Streamer with HDMI ARC, Multichannel, Roon support

[kinghrothgar]

I've been looking around for options for a streamer with HDMI ARC for multichannel output and have been struggling to find a well reviewed one in my price range, around $400 or less. Does this exist? My understand is that HDMI ARC is needed to support uncompressed multichannel digital output. It also needs Roon support. Any suggestions?

 

[popej]

HDMI supports multichannel PCM. ARC is a feature, that transmit sound back, from display to source. It supports uncompressed stereo and compressed multichannel. Better format is e-ARC, which supports uncompressed multichannel. See:

HDMI ARC and HDMI eARC: everything you need to know

It's not sexy, but HDMI ARC is one of the best things to ever happen to AV

www.whathifi.com

My solution for multichannel audio is CoreELEC on cheap TV Box. LibreELEC on RPi4 should be similar, but I haven't tried yet. You probably can install Roon on them too.

 

[kinghrothgar]

I was planning on going with with a Raspberry Pi 4 but apparently getting 24 bit audio out of the HDMI is pretty fiddly. I went a head and ordered on to test it out, we'll see. Wouldn't mind a pre packaged solution if it exists though.

24 bit audio output on Raspberry Pi 4 b model · Issue #4204 · raspberrypi/linux

I need some help solving a hi-res audio issue on the Raspberry Pi 4 b model over HDMI. I am trying to stream 24 bit output over an HDMI plugged into the pi and then into my AVR, which can play 24 b...

github.com

.

 

[popej]

I hope, that LibreELEC for RPi has appropriate kernel and good support for audio over HDMI.

 

[MCH]

I was planning on going with with a Raspberry Pi 4 but apparently getting 24 bit audio out of the HDMI is pretty fiddly. I went a head and ordered on to test it out, we'll see. Wouldn't mind a pre packaged solution if it exists though.

24 bit audio output on Raspberry Pi 4 b model · Issue #4204 · raspberrypi/linux

I need some help solving a hi-res audio issue on the Raspberry Pi 4 b model over HDMI. I am trying to stream 24 bit output over an HDMI plugged into the pi and then into my AVR, which can play 24 b...

github.com

.

You can get 24bits output if you use the hdmi KMS driver, but there is an issue with the driver that messes up the channels on buffer underruns. The raspberry pi people is looking at it, but there is no solution yet, and also affects the pi 5. If you want to know more, you can start reading here.

Post in thread 'Multichannel audio on a Pi will get a whole lot easier and cheaper!' https://audiosciencereview.com/foru...ole-lot-easier-and-cheaper.48233/post-1803969

 

[popej]

I have installed LibreELEC on RPi 4. All works the same as CoreELEC on Amlogic. Multichannel flac works, 24/96 multichannel PCM audio track in video too. Unfortunately my AVR doesn't show bit depth. I only can check, that LibreELEC shows 24/96 multichannel PCM as a transmitted format.

 

[kinghrothgar]

I got the RPi 4 and messed with it for a while with no luck. I tried to get it working with Archlinux (my preferred distro) but ran into lots of issues, more with Arch Arm specifically, not with the originally raised concern of HDMI support.

In the meantime I pivoted to just running a 50 ft HDMI cable from my Mac Studio to my Denon as I wanted to have that for several reasons anyway. Roon unfortunately has been quite annoying and flaky as fuck for me (audio outputs keep disappearing / resetting and whether it recognizes the Denon as a stereo output or 7.1 is totally random) so it turns out that it's also not a good solution for me to get multichannel audio.

I'm gonna try the RPi 4 again with a more dedicated distro (like LibreELEC) soon. I'll update with my success or failure. I realize that multichannel lossless audio setup is not a common thing, but damn I didn't expect it to be this hard to get working.