Sony HT-Z9F Owners and Discussion Thread

If I remember correctly the source material was YouTube, so I'd be surprised if it was anything other than 2.0 stereo at source.

What should that sound effect setting be set to?
 
So I decided to give mine to my dad. He currently has a Bose Lifestyle T20 system (5.1)

would this be a better upgrade? With the rears as well he has space to put them up as I couldn’t.
 
If I remember correctly the source material was YouTube, so I'd be surprised if it was anything other than 2.0 stereo at source.

What should that sound effect setting be set to?

You tube only does stereo, so that is why you got lcpm.

Is that the preset you are asking about, I would say standard maybe?

I tend to use cinema and game as my source is mainly ripped disks on nas via a wd tv, 4k disks, ps4, TV and apps like netflix/prime/Disney plus.

If it's vertical sound I have mines permantly on.
 
i wasn't questioning the LPCM 2.0 part - that is accurate.
it was the " + S-Force Pro Front Surround Neural:X " part.
that shows up no matter which preset is selected - Standard or Cinema
 
how do you get it to just output normal stereo when the content being playing is just 2.0 stereo though? without it trying to upscale the audio.

sometimes, actually pretty much all the time, i just want it to output what it is receiving.
 
how do you get it to just output normal stereo when the content being playing is just 2.0 stereo though? without it trying to upscale the audio.

sometimes, actually pretty much all the time, i just want it to output what it is receiving.
Press the vertical sound to be off and it will switch off the processing.
Lpcm 2.0 is stereo.

As I said previously go with what the vertical surround button says, e.g. off or on.

Not what the display says for the sound field as I said ealier there appears to be a bug in what the display says with regards to vertical surround.

When I stream flac from nas box sounds ok to me no matter what the display says, though as its music I use music preset.
 
vertical surround is already off
and the display doesn't say it's on either, it shows " LPCM 2.0Ch 48KHz + S-Force Pro Front Surround Neural:X "

so that, IMO, isn't outputting just 2.0 stereo, it's applying virtual surround to it.
and that's on any preset that is selected.
 
vertical surround is already off
and the display doesn't say it's on either, it shows " LPCM 2.0Ch 48KHz + S-Force Pro Front Surround Neural:X "

so that, IMO, isn't outputting just 2.0 stereo, it's applying virtual surround to it.
and that's on any preset that is selected.

If you really want all processing off, go to home>>setup>>advanced settings>>audio settings and switch everything off.

Be warned this will disable vertical sound, sound effects and any upscaling of sound when lower quality.

And sound will not be upscaled with no vertical sound even in atmos. An atmos track will instead play back as a 7.1 soundtrack.

But if you wish to stop additional processing then that's how to do it.
 
I'm not sure if this has been asked.

I have an LG C9 (eARC on and set to pass through) and the HT Z9F soundbar.



For my PlayStation 4, should I set it to
PCM, Bitstream Dolby or Bitstream DTS?
 
I’m looking at buying this soundbar and rear speakers. Will it still do a good job with sound or is it worth looking at a more expensive soundbar. Main things is PS4 (ps5 when it’s released) sky q Netflix and watching blu rays via PS4
 
I dont have any experience with Netflix or Sky, but it works great for my PS4 games. Not used it much for my blurays (worked fine when I did), I use my xbox for 4k/blurays/dvd's/Plex for that.

With the games, I have not had to alter volume levels at all no matter the game once set up. For films, etc, I do on occasion.
 
I dont have any experience with Netflix or Sky, but it works great for my PS4 games. Not used it much for my blurays (worked fine when I did), I use my xbox for 4k/blurays/dvd's/Plex for that.

With the games, I have not had to alter volume levels at all no matter the game once set up. For films, etc, I do on occasion.
The sound looks decent and suits the wife having no wires! Obviously I understand it’s not going to recreate Atmos brilliant but would like something that still sounds good enough for games and films.
 
Ok so experiencing some issues with my dads TV (Sony Z9F) and the HT-Z9F

for some reason when turning the tv on at times broadcast TV will have no sound. None of the apps will have sound either and turning it off/on will fix it

happeneing a few times in the last couple of days now

tv is on latest update as is the soundbar

any ideas?
 
Ok so experiencing some issues with my dads TV (Sony Z9F) and the HT-Z9F

for some reason when turning the tv on at times broadcast TV will have no sound. None of the apps will have sound either and turning it off/on will fix it

happeneing a few times in the last couple of days now

tv is on latest update as is the soundbar

any ideas?

There are known problems with Sony TV's like the z9f and my X950G and arc at the moment. Try turning off "Sound Mode Sync" and Bluetooth to fix broadcast TV, and turn off "Passthrough Mode" to improve the app audio loss. The latter will still happen but much less often.
 
i found the soundbar when connected to my sony TV (KD43XD8305), and playing content when in "TV" mode to be totally hit and miss as to when the TV decided to detect the soundbar. only thing that would fix it was to turn the soundbar off and on again.

can only assume that sony aren't able to create devices that can speak to each other properly.
 
i found the soundbar when connected to my sony TV (KD43XD8305), and playing content when in "TV" mode to be totally hit and miss as to when the TV decided to detect the soundbar. only thing that would fix it was to turn the soundbar off and on again.

can only assume that sony aren't able to create devices that can speak to each other properly.

