Sky say Dolby 5.1 DOES work over HDMI

[brindlefly]

I've done a lot of searching and found that the general online consensus is that for proper Dolby Digital 5.1, you need to connect your Sky box to the amp with optical or coaxial cable.

However, this is not what Sky say: SkyHD | Dolby Digital sound problems

I'm not sure how new this page is, but I quote:

"Your SkyHD box is capable of outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound in via either Optical cable (TOSLINK) or HDMI interconnects."

aside from the poorly constructed sentence (I'm not sure why the "in" before "via" is there!), to me that suggests that HDMI in fact DOES carry Dolby Digital 5.1? I must say, I watched Transformers II last night with it set up thus, and it certainly sounded that way to me...

 

[andy1249]

Well it doesnt on mine , but mines an old box.

As far as I know , up until now at least , the HDMI interface on Sky boxes has always been ver1.2 , and it only carries stereo.

Stereo can be fed into an av receiver and processed using one of the pro logic programs so that it fakes a surround setup , but thats not the same thing at all and certainly with mine you must connect the optical cable to get real 5.1

Note that Dolby Digital is all thats mentioned on that page , Dolby Digital comes in many flavours , you can have Dolby Digital with just two channels , it doesnt specify on that page that HDMI will do 6 channels , which is what you would need for Dolby Digital 5.1

So , who told you this , was it one of the phone support people, because they are notorious for incorrect technical information.

Otherwise , if the latest boxes have upgraded the HDMI interface , then I want one !!

 

[SevloW]

The latest non pvr SkyHD box does provide DD 5.1 via hdmi , so i imagine that's the box they are referring to.

Sky DRX595 SkyHD Digibox | Sky HD | Satbuyer

 

[brindlefly]

no-one told me - I always used to have it hooked up over optical, then got a new HD tv last week and just went HDMI stright through the tv (my amp doesn't have HDMI) as I assumed it would carry the surround sound.

It was only last night when I was reading up on the new 1TB box I've received that I noticed about the fact that HDMI doesn't carry Dolby. Like I say, I was surprised as the movie I'd just watched certainly sounded like it did.

I'm always wary of what I'm told on the phone, but that page I've linked to above seems to have it in black and white! Or have they carefully worded it to be misleading?

 

[brindlefly]

The latest non pvr SkyHD box does provide DD 5.1 via hdmi , so i imagine that's the box they are referring to.

Sky DRX595 SkyHD Digibox | Sky HD | Satbuyer

Ah... it says Sky HD, not Sky HD+... Sorry, I'll get me coat...

 

[Broadz]

"Your SkyHD box is capable of outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound in via either Optical cable (TOSLINK) or HDMI interconnects."

As Sevlow above me says, the SkyHD box is perfectly capable of outputting Dolby Digital 5.1 via HDMI. And that is one of the selling points for this particular box, which is why Sky are promoting this very fact on their website.

Unfortunately none of the Sky+HD boxes are.

 

[BarryMcKelvey]

Hi

I'll check it out on my 1Tb HD box when I get home tonite and report back.

Baz

 

[Broadz]

I'll check it out on my 1Tb HD box when I get home tonite and report back.

Check out what? If you've a 1TB box then its Sky+ HD. And as you've already been told, it doesn't work on Sky+ HD, only Sky HD.

 

[brindlefly]

doh, sorry for re-stoking what is an age old discussion! anyhow, have to set up my new TB box this eve, so I'll be sure to run the audio over coax or optical

 

[logiciel]

This is yet another example of Sky's absurd ways of referring to their equipment being misleading.
A "Sky HD box" could be anything, and it's ridiculous that adding a plus sign makes all the difference to what it is.

 

[davemurgatroyd2]

This is yet another example of Sky's absurd ways of referring to their equipment being misleading.
A "Sky HD box" could be anything, and it's ridiculous that adding a plus sign makes all the difference to what it is.

Hardly absurd or ridiculous the + (introduced by Sky over 10 years ago) is now accepted as an industry standard to denote PVR boxes - freesat+, Freeview+ and even Real Digital+. The only "ridiculous" part (if you can call it that was that early Sky+ HD boxes were labelled on the front merely as Sky HD. So basically without a + indicates a standard receiver only digibox and with the + it indicates a PVR - hardly misleading.

 

[logiciel]

To anyone who knows about "industry standards" fine.
To the man in the street meaningless.