Receivers that decode 4.0 PCM/MLP recordings over HDMI

[Mark Anderson]

I have a Samsung bluray player that reads the 4.0 pink floyd tracks and sends them to the receiver as 5.1 thus eliminating the problem my Marantz 7011 has with playing 4.0 correctly. I have since ripped all my music and play from computer over HDMI using Jriver which also sends 4.0 files as 5.1.
The only bummer is a cant switch between the 4.0 and 5.1 on the fly like you can on the bluray

 

[paligap]

Maybe I'm missing something, but don't most Denon/Oppo receiver/player combos do this? My 4200/103D combo does. This is the WYWH 4.0 mix:

 

[JediJoker]

Maybe I'm missing something, but don't most Denon/Oppo receiver/player combos do this? My 4200/103D combo does. This is the WYWH 4.0 mix:

View attachment 53831

That's how it looks on my 103D/SR6014 combo, but the UB820 adds silent C and LFE channels, so those show as both "input signal" and "active speakers" despite having no content other than what gets bass-managed to the sub by the SR6014.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Anybody have this beast? @marpow ???

It’s got analog inputs as well!

https://www.mcintoshlabs.com/products/home-theater-processors/MX170

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Anybody have this beast? @marpow ???

It’s got analog inputs as well!

https://www.mcintoshlabs.com/products/home-theater-processors/MX170

I love McIntosh gear...always have...but I don't like the USB in the back of the unit

 

[Mark Anderson]

Maybe I'm missing something, but don't most Denon/Oppo receiver/player combos do this? My 4200/103D combo does. This is the WYWH 4.0 mix:
View attachment 53831

My Oppo 83 and 203 sends the Pink Floyd quad bluray's as 4.0 which the Marantz 7010 does not decode properly so only the front channels are heard even though the receiver shows front and rear channels. Some other bluray players and computer programs add the silent center and/or sub to get around this.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

My Oppo 83 and 203 sends the Pink Floyd quad bluray's as 4.0 which the Marantz 7010 does not decode properly so only the front channels are heard even though the receiver shows front and rear channels. Some other bluray players and computer programs add the silent center and/or sub to get around this.

I believe I’ve seen Kal mention that JRiver does that, not sure if Foobar2000 can though.
But easily added in Audacity if need be (albeit a frustrating additional step!)

 

[marpow]

I believe I’ve seen Kal mention that JRiver does that, not sure if Foobar2000 can though.
But easily added in Audacity if need be (albeit a frustrating additional step!)

I have the MX122 which I think is about the same but the 170 has the room correction built in. Otherwise it is a separate if wanted there room correct with the MX122, and yes the JRiver accomplished that.

 

[paligap]

My Oppo 83 and 203 sends the Pink Floyd quad bluray's as 4.0 which the Marantz 7010 does not decode properly so only the front channels are heard even though the receiver shows front and rear channels. Some other bluray players and computer programs add the silent center and/or sub to get around this.

I went back and checked just to make sure my receiver wasn't displaying four channels but only playing two. It does play the four channels. I guess I was a little surprised at the relatively short list of receivers on the first post that do this.

 

[Mark Anderson]

It is also what your a feeding to it (bluray, jriver, ect.)

 

[ssully]

Maybe I'm missing something, but don't most Denon/Oppo receiver/player combos do this? My 4200/103D combo does. This is the WYWH 4.0 mix:
View attachment 53831

If you have any speakers set to 'small', it will look like that, thanks to bass management.

 

[paligap]

Maybe I'm missing something, but don't most Denon/Oppo receiver/player combos do this? My 4200/103D combo does. This is the WYWH 4.0 mix:
View attachment 53831

I also checked the WYWH quad mix on my Sony X800/Denon 4520 combo, and it works there as well.

 

[CarlosFandango]

Yesterday, I received the WYWH Immersion set. I got it mainly for the bluray, specifically the quad mix - I already have the 5.1 mix on SACD. Popped the disc in, selected the quad mix and... front L/R channels only.

Oppo UDP-203 (2016)
Yamaha RX-A3050 AVR (2016)

I tried everything I could think of: Switching the Oppo from bitstream to PCM, swapping the HDMI cable from HDMI2 to HDMI1, different HDMI inputs on the A3050. I also tried the disc in a Sony, then a Panasonic bluray player - same result.

Conclusion: The Yamaha RX-A3050 does not recognise 4.0. This is disappointing as several Yamaha models are listed as 4.0 capable at the top of this thread.

Having read through this thread, it seems I have two options:
1. Buy a new AVR that can handle 4.0 properly.
2. Rip the bluray disc and add a silent centre channel.

I do not have a bluray drive in my laptop but an external drive will cost me a lot less than a new AVR. And all to do something my old Pioneer receiver could do without a problem. Presumably, AV manufacturers call this progress.

 

[Larry Geller]

Yesterday, I received the WYWH Immersion set. I got it mainly for the bluray, specifically the quad mix - I already have the 5.1 mix on SACD. Popped the disc in, selected the quad mix and... front L/R channels only.