I dont think its just between Sony devices. Its maybe happed twice, but I have mine hooked up to my LG C9 and had no audio until I turned the soundbar off and back on again.
 
Ok so experiencing some issues with my dads TV (Sony Z9F) and the HT-Z9F

for some reason when turning the tv on at times broadcast TV will have no sound. None of the apps will have sound either and turning it off/on will fix it

happeneing a few times in the last couple of days now

tv is on latest update as is the soundbar

any ideas?

How often do you completely switch both devices off at wall?
Modern tvs are in effect a computer with their android o/s and benefit from regular reboots just like a computer does.

I switch my SB and tv off at wall and only once experienced aloss of sound, disconnecting and reconnecting hdmi fixed the issue and i never experienced it again.

There is a handshake setup over hdmi between tv and sb so maybe by disconnecting and reconnecting I fixed this.

Are you using hispeed hdmi cable and connecting to tv over the arc channel?

Have you setup sb to synch with tv and switch off /on when tv is turned off/on?
 
The sound looks decent and suits the wife having no wires! Obviously I understand it’s not going to recreate Atmos brilliant but would like something that still sounds good enough for games and films.

With rears when you setup properly with a sound meter app on phone and set distances, it does give a bubble like effect on sound. Whilst not doing true overhead it will do front to back, appocalyse now 4k is a good demo of that, as they added an atmos soundtrack to the film.
 
I dont think its just between Sony devices. Its maybe happed twice, but I have mine hooked up to my LG C9 and had no audio until I turned the soundbar off and back on again.
Normally on sonys it does work ok, with other tvs have heard of issue, but maybe as I said in previous post, unplugging, plugging back in hdmi connection to tv can reset the hdmi handshake between devices
 
How often do you completely switch both devices off at wall?
Modern tvs are in effect a computer with their android o/s and benefit from regular reboots just like a computer does.

I switch my SB and tv off at wall and only once experienced aloss of sound, disconnecting and reconnecting hdmi fixed the issue and i never experienced it again.

There is a handshake setup over hdmi between tv and sb so maybe by disconnecting and reconnecting I fixed this.

Are you using hispeed hdmi cable and connecting to tv over the arc channel?

Have you setup sb to synch with tv and switch off /on when tv is turned off/on?

never turn off at the wall

sync is turned on in the Bravia action menu

using a high speed 4K cable via eArc - tv supports this. The cable is up to 48gbps data so should be fast enough

not sure what else to do
 
never turn off at the wall

sync is turned on in the Bravia action menu

using a high speed 4K cable via eArc - tv supports this. The cable is up to 48gbps data so should be fast enough

not sure what else to do


You should really restart your TV daily if you don't switch off at wall.
Like a pc or phone, it will cache files and memory will not fully clear without a restart.

In addition in settings clear the cache regularly.

Have you tried disconnecting/reconnecting hdmi?
 
Last edited:
I have the soundbar and rears set-up with the PS4 as 7.1 through LPCM. (PS4 HDMI plug into the soundbar for pass through).

Is it normal for no sound to come out of the rears when watching the BBC iPlayer app through the PS4? Is it because BBC iPlayer has 2.0 stereo only?

Does the soundbar have Dolby Pro logic to upmix 2.0 stereo? If so, how does this work via the PS4 and BBC iPlayer and other TV apps?

Thanks.
 
I have the soundbar and rears set-up with the PS4 as 7.1 through LPCM. (PS4 HDMI plug into the soundbar for pass through).

Is it normal for no sound to come out of the rears when watching the BBC iPlayer app through the PS4? Is it because BBC iPlayer has 2.0 stereo only?

Does the soundbar have Dolby Pro logic to upmix 2.0 stereo? If so, how does this work via the PS4 and BBC iPlayer and other TV apps?

Thanks.

I've not tried iplayer on ps4, you should get dd+ from a ps4, are you using bitstream or have you set it as linear pcm, which is inferior to bitstream dolby or bitstream dts.

If I set bitstream dts I get dts on ps 4 games through the SB as the sound is passed to the SB to process the sound.

On tv app for iplayer I get dolby digital with rears kicking in and vertical sound.

Try changing to either bitstream dolby or dts and see the difference on your ps4.

Go to settings>>sound>>audio output
Set primary output as hdmi and audio priority to bitstream or bitstream dts

And if through your tv set it to bitstream as well.

I think main difference is that lcpm is decoded on your ps4, whilst bitstream is like a container passed to the SB with information which the SB decodes the signal and creates 5.1 etc from it.
 
Last edited:

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom