Atrocious audio on TataSky since DD+

[soundtek]

When you say drop in surround sound quality over DD, are you referring to a drop in volume in the rears?

 

[soundtek]

It maybe that some are facing issues and some are not. I am not facing any issue as such.

Just for info I have pre amped my rears at a higher volume than the rest of the speakers.

And as for my experience in audio, I handle both indoor and outdoor systems and plus have knowledge about dolby encoding. So I pretty much know what I'm talking about

 

[sanjay0864]

When you say drop in surround sound quality over DD, are you referring to a drop in volume in the rears?

It is not just a drop in surround channel volume. It's an overall drop in audio quality. Period. This includes, overall low volume levels, very low levels of channel separation, Very, very low surround channels, poor sound fidelity. All in all, quite poor audio. The audio was fine on all channels one day and some channels were actually very good and then suddenly one fine day, all channels start sounding like crap. This happened post TataSky switching to DD+. Actually the audio initially was fine on the few channels they had DD+ on. But then as they started switching more channels to DD+, that's one all went to hell

It maybe that some are facing issues and some are not. I am not facing any issue as such.

That technically is not possible. Except unless the issue is due to software/hardware issues with different (brand/model) set-top boxes.

Just for info I have pre amped my rears at a higher volume than the rest of the speakers.

I'm sorry but you should not have to do that. Your system must be calibrated independently of the source and only minor adjustments made to compensate for differences between sources. My system is professionally calibrated professionally with professional equipment. I assure you there is absolutely nothing amiss with my Home Theater system and you would be quite pleased by the overall audio that the system can achieve given a correct source.

And as for my experience in audio, I handle both indoor and outdoor systems and plus have knowledge about dolby encoding. So I pretty much know what I'm talking about

I mean no offence, but sincerely, if you think that the current TataSky audio is fine, then any further discussion on the matter is pointless. For your information, I have decades of professional experience as an Audio/Video & Home Theater consultant. I really do know what I am talking about.

 

[sanjay0864]

After some experimenting and switching thru all HD channels, it seems the problem is quite clearly due to processing that TataSky is doing on the channels that are in DD+. The irony is that the Zee channels which did not even have DD sound all this while are the ones that sound way better than any of the DD+ channels. Apparently the audio of the DD only channels such as Zee TV & Zee Cinema are being passed thru directly. Whereas all the DD+ channels are being processed by TataSky and in the process they are screwing up the audio. Bottom line is, this whole DD+ thing is just a marketing farce since unless the channel is originally being broadcast in DD+ there is NO advantage whatsoever of TataSky processing the audio to DD+. We, the customers, must demand from TatSky to address this issue and fix the audio. Even if it means dropping the stupid DD+.

PS: I suggest comparing the audio of 'Zee TV HD'/'Zee Cinema HD' with 'Star Plus HD or 'Sony HD' or 'Colors HD'.

 

[sanjay0864]

It just occurred to me that I have old recordings on my DVR from before the switch to DD+ and I played those recordings. What a difference there is between the sound on the old recordings and the same channel now. Undoubtedly TataSky has done something or is doing something that is very detrimental to he audio quality.

 

[jdrocks]

Have you contacted TS CC about this? Trouble is they don't seem to understand these issues and think problem is with either user's STB or audio setup. And they tend to organise a so-called engineer visit, who are even more illiterate as far as home theatres are concerned.

You are right about the decreased audio quality on DD+ channels, especially the ones they tampered with during that particular phase when they reprocessed all of the then available DD channels to DD+.

It needs to be seriously put forward to their backend technical team. But need to get past the CC hurdle first.

 

[sanjay0864]

Have you contacted TS CC about this? Trouble is they don't seem to understand these issues and think problem is with either user's STB or audio setup. And they tend to organise a so-called engineer visit, who are even more illiterate as far as home theatres are concerned.

You are right about the decreased audio quality on DD+ channels, especially the ones they tampered with during that particular phase when they reprocessed all of the then available DD channels to DD+.

It needs to be seriously put forward to their backend technical team. But need to get past the CC hurdle first.

No, I have not contacted TataSky Customer Care for exactly the reason that you have mentioned. That is, it is pointless trying to explain the problem to CC. The only way out is to somehow get in touch with the actual backend technical team as you have pointed out.

 

[soundtek]

Okay just a quick question here. Is it possible that the recent software update on the STB has caused this gltich?

 

[jdrocks]

Okay just a quick question here. Is it possible that the recent software update on the STB has caused this gltich?

Nope. It happened when they mass converted all DD to DD+. The only exceptions are DD+ channels added later on to some extent.

 

[soundtek]

What my guess is that TS is trying to upscale sound to 7.1 channel irrespective of the source format.

What they should do is provide an additional option in the STB to select our choice of speaker setup - 5.1, 7.1, 9.1 or maybe even stereo. I think this would solve most of our problems.