5.1 not working in VLC, but working great in the standard Video app (KD55XF8796BU)

[jjams82]

Hello, thanks for reading.

I'm wondering anyone can help here... 5.1 sound works great with the bundled Video app, but doesn't seem to work via VLC or Kodi. I'm testing with various files, read from a USB stick in the back of the TV.

This isn't an enormous problem in itself, the Video app works just fine for watching films etc from a USB stick, but as VLC is able to read shared folders from my laptop and a USB drive connected to my router, it would make life a little nicer if I was able to figure it out. Unfortunately it doesn't seem possible for the standard Video app to access these sources, plus I rather like VLC in general. It's my go-to aplication on all my devices for video and with its easy access to all my media sources I'd love to make it my primary player on the tv as well.

I'm using a simple setup:

KD55XF8796BU

STR-DN1080 (connected via a single HDMI)

PS4 / Makbook Pro, both HDMI, both working fine with 5.1

This is purely a problem within VLC and Kodi. Any other way I can think to play movies seems to work great with 5.1

[jjams82]

Alternatively, if it's possible to access shared folders and router connected USB drives with the standard Video app that would be a perfectly accetable workaround!

[dutchice]

Hi @jjams82,

I would recommend you try Kodi 18.2 from the Google Play Store app on your TV. It will give you literally much more possibilities than VLC.

On the long run, most users prefer to run a DLNA server application of some sort, on either a NAS drive, home network server or HTPC to stream content to the TV. You then can use a wide variety of media playback apps on your TV, (including the built-in Video player) to playback content.

Cheers,

Dutchice

[dutchice]

@jjams82,

If you still prefer to use VLC after trying out the alternatives, look for enabling the following option in the VLC app in order to have 5.1 multichannel audio output:

[Settings] > [Extra Settings] > [Audio] > [Digital audio output (passthrough)]

Keep us posted!

Cheers,

Dutchice

[jjams82]

Well... I thought I'd had a decent look through Kodi (I already have 18.2) but it seems I'd not looked hard enough. After changing the channels option to 5.1 and enabling audio passthrough, surround is working perfectly. I'm not sure why it would be set like that as default, but I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Strangely enough no combination of the audio options in VLC (there aren't many!) got it outputting 5.1, including the passthrough setting... I still prefer the interface in VLC But I'm happy enough using Kodi if it works. Now all there is to do when I have a free half hour is get it set up to read my router drive and shared folder. I'll look into DNLA at a later date, but for now I'm happy.

Thanks!

[dutchice]

Sure! Good to hear you are set. And thanks for taking your time to post back your result. We are here for you.

Cheers,
Dutchice