Visitor

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22 Messages

09/06/2026 9:24 PM

4k audio

Why is the audio on the 4K channels coming through as two channel PCM when the audio on the non-4K channel for the same program is showing as Dolby digital?

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Problem Solver

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668 Messages

21 hours ago

Any response from support about AC-4?

Visitor

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22 Messages

No response as of yet. Here are the two photos.

Problem Solver

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668 Messages

9 hours ago

It would appear your problem is fixed,  that Auto works for both types of content.  But, one question, on the non-Atmos 5.1 PCM input, is there actually sound in all the channels?   In some circumstances, my XG1v4 sends 5.1 with the only sound in the L/R pair.  

Visitor

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22 Messages

I am getting sound from all speakers, and subwoofers. Any idea as to what type of surround decoding is used when the signal is PCM 5.1 only? I assume Atmos/PCM is Dolby Digital. 

Problem Solver

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668 Messages

7 hours ago

Getting down in the weeds..

PCM is the digital audio format that home theater receivers use to process sound.   That's how sound tracks are mastered.  But, multichannel PCM files are quite large.  That's where codecs like Dolby and DTS come in.  They are not audio formats.   They are audio zip files whose sole purpose is saving space in storage and transmission.  The PCM track is fed into the encoder to shrink it down and the decoder in your receiver unpacks it back into PCM.

In the current case, the Xi6 box is doing the decoding to turn the track back into PCM and that's what gets sent to the AVR for processing.  So, no, Atmos PCM is not Dolby Digital.  It started out as DD+ or AC-4 Atmos and was decoded by the Xi6.  It's already 5.1 when it gets to the AVR.  If your system is Atmos capable or has a 7.1 layout, the AVR will do the Atmos processing or upmix 5.1 to 7.1.  But, in your case with a 5.1 layout, it will simply play the PCM channels coming from the Xi6.

(edited)

Visitor

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22 Messages

Ok, thanks for all your help. 

Official Employee

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1K Messages

So I see we all took different foreign language classes, haha. Thanks for explaining that so well, @BIslander@user_x1npns, are we alright to share this information with the backend team and get the ticket that was created closed out? 

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Visitor

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22 Messages

It’s fine with me. Although they may still want to work on the fact that when you put the box in “expert” mode, the 4K channels still are only being broadcast in PCM 2.0, which I don’t think is what would be expected. In  “expert“ mode the standard channels are being broadcast in Dolby Digital+, which is what I expected and what I believe is correct.

Problem Solver

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668 Messages

7 hours ago

@XfinityJustinM Please don't close this out until we hear from the backend team about what audio the Xi6 is processing.  Are the 4K channels taking AC-4 audio rather than DD+ and outputting it as Dolby MAT?  And, as mentioned, why is the output only 2.0 PCM in Expert mode?  Audio from the Xi6 is completely different from the outputs of the XG1v4.  Thanks.   

(edited)

Visitor

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22 Messages

6 hours ago

Since, BIslander has been so helpful with this,  lets keep this open as they requested. 

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