topic BT TV Pro box in Home Cinema, Projectors & Players

BT TV Pro box

Graydee — Thu, 02 Sep 2021 08:52:08 GMT

I Have just upgraded my BT Tv package and they sent me a new PRO box When I connect to my Sony AV Receiver (STR-DN1080) I only get sound from the front L&R speakers the sub even powers down as it is receiving no signal. Allother equipment connected to receiver plays in surround sound but not this new box. BT sent a engineer who could not get it working so they sent another engineer with a second box and that was the same. I have tried with a different HDMI cable and in different ports but still the same. My receiver is set for multi channel and I did alter it to Dolby but that made no difference. One thing I did notice is when I restarted the receiver it had gone back to multi channel is this a default?

Is there any way you can see what is being sent to the receiver by logging into a engineer mode?

The surround sound work ok on the previous BT box so I would think there is a software problem

Has nanyone else experienced this?

Re: BT TV Pro box

royabrown2 — Sat, 04 Sep 2021 10:41:56 GMT

@Graydee

Given a choice of fault sources between the tried and tested DN1080 and the new Pro box from BT, I know where I would point the finger 😛

And I certainly think it is up to BT to eliminate the Pro as the issue here, before any further investigation of the DN1080, now they know there is an issue here. They could try it with a Denon X2700H, for instance.

I do take it you are operating the Pro in Surround mode?

A thing to try is plugging the Pro into your TV instead of the amp, and then seeing what comes back down the (e)ARC to the amp.

And the TV may be able to give some indication of what sound it thinks it is getting from the Pro.

Re: BT TV Pro box

HannahEd01 — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 14:56:51 GMT

Hi Graydee, that might be a matter of compatibility. Or as royabrown2 said. I also want to say that it might not be the receiver at all.

Re: BT TV Pro box

Graydee — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 15:11:27 GMT

This was a response posted on the BT community from BT

"This is working as designed.

If the HDMI output is set to ‘Surround’ the output is transcoded to DD+ (Dolby Digital Plus, E-AC3). This is for surround sound amps and TVs that support DD+. If the source is 5.1 channel then the output is 5.1 channel DD+. If the source is 2 channel then the output is 2 channel DD+. Some content and / or amplifiers generate pseudo 5.1 channel from 2 channel DD+ depending on the mode the amplifier is in."

Not sure what this all means but when I was using a older BT box on my receiver I had no problem with surround sound, this new BT Pro box is connected in the same inputs that the old one was and I just expected it to work.

Do the above comments make any sense to any experts out there?

Thanks

Re: BT TV Pro box

royabrown2 — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 08:26:33 GMT

@Graydee

It took me about three reads, but I think I figured it.

A Pro box in Surround Mode will output Dolby Digital Plus.

(e.g. that’s the only encoding it uses, and no option of DTS etc.)

And:-

a programme in stereo will be output in stereo;

(e.g. what you observed, and if this was a stereo programme then only getting stereo out is by design, and not a fault)

a programme in 5.1 (surround) will be output in surround;

(e.g. if you can find a programme in 5.1, on Netflix for instance, or maybe even a Freeview broadcast of a programme in 5.1, then you should get surround OK. You can try this).

And the bit in italics describes that some devices do, or can, muck about with stereo to get a fake 5.1 effect. The Pro doesn’t, but maybe you can set the DN1080 to do this.

The interesting bit is your observation that you had ‘no problem’ getting surround out of your old BT box.

There are three possibilities:-

You never played any stereo programmes (very unlikely).

The older BT box did muck about with stereo to give you fake surround sound;

The Pro box isn’t playing 5.1 surround correctly.

I suggest you do the test I described above to see if a known 5.1 source does give you surround from the Pro box.

And maybe ask on that BT thread if your old box (give the model number) is one of those devices that mucks about to give you fake surround from a stereo signal.

I await your findings with interest.

Re: BT TV Pro box

HannahEd01 — Thu, 16 Sep 2021 14:52:07 GMT

Hi Graydee, they're mainly confirming my understanding, it's not the receiver, it's the content played from the box. Maybe royabrown2 also is right regarding the fake surround.

Re: BT TV Pro box

Bon1985 — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 17:22:52 GMT

Evening Graydee,

Any luck with this, got exactly the same issue and raised it with both Sony and BT.

Thank you,

Bon

Re: BT TV Pro box

royabrown2 — Thu, 04 Nov 2021 08:19:09 GMT

@Bon1985 @HannahEd01

As I said above to @Graydee :-

A thing to try is plugging the Pro into your TV instead of the amp, and then seeing what comes back down the (e)ARC to the amp.

And the TV may be able to give some indication of what sound it thinks it is getting from the Pro.

We have had no word from @Graydee as to whether he has tried this, though, or what the result might be if he has.

Can you please try it on your TV (whether Sony or not, as long as it can handle 5.1 audio) and report back?

Re: BT TV Pro box

Bon1985 — Thu, 11 Nov 2021 17:00:42 GMT

I have fixed the issue; the reason it did not work was because I had the enhanced format of the HDMI signal selected within the HDMI settings; once I returned it to standard format it allowed the signal through the amplifier.

Re: BT TV Pro box

Graydee — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 22:37:33 GMT

I tried what you suggested but it did not work for me.

On the BT Community forum this was posted giving the reason it does not workI just cannot get my head round this

"The STB always does transcoding of some sort, even in the G4/G5 (DTR-T2xxx and DTR-T4xxx). The transmitted format of stereo is AAC (on HD channels) and this cannot be transported over HDMI so it has to be decoded to PCM or transcoded to DD+.

If the HDMI output is set to ‘Stereo’ then the output is transcoded to PCM stereo irrespective of the source. This is for TVs and amplifiers that do not support DD(+)."

Royabrown2 any chance you could decipher this and put it in laymans terms.

Cheers

Re: BT TV Pro box

HannahEd01 — Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:42:09 GMT

Hey Graydee, is your TV by any chance Sony?

Re: BT TV Pro box

Tod555 — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 22:09:35 GMT

I have a BT Pro and a DN1080 too, and this is so frustrating.

The BT Pro box forces Dolby Digital 5.1 + on the amp when it is in surround mode no matter whether the channel is just stereo or 5.1 surround. If it is only stereo it only goes to 2 speakers, left and right. The problem is the Pro box is sending a 5.1 signal for stereo so the amp does not make a surround mix, it just thinks the centre and surround speakers are just not being used.

If you want the amp to do a surround mix you have to turn the pro box to stereo and not surround for stereo channels - normally a set top box would change to a stereo PCM mix itself on stereo channels, then the amp could do what it normally does and do a mix (like the old BT box did!). This is a BT Problem I think. Hopefully they will release a software update to sort this.