CoreELEC HD audio passthrough

General
1

Hello. As I understand, I think the only Android TV device capable of playing HD audio is Nvidia Shield.

I see an audio passthrough option (in Expert Mode) in CoreELEC. Ok, suppose I let CoreELEC decode it, I want to know something. It could work for any other Android TV boxes out there?

My intention is to buy a Mecool K5 and I want to install CoreELEC. Will I get, for instance, “Dolby-TrueHD” message on my AVR? I mean, a real HD audio?

2

This hasn’t been true for some time, there are a number of devices able to passthrough TrueHD/DTS-HD in AndroidTV. Many of the s905x4 boxes like Homatics 4k R Plus / DuneHD 4k R Plus / Nokia 8010 / Rocktek G2, among others can. Even many of the Fire devices are able to do this (with quirks) including 2nd gen 4k FireStick / 2nd gen FireStick Max / 3rd gen Cube.

TrueHD/DTS-HD passthrough is a standard CE feature available since ever on any box capable of booting CE.

I don’t know if the Mecool K5 bootloader allows booting CE, if it does it will passthrough TrueHD.

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3

Thanks. In the case of the devices you mention it may be because they are licensed for those audios, the DuneHD 4k R Plus seems to have them.

Mecool K5 seems to be unlicensed for some audios. I have noticed two things on this website: REVIEW: Mecool K5 with triple tuner is renewed with the powerful SoC S905x3 | AndroidPCtv

1-AUDIOS:

Dolby:
5.1 / Plus = OK || Atmos / True HD = Core
DTS:
5.1 / MA = OK || HR / X = Core

2-COREELEC:

LibreELEC: NO compatible with LibreELEC or CoreELEC for now.

The second is not correct. Unless someone says I am wrong, we can download the CoreELEC image for Mecool K5 as follows:

Device
Devices with S905X3
RAM/Variant
2GB(100Mbit)
DTB
sm1_s905x3_2g

But what about the first thing?

In every device that can run CoreELEC we will have HD audio passthrough and we will see, for example, the message “Dolby True-HD” in our AVR even if the device is not licensed for True-HD? Or will only the Core of the format be played?

Note that I always insist about getting proper HD audio and not the Core. Some people have told me that if the device is not licensed for formats such as Dolby True-HD, the only thing CoreELEC will play is always Core. I think they are wrong, but they have made me think about it and now I have doubts.

Let’s see if any CoreELEC developer can clear this up for us.

4

Answer was already given.

1 Like
5

I am glad to find out at last that all the people who claimed in some forums that with CoreELEC only HD audio passthrough to AVR (Dolby True-HD, Atmos, DTS-HD MA, DTS-X) was possible on devices licensed for those audios were totally wrong. Now I don’t have to worry about looking at what licenses a device I want to buy has, if with CoreELEC I have everything.

Long live CoreELEC.

Thank you both very much!!!

1 Like
6

You do need to pay attention to Dolby Vision licensing if you care about Dolby Vision playback. It doesn’t look like the Mecool K5 is DV licensed. Yes, audio licensing has no impact on audio passthrough in CE.

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7

Thank you. I think I will only play 4K UHD content with HDR10 and no Dolby Vision. I imagine that CoreELEC plays HDR10 perfectly and if I’m not wrong almost any device supports it.

8

yes HDR10 and HDR10+ work in CE on any s905x3 or newer SOC.

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