I’ve noticed for a while now that streaming services (Netflix, Youtube TV) have horrible sound. This was OK back when streaming was young, but now movies are streaming at 4k resolution. Why is it so hard to stream 5.1 sound? The bass is often missing altogether and the surround information is nonexistent. I can usually get good center channel for the dialogue, but that’s usually it.
Any ideas? I have set my receiver and TV up all kinds of ways, there’s no difference. If I play a DVD or blue ray the sound is fantastic.
why can’t they broadcast audio? It’s not much bandwidth compared to video.
Any ideas? I have set my receiver and TV up all kinds of ways, there’s no difference. If I play a DVD or blue ray the sound is fantastic.
why can’t they broadcast audio? It’s not much bandwidth compared to video.
Then there is no point! Image and sound are separate entities assembled together for delivery in a given medium: Theatrical, DVD, Internet library (streaming), etc.
The company holding the distribution rights determines what video and audio format combinations are available. Netflix just licenses the products and makes them available during the period stipulated in the contract.
If you would like to know which formats are available for distribution of a given product, check EIDR, the industry-curated public registry of media assets (eidr.org).
The company holding the distribution rights determines what video and audio format combinations are available. Netflix just licenses the products and makes them available during the period stipulated in the contract.
If you would like to know which formats are available for distribution of a given product, check EIDR, the industry-curated public registry of media assets (eidr.org).
My point is movies on DVD or blue ray sound great when I play them on my blue ray player. Any movie I play that is streaming has pretty bad audio. Which brings me to the question, if video can be broadcast in good quality why can’t audio which takes up far less bandwidth?
Bass costs nothing in bandwidth, so stingy bitrates for streaming would be no excuse for weak/missing bass. I used my computer to play a track I'm familiar with that has notes down around 30 Hz, and while I don't have a subwoofer hooked up, Spectroid on my tablet says the low bass is all there.
I don't have direct access to streaming services, but the web-dl movies and TV I've downloaded generally sound OK. "Far From Home" episode 1 has 6 channel Dolby Digital Plus at 640 kb/s; I found a part where Spectroid tells me there's bass happening down near 30 Hz.
It's possible that the audio was encoded improperly for streaming, but if sound is consistently bad, look carefully at the audio settings on your TV or streaming media player, and if there's any doubt what they mean, read the manual. There could be settings for the TV as well as the streaming player. Does sound get from the TV to the AVR over Toslink? That's not as good as HDMI; you're limited to 2-channel PCM or lossy DD or DTS, though with a very generous bitrate of up to 1536 kbps (which probably is transparent).
It's possible that the audio was encoded improperly for streaming, but if sound is consistently bad, look carefully at the audio settings on your TV or streaming media player, and if there's any doubt what they mean, read the manual. There could be settings for the TV as well as the streaming player. Does sound get from the TV to the AVR over Toslink? That's not as good as HDMI; you're limited to 2-channel PCM or lossy DD or DTS, though with a very generous bitrate of up to 1536 kbps (which probably is transparent).
Thank you so much for the helpful answer! The toslink on my Bravia says it’s a pass-thru but I’m skeptical. Also, my Denon receiver also has a pass-thru for the above 4k video. That doesn’t seem to work. I got a new Sony blue ray player for Christmas and it seems to have ganged up with the TV against the Denon. I’ve ordered new cables in the hopes they will fix that problem, at least they will all be the same vintage.
The streaming comes through the router to the TV then by HDMI or toslink (I can switch that) to the receiver. I’ll mess around with it and, for crying in the mud, I‘ll read the manuals.
I’ve noticed poor audio before over streaming, the latest was Avatar.
The streaming comes through the router to the TV then by HDMI or toslink (I can switch that) to the receiver. I’ll mess around with it and, for crying in the mud, I‘ll read the manuals.
I’ve noticed poor audio before over streaming, the latest was Avatar.
From where?
I'm clueless but when I shopped for a cellphone plan I noted that most plans will drastically reduce bitrate after you hit a cap.
And since 99% of ordinary people are not too sound-fussy (or have been trained by crappy cell and Zoom sound), the down-sampling may start with a heavy audio reduction.
While that is cell, I see my digital TV-cable has got really crappy since they boosted the internet rate, so one way or the other I bet they are tampering the signals. (I don't have TV woofers, or watch enough to know/care.)
