HT-XT3 sound bar low volume through sky HD box

[Captainoats81]

Just setup my new ht-xt3 sound bar and having issues with the sky HD box not generating very loudly.

this is being hooked up to a new 65"4k Sony TV so the Bravia sync is on. 

The output is connected into the hdmi ARC socket input4. 

Xbox1, bluray player output the sound fine and very loud.

changed all the hdmi high speed cables between all and every input but still only the sky HD box volume is not very loud.

it is something wrong somewhere as watching the sky HD box direct through the TV speakers is louder than the sound bar!

bluetooth is loud so I must be doing something wrong but unsure where! Anyone else had these problems with the sky box?

thanks

[Anonymous]

H there

Can you ensure that the soundbar is not set to 'night mode' and test whilst all sound fields are set to standard.

Also ensure you have the latest firmware installed on the soundbar:

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/content/cnt-dwnl/prd-tvhc/sony-HTXT3-firmware-update-v0343/HT-XT3

Cheers

[Captainoats81]

Hi,

thanks for for your reply.

i can confirm, that the firmware is up to date as it asked me to download and update when it was setup on my wifi. I also performed an additional manual check and it is up to date.

the sound field was tested on standard and clear audio + but no difference.

i can't figure out why the sky HD box volume is nice and loud directly through the TV speakers but not through the sound bar.  It's like something is automatically reducing the volume but it's only the sky HD through any hdmi input on the sound bar.

to double check the sky box I hooked it up in my home cinema room amp (through the amps HDMI input) and it's nice and loud so it must be something in the sound bar.  It's very annoying as I bought this primarily for a living room TV but now it's defeating the object!

[Captainoats81]

Been escalated at Sony support as reset and test didn't resolve 

[Captainoats81]

Sony tech support called me today to advise it is still with their 2nd line team to find a solution.  Fingers crossed.

[rooobb]

@Captainoats81 do you have the same result if the sky box is connected directly to an hdmi input on the tv and you hear the sound on the xt3 via the hdmi-arc connection?

[Captainoats81]

Hi Rooobb (:smileyhappy:)

Thanks for your suggestion.

I have performed various tests and one was to connect the Sky HD box directly back into the TV (which was the original setup) - via HDMI - and I can hear the sound through the box as well as the TV (output from HDMI 4 ARC socket on the Sony 4K TV) and there is a slight voice delay between the two devices but this can be adjusted.

Interestingly I noticed the sounds is now louder on certain TV channels, e.g. Comedy Central HD, 4HD and 5HD - whereas Sky 1HD and BBC1 HD is quieter.  Never noticed this through normal TV speakers but it would now appear to be more obvious depending on the signal strength/frequency (or whatever it is called) the channel is broadcasting.  Must be the way the audio decoding difference is between SD and HD channels, for example "how it's made" on Discovery SD channel volume is a lot lower than on the HD channel version.

Think I may have answered my own question now on this but will wait for Sony to confirm.  

Will do some more tests tonight.

[rooobb]

It should not possible to have both the TV speaker AND the HT via ARC on at the same time (I don't know how you did it ) and in any case it is normal that they are not in sync....

The lower volume that you get on some HD channel only could be related to the use by some of them of Dolby Digital encoding: try to see if the same channel have more than one audio track and switch to the other: you may check if it change also the volume (even if the DD track will always be better...)

[Captainoats81]

Oh err!!

I think there was an option on the Bravia settings to do with the sync of tv speakers and the sound bar settings somewhere on the Sony Andriod TV.  Does that mean there is a fault if it does that?    It had a slight echo effect when the sounds sync was out by a fraction! 

Yes that is what I thought regarding the HD channels which have Dolby Digital (I don't think any Sky HD channel supports DTS??? although the sound bar does).

I think the main thing here is that the soundbar is not faulty as you have made me think logically with your feedback comments so it all makes sense now (apart from the sounds coming out of the tv and the speaker at the same time but I turned that off a while ago somehow!)

[Shreddy_Steve]

Did you get any answer from Sony about this?

I'm having the same issue on some Sky Channels too with the same soundbase.

Thanks, Steve