Oppo UDP-203 (2016)
Yamaha RX-A3050 AVR (2016)

I tried everything I could think of: Switching the Oppo from bitstream to PCM, swapping the HDMI cable from HDMI2 to HDMI1, different HDMI inputs on the A3050. I also tried the disc in a Sony, then a Panasonic bluray player - same result.

Conclusion: The Yamaha RX-A3050 does not recognise 4.0. This is disappointing as several Yamaha models are listed as 4.0 capable at the top of this thread.

Having read through this thread, it seems I have two options:
1. Buy a new AVR that can handle 4.0 properly.
2. Rip the bluray disc and add a silent centre channel.

I do not have a bluray drive in my laptop but an external drive will cost me a lot less than a new AVR. And all to do something my old Pioneer receiver could do without a problem. Presumably, AV manufacturers call this progress.

Third option. Get an OPPO 103.

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Yesterday, I received the WYWH Immersion set. I got it mainly for the bluray, specifically the quad mix - I already have the 5.1 mix on SACD. Popped the disc in, selected the quad mix and... front L/R channels only.

Oppo UDP-203 (2016)
Yamaha RX-A3050 AVR (2016)

I tried everything I could think of: Switching the Oppo from bitstream to PCM, swapping the HDMI cable from HDMI2 to HDMI1, different HDMI inputs on the A3050. I also tried the disc in a Sony, then a Panasonic bluray player - same result.

Conclusion: The Yamaha RX-A3050 does not recognise 4.0. This is disappointing as several Yamaha models are listed as 4.0 capable at the top of this thread.

Having read through this thread, it seems I have two options:
1. Buy a new AVR that can handle 4.0 properly.
2. Rip the bluray disc and add a silent centre channel.

I do not have a bluray drive in my laptop but an external drive will cost me a lot less than a new AVR. And all to do something my old Pioneer receiver could do without a problem. Presumably, AV manufacturers call this progress.

Welcome to the QQ.

I didn't see any analog inputs on your receiver, which would have worked with your 203.

You can easily add the center and LFE channels via @HomerJAU's excellent Music Media Helper app.
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...seful-tools-for-music-videos-mch-audio.22693/
And probably need the app MakeMKV to rip the music.

Hopefully someone here can come up with some other work around

 

[Mark Anderson]

My work around has been ripping everything and using JRiver for playback that sends a 4.0 as 5.1 to the receiver. It also plays SACD DSF files nicely. I really resisted ripping but this problem put me over the edge. The only drag is playing the floyd recordings of Dark Side and WYWH and not being able to switch on the fly between the 4.0 and 5.1. But I do have a Oppo 203 and analogue inputs if needing that.

 

[CarlosFandango]

Thank-you, J. Pupster. Yes, the receiver has no analog surround inputs - but it does have 8 pairs of analog stereo inputs, of which I use none. "Interesting" design choice there by Yamaha for an AV receiver .

 

[bracelis]

My work around has been ripping everything and using JRiver for playback that sends a 4.0 as 5.1 to the receiver. It also plays SACD DSF files nicely. I really resisted ripping but this problem put me over the edge. The only drag is playing the floyd recordings of Dark Side and WYWH and not being able to switch on the fly between the 4.0 and 5.1. But I do have a Oppo 203 and analogue inputs if needing that.

If you ripped the whole disc (instead of using FLAC), you can play the \BDMV\STREAM\00014.m2ts file (which contains the 3 audio streams, with a blank video) in JRiver, and you can switch between them on the fly -- you don't need to stop/restart playback. When you play the 4.0 stream, JRiver also sends 5.1 to HDMI, even if you select Channels="Source number of channels" (if you play a 4.0 FLAC, you need to explicitly select channels=5.1 in JRIver if you want it to send 4.0 to HDMI).

And you can also select the audio track from the Bluray menu before playing the track (not on the fly).

EDIT:

Instead of playing the the \BDMV\STREAM\00014.m2ts file that I mentioned earlier, you can play the ripped Bluray in JRIiver, and right-click and "Switch to Title playback":

And you can see the titles below -- the first title has the whole album with 3 audio streams.

And within the title, you can "Jump To" the tracks:

And you can select the audio stream (5.1, stereo, or 4.0) on the fly, anytime, without stopping/restarting playback.

 

[wrat]

My yamaha RXA 870 will NOT play true quad

 

[jarrod2750]

Welcome to the QQ.

I didn't see any analog inputs on your receiver, which would have worked with your 203.

You can easily add the center and LFE channels via @HomerJAU's excellent Music Media Helper app.
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...seful-tools-for-music-videos-mch-audio.22693/
And probably need the app MakeMKV to rip the music.

Hopefully someone here can come up with some other work around

I used homer’s mmh software too, to add a 5th silent phantom channel and it worked for me with my Marantz. Denon/Marantz’s have similar issues with being able to handle quad files via hdmi.