Hi

Does anybody know why the sound on some blurays is pants? Have tried fiddlin with the audio settings such as the downmix but it can be hit and miss with some disks!! Now some sound great (The Bourne trillogy) even when played through my stereo amp (Rotel amp and mouradant short speakers) Tried watching the Hangover through the stereo speakers last night and it souned so dull so used the TV spaeakers and still had to crank vol up to 52!!...Normal setting being 20!!!

Any of you good folk any suggestions (other than buying a home cinema amp) !!

Cheers

Kit

You might just have a wire off on your connector (is it the dreaded Scart?), or have mono'd the feed somehow and are getting phase cancellations, but if not, Bluray should sound fantastic! Therfore you aren't going to like this bit much, but please read on...

I have to say, BluRay sound quality it stunning. Either DTS Master or Dolby HD audio is fantastic. It uses more or less, lossless audio tracks and sounds a lot more dynamic than the compressed 5.1 DD that you might get on a DVD. Of all the things about BluRay that are an improvement over DVD, I would say the sound quality is head and shoulders above anything else, including the picture quality. I would strongly advise saving up and getting a decent surround system, one that can decode the HD audio tracks. A starter A/V receiver from somebody like Onkyo will not cost the earth and can decode almost anything. You then just need to budget for speakers. Look for a minimum of two quality fronts (bookshelf speakers on stands is good), two rears and a proper sub if funds allow. Don’t worry about a centre speaker, as the Onkyo does a check of your room acoustics and in the process will figure out which speakers you have and make things work. I started out with an Onkyo and only a 4.0 system, no centre and no Sub. The Onkyo figured this out and made a ‘phantom’ centre (ie it just sends the centre track as mono) and can increase overall deep bass if it thinks it’s necessary. It isn’t cheap, but it is a bigger improvement in quality than moving from say, a CRT telly to an HD one.

A quality budget system might be something like an Onkyo 507 amp, and Epos M5s at the front and Epos M3s at the rear (I like Epos). With cable and stands you are looking at about £750 all in (a little haggle might be needed), but this will stand you in good stead for many years and you can add a Sub at a later date. It is pretty much future proofed as well. But there are some nice small systems by Kef etc.

I can not recommend enough, that you go to a reputable HiFi shop and demo this stuff. I personally recommend Superfi as they will price match and demo any bit of kit in any configuration you want. They have proper listening rooms and will not hassle you. Proper pros really. I speak as an Audio Engineer too.

Edited 12 January, 201016 yr by Lady Elanore

SuperFi are superb, get all my kit from them!

Hi Amanda

I have an HDMI lead from the Bluray to the TV (both sony) and a set of old school leads from bluray into back of amp! But why would the sound differ from disk to disk? Tried it with other disks last night and they sound great!! It does seem as if its the settings that the disk uses!

At the mo the surround will have to wait.....I need new carpets before that!! :(

K:)

Babs....i didnt come from superfi!!!....i came from my mummys belly!!!...well i think i did!!!

Kit

Any of you good folk any suggestions (other than buying a home cinema amp) !!

Unfortunately no.

I have to agree with Amanda and say that a high quality blueray picture deserves a decent amp to go with it. I'd go a little further and suggest that a sub should be a priority addition to the setup as you'll then feel the sound as well as hear it.

Why not buy the speaker cabling and fit it so that it's hidden by the new carpets. That way half of the job is done when you do have enough dosh for the amp etc.

What Bluray player is it?

Hi Amanda

I have an HDMI lead from the Bluray to the TV (both sony) and a set of old school leads from bluray into back of amp! But why would the sound differ from disk to disk? Tried it with other disks last night and they sound great!! It does seem as if its the settings that the disk uses!

At the mo the surround will have to wait.....I need new carpets before that!!

K:)

All I can think is you have somehow downmixed multi channel audio into a stereo mix and somehow there has been a lot of cancelation. Usually you will hear the sound will have gone thin sounding. I am guessing you have tried a default reset of the sound on your Bluray

Ive taken the dolby off as im not using surround and changed to direct downmix but no matter what settin i use some disks sound pants!!...I have tried the disk audio settings when im playing it but more often than not the only setting is a "audio button" on or off mode and to be honest i hav eno idea what that does!!! Whats the best setting to play it direct thru the V and miss out the amp and speakers? Will check when i get home exactly what settings i have it set to...

