topic Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box in Home Cinema, Projectors & Players

HT-XT3 sound bar low volume through sky HD box

Captainoats81 — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 01:56:27 GMT

Just setup my new ht-xt3 sound bar and having issues with the sky HD box not generating very loudly.

this is being hooked up to a new 65"4k Sony TV so the Bravia sync is on.

The output is connected into the hdmi ARC socket input4.

Xbox1, bluray player output the sound fine and very loud.

changed all the hdmi high speed cables between all and every input but still only the sky HD box volume is not very loud.

it is something wrong somewhere as watching the sky HD box direct through the TV speakers is louder than the sound bar!

bluetooth is loud so I must be doing something wrong but unsure where! Anyone else had these problems with the sky box?

thanks

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Anonymous — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 23:50:09 GMT

H there

Can you ensure that the soundbar is not set to 'night mode' and test whilst all sound fields are set to standard.

Also ensure you have the latest firmware installed on the soundbar:

http://www.sony.co.uk/support/en/content/cnt-dwnl/prd-tvhc/sony-HTXT3-firmware-update-v0343/HT-XT3

Cheers

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Captainoats81 — Sat, 02 Jan 2016 00:36:16 GMT

Hi,

thanks for for your reply.

i can confirm, that the firmware is up to date as it asked me to download and update when it was setup on my wifi. I also performed an additional manual check and it is up to date.

the sound field was tested on standard and clear audio + but no difference.

i can't figure out why the sky HD box volume is nice and loud directly through the TV speakers but not through the sound bar. It's like something is automatically reducing the volume but it's only the sky HD through any hdmi input on the sound bar.

to double check the sky box I hooked it up in my home cinema room amp (through the amps HDMI input) and it's nice and loud so it must be something in the sound bar. It's very annoying as I bought this primarily for a living room TV but now it's defeating the object!

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Captainoats81 — Wed, 06 Jan 2016 12:55:05 GMT

Been escalated at Sony support as reset and test didn't resolve

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Captainoats81 — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 22:25:32 GMT

Sony tech support called me today to advise it is still with their 2nd line team to find a solution. Fingers crossed.

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

rooobb — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 10:32:25 GMT

@Captainoats81 do you have the same result if the sky box is connected directly to an hdmi input on the tv and you hear the sound on the xt3 via the hdmi-arc connection?

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Captainoats81 — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 11:55:21 GMT

Hi Rooobb (:smileyhappy:)

Thanks for your suggestion.

I have performed various tests and one was to connect the Sky HD box directly back into the TV (which was the original setup) - via HDMI - and I can hear the sound through the box as well as the TV (output from HDMI 4 ARC socket on the Sony 4K TV) and there is a slight voice delay between the two devices but this can be adjusted.

Interestingly I noticed the sounds is now louder on certain TV channels, e.g. Comedy Central HD, 4HD and 5HD - whereas Sky 1HD and BBC1 HD is quieter. Never noticed this through normal TV speakers but it would now appear to be more obvious depending on the signal strength/frequency (or whatever it is called) the channel is broadcasting. Must be the way the audio decoding difference is between SD and HD channels, for example "how it's made" on Discovery SD channel volume is a lot lower than on the HD channel version.

Think I may have answered my own question now on this but will wait for Sony to confirm.

Will do some more tests tonight.

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

rooobb — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 12:56:29 GMT

It should not possible to have both the TV speaker AND the HT via ARC on at the same time (I don't know how you did it ) and in any case it is normal that they are not in sync....

The lower volume that you get on some HD channel only could be related to the use by some of them of Dolby Digital encoding: try to see if the same channel have more than one audio track and switch to the other: you may check if it change also the volume (even if the DD track will always be better...)

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Captainoats81 — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 16:10:49 GMT

Oh err!!

I think there was an option on the Bravia settings to do with the sync of tv speakers and the sound bar settings somewhere on the Sony Andriod TV. Does that mean there is a fault if it does that? It had a slight echo effect when the sounds sync was out by a fraction!

