Netflix sound quality

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budgie14

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Topic # 240471 9-Sep-2018 16:04

Hi,anybody out there know why if I stream Netflix,lightbox etc through my new pc with sound card etc going to my big home theatre amp pioneer with auto digital input [as in it tells you what sort of signal you are getting] I get stereo [the amp says digital input]but sound is not good. But if I go to the netflix app on my 4 year old panasonic tv,and connect tv to amp,I get 5.1 surround sound with sub and the quality is amazing,bit like DTS. I emailed Stuff about their movie sound quality being awful,and all I got was a free movie,so wondering if Ive configured my pc wrong,or? I read up on digital sound in pc s and it was 500 pages long,very complicated

richms

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Reply # 2086500 9-Sep-2018 16:18

How is it connected to the HT amp?

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budgie14

10 posts

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Reply # 2086503 9-Sep-2018 16:23

Optical cable

budgie14

10 posts

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Reply # 2086507 9-Sep-2018 16:37

Tv and pc connected th amp via optical cables.separately. we r on fibre broadband,. Theres basically two questions,why is netflix through the app so good,and why streaming movies so bad,even from microsoft,,as in sound quality?

richms

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Reply # 2086509 9-Sep-2018 16:41

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Because optical only supports either stereo or bitstream audio for the older dolby and DTS formats, and bitstream is basically a dead concept now that HDMI can easily carry the discrete channels to the amp,

apps can take over an optical output for bitstream playback in some cases but its a method fraught with problems with configuration etc, whereas doing the 5.1 decode on the PC lets things get mixed together and output over HDMI to the reciever where it simply gets amplified in most cases.

Richard rich.ms

budgie14

10 posts

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 2086512 9-Sep-2018 16:52

Not sure what yr saying,as i connect pc to tv for video via hdmi, same as my 3d blueray player,audio to amp,hdmi to tv,and turn sound going thru hdmi off. Is hdmi for sound and video from pc to amp the better way to connect,as configuring sound output from windows pc is depressingly complicated..The pc shop that built the pc for me doesnt know about pc 5.1 sound output

gbwelly

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Reply # 2086539 9-Sep-2018 17:53

Are you using the Netflix application from the windows app store, or viewing in a Web browser? If you can do hdmi to the amp and pass the video through to the TV that would be the preferred way to do it.

freitasm

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Reply # 2086573 9-Sep-2018 19:54

As above. If using optical then you get that. If your amp supports HDMI input/output then you could pass HDMI to amp, HDMI video from amp to TV and done.

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FineWine

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Reply # 2087677 11-Sep-2018 17:01

I must admit I too suffer sound quality from Netflix. There is a huge difference between serials and movies. Using Chromcast Ultra via a powered LAN splitter straight off the HG630b modem the TV only sound output for serials I have volume at level 15-20, with movies I have to wind it up to 50-60. If I do use my old receiver/amp the sound is fed via an optic cable and there is no improvement.

I did have a chat to Netflix a year ago and they duly noted it. But seems no improvement.

I do not suffer this problem with Lightbox or TVNZ OnDemand.

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driller2000

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Reply # 2087707 11-Sep-2018 18:10

As others have said - it will be your setup - either the pc soundcard or use of optical (or both).

I have Netflix via my Nvidia Shield to Onkyo receiver and 5.1.2 speaker set up - no issues with sound quality whatsoever.

toejam316

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Reply # 2087710 11-Sep-2018 18:22

Rule of thumb these days is that you want everything to go over HDMI - if it's not going over HDMI and it's not analog, it's probably not going to be optimal. There are exceptions to this, however they're few and far between.

The soundcard isn't doing you much anyway - a digital signal is a digital signal, so just use the HDMI from your motherboard or GPU to push video and audio to the receiver, or if you must have it separate you could even use onboard to push audio and a GPU to push video, although that seems more complicated than it'd be worth.

Axe the optical, avoid ARC where possible, and just directly feed everything to the amp.

richms

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Reply # 2087717 11-Sep-2018 18:46

FineWine:

I must admit I too suffer sound quality from Netflix. There is a huge difference between serials and movies. Using Chromcast Ultra via a powered LAN splitter straight off the HG630b modem the TV only sound output for serials I have volume at level 15-20, with movies I have to wind it up to 50-60. If I do use my old receiver/amp the sound is fed via an optic cable and there is no improvement.

I did have a chat to Netflix a year ago and they duly noted it. But seems no improvement.

I do not suffer this problem with Lightbox or TVNZ OnDemand.

Movies and TV shows are mastered quite differently so you should expect a difference between the 2. Perhaps turn on night mode or whatever its called on your amp to help tame the dynamics of the movie content down a bit.

Richard rich.ms

FineWine

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Reply # 2087726 11-Sep-2018 19:06

richms:
FineWine:

I must admit I too suffer sound quality from Netflix. There is a huge difference between serials and movies. Using Chromcast Ultra via a powered LAN splitter straight off the HG630b modem the TV only sound output for serials I have volume at level 15-20, with movies I have to wind it up to 50-60. If I do use my old receiver/amp the sound is fed via an optic cable and there is no improvement.

I did have a chat to Netflix a year ago and they duly noted it. But seems no improvement.

I do not suffer this problem with Lightbox or TVNZ OnDemand.

Movies and TV shows are mastered quite differently so you should expect a difference between the 2. Perhaps turn on night mode or whatever its called on your amp to help tame the dynamics of the movie content down a bit.

Thank you, did not realise that. My old amp is nearly 15 years old so does not have that ability.

iMac 27" (late 2013), Airport Time Capsule + Airport Express, iPhone7, iPad6, iPad Mini2

Panasonic Blu-ray PVR DMR-BWT835 + Panasonic Viera TH-L50E6Z, Chromecast Ultra