Setting up AVR without using ARC. Help

Skirks950

Honorable
Jan 11, 2014
1
0
10,510
I have a Pioneer VSX321 AVR and a Samsung Smart TV.

I have been using the ARC enabled HDMI slot for a while now but have recently noticed that it seems to only pass 2.1 sound out of the speakers when i play films from an external HDD plugged in via USB to the TV.

I know 5.1 works as playing a blu-ray via PS4.. the speakers output 5.1 perfectly. Also I know the films im trying to play from the HDD support 5.1 sound.

My problem is that ARC does not support 5.1 sound from the TV but any attempt to setup the AVR to the TV using the regular HDMI slots results in no sound being output from anything.

Current setup is like this:
- AVR Output HDMI to TV ARC HDMI.
- PS4 HDMI to AVR HDMI IN

Any help regarding a setup that would work would be appreciated.
 
Solution
You can connect the HDD to a Western Digital TV media or other media box and that will give you HDMI out that you can feed to the AVR. Make sure the box supports the file types you want to play.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/homeentertainment/mediaplayers/