RoonBridge is an implementation of RAAT, it is light weight designed to run on relatively ‘low’ power headless devices, it has no GUI.
Ok therefore I’ll need to continue running the VGA cable from my core PC to my TV and have the NUC for sound only into my amp via HDMI (I have no USB input on the amp)
Thanks for your help
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Will a Mac Mini running on OSX be able to stream multichannel via HDMI to a multichannel AV receiver that can accept multichannel PCM and DSD via HDMI?
Hi,
Knowing Roon past form and how they approach product development … I would expect so, but I can’y say for sure as this feature has not been released yet.
Most of my multichannel music is FLAC but shows as DTS through my Onkyo, I wonder if that will output correctly ? Time will tell…
Those probably are not true multichannel files if they decode as DTS on your Onkyo. Rather, they are two channel PCM based files that serve as containers for lossy DTS. This was an ad hoc format of sorts for DTS CDs about 15-20 years ago. DTS CD rips already can be played within Roon – provided no settings or complications prevent bit perfect output. Later, when I am not mobile, I will post a screenshot of a DTS CD rip in Roon.
AJ
Other Mac music software (even iTunes) will play multichannel PCM over HDMI, so I expect Roon will, too, but I have no inside information. I’m not aware of any software on the Mac that sends DSD over HDMI - it’s not DoP, but raw DSD, so it would require macOS driver support, that as I far as I know, doesn’t exist. (Or you would need a receiver/pre-pro/multichannel DAC with HDMI input that understands DoP over HDMI, which I believe is currently the empty set.)
Yes, this is kind of a bummer. Hopefully one side or the other will fix things to enable multichannel DSD over HDMI from macOS, but I won’t hold my breath - this is an extremely niche market requirement.
I understand that newish (i.e., post 4.something) Linux kernels have DSD audio support. Does anyone know whether DSD over HDMI is working on Linux, either PC or ARM (e.g., Raspberry Pi, BBB, etc.)?
Yes there are some DTS-CD rips as well as live DVD’s that I ripped years ago in the same format, not sure why I did that in hindsight ??
So as it is actually only 2 channel I should already be able to send to my AVR and it will decode to DTS multichannel ? When I get home on Friday I’ll give it a try…
A good rule of thumb or litmus test is that the current Roon version is able to play most/all formats that are compatible with S/PDIF transmission. This includes lossy multichannel formats.
AJ
So trying to work out how to get this to work with my setup.
Roon Core running on a PC, Roon Bridge running on Mac mini OS X connected via HDMI to AV receiver.
When setting up the HDMI output in Roon’s setting I only have 2.0 as an available option.
Then it occurred to me that CoreAudio defaults an inactive audio device to 2 channel. So open Audio Midi Devices and change HDMI to 8 channel. Remove and re-add the Audio Device in Roon and Boom!
Hope that helps others.
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Multichannel
Roon now supports multichannel playback, including support for reading multi-channel data from all supported file formats, multichannel streaming via RAAT or HQPlayer, channel mapping, and a facility for downmixing so that multichannel content can still work on stereo hardware.
Closing this thread as 1.3 has delivered multi-channel. Any queries, comments or problems, start a thread in Roon Software or Support as appropriate.