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Topic: media streaming boxes and lossless audio over HDMI (Read 4687 times) previous topic - next topic
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media streaming boxes and lossless audio over HDMI

I'm a bit confused about how audio is passed through HDMI in TVs from media streamers.  I have a collection of ALAC m4a (non drm) files that I have been playing through my DAC.  Sounds great but the convenience of media streamers is getting my attention.  I really like the idea of streaming boxes like Roku and dongle's like Chromcast but as yet I've not been able to find one which passes lossless audio through the HDMI to the TV.  My idea being, to take the SPDIF out of the TV and into my DAC, so I'm just asking if anyone has achieved something like this?

media streaming boxes and lossless audio over HDMI

Reply #1 –
I'd think all of them output uncompressed PCM from the HDMI port, don't they? I see no reason to recompress the already decoded audio.

media streaming boxes and lossless audio over HDMI

Reply #2 –
As I understand it, the media players on these boxes e.g Plex on the Roku, will transcode ALAC to AAC because the roku hardware can't handle ALAC.  So although, PCM may be going down the HDMI, its from a lossy format.

media streaming boxes and lossless audio over HDMI

Reply #3 –
I'm probably missing something, but why transcode ALAC->AAC->PCM to be sent through HDMI? Why not just decode to PCM in the first place?

media streaming boxes and lossless audio over HDMI

Reply #4 –
It looks like Plex outputs AAC when it sends audio to devices like Roku, Chromecast, Plair 2.  Strange that although these device can handle high definition video, they don't support relatively humble PCM.