Cheers

Kit

Ive taken the dolby off as im not using surround and changed to direct downmix but no matter what settin i use some disks sound pants!!...I have tried the disk audio settings when im playing it but more often than not the only setting is a "audio button" on or off mode and to be honest i hav eno idea what that does!!! Whats the best setting to play it direct thru the V and miss out the amp and speakers? Will check when i get home exactly what settings i have it set to...

Cheers

Kit

It wouldn’t surprise me if you had a codec problem of some sort. Some Blurays are Dolby encoded and some are DTS. DTS often sounds louder than Dolby but not as extremely different as you describe. It might be interesting to see if there is a correlation between soundtracks and problem. The back of the box should tell you which system they are using for sound (assuming your blueray doesn’t, which it should when you press the audio button). Also there might be an output level control on your BluRay device and it may not be able to control the levels on some formats., ie the DTS ones so they will sound different. If there is a level control, I assume you now have it flat out?

If you plug it straight into the TV via HDMI it will depend on what you send to it as most TVs can’t decode HD audio. Sounds like a look at the manual is in order if you haven’t already. What model Bluray is it?

It wouldn’t surprise me if you had a codec problem of some sort. Some Blurays are Dolby encoded and some are DTS. DTS often sounds louder than Dolby but not as extremely different as you describe. It might be interesting to see if there is a correlation between soundtracks and problem. The back of the box should tell you which system they are using for sound (assuming your blueray doesn’t, which it should when you press the audio button). Also there might be an output level control on your BluRay device and it may not be able to control the levels on some formats., ie the DTS ones so they will sound different. If there is a level control, I assume you now have it flat out?

If you plug it straight into the TV via HDMI it will depend on what you send to it as most TVs can’t decode HD audio. Sounds like a look at the manual is in order if you haven’t already. What model Bluray is it?

Ive got the destructions out and followed all the settings for set up to use with a normal amp and speakers and the sound is still really dull! Im trying it by watching the hangover! Have also used setting for when im playing it thru the TV and its the same.

I have a sony KDL 32 vV400 TV and a sony BDP S350 blu ray palyer.

Cheers

Kit

am i correct in thinking that you have a tv, amp and blueray player? if so i believe the blueray should be hdmi,d into the amp and the tv should be hdmi,d into the amp. a previous reply seemed to contradict this.

sorry, just realized this is a stereo amp...... doh you need an a/v amp...........

Did you see if there was a correlation between duff sound and the type of encoding of the audio, ie DTS or Dolby

Ah, I had a look at the specs and your BluRay might not support DTS HD Master decoding. That is a very popular format on BluRay. I wonder if that is your problem.

Edited 12 January, 201016 yr by Lady Elanore

Ah, I had a look at the specs and your BluRay might not support DTS HD Master decoding. That is a very popular format on DVD. I wonder if that is your problem.

Amanda,

So does mean that i have a kack blu ray player then? Would that explain why some disks sound great and some dont? Il fiddle about with it more when i get home and check what audio output is on what disks.

kit

Amanda,

So does mean that i have a kack blu ray player then? Would that explain why some disks sound great and some dont? Il fiddle about with it more when i get home and check what audio output is on what disks.

kit

Kit, you need to find out if there is a correlation between duff sound and DTS sound tracks first. As I said, if you could check the back of the bluray box and see which standard the disc is using. Your BluRay Playeer isn't Kack.

There are several different formats for putting sound onto DVDs and BluRay discs. The 2 most popular formats are Dolby and DTS (DTS is a bit like Dolby, but done by a different company). On DVDs DD 5.1 (Dolby Digital) and DTS 5.1 are very popular. The 5.1 refers to the number of different tracks for different speakers. ie [2 x front] + [2 x rear

] + [1 x centre] = the 5 of the name 5.1. The .1 bit refers to the Subwoofer.

