HDR v3 box not fit for purpose (sound cutting out)

[stereohaven]

I have had Q160 now for a couple of weeks and the sound dropouts issue has been resolved for us, which is great.

That said, as others have mention there has been a noticeable increase in sound drop outs when watching a live broadcast, but the weather here hasn't been great, so it could be that. 

I haven't observed the network slowdown that SSDP flooding caused since the update either, but to be honest I turned all the Sky Q wifi off and moved to powerline a while ago, which resolved most of the issues I was having with the Q network, so any slowdown wasn't as noticeable. 

Might just be me (and yes I know, watch on another device), but since the update Prime Video picture quality has somehow got even worse with washed out colours and pixelation as it keeps jumping in and out of HDR. 

This could be speed related I guess, but it happens a lot on Prime Video and only occasionally on Netflix and Disney+.

[Rhonny]

@stereohaven

Sounds like a speed issue to me, if you get it occasionally on those other apps.

On Netflix, when you go to Get Help and Check Network, what speed are you getting on your Sky Q box? 

[stereohaven]

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@Rhonny wrote:

@stereohaven

Sounds like a speed issue to me, if you get it occasionally on those other apps.

On Netflix, when you go to Get Help and Check Network, what speed are you getting on your Sky Q box? 

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33.48 Mbps as of just now, main Q box is hardwired directly to the Sky Q hub, broadband is on a 40/10 profile despite being capable of closer to 50 Mbps (long story, I could leave if I could be bothered) and is a consistent 39997 Kbps down.

I do think it is speed related, my working theory is that Prime Video tries to use more bandwidth for a UHD HDR stream than the likes of Netflix that tops out at just under 16 Mbps.

[Outertrial]

Good grief this is really fixed, isn't it? Even Netflix, which was the worst offender, now works properly. I checked the engineers menu and it's defaulted back to WiFi on. 

[Rhonny]

@stereohaven

It could just be that while you're watching, another device (or multiple devices) connected to your broadband are doing something - ie others in your house browsing or watching content or working... 40mbps should be fine for streaming but doesn't give you too much to play with when others are using  your broadband too. 

[ksaro1]

@stereohaven - You mention Prime Video and HDR content, which leads me to assume that you have a TV that can accomodate that. This TV then must surely have in-built apps for most, if not all, of the major streaming services (Netflix/Amazon/Disney/etc). As mentioned here by various posters, you are way better off using your TV's in-built streaming app than Sky's. Your performance will then be completely independent of whatever version the Sky Q box is on. Also, you will find that the formats of the content offered via the in-built apps are usually way better than what Sky offer.

FWIW - my viewing usage is now about 60-40 between the TV and the Sky Q box, as we don't watch a lot of live TV.

[Doc5907]

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@stereohaven wrote:

That said, as others have mention there has been a noticeable increase in sound drop outs when watching a live broadcast, but the weather here hasn't been great, so it could be that. 

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@stereohaven  Funny you should mention that. Since the Q160 update, I have also experienced a number of sound drop outs on live Broadcast including 'Millionaire'  last night.

Never had a single drop out in all conditions prior to this update.... 🙄

[notagain]

@ksaro1 I have three HDMI inputs and one output to ARC/eARC on my soundbar and by selecting auto on the picture mode and using Bravia Sync the sound bar automatically pics up what is turned on and switches to that, so if I turn my PS4 Pro on the soundbar switches to that even if I'm watching Sky Q on HDMI 2  and also to game mode. It could be different soundbars from the same manufacturer have different settings I suppose but this is all managed by Bravia Sync which can be a little wobbly at times, so the soundbar switches to what you have turned on and uses the settings you have decided for that input. Well thats how my one works.

[klankyCeeJ]

So for me 160 doesn’t seem to have solved the dropout issue, watched a few recordings now and still getting sound loss randomly throughout. I haven’t watched any content in Apps yet, I actually bought another device to watch Netflix and Prime Video on as the Sky Apps drove me mad.

My box is 32C006 which I think is the older non V3 model – does anyone else have this box and found 160 hasn’t fixed dropouts?

[ksaro1]

@notagain  - My HT-X8500 manual states the following

 When you play content on a device (Blu- ray Disc player, “PlayStation®4,” etc.) connected to the Sound Bar, the Sound Bar and TV are turned on automatically, the input of the Sound Bar is switched to TV input, and sound is output from the speakers of the Sound Bar.

I only have 1 HDMI In and one eARC on my sound bar. I understand the above to mean that the audio input from the TV is used even when using the device attached to the HDMI In on my sound bar. Therefore my understanding is that my sound bar only ever outputs audio from my TV or a BT device. Your sound bar sounds a bit more sophisticated mine.

[notagain]

@ksaro1the input of the Sound Bar is switched to TV input, and sound is output from the speakers of the Sound Bar

Sound like they have some differences but I think it means the image is fed though your soundbar to the TV via ARC/eARC but the sound comes out of the soundbar like mine, not the TV. You have to have Bravia Sync turned on on the TV and soundbar for that to work as well as the PS4 for instance, maybe contact sony it could be a bug Sky and Sony both need to work on, either way I hope you get it fixed sooner rather than later.

[whothrowthat]

Same here sound drops outs better but not gone totally and geting worse but the day and not as bad as when we made the fatal mistake of moving to the HDR £50 upgrade box 

[mtdavies888]

I've had Q160 for a few weeks now as I was part of the initial rollout for testing and I can say I haven't noticed a single sound drop out since, so for me this issue is fixed thankfully 

[CyberFriday]

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@notagain wrote:

I am not with Sky, and to be fair their routers are not great. Most ISP routers are cheap and not very powerful, I use a seperate router and modem. A Netgear wifi 6 RAX120 router which covers about 3500 square feet and has a 2.2Ghz quadcore CPU and a gig of ram and 512Mb of Flash memory too. It handles everything I thow at it and no issues on wifi at all on 2.4Ghz. I wish ISP's would make it easier for users to use thier own equipoment if they want to as you can get a better experience with most third party gear, rather like seperate amps and turntables etc. Im not saying all third party gear is perfect, far from it but it generally does a better job if you have the inclination to upgrade.

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@notagain I agree that ISPs should me more supportive of folks who choose to use 3rd partry routers. And Sky are missing the opportunity to lead that position. I have suggested the Sky should do that

Support For Customers With 3rd Party Routers - Sky Community

In some other threads Sky employees have stepped in to give advice on how using ipv6 negates the need for the use of option 61. But, there is plenty of room to improve that when you have telephoned for support.

Third party router with FTTP - Page 2 - Sky Community

But, because i have Sky as the broadband provider i need to re-connect my sky q hub before i log a support call, even for sky q issues. One time i called and the Sky agent kept telling them that they couldn't see my q box and could i connect it to the router using wifi, not ethernet. I suspect that Sky's position is driven by simplifying their support process. With the Sky router they can script the agent's response. 

[Chodley]

@whothrowthat  Suspect yours have a different cause then. I haven't had one since q160.