, though. Stadia does not use Dolby Digital audio compression. Instead, it uses a low latency audio encoder, which must be decoded by the Chromecast Ultra into uncompressed PCM. Since the audio outputs from the TV don't support 5.1 channels of PCM, it has to negotiate stereo (2 channel) PCM with the Chromecast Ultra when playing Stadia.

Why not Zoidberg?
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WazMeister
Stadia Player
Stadia Player

Thanks for taking the Time to respond,  and with such detail.  A little over my head... So how does one try get 5.1 with stadia in the most basic form?

Im using the below old headset which I understands decodes dolby digital it's self.... 

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00PG5YPTG/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_fabc_IwH6Fb6C4DFRJ

 

Using it via optical in my TV. I changed TV settings from PCM to dolby. 

 

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JohnZoidberg
Gold Stadia Guide
Gold Stadia Guide

That headset appears to only support surround sound that is encoded using a Dolby Digital bitstream. Stadia does not encode audio in this format. Normally, Stadia surround sound is done by connecting a Chromecast Ultra into a receiver that supports HDMI (which can carry up to 7.1 channels of uncompressed audio).

Unless you can find something that is capable of re-encoding into Dolby Digital (which would add delay), I don't see a way to make those headphones support surround sound on Stadia.

Why not Zoidberg?
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