Sky HD audio problem

WYTAWillis

I just hooked up a Samsung home cinema system to my Sky HD box and I cannot get acceptable sound quality. The boxes are connected by good quality hdmi & optical cables. When viewing HD channels with DD audio the system works ok (although not as rich a sound experience as expected). The problems arise during ad breaks on hd and on all SD channels - I only get sound from the left & right speakers and it sounds terrible - tinny and cheap. The 10w flat screen tv speakers produce far better sound than the 1000w home cinema system.

I think I have set up everything correctly and have double-checked all the settings on the Sky box and the Samsung.

Is this a problem with the Samsung, a 'feature' of Sky HD transmissions, or am I missing something in the setup / configuration?

My old CRT tv had built-in surround sound with 4 ext speakers and no subwoofer - it produced far better sound than this much more expensive setup, so I am not a happy camper at the moment. Going to send back the Samsung unless someone can help me out. Any ideas or suggestions?

John mac

you need to hook up the amp via optical out.
sky box outputs 2 channel stereo only via hdmi.

make sure you have set the sky box to output via optical.

you will have to tweek the settings on the samsung amp.

whats the sound like on a cd or bluray?

WYTAWillis

John mac wrote: »

you need to hook up the amp via optical out.
sky box outputs 2 channel stereo only via hdmi.

make sure you have set the sky box to output via optical.

you will have to tweek the settings on the samsung amp.

whats the sound like on a cd or bluray?

As I said above, I do have an optical cable connected and settings are correct on Sky box and Samsung. I get surround sound on HD channels with DD track but only crappy 2 channel sound on HD ad's and SD channels. I don't think this can be 'normal' and it is very annoying.

I have seen posts about different volume levels between HD and SD, butthis is far more than just volume differences.

Sound on dvd is ok, I don't have a blueray to hand so can't test that.

I have turned off the Samsung and gone back to the tv speakers.

crosstownk

A longshot but be sure that the optical cable isn't kinked or pinched and that there is no dirt in the TOSLINK socket or on the ends of the cable. Maybe try a different optical cable to eliminate the cable as a suspect.

John mac

yup stereo is normal. on ads and non hd channels.

are there any sound mode settings like cinema or movie music. on the samsung
may help enhance the sound.
is there a self calibration program on the amp? (speaker distances etc.)

WYTAWillis

John mac wrote: »

yup stereo is normal. on ads and non hd channels.

are there any sound mode settings like cinema or movie music. on the samsung
may help enhance the sound.
is there a self calibration program on the amp? (speaker distances etc.)

Yes it has speaker setup function and all channels output the test tone. Sound modes work on HD channels only, no effect on SD. I don't think the samsung is the problem as it does work under some conditions. The Sky box is only 6 weeks old and works fine otherwise. Is there any other test that would narrow down the cause?

WYTAWillis

I think it may be the Samsung after all - it should convert the non-dolby stereo using pro logic. I cant find any settings related to this so it looks like it is faulty. Anything I can do to verify this?

WYTAWillis

OK, I made some progress - it is a setting on the Samsung. Turns out there are 3 different sound mode settings and pro logic has to be manually switched using 1 of these modes. Here are the 3 options if anyone else runs into this issue-

SFE - switches between Hall / Rock / Jazz / etc.
DSP - selects SMart Sound / Power Bass / User Eq / etc.
PII - selects Stereo / Music / Matrix / etc.

If I select any of the SFE or DSP options it switches off Pro Logic and it has to be manually switched back.

Still not entirely happy with the overall sound quality, not nearly as good as the built in surround sound on my old tv - but that is a different issue.

Thanks for the input everyone.