Missing MANUAL Surround Sound setting in Mecool KM7 and other Amlogic ATV11 devices...

Picked up a KM7 (2GB/16GB) in July, haven't really tested much on it or used it extensively, but saw that @ChigzTechReviews YouTube channel did a review recently on the REALME 4K Stick, and noticed that the stick didn't have the MANUAL Surround settings option either. Plus, he said DolbyAtmos only worked with AppleTV+, which I found extremely odd.

https://youtu.be/mUkKy_6PGHU?t=254

Long story short, did some testing, and with a few ADB shell script commands you too can unhide the MANUAL SurroundSound setting's UI toggles in the MECOOL KM7 and probably other ATV11 devices as well.

First, inside the DISPLAY_&_SOUND settings under ADVANCED_SOUND_SETTINGS option turn-OFF the S/PDIF output, and note the Formats is either "Automatic" or "None" - and after you input the script cmds neither option will be chosen.

ADB Shell commands:

settings put global digital_audio_format 2
settings put global encoded_surround_output 3

Previously with Amlogic ATV 8/9/10 the Surround Sound selection in TV-Settings would toggle the ENCODED option and Amlogic's JAVA-coding would automatically enable the corresponding DIGITAL option. But with ATV11 the MANUAL option is not even available to users in the Settings app UI, and you must input the commands in the order printed above, just changing the ENCODED option alone leaves the DIGITAL option in its original from the factory value of equals "1".

Now for the individual MANUAL Surround Sound toggle options, these can be set with ADB as well; but after the above cmds are entered you'll find the corresponding settings inside MORE_SETTINGS, which is hidden at the bottom of the DEVELOPER_OPTIONS tab. If you go check the 'MORE_SETTINGS>>SOUND' tab before entering the above cmds you'll notice, there is no DolbyAtmos toggle available until after you input the above cmds.

ADB Shell cmds to manually input Surround Sound ENABLED_FORMATS:

settings put global digital_audio_subformat "5,6,7,18"
settings put global encoded_surround_output_enabled_formats "5,6,7,18"

Now don't get excited, because in the SOUND activity you'll now see DTS-HD and Dolby_TrueHD options, they don't work, so leave them OFF; was looking at the old Android 9 source-code from Amlogic and the variables are populated in settings by default in the JAVA coding.

Because I know somebody is bound to ask what the values "5,6,7,18" represent, they are the surround sound audio codec formats.

DIGITAL and ENCODED formats must have the same Format variables:

• AC3 (DD) = 5
• E_AC3 (DD+) = 6
• DTS = 7
• DTS_HD = 8
• DOLBY_TRUEHD = 14
• E_AC3_JOC (DD+Atmos) =18
• There are way more ENCODED audio codecs in ANDROID's main source-code that can be sent via passthrough, but they need to have a corresponding DIGITAL entry in Amlogic's source-code to work with an Amlogic SoC. But they are just not all populated in Amlogic's JAVA. But personally, I believe the real reason that HD-Audio codecs can't be sent via passthrough is Amlogic's Linux Kernel is still broken for Android 11, but there is hope that it might be fixed for Android 12.

After entering the above ADB cmds, I recommend doing a device REBOOT, and checking that the settings persisted by connecting ADB again and scrolling through the GLOBAL settings list.

ADB cmd to see the full GLOBAL settings list that are currently set:

settings list global

SIDENOTE:

If you own tvQuickActions app you can use it to program a button/menu/panel to quickly open the MoreSettingsActivity or the SoundActivity so you don't have to navigate all the way down to bottom of 'Developer_Options'.

MoreSettingsActivity is embedded in the SETTINGS app:

• Activity: 'com.android.tv.settings.more.MorePrefFragmentActivity'

• Or to open with ADB shell:

  am start 'com.android.tv.settings/.more.MorePrefFragmentActivity'

SoundActivity is embedded in the SETTINGS app:

• Activity: 'com.android.tv.settings.SoundActivity'

• Or to open with ADB shell:

  am start 'com.android.tv.settings/.SoundActivity'

NOTE:

I have NOT tested these Audio settings extensively with every streaming app available, I tested with Amazon PrimeVideo and DolbyAtmos worked and was sent via Passthrough, so was happy and deemed my mini exploit a success.

Don't have a Netflix sub personally, also KM7 not Netflix certified, but if somebody with the Realme 4K stick wanted to try inputting these settings with ADB, Netflix may still not passthrough ATMOS unless inputting two further ADB settings:

settings put global nrdp_external_surround_sound_enabled 1
settings put global external_surround_sound_enabled 1

• The NRDP setting is from Amlogic source, and the EXTERNAL setting is from Android Exoplayer source.

FINALLY:

If some App doesn't play nice with these Surround Sound settings, just use your remote and go back into the 'Advanced_Sound_Settings' and select "Automatic" or "None" and REBOOT.

Ciao!