Does the TV-connected Tablo Dual HDMI model support Dolby Digital Surround Sound 5.1 ? I would hope so, but the model isn’t even mentioned in the technote that was just updated 3 days ago.
Yes it does cause the native video and audio is recorded, it doesn’t re-encode anything to another format. So by default it supports 5.1 audio if that is what is broadcasted.
More details here:
When set to PCM is the audio stream encoded to 2.0 PCM audio for recordings? That way when streaming via the network devices that do not support surround sound will also get audio?
Or is the DUAL HDMI just decoding the AC3 audio stream and outputting PCM audio over the HDMI connection?
All recordings on the Tablo DUAL HDMI are made using the broadcast codec, which is always AC3 (Surround Sound).
We only decode to PCM for local viewing via the HDMI itself.
Supported clients for streaming to secondary TVs (Roku, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV) will receive the AC3 audio and what they do with it will depend on the client and whether it is set for passthrough or decode.
The Android TV and Fire TV devices can decode the AC3 to PCM but on Roku only the Ultra can do the same.
Most TV’s however, will support AC3 over HDMI.
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