Discussion Audio issues on XStream Smart box [SOLVED]

[Siva]

Update:

The technician visited this morning and checked. I asked him to bring another STB to check the issue. He brought the calcomp HEVC box and we compared the audio on both the boxes. Calcomp was correctly producing stereo audio on non-Dolby channels whereas XStream box was showing 5.1 on all channels. He then called the area head and asked me to talk to him. I have explained to him both the issues i.e. No Dolby on Amazon Prime and All channels producing 5.1 output. He said he will talk to the back end team and keep me updated with the progress. He also asked me if I have posted anything on this in social media. I said yes, I did twice. It looks like social media feedback is taken very seriously, as expected.

@Everyone facing this issue and need a resolution. Please tweet @Airtel_Presence as soon as possible.

 

[sushruta]

Update:

The technician visited this morning and checked. I asked him to bring another STB to check the issue. He brought the calcomp HEVC box and we compared the audio on both the boxes. Calcomp was correctly producing stereo audio on non-Dolby channels whereas XStream box was showing 5.1 on all channels. He then called the area head and asked me to talk to him. I have explained to him both the issues i.e. No Dolby on Amazon Prime and All channels producing 5.1 output. He said he will talk to the back end team and keep me updated with the progress. He also asked me if I have posted anything on this in social media. I said yes, I did twice. It looks like social media feedback is taken very seriously, as expected.

@Everyone facing this issue and need a resolution. Please tweet @Airtel_Presence as soon as possible.

I thought it was only me who is having this problem but seems like this is a common problem...I am facing several issues with my new Xstream connection & AirTel DTH team is not being able to solve any of the issues...Even their Nodal team is completely worthless & sending me same copy-pasted replies since last 2 weeks...AirTel Presence is doing the same...Copy-pasting generic replies without helping at all...


All content showing DD on my Logitech Z5500-D & the sound only comes from Front speakers & there is no way to change that as my HT is thinking that it's a real DD signal...As it's a common issue, It can't be fixed until they release a software update to fix it...

 

[Dream on]

I thought it was only me who is having this problem but seems like this is a common problem...I am facing several issues with my new Xstream connection & AirTel DTH team is not being able to solve any of the issues...Even their Nodal team is completely worthless & sending me same copy-pasted replies since last 2 weeks...AirTel Presence is doing the same...Copy-pasting generic replies without helping at all...


All content showing DD on my Logitech Z5500-D & the sound only comes from Front speakers & there is no way to change that as my HT is thinking that it's a real DD signal...As it's a common issue, It can't be fixed until they release a software update to fix it...

That is the reason why I am not yet biting the bullet even though it is now available in my city. Waiting for the software update if at all these issues get sorted out with that.

 

[Siva]

I thought it was only me who is having this problem but seems like this is a common problem...I am facing several issues with my new Xstream connection & AirTel DTH team is not being able to solve any of the issues...Even their Nodal team is completely worthless & sending me same copy-pasted replies since last 2 weeks...AirTel Presence is doing the same...Copy-pasting generic replies without helping at all...


All content showing DD on my Logitech Z5500-D & the sound only comes from Front speakers & there is no way to change that as my HT is thinking that it's a real DD signal...As it's a common issue, It can't be fixed until they release a software update to fix it...

Did they open a complaint for this. You can tweet them again saying all users are having this issue.

 

[sushruta]

Did they open a complaint for this. You can tweet them again saying all users are having this issue.

Tried multiple times...They never open any complaints & everytime different people replies & they don't have any freaking idea about the previous conversation I had with other agents, so they start sending same copy-pasted type of replies without even trying to understand the issues being faced by the customer...

See their replies...I am attaching a screenshot below...Various versions of same robotic replies...I'm completely fed-up now...Like you can see I gave them threatening of leaving them & switching to another provider, still they sent same replies...

 

[sushruta]

That is the reason why I am not yet biting the bullet even though it is now available in my city. Waiting for the software update if at all these issues get sorted out with that.

These people don't know about anything except sending generic robotic replies...They won't even try to understand the problems being faced by the customer...I don't think they will fix these issues in future updates too because I think, all of them think like this "Since DTH channels are working & so there are no problems on the box"...

 

[Siva]

Tried multiple times...They never open any complaints & everytime different people replies & they don't have any freaking idea about the previous conversation I had with other agents, so they start sending same copy-pasted type of replies without even trying to understand the issues being faced by the customer...

See their replies...I am attaching a screenshot below...Various versions of same robotic replies...I'm completely fed-up now...Like you can see I gave them threatening of leaving them & switching to another provider, still they sent same replies...

Is this for your mobile number issue?

 

[sushruta]

Is this for your mobile number issue?

For all the issues combined...Not being able to register/change RMN, STB hangs & auto-restarts, Not being able to view Xstream movies & shows plus all contents sending DD signal to HT...After my every messages, they were replying like this so I stopped messaging them because I felt I was talking with robots...

 

[sushruta]

Hello All,

As you know, I have upgraded my HD box to XStream Smart box yesterday.

Good News - Upgraded to XStream Smart box

I have mentioned in my review that there is a bug with the Audio on this box.

