Why not stereo on my LG TV Spotify app on passthrough via HDMI ARC?

[neoamnis]

I recently bought a LG C9 OLED TV. I also have a Marantz receiver connected to the TV via HDMI ARC. In the TV I now have "passthrough" in the sound settings.

With these settings I get stereo via the Youtube app but with the Spotify app I get DD surround sound on my Marantz receiver (up mixed I guess). Of course I want stereo sound as intended on "all" music. I know that I can change settings to "PCM" but then I get stereo from all my apps lika Plex, Netflix and so on but they have surround sound tracks and of course I want the surround sound in those cases. 

Does anyone have the same problem? Any solution? If not I urge Spotify to fix this - if it works with the Youtube app I see no reason for it not to work with your app. If there actually are people who want music in "fake surround" which is not intended with the music I think its their problem and they up mix the sound with their equipment. Or at least I should be able to choose in settings in the app.

[karstenmuel]

Hi neoamnis, I have got the same problem with my Denon Receiver, wichautomatically selects the right sound field. But Spotify only sends out Dolby Surround and not stereo, as other systems do so. The receiver is working fine. It would be very nice to be able to select the audio output in the settings of the app.

Does anyone have ideas? Thanx

[moistgun]

Hey, so I felt like I had to share, because I have the same issue that I have worked around, but just a warning its probably totally unhelpful.

I want to listen to spotify on my LG WebOS tv, through my denon receiver with stereo, but it always defaults to 5.1.

I also have HomeAssistant which is a home automation platform that has integrations with LG WebOS (And pretty much any other smart tv) as well as Denon receivers (which should also discover marantz receivers since they are basically the same on the networking side). 

I then have an automation where if the source on my tv is changed to spotify, home assistant will notice it and tell the receiver to change to stereo mode.

Cant promise it will work, but its more likely than any development being done to fix the issue.

[Twiizzers]

I Have the Same Problem

LG65NANO917

No Sound.... i need to change to PCM then it works.... but PCM is not Dolby... and i use Automatic....

pls. Fix it.

[Xenia]

Hey there folks,

Thanks for the feedback – we appreciate it! We always aim to improve, so we’ll get this passed on to the right team!

As we haven’t seen any similar posts about this recently, we feel this is most likely isolated to your device or specific setup. We recommend keeping an eye out for future updates to the app, but can't guarantee this will fix the issue. For now, we recommend contacting the device manufacturer for further help.

We'd also like to refer you to the Idea Exchange in the Community for any further feedback you might have, where you can either vote for an existing idea or you can submit your own idea.

The Community team is actively bringing your feedback to the internal teams at Spotify - check how here. 

Cheers!

[Twiizzers]

Great News! 

Yes, i think it is an Problem with LG Devices and the LG Spotify App. The Last Update (Spotify App) was in July 2020...

I Called LG and they say its an Spotify thing. The Support calls me its an LG thing...

The Spotify Team and i tested with an ,, Test-Account". But it dosnt work too.

Improvements for the Future:  In the Spotify App - an Option to select the Audio Format....pcm..dolby.. etc.?

Some Songs are Working....but then 3 or 4 not .. then is 1 working and so on...

I hope it will be fixed soon...

I have an Sky Receiver with Spotify..this works with Dolby...and the Tv settings... But Tv Only App is not working....

Quote:

For now, we recommend contacting the device manufacturer for further help.

And please let me know what  lg says...

[E_Styles]

Same problem..

Switching on my Lg C1 to output on optical + TV speaker, does give stereo PCM output on the optical. but makes the remote stop working for the receiver.. ao also a bad solution. 

Looks like the spotify app tries to output DD on optical forst but if it cant because its not supported falls back to stereo PCM. 

Other LG apps like Plex do allow switching output streams. maybe the devs can make the spotify output always default to Stereo PCM.

the 2 channel Dolby Digital adds unnecessary compression, and it makes the receiver choose wrong presets. Because it asumes its dolby pro logic, which messes up the sound even more..

[d000d]

Same issue here in Dec 2022 with an LG C2.  Spotify app outputs Dolby Digital when LG eArc is set to PassThrough.  It works if I change it from PassThrough to PCM, but then of course I don't get Dolby Digital sound from anything.

[ArtsyFartsy1]

Just bought a soundbar for my Samsung tv and have exactly the same problem when playing music on Spotify.

I have to change the setting to PCM, and then change it back when I wish to watch tv with Dolby sound.

So I guess 3 years later than this post it is still not fixed. 

Awefull...

[Mediabryant]

It is not isolated. Spotify app on all lg & samsung tvs outputs in stereo pcm multi channel. Now that is actually stereo but the tag tells the amp it’s multi channel. This is an issue because on you can’t change this to stereo on Sonos device or other arc devices and sound comes out of all surround speakers which is not how music should be played. Some amps such as Yamaha have a work around option to on the amp to choose anything other than 5.1 or above is output in stereo but Sonos and others do not have this option. Please revise your app so it broadcasts stereo the same as the iPlayer app does.

[McWeb]

It would be best if the app would have an option to send the data unaltered in ogg format instead if manipulating it anyways. I think the sound is better when my Marantz plays the Spotify app himself - then the receiver just plays Spotify's original format which is ogg instead of PCM of fake DD like the LG OLED does. 

[trentehrlish]

I have the same issue. With Digital Sound Output set to "Pass Through", my Denon S660H shows a DD logo. With it set to "PCM", my AVR doesnt show a DD logo. Spotify on webOS is on the latest version, and my Denon is on the latest version. running over eARC.

However, this is occurring on the webOS YT app as well. So this issue must be an LG issue, not a Spotify issue.

I am running an outdated FW version on my TV, as I am hesitant to update. Especially since LG doesn't really give meaningful patch notes. Maybe they patched it at some point? No clue.