OREI 4K HDMI to Analog Audio Decoder, Premium Digital to Analog Converter

This did not downmix anything from dolby 5.1 or DTS 5.1 to stereo.

Was able to use this device to connect up our AppleTV box, TV and our older in-ceiling speakers. So far, so good. Used another brand twice. The product died after a couple of weeks of use-twice. Just installed this one, hoping it lasts.

Bottom-line: The OREI HDMI "downmixer" device solves my problem perfectly when matched with premium grade cables. Good customer service too! I bought this device to solve a specific problem: to feed a "downmixed" stereo audio signal to my hearing aids while allowing everyone else in the room to hear multi-channel surround sound audio (such as Dolby Digital or Atmos) through our home theatre speakers. This is a job that _should_ be done by all home theatre receivers but unfortunately not all (very few?) receivers do this, not even the more expensive ones (I'm looking at you Onkyo). It is reasonably simple: while sending multi-channel audio through the amplifiers to the speakers, please also make available a "downmixed" stereo signal to a pair of RCA output jacks so it can be sent it to an external device such as a hearing aid connector. In my case, I have a Phonak TV Connector which takes a stereo audio input and transmits it wirelessly to my hearing aids so I can better understand the sound track of TV shows, DVDs and movies. The frustration is that my receiver (and I gather many others) doesn't include a "downmixer". The key is "downmixer. It is an extra piece of hardware that processes the multi-channel audio to produce a 2 channel output while continuing to pass through the multi-channel audio signal to the main amplifiers and speakers. The OREI HDA-913 HDMI audio extractor is a bona fide downmixer. By inserting it between my streaming box and my receiver, it passes through the HDMI multi-channel audio while extracting and downmixing the audio to a pair of RCA jacks. BEWARE: Many audio extractors do not include a downmixer. They will not produce a stereo output unless the input source is also stereo. If the specifications do not explicitly say "downmixer", then it probably isn't a downmixer. Generally, these models are significantly less expensive. If you need the downmixing feature, expect to pay for the extra bit of hardware to do it. NOTE: Be sure to use HDMI connecting cables that are capable of handling the data rate required for your content. The OREI HDA-913 can pass 4K @ 60 Hz. If your input source is 4K @ 60 Hz then you will need 18 Gbps certified HDMI cables, also known as "Premium High Speed HDMI" cables. These can handle up to 4K @ 60 Hz (HDR, 4:4:4). Unmarked, or "Standard" or even "High Speed (category 2)" HDMI cables won't handle 4K @ 60 Hz. For instance, Amazon Prime Video outputs 4K @ 60 Hz for at least some shows. Under-rated cables will eventually fail to keep up and the HDMI output might not work at all or it might blank out periodically, especially with the overhead of HDCP. I had this exact problem with under-rated cables. OREI customer service was very supportive in helping identify, isolate and resolve the issue. Solution: I bought 8K certified cables and the system works perfectly and is future-proofed.

Despite the Amazon product description saying that it supports "Dolby Digital+" I could not get that to downmix and OREI tech support finally confirmed this by stating "the HDA-913 only supports downmixing Dolby AC3 5.1 / TrueHD 5.1 to PCM 2.0 for output through the L/R channels". Thus I don't believe it will support more than 5.1 audio. My use case was to split the audio from the eARC cable from a Samsung smart TV to Sonos ARC soundbar using their HDA-929 audio extractor, then downmix its DD+ output to analog with the HDA-913. From there I intended to connect my hearing aid TV Connector (Bluetooth transmitter). This would have allowed me to have stereo audio direct to my aids while the soundbar continued to perform normally (Dolby Digital+, Atmos, etc.), i.e. I would not have to switch the TV settings to send PCM and compromise the audio to the soundbar for other listener(s). I will say that OREI tech support was very polite and responsive over email. Their communication was clear and I would get responses overnight. Unfortuately, it took a lot of testing by me to gather information for them and I think it took them far too long to understand that my problem was due to a technical limitation of their device, contrary to their inaccurate product description. Our email thread started November 20th and ended January 7th. The only affordable solution I've found to my requirements is to use an old Yamaha receiver to process the DD+ signal from the HDA-929, render it to analog stereo for speakers, and use that to drive my TV Connector. Overkill and bulky, but it works.

I join the group of customers giving this negative feedback. No matter what input audio I input it will not work with anything other than pcm stereo. If Dolby 5.1 is input there is no sound output no matter if you choose bitstream. If I change input to PCM stereo is output on bitstream or 2 ch. I wanted to input 5.1 and downmix to stereo, but no joy.

This works perfectly. I connect my Roku to this, then this to an APTX latency transmitter via RCA jacks and my stereo receiver via HDMI. All of the audio goes to my 5.1 system and stereo goes to my wireless headset.