Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Problems with TV sound

Option:
"turn Dolby Digital On or Off" = "'Multi-channel' or 'Stereo'".

Regards,
Carl

Hi folks,

I have Dolby selected where appropriate in both TV and sat receiver. I do not, as yet, have a surround sound processor. Hence the SPDIF connection is not in use.

I now believe the problem does not lie with the Humax box or the TV. The Humax receiver passes Dolby-AC3 Audio to my TV. In turn the TV will handle Dolby but probably at AC3 level rather than the about to be transmitted EAC3.

Anyone can read What Hi-Fi Article or The BBC Blog on the subject for a good explanation. There is also a good explanation from IanM of DTG within this topic.

I am awaiting a response as to whether the solution will lie in software, firmware or hardware updates.

All the best,

Geoff

Thanks Carl,

Now I know

Anyway, it all works with my M kit and it sounds very good, so I am happy.

CheeRS

Shaun

In the good old days of CRT most TVs had forward facing drive units that provided reasonable treble performance (so long as you were on-axis).
On a modern LCD/Plasma, there is hardly any room on the front, so the drive units are usually side firing and rely on sympathetic reflections off the side walls. You can guess from my comment about being on-axis what that does to the performance.

Geoff,

I think you need to hook up the digital output of the set top box to a decent DAC/Processor and decide for yourself using your ATCs (actives?) whether the broadcast audio is as bad as you imagine. I've never even tried the analogue outputs on my Humax but I can imagine they're crap.

What Pioneer TV is it you are using?

I have always found the sound to be excellent.
I use a sub for the lower frequencies, and adjust some of the advanced settings in the TV, but so many people think it is the pair of DSP5000s playing the sound sitting either side of the TV.

Hi Geoff,

First off, I note that you are on the Freesat platform, not Freeview. Confusingly that has a different set of requirements from Freeview - the audio is either MPEG-1 layer 2 (stereo) or AC-3 (not EAC-3 IIRC) for multi-channel. This is for compatibility with the Sky platform. So none of the conversation about AAC or the blog from BBC is involved in this case (this was FreeviewHD only).

For Freesat, nothing. For FreeviewHD, early devices had transcoding/routing problems but this should no longer be the case. There are still isolated problems with handling of Audio Description if that is a problem for you. The problem with level control between stereo and multi-channel may still be an issue for some.

Not really, just set the output of the STB/TV to be compatible with your audio system - pushing as much of the decoding work outside the TV.

Again, the best thing is to do the work outside the TV and be ready to adjust the volume going into and out of multi-channel programmes just in case!

Ian

PS you'll also be glad to know that having negotiated the requirement for both decoder families the number of channels on Freeview using EAC3 can be counted on the fingers of no hands...

Hi Ian,

Thanks for the response. My way forward is now clear.
I shall be purchasing either a G61R or a G68.

My original expectation was that a top of the range TV would make a reasonable job, without achieving Hi-Fi standards, of reproducing the audio transmitted. The evidence (and there is a lot) disproves this.

Thank you again for un-muddying the waters.


Geoff