Weak sound?

[Silvermanz]

What's wrong with the sound on sky stream?

In default 'auto' sound mode everything is very quiet - I need my soundbar on max volume to hear it at a normal volume. For reference, at max volume on other content such as a game or Blu-ray it's usually loud enough to make the glass in the windows rattle.

A little googling later I tried setting the sound to pcm stereo which helps restore a normal volume level, but now the bass is very weak sounding.

I watch a lot of musical content so sound quality is very important to me and currently I've got the choice of very quiet or muddy weak bass.

Has anyone got any suggestions on how to fix this? Is it happening to anyone else?

Thanks.

[Fothergill1]

@Silvermanz Welcome to the forum.  Your sound issue is not something I have ever noticed on my stream puck.  If it did the first thing I would do is reboot the puck so give it a try if you haven't already done so.

Go to Settings > System Management > Resets & Updates > Restart device (do not do a factory reset).  It takes about 3 minutes to completely reboot. You will have a blank screen for a couple of minutes before the Sky logo appears so don’t panic when you first start the process.

[Jay155]

I have the exact same issue with two pucks 

[Lyle95]

I have the exact issue. When I had SkyQ I could listen to TV at 20, and it was loud. Now I have to listen to the TV at 40-50 to hear it now I have the stream puck. If I've got music on I have to have it at 100 (max) and its still not loud enough.

[CoffeeDrinker]

@Silvermanz Which soundbar do you have?

The Sky puck auto mode in the sound options will try the following sound formats in order, trying each to see if the sound device responds with a successful 'handshake'. If the devices fail to handshake, it will move onto the next:

1. Dolby Digital Plus (includes Atmos if you have the UHD/Atmos add-on). A fairly new codec, but the one with the least widespread support/compatibility. Can do Atmos, 7.1, 5.1 and 2.0 stereo.
2. Dolby Digital. An older codec from the 1990s that can do 5.1 and 2.0. Was the standard for audio on DVDs, so support is pretty widespread.
3. PCM stereo. The standard for compact discs. Just about anything capable of making sound can handle PCM stereo.

Sometimes support for a given codec/sound formats is almost there but not quite., If you soundbar is sounding weak and it is struggling with Dolby Digital Plus in auto mode, try using Dolby Digital before settling on PCM stereo.

it might also be worth powering off your puck for a minute or two then turning it back on. I've had a few instances in the past where my puck would only play the front left and front right channels of 5.1 shows (Star Trek the original series); music and sound effects came through fine but dialogue and bass were so weak as to be almost inaudible. It might not be the same issue you're having, but it's worth cycling the power to rule it out.

[nicky15]

We have recently swapped from Sky Q to streaming with the Puck. When we switched we were promised the sound quality would be better - but it really isn't. To have a hope of hearing dialogue, it has to be turned up much more than with the Q system which makes the background noise unbearably loud and the voices just about audible although it is like listening with a pair of socks in the ears. We have tried all the sound settings on the puck, we use a surround sound with rear speakers, tried every combination of sound on the sound bar but it doesn't make much difference. I have hearing problems at the best of times and the puck is making tv viewing challenging. The best set up is with pass through and it does vary with TV channel - the Sky programmes tend to be the worst offenders and streaming Amazon Prime through the TV rather than the Puck can be noticeably better. Using Dolby through the Puck, which is supposed to be supported by the sound system makes no difference and can be worse. Speech is muffled and there don't seem to be any other settings to alter base/treble. Any other useful suggestions would be appreciated.

[CoffeeDrinker]

@nicky15 What make & model of soundbar are you using? And if you are using ARC to pass through the sound through your TV to the soundbar, which make & model of TV do you have?

[Lilyinthesky]

• Yep, same issue here with my TV. Its a new model, sound is excellent everywhere else, TV, Amazon, Netflix etc. Just when I use the puck the audio is so quiet I have the volume on 30 to hear it normally where as in comparison when not using the puck I have the volume on 12.....

[nicky15]

As a further update, I changed the puck, tried every combination of audio settings - auto, DD, DD+ etc both on the pucks and the sound system. The new sound sytem is definitely better than the old but the sound output varies throughout a programme, with no consistency. We have FTTP, 150mps and the puck is only about 4m from the router. Is the sound variation a wif or througput issue? We are unimpressed by Sky's routers generally as there does seem to be some throttling somewhere in the system and wifi speeds throughout the house are not as reliable as with previous non-Sky routers we have had - we lose about  80% of speed in the bedroom with the SKy router compared to 15% with others. Is whatever is limiting this also a contribution to the sound quality varying? The sound issues is lvolume but also the surround sound coming and going. We did not have this when we had satellite so I am assuming the streaming is the culprit. I would happily change router but for the fact we need the phone connection in the hub.

[CoffeeDrinker]

The sound portion of any given streamed programme from Sky is delivered to the puck using Dolby Digital Plus, typically at a bitrate of anywhere between 200 to 700 kilobits per second.. For a 10Mbit/s picture & sound stream, this is less than 10% of the data being transmistted. For a 30Mbit/s stream, less than 3%. 

Although Dolby Digital Plus can cope with variable bitrates according to network conditions, the sound via Sky Stream shouldn't suffer as much as those in the thread describe, even under the worst network conditions. 

As a rule of thumg, if you have enough WiFi throughput for a reliable, smooth video picture with no stutters, dropped frames or breakup, you have more than enough throughput for reliable audio.

Which soundbar are you currently using? And are you connected Sky Stream > soundbar > TV or Sky Stream > TV > soundbar?

[Dazzasky]

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@CoffeeDrinker wrote:

The sound portion of any given streamed programme from Sky is delivered to the puck using Dolby Digital Plus, typically at a bitrate of anywhere between 200 to 700 kilobits per second.. For a 10Mbit/s picture & sound stream, this is less than 10% of the data being transmistted. For a 30Mbit/s stream, less than 3%. 

Although Dolby Digital Plus can cope with variable bitrates according to network conditions, the sound via Sky Stream shouldn't suffer as much as those in the thread describe, even under the worst network conditions. 

As a rule of thumg, if you have enough WiFi throughput for a reliable, smooth video picture with no stutters, dropped frames or breakup, you have more than enough throughput for reliable audio.

Which soundbar are you currently using? And are you connected Sky Stream > soundbar > TV or Sky Stream > TV > soundbar?

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I think Stream does play at a lower sound than other platforms. It used to be louder before and then the sound just got quieter one day and stayed that way. 

[nicky15]

The sound through the puck comes and goes. Some channels sound is good at level 12, others turning volume up makes no difference at all. We have superfas6 broadband so the speed should be good. The question is now is it the puck or the useless router? Can only connect to 5khz network up to 3.4m away, any further and it is 2.4 which really can't cope. Please sky, provide better equipment and a eluable service.

[TimmyBGood]

@nicky15 

 Connection speed should have no influence on volume: audio is a tiny amount of data compared to the video component.