I have read the instructions for setting up surround and dolby in vlc 2 series. No matter what I do ( indicating ALSA and the proper digital device, force dolby, use SPDIF where available) surround does not play correctly.
1. It is never shown as "Dolby" only as unknown surround.
2. Surround does not hold. It plays for a few minutes and then drops to stereo.
3. Once it fails, you must close the channel and then restart to get Surround back.
Reversion to vlc 1.1.13-6 solves the problem. Dolby is shown correctly and there are no dropouts.