I was very skeptical about connecting the wdtv live to a new A/V receiver I bought recently with HDMI input after so many audio bug reports in this forum within the new firmware upgrades.
I thought that digital bitstreams like Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS were not going to work as it should so I made the test…
I was wrong because everything worked as expected, since I noticed that the device was sending stereo audio to my HDTV, I thought it would happen the same with the receiver, but then I realized that the WDTV Live detects where it is connected and depending on the capacity of the receiver or TV it sends the proper audio bitstream. Since my HDTV only decode PCM audio via HDMI, then WDTV “knows” this and sends only pcm audio regardless if the audio is DD 5.1 even if in audio setting is set to digital and also at the same time it sends the digital bitstream over optical audio output to connect it to an A/V receiver with no HDMI inputs.
BUT THIS ONLY HAPPENS WITH DVDs!!! THERE IS NO SOUND ON MY HDTV WITH OTHER VIDEO FILES LIKE MKV, MT2S OR WHATEVER FILE WITH DIGITAL AUDIO LIKE DD 5.1 OR DTS.
ALSO I THINK THIS ONLY WORKS WITH DVDs WITH DOLBY DIGITAL 5.1, I HAVEN’T TEST IT WITH A DVD WITH DTS, I’LL BE TESTING LATER…
WOULD THIS BE A BUG?
ANY COMMENTS…
Not quite sure what the problem is because the audio for HDTV is Dolby Digital AC-3 for over the air broadcasts in the USA. All HDTV should be able to handle that as an input stream. (However, many of them will often output only 2.0 via their TOSLINK or digital audio out!)
Handling the transcoding of the high Def audio streams, I seem to recall that WD doesn’t a license to decode one of the two high def lossless streams. What you may have to do is run those files through handbrake to end up with a compatible audio stream.
I don’t quite understand why you are concerned about the TV if your new AV reciever is properly decoding the stream that you are getting. Moving a HDMI cable frequently from one device is a reciept for disaster. The HDMI connector is NOT very rugged and constant movement will eventually result destory the equiptment end connector.
Now, having said all of the above, I wonder if you have read page 129 of the maual ('Audio Output" in the Settings and Advance features section) which is included on the CD. There is a provision to have the WDTV deliver Stereo ouput for two speaker systems which your TV is. The digital option is for those devices (like your AV unit) which can handle any digital audio stream. It almost sounds like selecting this option is a ‘pass thru’ mode.
My TV doesn’t have dolby digital decoder because it doesn’t include ATSC decoder for HDTV broadcasts, it only can handle 2 channel PCM audio, so when WDTV Live is connected to the tv, the device detects that my TV can’t decode that audio codec and instead sends the audio in 2 channel pcm, but this only works with:
iso dvds or video_ts folders
if the audio setting is set to “digital”
it doesn’t works with MKV or M2TS or any file with dolby digital 5.1 or dts 5.1.
obviously if I set the audio setting to “stereo” everything on the tv will sound in stereo, even if I connect it to the receiver.
