Audio Are my TV speakers going bad with age? Is Soundbar only option?

Ok so i have found that 5.1 audio is the culprit here. I am doing directly play in vlc player / mx player pro and I am sure there is no audio transcoding happening either so whenever I have 5.1 audio, it is more bass / background noise and less actual vocals

For the MasterChef AU, I downloaded another copy which I know has stereo sound and that works far better.

Is it my TVs fault that isn't reproducing the sound properly when using 5.1 audio?
I would have have loved to transcode the audio to stereo if i can over rapsberrey pi directly (will see if there is a way). Will that help in anyway?

If not then will a soundbar help? I see soundbars alone being advertised as 5.1, not sure how that works. I have always envisioned 5.1 means 1 sub woofer and 5 different speakers.
 
raksrules said:
Ok so i have found that 5.1 audio is the culprit here. I am doing directly play in vlc player / mx player pro and I am sure there is no audio transcoding happening either so whenever I have 5.1 audio, it is more bass / background noise and less actual vocals

For the MasterChef AU, I downloaded another copy which I know has stereo sound and that works far better.

Is it my TVs fault that isn't reproducing the sound properly when using 5.1 audio?
I would have have loved to transcode the audio to stereo if i can over rapsberrey pi directly (will see if there is a way). Will that help in anyway?

If not then will a soundbar help? I see soundbars alone being advertised as 5.1, not sure how that works. I have always envisioned 5.1 means 1 sub woofer and 5 different speakers.
Click to expand...
If you are using Kodi on the Pi, you can set the number of speakers to 2.0 and disable passthrough in sound settings. You might need to enable expert settings on Kodi to see some of the settings.
 
raksrules said:
Ok so i have found that 5.1 audio is the culprit here. I am doing directly play in vlc player / mx player pro and I am sure there is no audio transcoding happening either so whenever I have 5.1 audio, it is more bass / background noise and less actual vocals

For the MasterChef AU, I downloaded another copy which I know has stereo sound and that works far better.

Is it my TVs fault that isn't reproducing the sound properly when using 5.1 audio?
I would have have loved to transcode the audio to stereo if i can over rapsberrey pi directly (will see if there is a way). Will that help in anyway?

If not then will a soundbar help? I see soundbars alone being advertised as 5.1, not sure how that works. I have always envisioned 5.1 means 1 sub woofer and 5 different speakers.
Click to expand...
its not your TV's fault ..going by the specs it seems your tv like mine doesnt support Dolby or DTS .. any Dolby 5.1 audio that comes out of stereo 2.0 system becomes unbearable .. your tv like mine has only 3.5mm audio out which can only output 2.1 audio but still not dolby .. so a 5.1 system will still deliver unbearable audio via TV

i have MiBox and the way i solved the problem was to send video from MiBox to tv through hdmi and audio from MiBox to 5.1 soundbar through optical cable

in your case, only way to connect soundbar to firestick is through bluetooth but it will lag so many times that its not worth
 
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codwapeace said:
If you are using Kodi on the Pi, you can set the number of speakers to 2.0 and disable passthrough in sound settings. You might need to enable expert settings on Kodi to see some of the settings.
Click to expand...
Not using kodi on pi but I am using it on my fire tv so will this still work? Because Raspberry Pi is just a headless server serving the video files using jellyfin.
At the time of watching, I choose which player to use on my firestick. I have options of VLC, MX Player Pro and Kodi.
r2d3 said:
its not your TV's fault ..going by the specs it seems your tv like mine doesnt support Dolby or DTS .. any Dolby 5.1 audio that comes out of stereo 2.0 system becomes unbearable .. your tv like mine has only 3.5mm audio out which can only output 2.1 audio .. so a 5.1 system cannot be fully utilized via TV

i have MiBox and the way i solved the problem was to send video from MiBox to tv through hdmi and audio from MiBox to 5.1 soundbar through optical
Click to expand...

I do have optical audio out in TV, if that makes any difference.
 
raksrules said:
I do have optical audio out in TV, if that makes any difference
Click to expand...
can you put a pic of audio out connectors? do you see dolby label anywhere on tv?

Basically this
Source Dolby 5.1 audio --> Non Dolby TV = Bad audio
Source Dolby 5.1 audio --> Non Dolby TV --> Dolby 5.1/2.1 soundbar = Still bad audio

so optical out is still not useful as long as TV doesnt support Dolby

Source Stereo audio --> Non Dolby TV = Good audio
Source Stereo audio --> Non Dolby TV --> Any 2.1 system = Better audio with bass

This is why you can hear better when using Jiohotstar app .. the app detects TV capability through fire stick and streams stereo audio when there is no dolby support

@raksrules
just found this pdf
it seems your tv does support dolby ..
try these settings
reduce bass in audio settings to 30 or below
(bass without subwoofer will screw up dialougues)
increase treble to 60 or 70
turn off surround
 
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r2d3 said:
can you put a pic of audio out connectors? do you see dolby label anywhere on tv?

Basically this
Source Dolby 5.1 audio --> Non Dolby TV = Bad audio
Source Dolby 5.1 audio --> Non Dolby TV --> Dolby 5.1/2.1 soundbar = Still bad audio

so optical out is still not useful as long as TV doesnt support Dolby

Source Stereo audio --> Non Dolby TV = Good audio
Source Stereo audio --> Non Dolby TV --> Any 2.1 system = Better audio with bass

This is why you can hear better when using Jiohotstar app .. the app detects TV capability through fire stick and streams stereo audio when there is no dolby support
Click to expand...
Page 18 of this PDF shows the back connections...


In the same pdf, search for "dolby" which may help you better understand what it is trying to say.
 
raksrules said:
Not using kodi on pi but I am using it on my fire tv so will this still work? Because Raspberry Pi is just a headless server serving the video files using jellyfin.
At the time of watching, I choose which player to use on my firestick. I have options of VLC, MX Player Pro and Kodi.


I do have optical audio out in TV, if that makes any difference.
Click to expand...
You can change the firestick sound settings to "PCM". You need to change the setting on fireTV OS settings not on any player.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/199yd3c/quiet_dialog_on_new_fire_stick
 
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codwapeace said:
You can change the firestick sound settings to "PCM". You need to change the setting on fireTV OS settings not on any player.
https://www.reddit.com/r/PleX/comments/199yd3c/quiet_dialog_on_new_fire_stick
Click to expand...

This seems to have definitely improved things a lot. Volume is also now in 60s instead of 98-100.
@codwapeace
My apple TV still had issue so in its audio setting too there was setting as "Best Available" and when I turned it off, it gave me option of Dolby Digital 5.1 and Stereo.
Made it Stereo in apple TV settings and audio improved in it too.
 
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