Xbox One Not Getting Proper Surround Sound

I have connected my Xbox One to my Marrantz NR 1504 AV receiver in the AVR HDMI IN, which in turn in connected to my TV through its HDMI out. My AVR is connected to Boston Acoustics XS 5.1. I have selected 5.1 uncompressed in the Xbox one HDMI sound setting. I have read on other forums that Uncompressed PCM is the best for best quality sound. With this setup, I get only "Multi Channel IN" and "Multi Channel Stereo "sound options on my AVR. If I select Multi Channel IN, I get sound only from the FL, FR, Centre and Sub. The surround speakers don't output any sound (constant static). If I select Multi Channel Stereo, I get sound from all speakers, but this is stereo sound, with all sounds coming from all speakers. I do not want this, I want proper 5.1 surround sound. How can I set it up?? Please help.

@higher4hire:

Is this only the HDMI-In source? Have you set the HDMI input to surround sound? In settings it's under "TV & OneGuide" and "Audio & Video". My Denon also only says Multi-In no matter what any of the settings. Originally that digital passthrough setting said "beta" on it but that seems to have gone away in some update. Support article on it: http://support.xbox.com/en-GB/xbox-one/live-tv/digital-sound-not-working

Hi, thanks for the reply. Yes, I have other devices connected to my Marrantz, namely chromacast and 3d blue ray player. I jus tried playing a video on youtube through chromecast. It was an iron man 3 trailer, in hd and Dolby sound. When I play this video through chromecast, my AVR shows me the sound output options of "DOLBY PLII MOVIE" and "DTS NEO:6 cinema" in addition to "multi Chn stereo". Playing the video on either Dolby or DTS gives me proper surround sound. Then I tried playing the same video on xb1 youtube. This time the sound options were "multi Chn in" and "multi Chn stereo". Playing the video in multi Chn outputs sound from only front, center and sub. Surround speakers don't output any sound. I tried selecting bitstream, and select DTS/ Dolby there, but same result. I don't know what my xb1 is doing this?

Ok, I found something. If I select "Stereo Uncompressed" in sound setting in Xb1, my AVR gives me the "Dolby PLII Movie" and "DTS Neo:6 Cimena" output options. Selecting this, I get output form whole 5.1 system, but the Input signal detected by AVR is only a 2 channel input. I believe my Marrantz is taking the uncompressed stereo and converting it into 5.1 output. This is also the case with the videos I played back through chromecast. Is this pure surround or just a lot of sound from all the speakers.

In contrast, if I select 5.1 uncompressed in audio setting in XB1, the input is detected as 5.1, but output is only from front, center and sub. I am getting super confused.

I tried a couple tests on mine. If I'm set to 5.1 uncompressed, the receiver is getting 6 pcm channels all the time regardless of the source. The youtube videos I tried didn't seem to have any surround. I switched to Amazon instant and played a recent movie and I could hear sound from the rear speakers. Maybe it's just the youtube app or the youtube content?

This is a known bug that MS have been aware of since at least Jan 2014. It is due to a failed implementation of handling Dolby Prologic Surround.

Detailed information can be found here of my investigation and it affects the entire Xbox One OS
https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=2239812&p=2#r24

MS have recently stated on the beta dashboard forums that this should be a feature request. The response below.

I'd also like to provide some insight on this issue, but as Raynger General indicated above, this is due to how the Xbox One handles stereo audio. Essentially, unlike an AVR, the Xbox One does not upconvert stereo to full surround by splitting the audio over the FC, RR, RL, RRC, RLC channels.

This is the same issue that occurs with 5.1 input converted to 7.1 input, but it's more difficult to notice as just the two rear channels are missing, rather than all the rear channels and the center channel.

If you'd like to see this feature implemented on Xbox One, I'd encourage you to visit Xbox User Voice and support your suggestion:

While many of us still consider this a bug you should make your voice heard as they requested here

http://xbox.uservoice.com/forums/251650-console-accessories/suggestions/6347588-xbox-one-surround-support

Currently the only workaround is to set your XBox One to "Stereo Uncompressed" which is less than ideal.

The Xbox in this setting will send Dolby Pro Logic surround to your amp for games so you will still get Games in surround sound. The only issue is it will be neutered surround with only Centre, Left, Right and Surround channels.

I am hopeful they can fix this by changing the Xbox One OS so that it will change how many channels it sends to the amp based on the number of channels present in the media stream.

ie.

• If the content you are playing has two channels just send two channels to the amp.
• If you are playing a game or media with more than two channels send 5.1 or 7.1 channels to the amp

That makes sense. I wouldn't really consider that a bug but outputting just the active channels would be a desirable option. Maybe the intention is to leave it up to the source app to decide. The youtube is the only one I could find silent surround.

Multi channel in is for a device that has its own dolby decoding built in. I did not read all the post here but you should have an auto setting for decoding.

I would not expect 5.1 from anything other than games and movies on an x1 anyways. Anyone remember Halo 2 not having an LFE channel?

I hope someone can help me. I connected my Xbox One through optical audio to a Sony BDV-E2100 Home Theater. The problem is that the left and right surround channels sound through both left and right surround speakers. A few days ago it worked well, but I disconnected the console to take to a friend's place, and when I came back to my home, the surround wasn't working as needed.

@eclecticmoss: I have the same problem. Did you sort it. I tried a dolby test video that plays the sound through each speaker separately. When it plays the rears the same sound comes from the opposite speaker. I have it connected via the optical connection. I tried the HDMI connection but got the same. I tried it with my apple TV and the rears played as they are supposed to. So it has to be the Xbox one.