On BluRay they can store so much more data they can use the 'big guns' standards by Dolby and DTS, these are the HD audio tracks. they can be 5.1, 7,1 7.2, 9,1 and so on. A good receiver can decode all of these and feed them to the speakers you have connected to it. so if you only have 2 speakers connected, an amp like the Onkyo (I am not an Onkyo rep honest) will work out how to put all these tracks together into just 2 speakers, you don't have to do anything but a simple test when you first set the thing up (you plug a microphone into the amp and it automatically begins a test procedure, you don't do anything else)

Your player will output DTS sound to a compatible device down it’s HDMI cable, such as an A/V receiver like the Onkyo I mentioned (as well as many others) and you would then be able to hear the sounds track clearly. What your machine doesn’t appear to do (but it’s replacement the 360 does) is to change the DTS track into one that you can pick up from the phono plugs on the back ie normal analogue sound. The other problem you will have is your TV is very unlikely to have a DTS decoder built in, so it will struggle to make sense of all the DTS data.

All this assumes that the DTS tracks are your problem. An easy way to check would be to stick a duff disc in and try to listen to the other audio tracks on it. Often the directors commentary is recorded in Dolby digital of some sort and I believe you BluRay player can convert that to the analogue format you need. Try it and if it is the case it looks like we’ve found the problem.

If it is this that’s the problem, you have a few options.

See if the disc has a none DTS audio track you can listen too.

Connect your player up to the interweb for any updates, as I see your player can be upgraded to 2.0 compliance (nothing to do with the sound unfortunately) and you never know (it is rather unlikely though).

Buy a more recent BluRay player (not recommended)

Buy an A/V receiver (recommended). This will not only sort your problems out, but you can plug straight into the receiver from your player and then the receiver plugs straight into the tv. The picture and the sounds both travel through the receiver via a single HDMI cable. It also means that when the time comes, you can upgrade your speakers in stages. Ie get a new pair of front speakers and move your existing ones to the rear. A decent HiFi shop (probably not Richer Sounds or Currys etc) will let you take your bluray player in to test this theory.

Good luck and please let me know if you can find a link between the DTS and the duff sound, it might not be this after all.

One last thought. It’s worth chasing DTS sound, as it is probably the best quality track you will find on a regular bluray disc. It uses a very high bit rate and the quality is superb (I prefer it to Dolby)

Edited 12 January, 201016 yr by Lady Elanore

The lady knows her shiz!

is there a newer firmware update for your bluray player, have a look on the manufacturers website, or if a profile 2.0 player connect it to the internet and use the upgrade firmware option in the settings menu.

The lady knows her shiz!

I thankooooo I am trying to get a second job at Superfi I think

Edited 12 January, 201016 yr by Lady Elanore

is there a newer firmware update for your bluray player, have a look on the manufacturers website, or if a profile 2.0 player connect it to the internet and use the upgrade firmware option in the settings menu.

I believe it is 2.0 compliant but needs the update to fully realise this. I doubt it will contain a basic decode for the DTS tracks. Still we don’t even know if this is the problem yet :(

Amanda.......Can i marry you and we can run off together ? ..please.?..if you wouldnt mind too much

Anyway back on track now ive planned a honeymoon in the Cook Islands .....il try all your suggestions when i get home and will also i promise have a look at the funding of an AV amp...maybe even an onkyo!!!

Kit

Amanda.......Can i marry you and we can run off together ? ..please.?..if you wouldnt mind too much

Anyway back on track now ive planned a honeymoon in the Cook Islands .....il try all your suggestions when i get home and will also i promise have a look at the funding of an AV amp...maybe even an onkyo!!!

Kit

You say that now, but what if your problem isn’t the DTS decoder!!!!!!! It might be a short marriage

ps Cook Islands will do nicely thank you

You say that now, but what if your problem isn’t the DTS decoder!!!!!!! It might be a short marriage

ps Cook Islands will do nicely thank you

[/quote

DTS or not...... it will be worth it though!!! ........Right oh il get the Cook Islands booked then:)

K:)

You say that now, but what if your problem isn’t the DTS decoder!!!!!!! It might be a short marriage

ps Cook Islands will do nicely thank you

[/quote

DTS or not...... it will be worth it though!!! ........Right oh il get the Cook Islands booked then:)

K:)

Don’t you dare bring a mankini though!