[bootgaz]

I have a digital coaxial cable connected from my sky HD box to the digital input on my sound bar. When I watch a none HD channel I get sound but when I watch a HD channel that says has dd I get no sound. I checked the settings on the sky box and made sure under digital output it said Dolby digital. When i am watching a HD channel and change the settings on the sky box to say normal under the digital output I get sound. Can anyone help as I really want to make sure I am getting digital sound.

[chrisjr]

Can your Sound Bar decode a Dolby Digital signal?

DD is a surround sound format so requires a decoder to separate out the 6 audio channels it contains. If your Sound bar cannot do surround sound decoding then it will simply ignore the Dolby Digital signal.

And since you are using a digital connection between Sky box and Sound Bar then by definition you are using digital sound. In fact there is no other option available on Sky digital. Whether you are using plain vanilla stereo or Dolby Digital 5.1 surround the audio is always going to be digital since that is how it is broadcast.

[bootgaz]

On the back of my sound bar it has a orange input which in the booklet indicated it was a sdif / digital connection capable of receiving a digital signal from an external source.

[bobcar]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bootgaz

On the back of my sound bar it has a orange input which in the booklet indicated it was a sdif / digital connection capable of receiving a digital signal from an external source.

What is the make and model of your soundbar? It's difficult to give advice without this vital info.

[chrisjr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bootgaz

On the back of my sound bar it has a orange input which in the booklet indicated it was a sdif / digital connection capable of receiving a digital signal from an external source.

Means nothing unfortunately.

And as i have already said you ARE getting digital audio from the Sky box. It can't be anything else over a SPDIF connection.

I think the confusion here is with Dolby Digital. Just because that has the word digital in it does not mean that any other sound option is not digital. They all are since the broadcasts are entirely digital.

It also does not mean that any "digital" input is capable of handling it. There are many different forms of digital audio signal and not every device can make sense of every format.

All digital means is that the audio signal is presented as a stream of binary numbers, nothing more. What those binary numbers represent is something else entirely.

[bobcar]

An obvious check is whilst viewing an HD channel to go into Settings/sound on the Sky box and change "Dolby" to "normal". If this makes the sound appear then clearly the soundbar is not decoding DD and probably can't. Again if you post the make and model we can check this.

[bootgaz]

My bar is a tecknika make. I don't understand why for non HD channels when I have the sky box set to dd I get sound but when I put a HD channel on the sound goes unless I change the option on the sky box to normal. It just seems to be the HD channels.

[chrisjr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bootgaz

My bar is a tecknika make. I don't understand why for non HD channels when I have the sky box set to dd I get sound but when I put a HD channel on the sound goes unless I change the option on the sky box to normal. It just seems to be the HD channels.

I wonder if the non-HD channels on Sky have Dolby Digital anyway? They could be just plain stereo.

Does the Sound Bar have either of these logos on it?

http://www.mmbforums.com/ipb/uploads...1181819561.jpg
http://www.trelunerecords.it/Logo%20...d%20redblk.jpg

or similar.

If not then it is not surround sound capable more than likely. In which case that will explain why it ignores Dolby Digital sources.

[bootgaz]

In my manual it says the bar is capable of receiving a digital source from a external device rather than getting the sound through the red and White RCA plugs. The sound is fine accept for HD channels

[chrisjr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bootgaz

In my manual it says the bar is capable of receiving a digital source from a external device rather than getting the sound through the red and White RCA plugs. The sound is fine accept for HD channels

As I have been trying to explain. Digital and Dolby Digital are not one and the same thing. Dolby Digital is just one of a whole shed load of possible digital audio formats.

Yes your sound bar may have a digital audio input on it. But that in no way shape or form means it is capable of decoding a Dolby Digital Surround Sound stream into anything you can hear from the speakers.

If the sound bar does not have the Dolby Digital logo like in the link in my previous post then it cannot handle Dolby Digital. Hence why you get nothing when you feed it a Dolby Digital signal.

Think of them as different languages. You may be able to speak English but does that necessarily mean you can also speak Mandarin Chinese? Maybe you can but not every English speaker can.

Your sound bar is just like that. it can speak English (plain stereo) but can't understand a word of Mandarin Chinese (Dolby Digital)

[Jarrak]

What's the model number, a google is only turning up the Technika Ipod Soundbar and that can't be right, then again it doesn't even bring up the companies homepage which is one reason why google can be a pain in the backside

[grahamlthompson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bootgaz

My bar is a tecknika make. I don't understand why for non HD channels when I have the sky box set to dd I get sound but when I put a HD channel on the sound goes unless I change the option on the sky box to normal. It just seems to be the HD channels.

Setting the box to DD will only output DD if it's being transmitted, apart from the premium movie channels all SD channels use mpeg 1 layer 2 stereo which is PCM as used on a cd but of inferior quality. You can only listen to DD sound if the amplifier has a dolby digital decoder and in this case it's pretty obvious it does not have this capability

[bootgaz]

Many thanks for ur input. The bar is the iPod one but can take sound from 3 external inputs and digital source. It has a cracking sound for such a cheap unit. I will check to see if it has the dd logo.

[Jarrak]

I think that confirms what the others are saying, the SKY+HD does not decode DD5.1 so the receiver/amp must do the job and your soundbar does not have DD decoding built in hence no audio when you feed DD5.1 into the device via optical.

[grahamlthompson]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jarrak

I think that confirms what the others are saying, the SKY+HD does not decode DD5.1 so the receiver/amp must do the job and your soundbar does not have DD decoding built in hence no audio when you feed DD5.1 into the device via optical.

Not only 5.1 it wont work with DD2.0 either.

[chrisjr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bootgaz

Many thanks for ur input. The bar is the iPod one but can take sound from 3 external inputs and digital source. It has a cracking sound for such a cheap unit. I will check to see if it has the dd logo.

Would this be the beastie in question?

http://direct.tesco.com/product/images/?R=206-4241

If it is then i very much doubt it will have any idea what Dolby Digital is. From the very very limited information about it I would be surprised if it were anything other than strictly stereo.

So just stick your Sky box sound to Normal and save up your pennies for a proper sound system that can do surround sound properly

[martysport]

Throw the bloody thing away and get a 'proper' 5.1 surround sound system after all a soundbar is an half arsed attempt of surround anyway

[RobAnt]

Quote:

You may be able to speak English but does that necessarily mean you can also speak Mandarin Chinese?

Yes.

Wei, wo wei shou ydianr putonghua.