Download Film from Sky Store - awful sound

[KayEmBee]

Just watched the opening scene and had to google whether this was a known issue. Surely Sky should have sorted this by now? Can't watch it's so off putting

[mike+simmonds]

Hi @Viewtiful+Jim 

What sort of sound system do you have ? 

I wonder if the Downton Abbey Dolby Atmos (DD plus) mix specifically requires a certain speaker setup (say 7.1) and anything other than that sounds wrong 

[Viewtiful+Jim]

Hi @mike+simmonds,

I'm using a Sony STR-DN1080 with a 5.1.2 setup. The 1080 can downmix a 7.1 stream so I don't think it was that & I've not faced this issue with any other content on Sky or anywhere else.

From what I recall, it wasn't really a speaker channeling issue, but more like the voices were playing at the wrong speed & frequency. I remember Mary Crawley sounding like she had breathed helium! 

It was disappointing as I'd watched the whole series on Amazon where the receiver had upmixed the audio from stereo to surround, which wasn't too bad with plenty of depth and bass to the voices & I was looking forward to Atmos quality for the movie which I certainly didn't get. Disappointing. 

[mike+simmonds]

You are right @Viewtiful+Jim  that there have been several comments on the forum regarding the sound on Downton Abbey. Perhaps worth having a live chat with the Skystore team in the morning to see if they have some background on this 

Click on contact us

https://www.skystore.com/n/hgst/help/faq/getting-started 

[girlie64]

The sound for this film still hasn't been sorted....will now have to pay £10 to watch on Prime

surely Sky should have sorted this by now as so many people have mentioned the problem 

[Abridge4]

Oh no... I wish I'd read this before watching the Movie .. it spoiled it for us because like everyone else we kept pausing to see if we could correct it ... really disappointing .. and frankly just not good enough from sky !! 

[James+XO]

I know im nearly a year late but i've just watched the series and now began the film for the first time on Sky Store and i thought i was loosing my mind! They all sounded ridiculous and i thought surely there good enough actors but this is awful, turns out it is a sound issue but nothing to do with my TV so must be a Sky problom. Going to try figure out tomorrow how to get some sort of refund!

[mike+simmonds]

Hi @James+XO 

A good link for the Skystore team is this one (live chat usually works well)

https://www.skystore.com/n/hcus/help/contact-us 

Also - a couple of suggestions 

If this is a movie you bought (buy and keep) a while ago and downloaded- and it's been sitting on your hard drive -  try archiving it and then download it again in case the audio has been improved 

Also - just in case it's a bad audio mix - while watching - change your audio output to "normal" rather than Dolby 

[Western+Son]

Sky are the only digital service in the UK that speeds up all their films by 4%

This is a leagcy method from PAL standard definition which could only handle 25 frames a second even for movies. With movies being 24 frames a second the easiest thing to do was to speed them up 4%. This is still the case with DVDs

with the advent of HDTV they could handle 24 frames a second along with 25. All movies in HD from every other service keeps them at 24fps as they should be. Sky however syill speeds up all their films by 4%

We shouldnt really notice it but it appears this film has been done badly and we can hear the effect

[Abridge4]

Thanks for the info ... so bottom line seems to be ... don't risk Sky Movies until they correct this ??? 

[Lokizelda]

I am so so glad I found this forum. Even now, in July 2021 it hasn't been fixed. They've all inhaled helium, and are walking and talking too fast. How can such a large company like Sky still have this substandard incorrect version accessible. This needs fixing so we can all enjoy Downton Abbey!

[HattyA123]

I'm same as everyone else - just finished series and rented film on sky and they still haven't fixed the problem! 18 months after this discussion was started, appalling service. Going to be onto Sky for my money back and watch elsewhere 😠

[SophieERC]

I have just bought the film after re-watching the series on Netflix and the sound is awful. The voices are high pitched and faster than normal. Bare in mind that the comments below are from 2020 it would seem that Sky still haven't fixed the issue. I'm going to ask for a refund and I will watch on Amazon instead

[mike+simmonds]

Thanks for adding to this @SophieERC 

I've not listened to the audio myself but I've seen this thread unresolved for a couple of years 

This is a link to livechat which opens at 11am if that helps 

https://www.skystore.com/n/hcus/help/contact-us 

If they tell you anything significant about the movie audio - would you mind posting back on here. 

[Rincewind1]

Just watched the series on Amazon and wanted to rewatch the film but it sounds like they are all on helium!!!!

I tried archiving and redownloading and the sound quality is awful! I've not had this problem with any other movie I've downloaded. Is there no way to slow it down as its unwatchable!