After many fruitless searches here and elsewhere I cannot find the answer to this...

If a source device (for example, Apple TV3, Amazon Fire TV or a Sky HD STB) is connected to an HD621 and the A/V signal is carrying the undecoded DD audio, can the HD621 pass that audio on to a downstream Meridian processor and can that processor be persuaded to decode the DD, so avoiding the need for a parallel connection from the source to the processor?

What are the settings in the HD621 and the processor?

Probably too early to ask but what will the UHD722 do?

TIA

I'm pretty certain that's what my Humax Freesat boxes do. Standard settings. There was discussion early after HD621 release that decoding DD would have been useful addition so the processor could still do the upsampling.

Does that make sense or am I talking hoop as usual?

I had found the statement "Dolby Digital, DTS and AAC bitstreams are passed through untouched." in the HD621 manual. but that does not explain how to make that happen or how to tell the processor to decode the audio. The various HD621 "types" seem to cover all sources, or am I misreading?

IIRC (and it's been a few years since I sold my mine), the HD621 can't do any decoding, so just sends everything through to your processor to deal with, and that would include DD, DTS and PCM signals.

ISTR it will advertise capabilities according to it's configuration and capabilities, so it'll advertise that it can accept signals up to 192kHz, but it'll downsample that to 96kHz. If you're configured for 4 2, 6 or 8 channel, it'll send that to any source device to send audio accordingly. You configure it in the M config program as you would any modern controller, and you can define whether the controller supports DD, DTS, AAC or how many channels it should accept.

Not sure if you're overthinking this or I'm doing the opposite. The way I look at it the DD audio just passes through and, as it's coded into 2 channels of digital audio*, it would just be carried out of the HD621 on the "front" channel (1+2) SPDIF wire into your 861/G6* where it's processed just the same as if the HD621 wasn't between source and processor.

*bitstream rather than PCM? This is something I've always struggled to get my head round.

Hi,

DD 2.0 and 5.1 bitstream from SKY-Q box HDMI, via HD621, to 861v6 works just fine.

I have the 861 configured to use the MMHR audio input when SAT is selected.

The 861 then selects the required DSP based on the input signal, in my case I have configured it for:
Regards,
Carl

One school of thought is that Meridian decoding of vanilla formats is superior to that carried out in the player so it's desirable to send bitstream. Not sure if this has been substantiated to any degree.

I think it was 861v4 that introduced decoding in a 598/800 player and subsequent upscaling to 24/96 for Dolby Digital.

Produced a lovely sound from well made DVDs eg. 'The Who Live at Royal Albert Hall'.

~M~

Perhaps I am over-thinking this.

What I think I have gleaned from all the very helpful replies above is that if undecoded Dolby Digital on HDMI is received by the HD621 it is passed over MMHR (RJ45 or 3xSPDIF), and the receiving Meridian processor is then able to detect the undecoded DD and decode it accordingly.

Yes.

Thanks VK.

Couple more questions...

1) If none of the HDMI sources are discrete, can the HD621 be connected to the processor using just one signal cable carrying the undecoded Dolby Digital, and would that connection be from output 1 to input 1, i.e. the FL&FR connection?

2) Can the HD621 be hard reset and typed without a PC connection?

Hi Jon,

A1) Yes and Yes.
A2) No.

Regards,
Carl