Any difference in sound quality Sky vs. Sky+

mrbungle

Hi all,

Just wondering if there is any difference between the sound quality of Sky Digital and Sky Digital +.

Does the +box have an optical out, does the ordinary box have phono/scart.

Just a straightforward answer will do.

Thanks !!

watty

IYes the SkY+ does have "Optical out" and regular box does not,

However 5.1 is limited to some Sky Movies & Sky Box office. For Stereo TV & Radio there is _NO_ difference between analog Out and Digital out, as the signal is converted to same quality of Analog to drive the speakers. Soem cheap "home theatre" with very small speakers are actually poorer sound than the analog out driving HiFi or even some TV set built in Stereo speakers via SCART.

Summary, the Digital out on Sky+ is ONLY of value for those movies with 5.1. BBC/ RTE/C4/ITV/Five/TCM etc never transmit 5.1 Audio. Only some SkyBox Office and SkyMovie premium channels.

Scanning 1200+ FTA channels on about 19 satellites a couple of 5.1 tests found but NO regular FTA channel at all.

I do use the Digital out on my FTA as the 5.1 AMP I have that also does Stereo has only three inputs: Optical, RCA coaxial Digital and L&R RCA/Phone analog. So DVD is on Optical, FTA Sat box on "coax" and VHS is on "analog stereo".

The Sky box only feeds TV speakers via SCART.

watty

Maplin and others sell cheap digital Coax to Optical and vice versa adaptors.

dmeehan

the ordinary box does have phono/scart (both mine do anyway)

pH

The Sony S750 and s760 standard sky digiboxes have PCM optical out, though Sky may have disabled it in the latest software. Someone with one of these boxes could check.

Only Sky Movies 1,2 have DD5.1, Box office does not.

Lots of audiophiles argue over the quality of the DACs, so it could be argued that the DACs in a fancy amp are better quality and produce better sound than those in the digibox. Though the PCM feed from the Sky mpeg stream may not be good enough for any DAC to make a difference.

If you're feeding an amp, a lot of the signal processing is digital, and feeding a digital signal negates the need for an additional A-D conversion. Also some real sexy amps for digital amplification.

So in theory a digital feed to a nice modern amp might produce better sound than the same amp fet using analog stereo.

watty

No in theory it won't be any better, Analog volume controll (real knob) is lowest noise, next, a digital controlled analog control (most remote controlled).

Volume control on a pure digital system degrades at lower signals due to quantisation noise!

The ultimate is the analog volume control knob driven by remote controlled motor. I have an amp that does this. Look nice too the knob going round on its own and if silent you know how loud it will be if you change to an active input.

Digital output is only any real use for 5.1 and other Theatre / Surround sound schemes.

I have yet to see any "digital" amp or 5.1 "home theatre" amp other than mail order sold with decent speakers. Most are worse than the built in Stereo speakers on a 28" TV.

So don't worry unless you subscribe to Sky Movies and are using a decent surround sound / home theater system.

On BBC TV and all radio stations on my FTA box which has digital out, everyone in the family prefers the TV sound to the "digital" o/p from the Acustic Solutions 5.1 system.

My 4 ft PA columns on stereo Hifi fed with the RCA/phone L&R analog sound better still

Sparky

Sky movies 1-3 are in DD 5.1 on selected films and DD 2.0 on normal films.
also the disney channel is DD 2.0 all the time and does broadcast DD 5.1 when they air big Disney films.
im feeding my sound full time to an Home cinema amp via the optical, and id say the sound is ok for me.

Also while im here i have noticed a lot of droped DD5.1 signals on some films on sky movies, has anyone else got this before?