Why is volume quieter on sky sports HD?

philip birdi

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I noticed this while flicking between sky sports1 and sky sports HD1 during the liverpool vs chelsea match the volume is quieter on the HD channel:confused:
 
Hi Mate,

It's a common problem on Sky channels with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack.

No way around it I'm afraid.



Regards, Xan.
 
I have just been from the sky festival in manchester and was in the sky hd tent. They had the same problem the guy was ripping his hair out trying also to get the sd and hd to sink so they could show off hd.

Im sorry but I still cant see that much of a difference!
 
It's getting really annoying now.

While watching Liverpool v Chelsea when it went to ad breaks which are in SD the volume was much louder than the match in HD.

I find I have to keep adjusting the volume all the time depending on whether I'm watching SD or HD prgrammes.

What is going on?

:mad:
 
TBH I've never known $ky to be able to cope with 5.1 sound.

I mean, just listen to the mix they use for voice overs at the end of films....
Instead of feeding this through the centre voice channel, they feed it via front left and you can barely hear any if it..

Although you would expect a discrete sound stage from 5.1, their is no excuse for continuously low levels of audio where the viewer has to ramp up the amp just to hear the centre channel, let alone the effects channels.

The problem is the 5.1 encoders at Sky have adjustable levels allowing them to set them how they like and facilitate the inclusion of voice overs (albeit on the wrong channel Sky.....!)

If the original audio source from movies/programmes was allowed through unmolested, the problem of poor levels would most likely vanish.

As for live broadcasts, these are entirely at the mercy of the sound engineers at the event (and any subsequent encoders en route)

I've said it before when most of the movie channels were PCM encoded and only a few were AC3 encoded, movies that were played in DS over an AC3 encoded channel (in DD2.0) were MUCH quieter than the SAME movie played in DS over a PCM channel....
Ergo, the DD encoders are set incorrectly.
 
philip birdi said:
I noticed this while flicking between sky sports1 and sky sports HD1 during the liverpool vs chelsea match the volume is quieter on the HD channel:confused:

Had this problem myself:thumbsdow driving me and the misses both potty (ok i'm halfway there anyhow;) ), seems stupid but gets to the point where prefer watch either the footie or movie on NON HD channel, not what was intended.
 
You can probably adjust the volume of your L & R speakers in relation to the volume of your Centre via your amp settings. (i.e. switch them down, then you can turn the 'whole' of the volume up and get a better sound.)

Not ideal i know - but it does help....:rolleyes:

compromises, compromises.....
 
Henryslater said:
You can probably adjust the volume of your L & R speakers in relation to the volume of your Centre via your amp settings. (i.e. switch them down, then you can turn the 'whole' of the volume up and get a better sound.)

Not ideal i know - but it does help....:rolleyes:

compromises, compromises.....
Whats the point of a THX optimised setup if you have to ****** about accommodating a company that has little understanding of 5.1 sound...
 
I don't know whether this is just Sky's problem since it affects the BBC HD channel as well. The sound level on this is always lower on my Humax compared to HD channels on other satellites.
 
Same here - volume on all HD channels needs to be 50% higher than SD. Movie are the worst as some bits are so quiet and others so loud. Would this be better if I used a 5.1 amp rather than straight to my Bravia ?? Even through a Denon amp (not Dolby or anything) it fluctuates badly
 
byron1313 said:
Movie are the worst as some bits are so quiet and others so loud.
Isn't that the point? They are giving us a high dynamic range, rather than processing all the sound to make it all sound 'loud'.
 
Its just your amplifier.

Try listening to a Sky radio channel in Pro Logic then flick it to stereo.

Its exactly the same. The soccer in HD is transmitted in 5.1 but the ads are in stereo.

It's a function of the processing I'm afraid!!
 
They at least need to turn down the volume of the adverts then. I don't mind having to turn the volume up to watch the cricket but the adverts can be offensivly loud if you had the cricket on a decent volume.

Changing the volume when changeing channel isn't too big a deal but having very loud bits every 10 mins is irritateing.
 

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