topic Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out in Sky Stream

Dolby Atmos audio drop out

gpb156 — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 16:01:17 GMT

When streaming dolby atmos from Sky Stream e.g. Netflix/Apple TV audio can occasinally drop out for about 2 secs. Seems completely random, may happen once or twice in an hour.

Just wondering if anybody else has this problem with the sream puck or is it something to do with my set up.

Audio pass through set on puck, also bitstream pass trough on LG TV. Earc HDMI 2.1 connection to LGS75Q soundbar.

This a bit frustrating as Atmos audio sounds great.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

Jones_The_Cat — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 16:11:14 GMT

@gpb156 wrote:
When streaming dolby atmos from Sky Stream e.g. Netflix/Apple TV audio can occasinally drop out for about 2 secs. Seems completely random, may happen once or twice in an hour.

Just wondering if anybody else has this problem with the sream puck or is it something to do with my set up.
Audio pass through set on puck, also bitstream pass trough on LG TV. Earc HDMI 2.1 connection to LGS75Q soundbar.

This a bit frustrating as Atmos audio sounds great.

Are you using the same speed and spec of HDMI cable on both parts of the chain? ie puck > TV > soundbar?

Have you tried connecting the puck directly to the soundbar?

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

PEJasp — Fri, 12 Jan 2024 18:48:11 GMT

I have this same issue, did you fix it?

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

Alistair+Burns — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 18:01:42 GMT

I get this occasionally and just put it down to my impression the software is still effectively a beta.

Just now it became chronic watching the football on TNT Sports Ultimate. Unplugged and restarted and the problem has gone for now, missed a goal as well of course. Might be a buffering issue given that the restart cured it this time and previously.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

purpleparrotuk — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 23:01:35 GMT

I get this too especially if watching uhd hdr with Atmos.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

Jones_The_Cat — Sat, 13 Jan 2024 23:26:39 GMT

The pucks are under powered and don't have enough RAM to cope with high bit-rate audio.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

PEJasp — Sun, 14 Jan 2024 15:35:56 GMT

I bought two new 2.1 hdmi cables, they arrived today, watched 2 hrs so far no drop outs!

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

gpb156 — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 16:36:08 GMT

@Jones_The_Cat Using 2 high speed HDMI cables puck to TV, TV Earc to soundbar. Not same manufactuer so maybe that could be issue. @PEJasp Are cables same manufacturer? as you had no problem.

Dissapointing that this may be a RAM issue as we pay extra for dolby atmos via puck.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

PEJasp — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 16:40:26 GMT

they are exactly the same I bought two of these in the same order:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08SLR3HW9?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

PEJasp — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 16:42:53 GMT

For reference, I had this issue only with Atmos content was super annoying for quite a while, but everything else worked well. I have it set as passthrough and the decoding is done in a sonos arc.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

gpb156 — Mon, 15 Jan 2024 16:54:15 GMT

Good to hear. I am also using passthrough so that LG soundbar handles the decoding. Maybe I'll just get another matching cable!

I'll post if this is succesful.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

gpb156 — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 18:10:14 GMT

So having had identical cables for the last couple of weeks I have had just a couple of drop outs on Dolby Atmos material. Deinitely an improvement, seems to be the best solution at the moment.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

PEJasp — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 20:51:47 GMT

Good to hear it's improved.

i seemed to have a long period of no drop outs but now i get a very infrequent one like once an evening or every other evening.

not perfect but much improved.

lets hope sky fix it completely

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

Dac20vt — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 14:15:46 GMT

I have the exact issue. My setup is a Bose Soundbar 600 with Bass Module. Had a conversation with Sky about the issue and they sent me a replacement puck which is no better.

I have HDMI 2.1 cables and the eARC channel on my TV is also HDMI 2.1.

I've tried Passthrough on the Soundbar > Passthrough on the TV > Soundbar

Auto on the puck > Passthrough on the TV > Soundbar

Auto on the puck > Auto on the TV > Soundbar

I find that I have less dropouts when letting the puck do the audio decoding but frequently have lip syncing issues.

Passthrough seems best but has drop outs frequently. Football is like a lottery as to what sound quality i'm gonna get.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

gpb156 — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 15:06:13 GMT

Interesting to hear same issues with replacement puck. Maybe this is just a hardware issue with the puck that can't handle stream rate of Dolby atmos. I also have audio pass through to the soundbar, as you mention if puck does the decoding you wil have sync issues. The only other change I made was a wired ethernet connection hoping for a faster and more reliable stream, however still the occasional drop out. But these have reduced significantly after changes as discussed.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

Dac20vt — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 15:25:13 GMT

I'm on Gigafast and Cat6 to the router. It's 100% not related to internet bandwidth.

The software just isn't optimised for Atmos and high bit rate audio I believe.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

PEJasp — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 16:35:40 GMT

I have three pucks all show the same issue.

it's a tech issue on the puck that seems to struggle to have the bandwidth ( cpu memory or somewhere else who knows ) to do everything at max, so 4k hdr Dolby vision and atmos . I assume either they will never fix it or it will be v2 of the puck. The matching cables improved it but it's still there and annoying.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

Scorp1 — Sun, 14 Apr 2024 15:49:13 GMT

Apologies for bumping an old post but I've been noticing this drop out a couple of times today watching EPL. Quite annoying since Dolby Atmos is a paid extra on Stream.

Any chance of Sky fixing this? Seems rather unfair to charge for a product that doesn't function correctly.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

Dac20vt — Mon, 06 May 2024 20:43:39 GMT

I've actually taken the decision to cancel UHD and Atmos until this is sorted out.

I didn't manage to finish 1 UHD/Atmos football match without the sound totally cutting out until the box was restarted. Absolute shambles if you ask me.

Re: Dolby Atmos audio drop out

M3rk — Tue, 28 May 2024 15:44:33 GMT

I have been getting similar if watching atmos content through the puck via on board apps, happens if watching content via Netfix / Apple / Prime. i stopped paying for skys atmos content so cant comment on that.

Playing same content via TVs native apps and gaming atmos content via Xbox, don't have issues.

for me it started a few months back , comes and gos, super annoying.