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Old 12-11-2016, 11:48
sqwerty505
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Have been watching a few films on the Now TV box, from Sky Cinema. Picture looks fine, even at 720p, but the sound quality (on the film I was watching last night, Gran Turino), was abysmal, like it had been recorded in a cardboard box. Apparently Now TV broadcasts in stereo, not full surround sound, but I haven't noticed it sounding that bad before. Is it maybe just the film? Am listening through decent headphones or speakers on the TV.
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Old 12-11-2016, 19:29
ftakeith
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Have been watching a few films on the Now TV box, from Sky Cinema. Picture looks fine, even at 720p, but the sound quality (on the film I was watching last night, Gran Turino), was abysmal, like it had been recorded in a cardboard box. Apparently Now TV broadcasts in stereo, not full surround sound, but I haven't noticed it sounding that bad before. Is it maybe just the film? Am listening through decent headphones or speakers on the TV.
Now TV Smart Box 2016, the sound is better on these boxes
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Old 12-11-2016, 20:59
noise747
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I have not noticed a problem with the sound
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Old 29-11-2016, 21:25
Bspks
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I get Now TV with full surround sound through my Chromecast no issues there.
Surely the dedicated box accesses the same stream?
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Old 30-11-2016, 08:59
SkipTracer
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I get Now TV with full surround sound through my Chromecast no issues there.
Surely the dedicated box accesses the same stream?
Please tell us more.
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Old 30-11-2016, 09:14
Night Crawler
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Please tell us more.
Probably hooked up to a AV receiver and has DPL engaged giving them virtual surround sound.
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Old 30-11-2016, 09:24
raymartin01
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Have been watching a few films on the Now TV box, from Sky Cinema. Picture looks fine, even at 720p, but the sound quality (on the film I was watching last night, Gran Turino), was abysmal, like it had been recorded in a cardboard box. Apparently Now TV broadcasts in stereo, not full surround sound, but I haven't noticed it sounding that bad before. Is it maybe just the film? Am listening through decent headphones or speakers on the TV.
Now TV DOES have surround sound, you need to set the Audio up correctly on the settings menu.
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Old 30-11-2016, 09:57
Night Crawler
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Now TV DOES have surround sound, you need to set the Audio up correctly on the settings menu.
Now TV is only PCM (stereo), isn't it?

The new box has Auto (Dolby D+ and DTS) setting, even with that selected the only output is still PCM.

If I'm not mistaken, to get anything like 5.1 Now TV will need to go digital, especially if DD+ and DTS is to be enabled.
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Old 30-11-2016, 15:38
SkipTracer
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Now TV is only PCM (stereo), isn't it?

The new box has Auto (Dolby D+ and DTS) setting, even with that selected the only output is still PCM.

If I'm not mistaken, to get anything like 5.1 Now TV will need to go digital, especially if DD+ and DTS is to be enabled.
That’s how I see it, oops, I meant hear it and what NowTV customers (I’m one too) are hearing is not true surround sound but what is known as quasi surround sound and I can assure everyone having had a full surround system ever since the days of Dolby Pro-Logic analogue surround systems back in the early nineties my setup is correct.

That said with the proliferation of sound bars these too are not surround sound but use electronics to make it sound like surround sound, a bit like any AV amp worth its salt would do i.e. Quasi surround sound.

So bottom line is Amazon sound = Dolby Digital 5.1 , Netflix Sound = Dolby Digital 5.1 and coming in last is NowTV with stereo sound that can be made to sound a bit like surround sound.
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Old 01-12-2016, 14:05
Clem
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I'd be tempted by NowTV if the picture was delivered in 1080i/p and the audio was proper multichannel, both for live and library content. If Amazon and Netflix can do it why not NowTV/Sky, especially as the NowTV box is made by Roku? Actually, it's pretty obvious when you think about it. Firstly, Sky don't want to whack their main business and secondly, they don't really care about their customers. There was a bit in the Telegraph today about the fact that Sky's market share is now being impacted by online streaming services like Amazon and Netflix, and that customers are starting to leave the platform. Well, duh, one way to gain new customers might be to match what the competition is delivering, rather than treating your customers as the lowest common denominator.


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Old 01-12-2016, 14:22
chrisjr
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Now TV is only PCM (stereo), isn't it?

