Question Why is streaming sound quality so bad compared to a disc? Is there anyway of making it sound better?

R2D2

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Apr 17, 2024
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On Apple TV for example I have to turn the volume right up for it to sound ok still not great though. If everything is going streaming surely there is a way to improve the sound quality? Can you Stream DTS:X? Dolby Atmos you have to turn the volume right up. Most of the music concerts I have bought on Apple are Dolby 5.1 I would like a higher quality than that, is it possible?
 
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Personally I find streaming to be pretty good but I don't use Apple TV so I am not sure why you need such a volume increase (is that compared to Blu-Ray?).

The amount of bandwidth needed to stream HD/4K picture AND uncompressed audio for several channels is high so streaming services do compress it considerably.

The following article shows Blu-Ray runs up to 128mbps compared to streaming at 17mbps so I'm not surprised streaming services will look/sound inferior.

 
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Because it's all based on Dolby Digital, something Laserdisc and DVD was using 30 years ago. Even Dolby Atmos used Dolby Digital as a base layer.

As for picture, modern, digitally shot films can look good because they're such clean digital captures, but can be a bit of a different story with movies shot on film, especially older ones. Either way, streaming is highly compressed compared to UHD discs and even Blu-ray Discs.
 
Personally I find streaming to be pretty good but I don't use Apple TV so I am not sure why you need such a volume increase (is that compared to Blu-Ray?).

The amount of bandwidth needed to stream HD/4K picture AND uncompressed audio for several channels is high so streaming services do compress it considerably.

The following article shows Blu-Ray runs up to 128mbps compared to streaming at 17mbps so I'm not surprised streaming services will look/sound inferior.

Not sure what player he has (I skimmed the piece), but my old Panasonic BD65 is painfully slow, but it's over 20 years old, and my Sony BDP-5000ES isn't exactly zippy. My Sony X800m2 is fine.
 
Like all things in life , can be better if you have the Budget !

Apple 4K Average 25–30 Mbps
Bluray 4k Average 30-45 Mbps
Kaleidscapes Average 65-100 Mbs basically Commercial cinema
Main drawback £20-35 per film & £4,000 to £20,000 for the video streamer




Kaleidescape-Gallery-09-ParadiseTheater-DreamsDoComeTrue.jpg
 
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On Apple TV for example I have to turn the volume right up for it to sound ok still not great though. If everything is going streaming surely there is a way to improve the sound quality? Can you Stream DTS:X? Dolby Atmos you have to turn the volume right up. Most of the music concerts I have bought on Apple are Dolby 5.1 I would like a higher quality than that, is it possible?
Are you using the Apple TV App or the streamer ? if you are using the streamer go to settings set audio format to Auto make sure reduce loud sounds is off. Im not sure if the settings are the same on the App.Ifind the sound excellent .
 
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Personally I find streaming to be pretty good but I don't use Apple TV so I am not sure why you need such a volume increase (is that compared to Blu-Ray?).

The amount of bandwidth needed to stream HD/4K picture AND uncompressed audio for several channels is high so streaming services do compress it considerably.

The following article shows Blu-Ray runs up to 128mbps compared to streaming at 17mbps so I'm not surprised streaming services will look/sound inferior.

Yes, compared to Blu-ray, Apple Music and Sky.
 
Are you using the Apple TV App or the streamer ? if you are using the streamer go to settings set audio format to Auto make sure reduce loud sounds is off. Im not sure if the settings are the same on the App.Ifind the sound excellent .
Apple TV App. I will have a look in a minute, just finishing my coffee.
 

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