Yes that is what I thought regarding the HD channels which have Dolby Digital (I don't think any Sky HD channel supports DTS??? although the sound bar does).

I think the main thing here is that the soundbar is not faulty as you have made me think logically with your feedback comments so it all makes sense now (apart from the sounds coming out of the tv and the speaker at the same time but I turned that off a while ago somehow!)

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Shreddy_Steve — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 12:35:08 GMT

Did you get any answer from Sony about this?

I'm having the same issue on some Sky Channels too with the same soundbase.

Thanks, Steve

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Captainoats81 — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 14:43:09 GMT

Yes. The soundbar is working as designed. As this is only impacting the Sky HD box connection it does depend on specific channels I am watching. As per a previous commenters post it depends on the way the broadcaster has encoded their TV show/movie therefore the soundbar is converting it and outputting the way it has been broadcasted. It all depends on the TV channel but also which sound mode you select on the soundbar. I have found "movie" option is the best to leave it on at all times.

Now that I understand why this is happening I am happy the soundbar is working as per it's design. I believe the fact that it is not the same volume through the TV speakers is due to the way the TV converts the sound through standard speakers as part of it's decoding feature as it isn't dolby digitial or DTS. Through a home cinema receiver again would depend on how the receiver is decoding the broadcast. For example an epsiode of Neighbours is quieter than say a Film 4 HD movie.

Have a play with the different Sky HD channels and compare them to SD channels and change the soundbar setting to "movie"

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Shreddy_Steve — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 14:55:50 GMT

Amazing.

Thanks for the super quick reply.

I will have a play with the settings tonight and hopefully get my head around it.

Thanks, Steve.

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Captainoats81 — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 16:14:56 GMT

Let us know how you get on.

Just to confirm that your other inputs, blu ray / dvd player, games console, are all loud and good?

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

mcnallysi — Tue, 27 Sep 2016 20:22:52 GMT

i have the same problem, the only way around is to link Sky HD to soundbar xt3. The ARC cable from Sony Bravia to xt3 should work...... please help

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Captainoats81 — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 23:10:16 GMT

Hi mcnallysi. I am connecting the sky HD box into one of the HDMI sockets into the soundbar and it works just fine. I have moved the soundbar to a Samsung 55" so I am not connecting it directly into the Sony (that's moved to a new home cinema setup) so I'm not having any issues at all. From what I remember it depended on the channel that was transmitting the signal through so for example E4 and Film4HD was very good but something like ITV wasn't that good. The Sky HD Movie channels were also very clear and loud. Have you upgraded the recent firmware release (last week I believe)?

Might be as simple as this post - https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/home-cinema-projectors-players/ht-xt3-hdmi-arc-problem/m-p/2091495#M11701

Or another post (Xt1 model but principle should be the same)

"Sony suggested that I should remove AC power from the TV for 30 seconds and disconnect all HDMI inputs apart from the link between base/TV via ARC HDMI 2 and then power up. This instantly activated the sound system immediately. Then it was just a matter of connecting 1 x input at a time until the problem re-occurs, in my instance it was an android TV box I had connected that had CEC enabled this caused a communications failure between the TV and soundbase."

(Link - https://community.sony.co.uk/t5/other-tvs/bravia-connection-between-kdl50w829-and-sony-ht-xt1-soundbase/m-p/1886482#M23073)

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

Captainoats81 — Tue, 04 Oct 2016 23:12:25 GMT

One more thing on my Sony TV there were more advanced settings regarding the ARC control function between the TV and the soundbar. I would double check these settings and re-read the manual as I did have to play about with it a few times. It wasn't a quick straight forward solution.

Failing all that try Sony tech support. Or you could go back to the store and ask for advice - if it still doesn't work properly you have a right to return it to the store as faulty.

Re: HT-XT3 low sound through sky HD box

mcnallysi — Wed, 05 Oct 2016 19:06:50 GMT

all sorted, had to re cable all and change to dolby setting on Sky box for
HDMI

woohoo

thx for your help