I've had no issues at all. Maybe it's your receiver...

I have it working. Shield TV, Vizio TV, Vizio Soundbar with 5.1 setup. It works fine with Netflix. Haven't tried HBO GO Plex.

There was this one time when the Shield wouldn't output any audio. I went into Settings->System and switched the source to Stereo and back to 5.1, and it started working again.

Pioneer receiver, DD, DTS, DTSHD all work fine. TrueHD works in everything but Plex.

Just for info sake

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/838504/no-5-1-surround-with-netflix/

There is several threads with this issue, i'm not 'entirely' crazy

I have a Netflix workaround for you, but it's a bit of a pain.

Before watching something with 5.1 surround sound turn the vizio tv sound way down and the shield tv all the way up. Immediately after starting the show, pause and hit down to go to the settings. Change it from English 5.1 to just English and you should begin hearing sound as well as video playback returning to normal. . Unfortunately, now you have to control the volume using the vizio remove until you restart the shield. Shitty, but it works. I also have the new P-Series and I can't wait for the new soundbars (releasing in ~2 weeks!!!) that hopefully fixes this for us.

Get on the beta track. The stuttering with 5.1 has supposedly been fixed in the beta build and is scheduled for the next update.

I gave it a shot and reached out to Netflix Last night, A copy of the transcript.

TLDR - No Solution, but they kind of admit there is a ongoing issue toward the end

---

Thank you for contacting Netflix customer support.

Here is the transcript from your recent chat with customer support:

Netflix Allan Hello! This is Allan. How can I help you today?

You Hey Allan, I have a bit of a strange issue with 5.1 surround sound on my NVIDIA SHIELD Android TV set Netflix App

Netflix Allan Oh! Well you have reached the right place and that is something I can definitely take a look at for you, let me know what the issue is so I can start digging on it :)

You I am not sure that it is specifically a Netflix issue, but it only occurs on the Android TV Netflix app, Netflix defaults to the 5.1 surround track, when this happens I have no audio and my video stutters continiously

You If i manually switch the episode/movie to stereo it starts to play sound normally and the video stuttering quits immediately

Netflix Allan Oh I see, thanks for that, this can be due to that the app on that device doesn't support that audio settings, but let me check this here on my end for you, please bear with me in the meantime.

You No problem, I know it's a long shot, but i'm pretty savy with these things and this has me stumped. I have already factory reset my AVR, TV and Android TV box

Netflix Allan Got it, thanks for that, one quick question, this happens with all the shows you use correct?

You Yes

Netflix Allan I see, thanks for that, I'm still digging on this, thanks for holding. You The only time it doesn't happen is if it's an older show/movie that only has a stereo track

Netflix Allan Alright! thanks for that information I just finish investigate this here on my end, and what I found is that this device is not compatible yet with this audio option, but you can be sure that we are always working on making more compatible the devices with all the options the service offers, and right now I will pass along your interest on having a fully compatible option for 5.1 audio in the future :)

You Might I just add, there are a lot of people that have 5.1 working just fine on this device using Netflix

You Also, the option is there on the app. Why would it be an option and then also default to this

Netflix Allan Hmm well in this case we might need to check on more detail this, your set up box audio is connected to a speakers or the audio comes out from the TV speakers? and sure thing we can change this setting for all the shows, let me type also how to do this.

You My SHIELD is connected to my TV, my AVR is connected via ARC to the TV

You My AVR has a 5.1 channel speaker system attached, I have no issues with 5.1 on any other device

You I will add, googling this issue did land a handful of identical issues.

Netflix Allan Hmmm that would be odd, but no worries I will like to try a quick test, by chance you have the option to try to play the same titles but with your 5.1 speakers unplugged from the Nvidia TV?

You Sure, like with the SHIELD connected directly to the TV and using the internal speakers?

Netflix Allan This can be caused since the speakers are not compatible with the app, and sure thing please do that way just so we can ensure this.

You Sure, give me just a sec

Netflix Allan No worries, take your time.

You no change

You with my AVR completely disconnect, just playing through my TV speakers the app defaults to 5.1 and still have same issues

Netflix Allan I see, one quick question, the audio is connected trough a different cable from the video, or you use the same cable for both, like A HDMI cable?

You HDMI caable

Netflix Allan Got it, by chance do you have any other HDMI cable that we can use to try this again?

You The SHIELD Android TV is a 4k box, the only connection it uses is HDMI

You I have already swapped out the cable, it made no change

Netflix Allan Hmmm we might need some further research of my research team, just let me check if we will need any other information before we reach them.

You ok

Netflix Allan Thanks for holding, I will just need one more thing, can you tell me the current model of your AVR speakers as well as your TV model please?

You My TV is a Vizio P65-C1, my AVR is a Denon AVR-X1000. My normal setup is having the AVR hooked up to the TV via ARC and the SHIELD Android TV hooked directly to the T.V input

You Again, this issue will happen with the AVR completely out of the equation. The the SHIELD Android TV set to output directly to the internal TV speakers I have the identical issue

Netflix Allan Thanks a lot, I'm passing this right now, please stay online with me in the meantime.

You No problem

Netflix Allan Alright! I will keep checking in with you in the meantime, while we are investigating this.

You Will do, I doubt we are going to get to the bottom of this but I atleast wanted to bring it to netflix's attention. Its starting to drive me a little crazy

Netflix Allan Oh no, be sure that just in case that they don't figure out this now they will continue investigating this issue, since we always want to deliver an amazing experience with the content, and this totally includes the best audio and image quality on devices that are prepared for this.

You I appreciate it, I don't mean that in a bad way I just feel this issue is just too odd for it to be something simple

Netflix Allan Yeah I totally got you, and in fact it is something odd, but I trust that we have an experts team that are working always on this odd cases :)

You Thats good to hear

Netflix Allan Yeah, it is, they are the best of the best, since our commitment is to fix all this rare cases, also in the meantime I will like to guide you to change the default audio on the shows, let me type for you how to do this.

You Definitely, that would atleast eliminate one of my frustrations

Netflix Allan Hey, thanks for holding, I just finished the call with my team and they mentioned that in fact your device supports 5.1 as well as your speakers, is just that the device doesn't have the dolby digital plus support and this is the technology that the service uses to deliver 5.1 audio, but no worries since I already pass this along so we can work on more options in the future, and about how to change the audio is very simple, since all we need to do is play a title with 5.1 audio on the site and let it play for about 5 minutes, this will save the settings on the account and all other titles will start to play in stereo always. be sure that in the meantime this will totally work for you.

You i wish it would

You but it wont

You I have been switching episodes/movies to stereo and watching them all the way through for months

You it always defaults to 5.1

You and my device does support dolby digital + it works with other applications

Netflix Allan I totally understand how you feel and I was digging on this as well and this is also a known issue that we are working on, since the audio should be saved, so what I suggest here is to manually change the audio on the nvidia shield so once this issue is fixed on our end, the audio will stay always on stereo instead of change to 5.1 be sure as well that I already pass this along so we can work on having more support for all devices including the nvidia set up box.

You There is no way to set the Shield to stereo only, but I appreciate the time. I can only hope the issues will be resolved in the future

Netflix Allan Be sure it will do, since we are always working on this issues we want to provide you an amazing experience with the audio and video as well.

You Ok thanks Allen I think thats all we can do here

Netflix Allan Alright! Thanks for chatting with us today, Have a nice week!. And one more thing, if you wouldn't mind, please stay online for a one question survey.