Normal or dolby

[burnebabybyrne]

Sky Q through a Yamaha soundbar and subwoofer system via HDMI ARC,  would you set it to normal or Dolby?

There's a very marked reduction in volume if I switch from normal to Dolby,

What's your thoughts?

I'm happy with the sound on normal, but if I'm effectively 'running a Ferrari on crap tyres' I will switch to Dolby and just get used to cranking it up.

[nigea99]

hi @burnebabybyrne yes it does seem that sound level between Dolby Digital & normal are different but just increasing the volume to suit works

if your Sound bar is capable of providing any reasonable semblence of surround Sound then I would always go with the Dolby Digital. (Edit - I suspect it can as I have just re-read noticing you mention Yamaha - BTW My dedicated AV Amps that I have had over many years are Yamaha although I have never listened to their sound bars)

I do know some sound bars, however, seem to make little difference between surround encoded tracks & normal stereo ones - but  others are quite capable of providing reasonable surround effect & some very expensive ones do have very good surround sound  (none however, can really match a dedicated AV amp with separate speakers) 

Edit : I have just re-read that your Sound Bar has a Sub-woofer as well - chances are the SW would not get used with any material when set to Normal rather than DD

Ultimately the choice is yours but maybe before deciding make sure you try a suitable source of Surround encoded material to know how your Sound bar does cope with such material - if you have  SKY Cinema then I suggest something like Midway & the attack on Pearl Harbour early on in the movie

Edit : If you don't have SKY Cinema then may I suggest A Discovery of Witches  (I probably prefer the mix on S1 over S2 as a demo) - although there are many other good Surround Tracks (I just know these)