When I connect the HDMI output from my ubuntu laptop to my surround sound receiver, I'm able to confirm that surround sound works properly using the test interface in Sound Settings.
However, if I instead connect the output to the TV* and then connect the TV audio to the stereo via ARC (not eARC because the receiver doesn't support it), only the Front Left and Front Right buttons in that interface produce sound.
My best guess as to the reason for this is that ARC does not support uncompressed 5.1 audio. However, I've not managed to confirm that the audio sent by the GNOME audio test interface is uncompressed.
My TV doesn't seem to have any way to output audio other than via ARC/eARC.
I'm running 20.10 and am using the default sound system.
Is there a way to get Ubuntu to compress all 5.1 audio it sends over the HDMI interface? I don't particularly care about the finer aspects of sound quality.
Help with troubleshooting this would also be appreciated—any suggestions on how to confirm that the 5.1 audio is being sent uncompressed, for example, are welcome.
* connection via the TV seems to preferable because when the laptop is connected via the receiver it occasionally glitches out when the TV is power-cycled and does annoying things like moving all open windows to the current workspace. Also it prevents me from listening to the radio while I do computer stuff. Total bummer, basically.