The new box has Auto (Dolby D+ and DTS) setting, even with that selected the only output is still PCM.

If I'm not mistaken, to get anything like 5.1 Now TV will need to go digital, especially if DD+ and DTS is to be enabled.
That’s how I see it, oops, I meant hear it and what NowTV customers (I’m one too) are hearing is not true surround sound but what is known as quasi surround sound and I can assure everyone having had a full surround system ever since the days of Dolby Pro-Logic analogue surround systems back in the early nineties my setup is correct.

That said with the proliferation of sound bars these too are not surround sound but use electronics to make it sound like surround sound, a bit like any AV amp worth its salt would do i.e. Quasi surround sound.

So bottom line is Amazon sound = Dolby Digital 5.1 , Netflix Sound = Dolby Digital 5.1 and coming in last is NowTV with stereo sound that can be made to sound a bit like surround sound.
I wonder if Now TV ever use something like a Dolby ProLogic encoder to encode a full 5.1 surround audio track down to two channel? That would give a better surround effect than a ProLogic decoder essentially fabricating a 5.1 feed from plain vanilla stereo.

But even if it were ProLogic encoded still not as good as a "proper" Dolby Digital or DTS 5.1 audio track.
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Old 02-12-2016, 19:25
Bspks
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Probably hooked up to a AV receiver and has DPL engaged giving them virtual surround sound.
Sorry hadn't had a chance to look at this thread for a few days.
The Chromecast is plugged directly into my AV amp, but it's definitely not set to DPL mode.
It's set to Auto Surround which simply automatically switches to Dolby Digital (or DTS which isn't relevant to this post) when it detects it.
Otherwise it stays in stereo mode.
I was watching some live Sky 1, and some box sets and the surround automatically came on.
I assumed this is normal.
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Old 03-12-2016, 08:41
Night Crawler
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Sorry hadn't had a chance to look at this thread for a few days.
The Chromecast is plugged directly into my AV amp, but it's definitely not set to DPL mode.
It's set to Auto Surround which simply automatically switches to Dolby Digital (or DTS which isn't relevant to this post) when it detects it.
Otherwise it stays in stereo mode.
I was watching some live Sky 1, and some box sets and the surround automatically came on.
I assumed this is normal.
My receiver is also set to Auto signal detect, works perfectly for DD, DTS, HD audio including Atmos on all sources, but the only signal I ever got from Now TV was plain old stereo PCM. As with most receivers I can set it to output stereo or Dolby Surround upon detection of stereo signal, I'm unaware of any receiver that switches from stereo to Dolby Surround automatically, this is something I thought you had to do manually as there is no signal detection for this format, of course I could be wrong and this is why some users are reporting a change in audio output.
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Old 03-12-2016, 10:51
steveaitch
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I wonder if Now TV ever use something like a Dolby ProLogic encoder to encode a full 5.1 surround audio track down to two channel?
That's exactly how almost everyone downmixes 5.1 into 2.0.
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Old 03-12-2016, 11:20
St@mmie
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I'd be tempted by NowTV if the picture was delivered in 1080i/p and the audio was proper multichannel, both for live and library content. If Amazon and Netflix can do it why not NowTV/Sky, especially as the NowTV box is made by Roku? Actually, it's pretty obvious when you think about it. Firstly, Sky don't want to whack their main business and secondly, they don't really care about their customers.


Clem
There is not a great difference to the viewing eye between 720P and 1080i,
to be honest I can't be bothered to find the articles now but when HD broadcasts first started I believe US broadcasters chose 720P for sports broadcasts and 1080i for movies and entertainment as 720P was deemed better for fast motion sports whereas UK broadcasters just chose a flat 1080i across the board for all broadcasts.

I'd also add that due to the bitrates online services like Netflix and Amazon use then 72OP can quite often offer a better picture, for example BBC Iplayer at full bitrate 720P is far more watchable (to my eyes at least) than 1080P on Amazon or Netflix.

Non of the online services offer a picture close to broadcast HD let alone full uncompressed Bluray.

So to conclude I don't agree that Sky's choice of resolution lets their customers down or proves they don't care about their customers.
What I feel could prove the point is their still lack of any digital surround sound on their Now TV service, although to answer another point in this thread they do encode with Pro Logic because I definately get some surround sound from them but its not a patch on proper digital surround sound.
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