4K or not 4K (Virgin V6 Box Question)

Fritz24

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Hi all,

I think I know the answer to this but wanted confirmation. We were recently given a Panasonic 4K TV (TX-50CX700B) which I've got connected via my Yamaha RX-V375 AV receiver to our Virgin V6 box (and other devices). The V6 has 4K capability and I've recently discovered that the AV receiver allows 4K pass-through, which I didn't realise.

However, although watching movies on demand via the V6 box seems to work in 4K, the BT Sports 4K linear channel does not work. On the output settings of the V6 box, it allows 4K 2160p pass-through as an option, but not the 4K 2160p without pass-through.

I've been reading up about this and it seems it might be because my receiver is a few years old and doesn't support HDCP 2.2, which I believe the TV and V6 box do. If this is the case is there anything I can do about it? Could I connect the TV directly to the V6 and run the V6 sound to my receiver via an optical cable?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
 
Or could I use an HDCP converter? Would that work? And if so where would I put it? Between the receiver and the TV?
 
Simplest / cheapest option is to connect 4k sources to TV and use optical to the AVR (as it predates ARC via hdmi).

If the higher definition audio versions are wanted then a hdmi splitter should work, but the funds may be better put toward a newer amp?

V-box-> splitter op1-> TV for picture and splitter op2-> amp for HD sound (when available).
 
Your AV receiver hasn't the ability to passthrough HDCP 2.2 protected UHD content and cannot handle any 4K video with a framerate more than 30Hz. THe 4K content you access via the V6 will all be protected by HDCP 2.2 and broadcasts via Virgin's own UHD channel will all be 50Hz in nature.

The easiest solution would be to connect the V6 directly to your TV and then either make a seperate optical audio connection from the STB to the AVR, use the TV's optical output to the AVR and passthrough the audio sourced from the V6 or use HDMI ARC between the TV and the AVR to convey audio sourced via the V6 to the AVR.
 
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Simplest / cheapest option is to connect 4k sources to TV and use optical to the AVR (as it predates ARC via hdmi).

The Yamaha RX-V375 has HDMI version 1.4 and is ARC enabled.

Also note that the best you'll get in terms of audio from the V6 is 5.1 Dolby Digital. No audio will be HD in nature.
 
The Yamaha RX-V375 has HDMI version 1.4 and is ARC enabled.
I stand corrected (I saw no mention of ARC on Yamaha's web page/specs for it?). Thanks.

OP: Use ARC then rather than optical. No need for an extra cable.

{Shame Virgin don't support HD audio with their UHD picture content.}
 
I stand corrected (I saw no mention of ARC on Yamaha's web page/specs for it?). Thanks.

OP: Use ARC then rather than optical. No need for an extra cable.

{Shame Virgin don't support HD audio with their UHD picture content.}

  • HDMI (4 in/1 out) with 3D and Audio Return Channel
RX-V375 - Overview - AV Receivers - Audio & Visual - Products - Yamaha - Other European Countries

As far as the audio goes, the same would be true of BT and SKY. No TV broadcaster, service provider or streaming service includes HD audio. Even the Atmos soundtracks available via such services use Lossy SD Dolby Digital Plus as opposed to TrueHD. The bandwidth requirements are far too high for such services to priorities HD over SD audio.
 
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RX-V375 - Overview - AV Receivers - Audio & Visual - Products - Yamaha - Other European Countries

As far as the audio goes, the same would be true of BT and SKY. No TV broadcaster, service provider or streaming service includes HD audio. Even the Atmos soundtracks available via such services use Lossy SD Dolby Digital Plus as opposed to TrueHD. The bandwidth requirements are far too high for such services to actually care about its customers to priorities HD over SD audio.

Fixed that for you.

But as mentioned just feed the V6 box to the TV and audio out to the amp. ARC is fine for the most part but there is never a week that goes by that I dont have sync issues or it just doesn't engage/switch on. Me personally I'd use the optical out from the V6 to your amp.

But TBO, UHD content on Virgin is laughably poor. BT is OK if you like football. And considering its a fibre network, the quality is no better than Sky's.
 
Thanks for your replies all. This may be a daft question but how come the on demand movies work in 4K but the linear channel doesn't? Is it framerate?
 
Thanks for your replies all. This may be a daft question but how come the on demand movies work in 4K but the linear channel doesn't? Is it framerate?
Just likely that it's enforced on them. AFAIK HDCP 2.2 is not a legal requirement to be used.
 
So I connected the V6 to the TV and I could get the picture in 4K correctly, but for some reason the sound wasn't passing through correctly so I'll leave as is for now.

One more question. If I converted the output from the V6 (HDCP 2.2) to pass through the receiver as 1.4 would that work?
 
So I connected the V6 to the TV and I could get the picture in 4K correctly, but for some reason the sound wasn't passing through correctly so I'll leave as is for now.

One more question. If I converted the output from the V6 (HDCP 2.2) to pass through the receiver as 1.4 would that work?

Hard to say without trying it. The STB impliments HDCP 2.2 in a rather archaic manner, but stripping UHD content with a frame rate below 30Hz should theoretically allow you to pass it through the AVR and out to the UHD TV.
 
The HDFury AVR key is worth considering - that will allow you to split the Source HDMI Output to deliver 4K UHD with HDCP 2.2 to your Display plus HD Audio with HDCP 1.4 to your legacy AVR.

HDfury AVR Key – The Media Factory

Joe

As stated, he doesn't need an HDMI audio connection to the V6 to convey audio to the AVR. The Virgin Media V6 has no HD audio capabilities and doesn't access anything that would include HD audio. The best you'd get from it would be SD Dolby Digital.
 
This is confusing me. So I've connected the V6 direct to the TV via HDMI again to get the 4K content, which works for the picture. I've also connected the TV to the AV receiver using the ARC enabled port.

When I use apps on the TV (Amazon for example) it sends the sound in 5.1 to my AV receiver with no problem (connected via HDMI ARC), However when I try to send the sound from the V6 box via the TV to the receiver, it only sends across in stereo and not 5.1. Am I doing something wrong here? Or will it just plain not work like that? That's also the same via optical connection too.
 
Some TVs haven't the ability to passthrough multichannel audio formats if sourced via external devices connected to that TV and only passthrough 2 channel audio if the source is an external device.

Also ensure that you've set the V6 box's audio output to DOLBY DIGITAL and not the PCM option. It is also worth mentioning that not all audio will be 5.1 in nature from the V6 anyway. SD channels all use 2 channel PCM and even those channels using Dolby Digital only broadcast content with a 5.1 soundtrack if that content was actually encoded with such.
 
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Yeah, V6 is set to just Dolby Digital so I'm guessing the TV can't pass the sound through. Most annoying. Thanks for the reply anyway.
 

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