Surround sound playback on Android phones

I understand that some devices don’t support surround sound and I originally thought that was the reason it wouldn’t play on my Android phone (Samsung Galaxy S-10). But then I tried it while I was remote, not on the same network as the Tablo and suddenly I was able to play back with audio no problem. As soon as I connected to my local network (same as the tablo) it would not play the audio.

Why is my android phone able to play surround sound audio ONLY when I am remote but not local? If my phone is capable of decoding the surround sound remotely, then my phone must be capable.

Because the Tablo is transcoding the audio and video for the remote session. It doesn’t transcode at all for local sessions.

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for the answer. I am still trying to decide if it makes sense to leave surround sound on or off. I watch mostly via Roku on all my TV sets but, also like to watch from a web browser in some cases and of course that fails. So I have to decide if I want to give up watching on a web browser or, give up on having surround sound on my main roku where I have a full 5.1 AVR and 5.1 speakers. Most of the content that I watch and/or record doesn’t have surround sound anyway therefore it would only be for the occasional movie that has it. So, now the question remains, to surround or not to surround.

So far I just turn it off while on the web browser and turn it back on when I am done.

5.1 Surround Sound – Tablo (tablotv.com)

Specifically this section…

"Using Surround Sound with Tablo Connect (Remote Access)

When using Tablo Connect, surround sound will ONLY be available on supported devices when using the ‘full quality’ remote streaming setting. However, ALL devices (even those that don’t support this sound profile) can enjoy stereo sound even with ‘Surround Sound’ enabled at any remote streaming quality EXCEPT ‘full quality’."

When you are remote, it transcodes it back to stereo.

Depends on the browser you use. The Edge browser supports 5.1.

As does Safari. Chrome does not.

I have tried Chrome and Brave and neither of them do. Edge is Chrome based and seems like it shouldn’t but… I just tried it and BAM! it works.

More info…

NEW - Microsoft Edge Browser Support - Announcements - TabloTV Community