optical output on freesat HD channels - what is wrong?

[unison]

Hi everyone,

I've recently bought a freesat tuner from humax, and have connected it to my Cyrus 8XP QX using an optical cable.

The result has been brillant for radio and live music on BBC 4, BBC 3.

But if i switch to either bbc HD or ITV HD I just get terrible squeaking. Is there something I need to adjust in the menus? or is this deliberate with HD channels to prevent audio from being recorded? all the other freesat channels are fine through the optical output

Regards

Chris

 

[Anonymous]

bbchd and itvhd output dolby digital , im guessing , but is that a stereo amp youve got ? dd is designed for 5.1 afaik ..

 

[daveh75]

unison:
Hi everyone,

I've recently bought a freesat tuner from humax, and have connected it to my Cyrus 8XP QX using an optical cable.

The result has been brillant for radio and live music on BBC 4, BBC 3.

But if i switch to either bbc HD or ITV HD I just get terrible squeaking. Is there something I need to adjust in the menus? As max has pointed out both BBC HD and ITV HD carry Dolby Digital audio tracks,which i suspect your Cyrus cant decode.

You need to switch DD to "off" in the Humax's menu. If i recall correctly, it's menu>settings>set-up> and then there should be an option to toggle DD on/off using the left/right cursor buttons.

 

[daveh75]

maxflinn: dd is designed for 5.1 afaik ..Well,not quite...Dolby Digital is just a method of lossy compression and can contain any number of channels upto 6(5.1)

 

[Anonymous]

daveh75:maxflinn: dd is designed for 5.1 afaik ..Well,not quite...Dolby Digital is just a method of lossy compression and can contain any number of channels upto 6(5.1)
ok , logged in the memory for future queries , just in case your not around

 

[Anonymous]

So can you clever guys confirm that on FREESAT you do get DD output. I have just bought a freeview HD box (Humax HD-FOX T2) having been told that it outputs in DD but Im only getting stereo PCM out via optical. I searched around a few forums and there seems to be a general consensus that Freeview HD is limited to stereo even on digital out or if they try multichannel then this is not DD (something to do with using AC3 instead) and sounds terrible so you have to switch it back to stereo anyway.
Its rather disappointing as I saw myself in front of the world cup getting the most out of my lovely home speaker system in DD.
Im tempted to go back to the shop and swap it for a freesat box (I have the option to) but need to know quick cos if FREESAT is really outputting in DD this will affect my decision.

The HUMAX Freeview box was a pain to set up by the way. Im between 3 transmitters and the installation options are really limited. it detected all the stations 3 times then cleverly selected the ones with the lowest signal quality and deleted the ones with higher signal quality unlike previous freeview boxes which would give me 3 lots of channels which i would then manually delete the Welsh ones and the ones with the low signal quality repeatedly on the auto install.. there is no option to add a channel. I ended up spending hours taking the ariel in and out whilst it was on auto install so that I got the channels I wanted.
in the end I copied the settings from another tv and manually installed for each of the same channel and this was the most successful approach but the autoinstall is rubbish. manual install was the only way to get all of the channels as auto install did not detect a number of the freeview channels eg DAVE.

also the non HD channels look better using the built in freeview tuner in my old pioneer 505 xde plasma than through the humax hd box even when the picture settings are identical adn the upscaling needs to be turned off cos that just makes it look fuzzy so the plasma appears to upscale better than the freeview hd box. not sure that the HD box really justifies its price tag..even though i didn't pay full price.

just thought Id add a bit of real life experience for anyone considering the box. advice re the DD issue would be appreciated though!

 

[Anonymous]

i should add before anyone asks re picture quality I am outputting picture from the humax to the pioneer via HDMI using an 80 quid HDMI cable.

 

[Andrew Everard]

mbligh:So can you clever guys confirm that on FREESAT you do get DD output. I have just bought a freeview HD box (Humax HD-FOX T2) having been told that it outputs in DD but Im only getting stereo PCM out via optical. I searched around a few forums and there seems to be a general consensus that Freeview HD is limited to stereo even on digital out or if they try multichannel then this is not DD (something to do with using AC3 instead) and sounds terrible so you have to switch it back to stereo anyway.
Its rather disappointing as I saw myself in front of the world cup getting the most out of my lovely home speaker system in DD.

Freeview HD actually transmits sound using AAC, which is different from AC3/Dolby Digital. As I understand it, the problem occurs because AV amps can't accept this and extract 5.1-channel sound, so the box needs to transcode this into something the amp or receiver - or indeed surround TV - can handle.

Freeview mandates that boxes should do this, but allows them to do so to AC3, DTS or Linear PCM, and most of the current Freeview HD boxes do so to LPCM. Which means you're only going to get surround if you take the audio over HDMI to a receiver able to handle multichannel LPCM - there just isn't enough bandwidth on standard optical/electrical S/PDIF digital to handle multichannel LPCM.

So use optical/electrical into an AV receiver and you're only going to get stereo; in most cases you need an HDMI-audio-capable receiver.

A few products are believed to be able to transcode to DD/AC3 - it's something we'll be checking in future when testing Freeview HD TVs and set-top boxes.

My understanding that the same problem doesn't exist on Freesat HD, due to the greater bandwidth available: if the station transmits in Dolby Digital, DD is what you'll get.

 

[Anonymous]

thank you for you rapid and comprehensive response. much appreciated.

I havent the funds to upgrade my amp yet so will prob go freesat though shame I wont get Ch4 HD. any idea if that will be on freesat soon?

 

[Anonymous]

So got the satellite guys coming in tomorrow to stick a dish up. Beeen using the freeview box for a week and after the initial annoying set up am loving HD and am definitely in the honeymoon phase as am watching things I wouldnt normally watch in SD. Sd through the box is still poorer quality than through the tuner in my tv. I toyed with upscaling but have got rid of this as it ruins the picture. Better to let the screen do the work. the box is quick , the EPG good, remote is excellent. sound is good through optical to amp (though in stereo).

Just a last minute wobble as suddenly realised that a lot of the footie will be on whilst I am at work so was comparing the freesat boxes available. Really its a toss up between the Humax ones that do or dont record.

the freesat HDR might be an option but I was concerned in the review on the whathifi website that it says it will transmit 5.1 over HDMI.... if you see the thread above this was one of my grumbles with freeview HD as I dont have an amp than can receive HDMI.

Andrew mentioned that it should be OK over optical through freesat due to better bandwith and Im sure he is right but before I commit to a satellite installation etc can anyone definitely confirm this? for the Humax Freesat-HDR box and the standard non recording Humax Freesat HD box.

would appreciate a quick reply as am at 11th hour...

Cheers

 

[daveh75]

mbligh:Andrew mentioned that it should be OK over optical through freesat due to better bandwith and Im sure he is right but before I commit to a satellite installation etc can anyone definitely confirm this? for the Humax Freesat-HDR box and the standard non recording Humax Freesat HD box.

would appreciate a quick reply as am at 11th hour...

Cheers Yes, both the Humax Foxsat HD and Foxsat HDR can output 5.1 via optical.

 

[Anonymous]

cheers
many thanks

 

[daveh75]

Just to add , if you're considering going for the cheaper single tuner/non- recording Foxsat HD then also consider the Technisat HDFS.

Now it's dropped in price, IMO the Technisat offers better vfm, as it comes with 3 year warranty, has 2 usb ports,so you can record to USB stick/HDD(only has single tuner so you cant record 1 channel and watch another) and also offers media streaming.