Best 4K HDR AVR (Audio Video Receivers) for Consoles [2017-2019]

You really only have to worry about eARC if your lossless or Atmos tracks come from the TV. Which is unlikely as it will be coming from your gaming machine or bluray player for the foreseeable future.
Besides, Atmos can already be transferred via ARC.
HDMI 2.1 won't be 'needed' for a long time. Even next gen consoles will be stuck on 4K/60 for their lifetime, and that's a long time.
 
London-boy said:
You really only have to worry about eARC if your lossless or Atmos tracks come from the TV. Which is unlikely as it will be coming from your gaming machine or bluray player for the foreseeable future.
Besides, Atmos can already be transferred via ARC.
HDMI 2.1 won't be 'needed' for a long time. Even next gen consoles will be stuck on 4K/60 for their lifetime, and that's a long time.
Click to expand...
If you go console -> sound bar -> TV.. then your sound bar must be on to pass through? Is this less ideal if you're using headphones for a majority of the time? Is there a work around you have for this? or is this a non-issue for you in general?
 
iroboto said:
If you go console -> sound bar -> TV.. then your sound bar must be on to pass through? Is this less ideal if you're using headphones for a majority of the time? Is there a work around you have for this? or is this a non-issue for you in general?
Click to expand...

Zero issue whatsoever for me but then again I don't use headphones. If I did, I guess the distance to the soundbar is shorter than behind the TV/PS4, plus more easily accessible, so it still works.

But in terms of eARC and anything over 4K/60/HDR, we're really talking about waiting for those features that you're just not going to use in the next 10 years, minimum. At least on consoles.
 
London-boy said:
You really only have to worry about eARC if your lossless or Atmos tracks come from the TV. Which is unlikely as it will be coming from your gaming machine or bluray player for the foreseeable future.
Click to expand...
A non-HDMI 2.1 soundbar won't pass-through VRR, which will be available in the XboneX (and most probably all FreeSync-enabled graphics cards) later this year and probably in TVs next year.
Future-proofing above 4K60 may be debatable, but VRR certainly isn't IMO.

So if you want VRR to work you'll need ARC or a TOSLINK cable to get sound into the receiver. And if you want full fledged Atmos sound (also in XboneX) you'll need eARC.

mrcorbo said:
Eh..kind of. Due to bandwidth limitations it's Atmos metadata with a DD+ core instead of Atmos metadata with a TrueHD core. And it isn't universally supported.
Click to expand...

DD+ goes up to 6Mbit, while SPDIF's absolute maximum supported bitrate is 3Mbit/s per the AES3 standard (and consequently the required for the HD-DVD standard). So at most it has half the bandwidth capabilities of a DD+ core.
Regardless, does this even work on more than a handful devices? It sounds off-spec as hell.
I've never heard of this being done.
 
It works between my Sony TV sand my sony soundbar. But again, there's no Atmos material on my TV and there's not going to be any time soon, so no point there.
 
London-boy said:
It works between my Sony TV sand my sony soundbar. But again, there's no Atmos material on my TV and there's not going to be any time soon, so no point there.
Click to expand...
I think the setup works, as long as you are okay with having to turn the sound bar on to use the TV. I seldom use my speakers, most of it is headphone use (a lot of partying up), so I would prefer to just have TV on without audio unit, but these are just quirks we're discussing here.
 
London-boy said:
It works between my Sony TV sand my sony soundbar. But again, there's no Atmos material on my TV and there's not going to be any time soon, so no point there.
Click to expand...
How do you know it works, then? Do you have a UHD Bluray player?
 
ToTTenTranz said:
How do you know it works, then? Do you have a UHD Bluray player?
Click to expand...
Yes. But again, it's just an exercise as the player will always feed Dolby trueHD/Atmos directly to the sound system before going to the tv. Still, you get Atmos the other way around too. Useless exercise.
 
It's not out of spec. TV manufacturers have to care enough for their sets to do it. Only a handful of TVs can actually pass DD+ to push over ARC. The Z9D, 2017 LG OLEDs, 2016+ Vizio M/P/R series and a few others can supposedly do it. The audio output is shared by ARC and SPDIF on most TVs, so are limited to DD output which means no ATMOS.