Issue:

XStream box is sending Dolby Digital signal on ALL channels and content, regardless of whether the content is actually in Dolby Digital format. This is creating an issue with the audio on stereo channels. Usually, my Home Theater upscales the audio on the stereo channels and produces decent 5.1 audio that I can manage with. It is not happening on this box, because of the box sending 5.1 input regardless of the source having it or not. You may think what's the problem if the box itself is sending 5.1 channel audio on all channels. There lies the catch, only the signal is 5.1 but the sound comes in just 2 speakers i.e. Front Left and Front Right. So basically, the box sends the signal as 5.1 but doesn't send the sound that way and the home theater assumes it's receiving 5.1 and doesn't try to upscale, keeping the stereo audio as is. Fortunately, this is not an issue on the channels/content on which Dolby Digital is available. Box properly sends the sound to all speakers for such content.

Amazon Prime not producing Dolby audio at all.

Solutions Tried:

1. Tried enabling/disabling System sounds. It doesn't have any impact.
2. Tried enabling/disabling HDMI CEC and Volume control over CEC. It doesn't have any impact.
3. Tried using an Optical cable instead of HDMI cable. No change.
4. Tried selecting different formats manually instead of Auto in the Android settings -> Device Settings -> Sound. This is making the entire audio to go to 2 channels if we select certain formats manually and even the content with Dolby is showing as Stereo. It's working fine only in Auto mode. Please note my Home Theater supports only Dolby Digital.

I spoke to the Airtel audio technical team member whom I worked with earlier to fix the Star Maa HD audio issue. He said this box produces original audio regardless of what the format is in the content. However, I explained the issue to him, asked him to test on his end, and he is yet to respond.

It is worth noting that I did notice this with my friend's Internet TV box. I once brought that box to my home for testing and in that box also, all channels were showing Dolby Digital in my Home Theater. I didn't have a chance to look into it keenly at that time though. Now that I see this issue on this XStream box, I can remember it clearly. Also, on the Internet TV box, we had the ability to select the audio type as Stereo or Dolby Digital or Dolby Digital Plus in the box settings instead of Android settings. That has been removed on the XStream box. The only place where we can change the audio formats is in the Android settings.

Though I think this is a software issue that Airtel needs to fix, Let us use this thread to discuss it and solutions that we can try. Hopefully, we can find something.

Cheers,
Siva

For now, I disabled auto-sound mode & selected the manual mode to get sound on all the speakers...Yes I won't get true DD sounds on the contents that offer that but atleast, I can listen to surround sound now even if that's stereo to 5.1 converted...Actually it's 9.1 as I have added more satellite speakers later...

I will wait for a software update when the box will be able to send the proper sound signals according to the contents being played...Until then I will keep the auto sound mode disabled...Don't have any idea if they will fix this ever though...

 

[Siva]

My main number is AirTel but the alternate number is BSNL & just the HR command don't get accepted on both & I need to type in my Customer ID on both AirTel & BSNL...It's not asking me to provide any OTP for both the numbers...

Yes I can watch the Xstream content with my mom's number on the box...And yes you are right, that's being the case...When I booked the connection, they called me & asked for an alternate number & I provided my mom's BSNL number thinking that it will not be an issue...I repeatedly told them to make my AirTel number as the primary number but I think they didn't do it & made my mom's number as Primary & now they are not being able to switch between them...I requested them to delete the alternate number totally from their system but they are not being able to do that too...

Their phone CC detects my main number but everytime I contact them, I get messages on my alternate number which showing on the box...

I'm not gonna do anymore factory reset lol...This is a huge pain to get even the alternate number being shown on the box to watch Xstream contents...

I don't have any idea why changing RTN via the site isn't working for me though...I tried to change my RTN to atleast 3-4 numbers but all the time got same error like i showed you the screenshot before...Not sure about that 1 month thing too because if that would have been the case, it would have been with everyone & not only with me...Several people have managed to update their RTN like I saw in your thread & none of them I think have bought the connection more than 1 month ago when they managed to update it...

Ok. That explains. I'll amend my original statement. Just HR will work only with Airtel, if that's the primary number. In your case, it's the secondary number which is why you need to amend the customer ID in the sms. The link to update the mobile number is a bit buggy, it doesn't work sometimes. You can read few replies in the middle of that thread saying it doesn't work and then after sometime it started working again. Hopefully it'll work after sometime again for you as well. There might be some issue for them to reverse your numbers to primary and alternate which is probably why it's taking long for cc.

For now, I disabled auto-sound mode & selected the manual mode to get sound on all the speakers...Yes I won't get true DD sounds on the contents that offer that but atleast, I can listen to surround sound now even if that's stereo to 5.1 converted...

I will wait for a software update when the box will be able to send the proper sound signals according to the contents being played...Until then I will keep the auto sound mode disabled...Don't have any idea if they will fix this ever though...

If you select manual mode, even the original DD audio will come as stereo and as you said you'll miss the true DD sound on the content where it's available. That's why I left it in auto. I don't want to get upscaled sound always.

If you can help pushing this issue on Twitter, we can definitely get it resolved.