Wanted to pick some brains here. I have an older Onkyo 7.1 Receiver HT-R680. Both Optical inputs on it died a few years ago, but the digital coaxial inputs still work as well as HDMI inputs and outputs. I purchased a Ematic Jetstream 4k recently and been racking my brain to get all my apps working with Surround Sound. Due to the receiver being from the 2010 era, I don't think it has a high enough DLNA certification to plug the Jetstream 4k in via HDMI for Netflix. I start watching something and get an immediate Netflix error. Yet Hulu and Plex work just fine. Plugging it into my TV HDMI ports and Netflix works. Downside is my TV is it's an older Samsung smart TV from 2013 and most of the apps have been discontinued, yet Netflix is still there just all around it's a slow experience. Both TV and receiver support ARC, but TV won't pass-through DTS and DD sound from an HDMI source. So I purchased a digital optical to digital coaxial converter box ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N32C5GT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 ). I have the Jetstream plugged to the TV via HDMI and have the optical audio from Jetstream going to the converter box to coaxial input on the receiver. Plex works great DTS and DD pass-through no problems. When it comes to Netflix I don't get the DD5.1 sounds to come through. I have to pick stereo sound on every show or movie. It's especially annoying when a TV show switches to the next episode it defaults to 5.1. I do have an optical output on the TV and tested the converter box with it and it works fine with Netflix and the receiver picks up the DD5.1 signal. I have everything set right. Jetstream sound output is on SPIDIF. My theory is the converter box only supports 192 KHZ sampling rate. Not sure what the DD5.1 sampling rate from Netflix is but I'm wondering if its just to high. Since the Tv is older, the Neflix app may be pulling DD5.1 at a much lower sampling rate. I know it's probably not cost effective to get the receiver fixed probably better off buying a new one at that point. If anyone has advice or feedback let me know.
Appreciate everyone's input and replies. What's kinda confusing is I watched a movie with Plex and the movie's audio was Dolby Digital+ and it worked with my setup no problem and my receiver even showed Dolby Digital+ on the display. Plex does have an option for optical pass-through and I guess that's the difference. To bad Plex does not have a Netflix add on. I guess Kodi it is.