Play movies through Blu Ray Player or TV?

Hello,

I have a Samsung Series 7 (7000-7500) series tv and also bought a Blu-Ray Player 5.1 system at the same time.
Both are wired into a gigabit switch with a 38 foot run back to a another gigabit switch which is then connected to my router/modem.

I've noticed that sometimes the sound is off if I play a movie from the Blu Ray player, but is fine if I play the movie from the TV and just set the Blu-Ray to D-In for the audio.
They're connected to each other with an HDMI cable and digital audio/optical cable.

Anyone else experience this? Again it's not with every file, last night it was an .AVI file.
I'm streaming from a Buffalo NAS drive on my network.

I've noticed with big files like 5-8GB MKV files that it's better if I play the file directly from the hard drive of the computer running Serviio.
Smaller files seem fine from the NAS.

I didn't know if most of you here start the movie playback from your TV or your Blu Ray Player/Receiver... was just curious.

Thanks,
Matt

[atc98092]

With HDMI, it is not necessary to run a separate audio cable. In fact, it could be confusing the TV.

I am assuming you are not using an A/V receiver for your sound, and all audio is played back through the TV speakers. Is that correct? I think that's what you mean by your message title.

If you are not using an A/V receiver, then you have no choice but to play the movie audio through the TV. Depending on the audio codec used in your movie, it's possible the TV doesn't know how to decode it, so you won't hear anything. On my TV, it warns you that it can't decode the audio.

If your movie requires transcoding (i.e. the TV or BD player cannot play the video without conversion), then the file is being read from your NAS, transcoded on the computer, then sent back out over your network to the TV. That's a lot of overhead, and something somewhere in the chain is likely being overtaxed. Personally I like the files to be stored on the computer. I currently have 8 hard drives with 17TB of space that holds my movies. Never had a playback issue.

Hi ATC,

Thanks for the response, I have a Blu Ray Player that has a 5.1 system running through it, one of those all one in deals.
I knew about both audio and video being over HDMI I'm not sure why I plugged that cable in now that you mention it... : )
So I should just unplug that? When would you use a digital optical cable? You're probably right, I've been confusing it.

I have an HDMI cable and the digital optical cable running from the Blu Ray Player/Receiver box to the TV... so I don't need that cable at all then right?
I don't really like those anyway, always the hardest cable to plug in for me anyway and it's also the tightest.
Maybe that's why I have so much Bass in playback? Could that be? Or is just using the HDMI or the cable? Is it smart enough to disable one?

The PC is pretty high end, never usually have an issue playing from the Buffalo NAS unless the file size gets up over 5gb or so.
Then I do like you do and just play it from the PC's hard drive.

Storage is pretty cheap, I probably should just copy that NAS stuff local and put in a couple new drives...

Seems like the TV or the Blu Ray player decode the files just fine, unless it's WMV, they do not like playing those at all, unless I'm using something other than Serviio.
Serviio is my favorite though, I've tried others and they just keep bulky and with a big footprint in terms of resources.

Thanks a bunch!!

Matt

[atc98092]

OK, you have a 5.1 receiver with a BD drive built in, correct? OK, then the audio from the BD player is never reaching the TV, it is being processed internally and sent to the speakers. I doubt there's anything in your player settings to send the audio to the TV, so we can discard that option. Anything played through the BD player/receiver (and I assume that Serviio is available here) is decoded as necessary and only the video is sent to the TV via HDMI. I was confused, thinking there was only a TV and BD player in the setup.

Now, unless both your TV and receiver box support something called Audio Return Channel (ARC), then you need the optical cable from the TV back to the receiver for the audio from anything originating from the TV. This includes over the air TV, as well as any Smart Apps (such as Netflix or connecting to Serviio). If both of your devices support ARC (My Samsung HU8550 does, and so does my Yamaha AV Receiver), then the optical cable is unnecessary. Be aware that only one of the HDMI jacks on the TV will support ARC, so that's the jack that must be used to connect back to the AV receiver. ARC does not support HD Audio (Dolby TrueHD or DTS Master Audio), so any TV app that would play HD movies from your Serviio box may not give you sound.

Unless your TV and receiver are the same brand and model, they likely support different video and audio formats. The profile in Serviio would differ for each device, and you need to make sure the correct profile is assigned to the device.

Not sure which TV you have, as Samsung series are letters, not numbers. There should be a letter (or 2) before the 7000 number. Also, what is the brand of BD player/receiver?

Ahhh thanks, I just saw the HDMI Connector with ARC under it, I never knew what that meant actually. : )

The TV Manual says Series 7 (7000-7050)
The BD Manual says HT-C6900W

I noticed the other night when I was playing an .AVI file directly from the TV with the Blu Ray Player set to D-IN I had to really kick up the volume.
When playing from the receiver, BD Player, it was louder, but the audio was just enough off to be distracting.

All of this changes from file to file though, most everything is either .avi, .mp4, or .mkv that I have.

I don't see ARC mentioned in the Blu Ray / Receiver manual at all.

Thanks for all your help,
Matt

[atc98092]

OK, now I see what equipment you are running. The Home Theater system (based on the model you provided) should use the Series C/D profile. I found the manual online, and I see no mention of ARC, so it's unlikely it supports it. Therefore, you still need the optical cable from the TV.

If you are playing something from the internal player (Blu-Ray, DVD or streaming) I suggest you do not set it to D-In for your audio. You are sending your sound to the TV and getting it back over the optical connection. You will lose HD audio, and perhaps even normal 5.1 sound, as many TVs only send 2 channel out of the optical connection. This could also account for the sound level differences. Some TVs have a menu option that allows the optical out sound level to be controlled by the TV, rather than the outboard amplifier. If yours is set this way, it should be turned off. Might be labeled variable vs. constant output. You want constant, since you aren't using the TV speakers.

The TV I'm not sure about, but it may be a D series. If so, select the same profile you did for the other device.

Once all this is straightened out, let us know if there's any files that won't play. Need to know if its just no sound, no picture, or just won't play at all. We'll then need some information about a non-playable file. MediaInfo is a great, easy to use program to gather inside information about a media file, but you can do it from the command line on your computer as well using FFMPEG. We can walk you through either.