BT TV Box Pro - comments/questions

[scharter]

@DarrenDev Hi Darren, I  like the glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel, rather than the lights turned off completely.  If I knew there was to be no solution at all, I'd be (slightly) tempted to cancel.

I think what most(?) people feel is that as this was promoted as the all singing (no pun intended) box it is frustrating when other boxes that people have  do not have the issue. e.g. My Apple tv 4k box handles any change of source be it sound or vision (Thanks David Bowie) seamlessly, and switches automatically.

But keep up the valuable comms regardless.

Very much appreciated Darren.

BTW, on a personal note. Your tech support are planning on sending out a replacement box to 'fix' the issue, should I cancel it, as it obviously seems software related. Has anyone else had a clean box?

[scharter]

@ozsat @DarrenDev  Ozsat, my thoughts exactly. In fact I've just posted a comment re: sending out a new box to try and overcome the issue.  One of the pb's is that the box is so new the tech HD have little insight to it.

[jparnell82]

Hi @DarrenDev ,

I'm also finding the way the sound works on the Box Pro to be inferior to my old T4000.

I'm using a Sonos Beam with SL speakers as the rear effectively making it a surround sound system 

I get annoyed how programs which shouldn't have surround sound come out of the rear speakers now, it also seems to come and go.I much prefer the way it used to work with the T4000

Ps. I appreciate your contribution to the forum. It's great having someone like you on the inside giving us insights as to what's going on and coming up.

[Will168]

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@DarrenDevwrote:

Further to the above, I'm going to put through an official request for this to be investigated.  For this to happen, I need brief but descriptive statements of what equipment you're using and what the issue is.

Could you please either reply here, or send me a DM with something along the lines of:

"when connect to my Denon X123 receiver watching QVC, the audio is distorted because I hear the presenter's voice in my rear channels"

I will then collate all answers together and pass them onto the relevant team.  I'm going to need as many different customer responses as possible in order for this to be taken seriously.

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Hi @DarrenDev , sorry for the long post. I'm on a Denon AVR-X4500H, with a Dolby Atmos speaker setup. I have the BT TV Pro box set to HMDI Sound "Surround". When I put the Denon into Direct sound mode, I have tried to do some comprehensive testing for you and here are my results:

BBC One HD - Denon detects input as surround sound. Vocals coming out of centre channel only. The front L+R and rear L+R speakers all only play the ambient sounds/music, no vocals at all. The Atmos speakers play no sound of any type. It seems to process surround sound correctly.

ITV HD, Channel 4 HD, Channel 5 HD - Denon detects input as surround sound. Stereo mix of all sounds coming out of front L+R speakers only. No sound of any type coming from centre speaker, rear L+R or Atmos speakers. Despite detecting as surround sound, it seems to process as stereo, which seems to be correct.

BT Sport 1, 2, 3 HD, Sky Sports News HD, Sky Sports Main Event HD - Denon detects input as surround sound. Sound mix (audio and vocals) comes out of all channels at the same time for front L+R, centre and rear L+R. The Atmos speakers play no sound of any type. The same audio comes out of all speakers, it seems to be a stereo mix that purports to be surround and therefore doesn't seem right.

Eurosport 1, 2 HD - Denon detects input as surround sound. Sound mix (audio and vocals) coming out of front L+R and centre channels. The rear L+R speakers all only play the ambient sounds/music, no vocals at all. The Atmos speakers play no sound of any type. 

All of the above channels in SD - Denon detects input as surround sound. Stereo mix of all sounds coming out of front L+R speakers only. No sound of any type coming from centre speaker, rear L+R or Atmos speakers. 

I think that because the HDMI Sound is set to "Surround", it reports surround sound to the Denon and that's what it detects as. However, it does not always process it as such, as can be seen by ITV HD, Channel 4 HD and Channel 5 HD.

I can't test channel 465 for Atmos, as it's only the demo at the moment.

I mentioned this in another thread, but like some others, the audio is incredibly quiet. On the Denon volume scale of 0 to 98, my Apple TV 4K, NVidia Shield, Sky Q and the audio stream from the TV are all comfortable listening levels at between volume level 35 and 45. Much above 45 is bordering on too loud. The BT TV Pro box has to be well up above level 65 to be comparable to the other sources.

Hope that helps.

[scointer]

@Will168 For a Denon with the T4000 even when set to surround the output matched the correct format. This can be seen in the picture below showing that when BBC1 HD was just a stereo signal the active speakers for the input signal were just two (I have also included a picture showing a DD signal - as opposed to a DD+ signal which is all the pro box outputs in surround mode). This is how it should work.

 

 

The T4000 will output the correct signal, the broadcast channels can output a Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1 depending on the programme so this should be output exactly as broadcast even if on surround, people can then decide how they want to deal with that (leave as stereo, make a pseudo surround signal  etc). The pro box just mixes everything to a DD+ 5.1 output no matter what the broadcast when in surround mode and this causes all sorts of different mix through the speakers.

[Will168]

@scointer Yes, I agree with you that the input on the Denon is always recognised as 5.1 due to the BT TV Pro box setting, even when the audio itself is 2.0. I also agree that if the BT TV Pro box were configured correctly by BT, then it should automatically switch when content is 2.0. However, with true 2.0 audio streams, such as ITV HD, although the Denon says the input is 5.1 and the "active speakers" are 5.1, the actual audio stream is 2.0 and thus I only get audio coming from the front left and right speakers.

The BBC One HD programme that was one last night during testing had a 5.1 stream (9/11 Inside the President's War Room) and audio was coming from all 5 speakers (vocals on centre, surround sounds on front L+R, rear L+R). I tried again this morning and the current programme as I write this (BBC Breakfast), is on a 2.0 stream and therefore the sound is only coming from the front left and right speakers as a stereo mix, despite the Denon displaying all the 5.1 speakers as active.

[ozsat]

I have found that sometimes the DTT channels (BBC, ITV etc.) sound fine when they are 2.0 but try some of the digitally streamed channels - like BT Sport and the Now channels.

It may be the box is getting confised by a 2.0DD+ source.

[Will168]

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@ozsatwrote:

I have found that sometimes the DTT channels (BBC, ITV etc.) sound fine when they are 2.0 - but try some of the digitally streamed channels - like BT Sport and the Now channels.

It may be the box is getting confised by a 2.0DD+ source.

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Yes, exactly, I don't seem to have issues with weird mixing on the DTT channels. The SD BT Sport and SD Sky Sports channels are in 2.0 and sound fine.

But the HD BT Sport and HD Sky Sports channels have the audio all mixed together, as noted in my more detailed post (Message 174). In those cases, I get a kind of stereo mix coming out of all five speakers.

[ozsat]

@DarrenDev  So it seems it is passing PCM 2.0 thru to DD+ 5.1 correctly  -  but when the audio is a DD/DD+ 2.0 source it gets it wrong.

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@Will168wrote:

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@ozsatwrote:

I have found that sometimes the DTT channels (BBC, ITV etc.) sound fine when they are 2.0 - but try some of the digitally streamed channels - like BT Sport and the Now channels.

It may be the box is getting confised by a 2.0DD+ source.

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Yes, exactly, I don't seem to have issues with weird mixing on the DTT channels. The SD BT Sport and SD Sky Sports channels are in 2.0 and sound fine.

But the HD BT Sport and HD Sky Sports channels have the audio all mixed together, as noted in my more detailed post (Message 174). In those cases, I get a kind of stereo mix coming out of all five speakers.

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[watttwo]

morning

yes i also have a denon avr and thats exactly what is happening and the sound output is too low

old 4k box worked perfect