Mi 4A 32 Android TV: what options do I have for 5.1 audio output?

by FloeHetling

Yesterday I received a Xiaomi Mi 4A and spent a whole evening trying out various options of it.

My set came with Android TV Pie (9) OS preinstalled, no chinese OEM stuff, thanks to retailer. So I guess now I can be part of your growing community. Greetings, everyone!

Now for the question itself. My set is a very low-cost solution and lacks pretty much any option for surround sound. No S/PDIF, no RCA output. Only one 3.5 mm jack.

I have a Logitech audio with three 3.5 mm's for surround, front and center/sub as usual. Can I use some kind of usb external audio interface with my Android TV? Like this for example - Aliexpress link

FloeHetling

Side note: primarily this TV set was bought to be a screen for my improvised KODI box. If nothing is to do with its native possibilities I guess I'll stick with KODI. At least that nettop has Realtek 5.1

Ground-Rat

The TV appears to support HDMI(ARC) so that's one way to get surround sound out of the TV.

The "standard" and easiest way to get surround sound would be to use a sound bar that also supports HDMI(ARC).

Another other way would be to use an AV receiver that has/supports HDMI and put it in between your sources and the TV.

The last way I'm aware of is to use a "HDMI ARC audio extractor with pass-through" just be careful when you go looking because some units only work with PCM (Stereo audio), so look for one that specifically says it supports the modes you want, and even then I'm gonna say, it's likely to be something that's going to be a pain to get working the way you want.

Your exact setup where you have 3x3.5mm jacks, may end up requiring more than one "converter box" one to extract the audio from the HDMI(ARC) channel, and another (surround decoder) to convert the Coax or Optical output into separate audio channels to feed your surround system.

Hope this helps.

Good luck!