Issues with Dolby Digital Plus - Denon Sound Bar

[ohsoholly]

Good Afternoon,

I wonder if anyone can help with an issue with utilising Dolby Digital + through Sky Q.

We've just purchased a new Denon DHT-S517 sound bar and sub woofer, connected via HDMI-ARC but when we go to select the Dolby Digital Plus or just Dolby Digital we get no sound. It only works on normal.

The sound bar works fine on the normal setting (albeit not DD+). And we have checked the sound bar through a streaming service directly on the TV and we get the full Dolby Atmos sound with this so we know the problem is definitely with the Sky Q box.

Does anyone know how we can resolve this issue?

Many Thanks

[nigea99]

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@ohsoholly wrote:

Good Afternoon,

I wonder if anyone can help with an issue with utilising Dolby Digital + through Sky Q.

We've just purchased a new Denon DHT-S517 sound bar and sub woofer, connected via HDMI-ARC but when we go to select the Dolby Digital Plus or just Dolby Digital we get no sound. It only works on normal.

The sound bar works fine on the normal setting (albeit not DD+). And we have checked the sound bar through a streaming service directly on the TV and we get the full Dolby Atmos sound with this so we know the problem is definitely with the Sky Q box.

Does anyone know how we can resolve this issue?

Many Thanks

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hi @ohsoholly 

Although I think it highly unlikely to be an audio pass through issue do check your TV's audio setting to make sure there is not a separate one for input HDMIs - the fact that you get Atmos with the internal apps would indicate it is not a TV audio output problem

That said I think it is possible that some older TVs aren't capable of  accepting Dolby Digital via HDMIs

One thing to try is if you could try a different input HDMI on your TV for SKY Q

What is the make & model of your TV?

[ohsoholly]

Hi @nigea99 

Thanks for your fast response. We've had a look on the audio settings for the TV. Our TV is a Panasonic TX-50DX700B.

We did have some additional audio options, it was set on PCM but had the option for Bitstream and Auto. We went with Bitstream and this now produces sound through the speaker on Sky Q with the DD+ setting, however on a film we've now noticed some slight lip sync issues..

The HDMI swap didn't seem to

make any difference but tried to be sure.

[nigea99]

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@ohsoholly wrote:

Hi @nigea99 

Thanks for your fast response. We've had a look on the audio settings for the TV. Our TV is a Panasonic TX-50DX700B.

We did have some additional audio options, it was set on PCM but had the option for Bitstream and Auto. We went with Bitstream and this now produces sound through the speaker on Sky Q with the DD+ setting, however on a film we've now noticed some slight lip sync issues..

The HDMI swap didn't seem to

make any difference but tried to be sure.

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hi @ohsoholly 

Yes PCM would only allow Normal  sound from SKY Q  - you do need Auto or Bitstream (I tend to use Bitsream) 

If you are getting lip synch issues then one suggestion is to try to make sure that the Video mode you are using has minimal or no video processing (e.g. not Game modes but something like Cinema  - & although  I am not sure if the DX700 has it THX Cinema)

Have you tried just DD & not DD+ on SKY Q  - I know that will stop Atmos from being used but you may find the 5.1 from ordinary DD is good enough - Sound bars don't really have the full benefits that separate overhead speakers  give 

[ohsoholly]

Thanks for all your help @nigea99 !

We'll try both of these, we did watch something in 5.1 and it was amazing in comparison to the previous TV speakers so would be happy with that ☺️

[Sheetbag]

I use optical fibre for direct sou d from the skyq box to my soundbar

Apart from sound being quieter, I dont get any other issues.

[ohsoholly]

Thanks @Sheetbag. We might resort to the optical instead.

We thought we'd cracked it with the HDMI ARC, and utilised the audio delay on the Sky Q settings to fix the lip sync issues. However whenever we switch the TV off and/or change channel the problem reverts assumingly as the feed resets each time or changes from live TV to a broadcast show.

Many Thanks