I use Roku to typically watch Hulu and Plex. I plug the Roku by HDMI to my Onkyo AVR. I have noticed that the sound experience is not that great and mostly  focused on the front speakers. Checking the AVR, I see that the Roku device is being received as a 2 channel PCM stream. When I plug other devices into the same port and play the same video, my AVR sees them as a multi-channel PCM stream or a 5 channel PCM stream.

I have gone to the Roku settings and changed it to both auto and Dolby Digital with no change.

Any suggestions?

Silverado149 wrote:

I use Roku to typically watch Hulu and Plex. I plug the Roku by HDMI to my Onkyo AVR. I have noticed that the sound experience is not that great and mostly  focused on the front speakers. Checking the AVR, I see that the Roku device is being received as a 2 channel PCM stream. When I plug other devices into the same port and play the same video, my AVR sees them as a multi-channel PCM stream or a 5 channel PCM stream.

I have gone to the Roku settings and changed it to both auto and Dolby Digital with no change.

Any suggestions?

Hulu won't have a 5.1 stream on Roku(source). Plex, depends on the source material. What audio format are the videos playing when using Plex? Might want to take advantage of Dolby Pro Logic or DTS:Neo to upconvert 2.0 sound to 5.1. 

Thanks for the interest. If I run plex on my computer over the same hdmi connection and play the same video with plex, it shows as a 5 channel stream rather than a two channel stream like roku. I have the same results when playing a Hulu video.

I have the very same issue and am using Plex.

3 Rokus - only one actually works with 5.1 but all should. No changes other than swapping them out and only the oldest of my Rokus will do 5.1. All are set to Dolby in audio settings.

Post is here:
https://forums.roku.com/viewtopic.php?f ... 90#p653190

Turn off Night Listening and Leveling. That is, set it to none/disabled. This fixed all the Roku's that I had this issue on.

Silverado149 wrote:

Thanks for the interest. If I run plex on my computer over the same hdmi connection and play the same video with plex, it shows as a 5 channel stream rather than a two channel stream like roku.  I have the same results when playing a Hulu video.

Again, might depend on the format of the audio. AAC 5.1 is not supported on some Rokus. AC3, DD+, and DTS should be. Also, could be an HD lossless format without a lower format built into it. Roku does not passthrough Dolby TrueHD nor DTS HD-MA formats.

Have you tried any streaming services that regularly send 5.1 signals, such as NetFlix or Amazon Prime, on your Roku?