How many TVs can actually do the conversion, True HD to DD+? Not sure. Probably none. But Dolby is pushing for the capability.

http://developer.dolby.com/News/Dolby_Audio_Over_HDMI_Part_2__Signaling_and_Carriage.aspx

VUDU's stream app offers Atmos content (DD+ based) so if LB wants to try it to see if it works, he has that option.
 
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dobwal said:
It's not out of spec. TV manufacturers have to care enough for their sets to do it. Only a handful of TVs can actually pass DD+ to push over ARC. The Z9D, 2017 LG OLEDs, 2016+ Vizio M/P/R series and a few others can supposedly do it. The audio output is shared by ARC and SPDIF on most TVs, so are limited to DD output which means no ATMOS.

How many TVs can actually do the conversion, True HD to DD+? Not sure. Probably none. But Dolby is pushing for the capability.

http://developer.dolby.com/News/Dolby_Audio_Over_HDMI_Part_2__Signaling_and_Carriage.aspx

VUDU's stream app offers Atmos content (DD+ based) so if LB wants to try it to see if it works, he has that option.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately vudu is US only.
 
It wont even let you login from outside the US?

I know VUDU and a lot of other video app platforms can share the digital content through account linking and what they call "video lockers" / UltraViolet. Do any other video app platforms offer Atmos (DD+) content?

Netflix is said to support Atmos but content is extremely limited. Right now only 1 title has it and its limited on 3 clients.

https://media.netflix.com/en/company-blog/dolby-atmos-coming-to-netflix

Today, Dolby Atmos streaming is supported on Microsoft’s Xbox One, One S and 2017 LG OLED TVs. On the Xbox, you can get this experience when your console is connected to a Dolby Atmos enabled home theater system, TV or soundbar, or via headphones using the new Dolby Atmos for headphones feature available for purchase through the Dolby Access app in the Xbox Store. The LG OLED TVs have built-in Dolby Atmos capabilities that create a 360° sound field around you without the need to connect an external sound system.

Over time, we plan to add support to more devices, making the experience more accessible to Netflix members everywhere. For more information on Dolby Atmos requirements on Netflix, see here.
 
I saw a few posts in the Black Friday Xbox deals thread that show a slightly discounted price of $12 for a permanent license to Dolby Atmos for Headphones. I think the normal license price is $15.
 
We have a nice TV thread, but what about people who still use receivers to drive discrete speakers? I'm always paranoid I'm going to pick one that is missing features. I'm no audiophile, so I'm more concerned about feature set than audio/speaker quality.

Does something like the Denon AVRD740H meets the needs of the PS4 Pro/XBX and hopefully next gen? Or maybe the Onkyo-RZ720?
 
Curiously enough, I'm now looking into this as well. I'm looking at the Denton AVR-X1400H, which supports Dolby Atmos and Dts-X.
 
We're on the cusp of a feature transition, so it's not an ideal time to buy a receiver. The higher-end Denons are due to get two HDMI 2.1 features added via firmware in eARC (X3400H and above) and Auto Low-Latency Mode (X3500H and above). Those features are likely to be included in the lower-end models in future model years, hopefully along with Variable Refresh Rate support.

If the need to upgrade is great though, I can say that Denons have been very good to me over the years. I've owned 4 and still regularly use a 3808CI that I bought over 10 years ago in addition to my primary X3200W.
 
Yeah hopefully they will announce HDMI 2.1 receivers out of the box (no promise of firmware or physical upgrade plans) at CES.
 
DrJay24 said:
In case you didn't know what 2.1 is about either, I just googled it :)

https://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/hdmi-explained-everything-you-need-to-know-news-specs/
Click to expand...

There are some inaccuracies there. 2.1 Features can and have been added to HDMI 2.0 spec equipment since not every 2.1 feature requires the additional bandwidth of the full spec. Some current model Samsung TVs support VRR (with some limitations) and ALLM. The Xbox One X will support VRR (just as it does Freesync) and already supports ALLM. And, of course, there are the planned updates for some Denon receivers to add eARC and ALLM to HDMI 2.0 models, so we're not "years from our first glimpse of these features". Also, the auto lip sync feature has been in the HDMI spec since 1.3. It's not new to HDMI 2.1. The author really doesn't seem to have that good of a handle on the details, TBH.

The higher resolutions/color depth/refresh rates will require new equipment, though.
 
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