Does it happen at 1080P? Is it just bad when the format claims to be 4K? I could not be sure from your posts.
An issue I had with my last TV and an up-converting DVD player was that since the TV could only handle PCM stereo over HDMI, the DVD player imposed the same limitation on the Toslink output, unless I changed a setting to override that It definitely paid to RTFM to understand that issue.
But a lack of bass makes me wonder about the "bass management" speaker settings in the AVR. There's the potential for confusion over the difference between .1 LFE and the bass in the rest of the channels; if you have small main speakers, but the AVR thinks they are large, their bass won't be redirected to the subwoofer, so you'll only get LFE bass from the sub. According to the following link, sometimes there's nothing in the LFE channel; and, more surprising, LFE is discarded when a player mixes discrete surround down to matrix surround.
https://hometheaterhifi.com/editorial/the-misunderstood-01-lfe-channel-in-51-digital-surround-sound/
But a lack of bass makes me wonder about the "bass management" speaker settings in the AVR. There's the potential for confusion over the difference between .1 LFE and the bass in the rest of the channels; if you have small main speakers, but the AVR thinks they are large, their bass won't be redirected to the subwoofer, so you'll only get LFE bass from the sub. According to the following link, sometimes there's nothing in the LFE channel; and, more surprising, LFE is discarded when a player mixes discrete surround down to matrix surround.
https://hometheaterhifi.com/editorial/the-misunderstood-01-lfe-channel-in-51-digital-surround-sound/
I think when you stream 4K movies can often produce sound that doesn't quite meet expectations due to various factors. Firstly, streaming services may not transmit the immersive Dolby Atmos audio format which is often associated with high-quality movie theater experiences. This is because it requires additional bandwidth and is still only supported by select devices so not all content providers offer it yet. Secondly, compression artifacts caused by data compression algorithms used for data transmission can lead to low-quality audio or even distorted voices or music in worst cases. Furthermore, most streaming services tend to prioritize video quality over audio quality since they are more impacted by data rate and less people notice a difference in sound quality than picture quality.
Lastly, the speakers you have connected to your device and the listening environment also play an important role in the overall perceived sound quality of your streaming 4K movie experience; For example: smaller built-in speaker systems usually don’t produce as clear or powerful sound compared to larger dedicated surround systems – something particularly noticeable when exciting action scenes come on screen! If you want true cinema home theater experience then investing into proper set of speakers along with properly equipped A/V receiver would make huge difference in immersion levels for any streamed content!
I think you nailed it. It’s frustrating because to get better sound would require minimal investment by the media companies. It’s not uncommon for me to turn off my surround sound system and go with the TV speaker. If the sound is going to be all compressed and smashed it’s better to listen on a speaker made for that.
I use a 2.1 system, but I don't find the sound any worse than a 1080 program.
Also, 4K streams are VERY compressed... Since audio take a lot of space to make sound good (I've had a DVD rip where the audio was larger than the video), I don't expect it to sound like uncompressed PCM 🙂
Also, 4K streams are VERY compressed... Since audio take a lot of space to make sound good (I've had a DVD rip where the audio was larger than the video), I don't expect it to sound like uncompressed PCM 🙂
Just an FYI, Netfilx offers HD 1080p-4K streaming only if you use Microsoft Edge or their own MS App 😀 😀 😀 Even tho you paid for full HD package, if you use chrome/firefox, you are only getting 720p 🙂 There was a plugin that could force it in full HD, but its been since long time its broken by Netflix.
And for streaming audio quality, its all due to codec they are using, its a super effective codec, minimal data usage, but sound quality is back to 128kb MP3 😛 Also to note, the same audio file is containing audio for other languages, so size compression is everything to them, they will not up the sound quality. Guess we will go back to the deep blue seas of Internet, arr 😉
And for streaming audio quality, its all due to codec they are using, its a super effective codec, minimal data usage, but sound quality is back to 128kb MP3 😛 Also to note, the same audio file is containing audio for other languages, so size compression is everything to them, they will not up the sound quality. Guess we will go back to the deep blue seas of Internet, arr 😉
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That’s what I thought was going on. The surround I get is really only derived from a stereo track. The x.1 channel isn’t there, high frequencies are yech.
Arrr!
