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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
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
.
