The issue with "Auto" and "Passthrough" audio options in the Android 11 firmware

by latinriky78

The issue is plaguing every AndroidTV/GoogleTV box or stick with Android 11, please confirm if it's present in yours:

When using "Auto" on AV receivers with Dolby Atmos support: Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus without Dolby Atmos and Dolby TrueHD without Dolby Atmos codecs are getting decoded as multichannel PCM when they should be passed through untouched to the AV receiver, the only one passing through correctly is Dolby Digital Plus with Dolby Atmos.

When using "Auto" on AV receivers without Dolby Atmos support: A constant Dolby Digital Plus signal is sent regardless if something is playing or not, when playback is on, the AV receiver always shows DD+ regardless of what's actually playing.

When using "Passthrough": This option sends every raw audio codec to a TV or AV receiver without checking if they actually support them, in this case, all the Dolby and DTS codecs are passed through untouched, BUT, it's not sending the Dolby Atmos metadata from Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD, which means, they are played as regular Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD codecs. I tested "Passthrough" with an old TV that doesn't support Dolby and DTS codecs and no audio was output, which means the option is working as intended.

Dolby TrueHD is not supported by every device, but it's worth mention it for those who do.

I REPEAT AGAIN: This is a problem present in the Android 11 source firmware that Google sends to every OEM, which means, the issue is present in every single Android TV box or stick unless the OEM already fixed it.

International-Oil377

Nvidia Shield Pro here and works flawlessly

Kodi_Fan_Omicron

The problem is in Amlogic SDK and/or Amlogic's Kernel source code for Android 11.

Google servers may host the firmware updates for the OEM's OTA-updates, but Google is not in charge of the individual updates or the source-code that the firmwares get built from, that falls back on the OEM or Middleware software developers (OEM's may outsource the firmware development to a third-party software company).

You can Sideload the mobile app " Settings Watcher " to see what exactly is getting triggered when activating each audio setting.

My assumption for "AUTO" to work correctly then the internal Android Audio Setting that triggers Passthrough needs to be written for the codecs that are supported by the connected hardware, and in my experience with Amlogic that doesn't happen automatically.

Another quick diagnosis is using the ViMu media players diagnostic feature in its internal settings, turn "Auto" on in the Android settings and ViMu wil probably just show (pcm16, iec) according to what you stated in OP for surround sound codecs being decoded, and when using "Passthrough" setting all the codecs will be showing (pcm16, DD, DD+, DTS, iec, TrueHD, AC4, Dolby Atmos). The ViMu app is worth purchasing if you don't already own it.

wewewi

Ok, I'll bite; what was this tested on?