Turning off system sound causes improved audio but odd glitch

[Barrycole4444]

Hi, i am very confused, i have a new Bravia 55XG8796 and i use a Bose Soundtouch 130 soundbar and base.

i have always had awesome sound from the Bose and my old samsung tv, but i struggle to get any depth to the sound from the bravia. As the soundtouch 130 isnt 4k ready, i am having to now use optical, and here is my issue.

Digital audio out is set to auto 1, all is fine but still not much depth vs how it used to be, played with all settings and its all a bit samey.

System sounds were annoying me so i turned them off and the sound instantly got punchier and more depth, sounds great now, BUT the sound cuts out for half a second every 5 seconds now...but only on blu ray/4k which is what i got the tv for. Sky Q sound is fine with same settings. 

If i change audio out to PCM the sound goes back to no depth (as you might expect) but it solves the cut outs.

there seems to be an odd issue between auto 1 and system sounds. Remember that turning off system sounds causes a dramatic improvement to sound as the cost of cut outs. Leaving system sounds on i get no difference between auto 1 and PCM.

Any ideas what might be causing this? I get nothing from forums or google etc. 

Thanks!

[Pascale_F]

Hi Barrycole4444, 

Welcome to the community. 

I'm just going to try to find some answers for you. In the meantime, maybe someone else in the community might have some ideas. 

Thanks,

Pascale

[Win_88]

Hi Barry,

To my understanding, the sound bar is supposed be be able to pass through signal via HDMI, but since it doesn't support 4K, the whole pass through feature can't be used. Is that correct?

Could there be a way to connect the sound bar to the TV via HDMI but to disable pass through? That way, the audio signal will go to the sound bar via ARC and the TV will take the video signal directly from other external devices.

If that's not possible, try resetting the TV to factory settings to make sure that this isn't an issue with the software:

https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/televisions-projectors-lcd-tvs-android-/kd-55xg8796/artic...

Win_88

[royabrown2]

Hi @Barrycole4444 

I’m trying to understand your problem, but failing slightly.

As you haven’t changed the soundbar since the Samsung days, I don’t understand why you can’t set it up the same way. How did you manage the 4K Blu-ray player then?

Or is this a new addition, which would have given you the same issues with the Samsung anyway?

That you can’t plug the 4K player into the soundbar and have it play the sound while the video goes to the TV, I understand, because the soundbar won’t pass 4K video.

So you have plugged the 4K Player into the TV. Fine.

Next, though, what you have connected the optical cable for, or between, I am not clear about.

If it is from TV to soundbar, why not just let the sound from the 4K player come back down the ARC back channel on the HDMI cable from TV to soundbar that you (presumably) were using to send video from soundbar to TV when you had it with the Samsung?

If it is from 4K player to soundbar, though, then I am surprised the sound is not satisfactory, but this is nothing to do with the Sony TV.

I have a similar issue to you, but less severe; my Yamaha YSP2500 will pass 4K, but isn’t HDCP2.2 compliant, so I can’t get HDR from my 4K player via the Yammy, and so I plug it directly into the TV.

But then the sound from the ARC isn’t as good as the direct sound from the 4K player. But the 4K player  has a separate HDMI Audio Out for just this scenario, so I run an HDMI cable from this output to the soundbar. Then I get the best of both worlds.

You don’t say which 4K player you have, but check and see if yours has a separate audio HDMI.

If so, use it.

If not, is the ARC return audio, as above, good enough?

Even if it is, try optical from 4K player to soundbar, if that is possible, and see which you prefer.

if you have only one HDMI Out on the 4K player, then something else that might work, and could be the best possible answer if it does, is to get an HDMI splitter, and a third HDMI cable, and split the signal from the one HDMI output on the 4K player between the TV and the soundbar.

Though check this works as intended, and that the connection to the soundbar doesn’t pull down the 4K video to the TV to HD, or even blank it, as there will be a three-way HDMI negotiation going on here, the results of which I cannot predict for you; it depends on how the three connected items respond.