Multichannel FLAC on old Sony Blu-ray player via network (BDP-S373)

[JorisCeoen]

I have an old Blu-ray player from Sony (BDP-S373) and I saw it had ethernet connection possibilities and thus it can connect to my local network.
It also plays almost all music files without problems, but I do have a problem with multichannel flac. It seems that it will play these music files (which are 5.1) as stereo no matter what I try to do.

Does anyone know how to enable this? The player, although quite old, should normally support this as far as I see on the specsheet.

 

[kyuu]

After a brief look through the specifications and the user manual, I don't see anywhere that it specifies what it supports playing via the network connection. It's quite possible that the network connection does not support playing anything beyond stereo. This would be similar to the issue I've found with my AVR, where multichannel content cannot be streamed over the network connection.

 

[JorisCeoen]

After a brief look through the specifications and the user manual, I don't see anywhere that it specifies what it supports playing via the network connection. It's quite possible that the network connection does not support playing anything beyond stereo. This would be similar to the issue I've found with my AVR, where multichannel content cannot be streamed over the network connection.

Ah that's a shame. I thought it would just support it since it has all the technology inside. That's a huge bummer. My AVR, which is still the most 'recent' model from Yamaha (RX-A4A) also does not support any multichannel audio files despite having all the possible technology, which really surprised me. It's why I was looking into my Blu-ray player for an alternative solution.

Is there any easier way to play multichannel audio files through a network? I don't and can't connect a PC directly to the AVR. I tried running a cable right behind the center channel for eventually connecting a laptop, but it's such a hassle and having to boot the PC everytime, then using a wireless mouse/keyboard is insanely backwards IMHO.

 

[kyuu]

That's a great question. Asides from buying more hardware like a MiniDSP Flex HT and streaming to it via Roon, it seems to not be a well-supported feature. If there is an easy way to do it without buying additional hardware, I'd like to know myself!