cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
expectingtofly
Scholar

No 5.1 Surround sound with Now TV Boost

I cannot get any Now content 5.1 surround sound to work on any Now tv content from the older black Now TV box.  It's driving me potty!

 

I have :

  • An active Now TV Boost with cinema, entertainment and sport  (through BT VIP)
  • An older now tv black box
  • The now tv box connected to a Sony DN1080 AV Receiver that supports Dolby Digital Plus

I have configured as follows :

  • settings->audio->audio mode->"Auto (DD+)"
  • settings->audio->HDMI->"Dolby Digital Plus"

I've rebooted, factory reset, logged out, logged in, tried every setting in "settings->audio" and pulled my hair out.  Whatever happens, whatever I select, when I play Now tv content that is marked as 5.1,  only "linear PCM Stereo" is played through my AV receiver.   Everything else played through the receiver plays fine including other Dolby Digital Plus content.

 

Bizarrely, if I play 5.1 content through the Netflix app on the now tv box, 5.1 surround sound works perfectly (and it is Dolby Digital Plus just like the Now tv content) !!! 

So, the box is capable of sending Dolby Digital Plus content, it just won't do it for Now content (sky cinema or sky entertainment).  Has anyone any ideas how I can get this working?

 

Many thanks

35 REPLIES 35
schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @expectingtofly

 

From the NOW home screen page on the NOW box did you go to the My Account section on the box and forced Surround Sound?

 

The only other thing I can think of is when playing a NOW movie or TV show is to press the star button on the NOW remote and make sure the pop up sound menu Volume is set to Off. 

expectingtofly
Scholar

Thank you for your reply @schnapps 

 

I've tried both of those, as I've seen them from trawling the forums for a solution.  Alas, no luck:

 

  • If I go to the "My Account" sections and select and select "settings" on the Now TV Boost option, it simply states to go to the "settings->audio" section to set the audio.
  • I've tried pressing * when a programme is playing, as suggested. However, I'm a bit confused by that, as I all I get is an options to navigate and set the subtitles. There is no options for "noise levelling" as I've seen suggested.  Is this something available on the newer boxes/stick?
schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @expectingtofly

 

I haven't set up Surround Sound on my devices in a while and it looks like under My Account on the NOW Boxes or Now Stick there is no need to go into this section to force Surround Sound where its on applicable to other devices.

 

With regards to the star button Sound Leveling feature I can't remember if it was on the older NOW boxes or not.

 

I can check my NOW Stick to see if this feature is still available or has been removed since the NOW rebrand software roll out. 

 

I can dig out my old NOW black box, but I haven't got any spare registered device slots available left on my account, but I believe this feature was also available on the Netflix App which I can see if its there or not.

 

Would it be too much trouble to temporary test your BT Youview box or another NOW supported device if you have one with your Sony AV Receiver? 

expectingtofly
Scholar

@schnapps   Thank you for the suggestion, I'll temporarily try the BT youview box to confirm that 5.1 work from that.

schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @expectingtofly 

 

Unfortunately i haven't got enough registered device slots on my NOW account to test out the old NOW Black Box or my NOW Stick (thought the NOW Stick was one of my devices on my account but it wasn't 😡).

 

I did try my older NOW Freeview Smart box which is one of my registered devices and found the star button on the remote doesn't offer the pop up Volume Levelling Mode on either NOW or Netflix (i am sure it did in the past before the latest NOW rebrand software rollout).

 

I did manage to try my NOW Stick on the Netflix App and by pressing the star button on the NOW Stick gave me the Volume Levelling pop up menu feature.

 

If your BT Youview box is working over 5.1 surround sound on your other Surround System in the other room then it sounds like an issue with the NOW black box (maybe or maybe not a full factory reset is required on the NOW Black box ?).

 

Edit - I can see from your first post that you have already done a full factory reset 😡.

 

Would it be possible to temporary test the old NOW Black box on the other Surround System in the other room that is working fine with your BT Youview box ?

schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @expectingtofly 

 

Interestingly i have just checked the Volume Levelling feature on my newer NOW 4K box and this function is available when pressing the star button when watching a NOW movie for example.

 

I might be wrong but i am pretty sure the Volume Levelling feature was available across all the NOW boxes before the latest NOW rebrand software (might be wrong where if i have time i might have to look back on some previous threads on the forum to see if this was the case or not).

 

I am going to check my NOW Freeview box next to see if this feature is hidden in the box menu settings instead of using the star button (unless it was never a feature or has been removed on older NOW boxes since a recent software rollout).

 

Doesn't help with your sound problem, but i am curious why the Volume Levelling feature now seems not to be available across all NOW branded devices.

expectingtofly
Scholar

Hi @schnapps   Thank you for your help.

 

I have now tried the BT youview box in the AV receiver, and can confirm that 5.1 works find both from the app and from selecting sky cinema on the multicast.

 

So it appears it just is not working from the old black now box.

 

I'm presuming the sound levelling feature would be obvious when pressing * ? 

 

This is all I see :

https://photos.app.goo.gl/usLAwQNp7VcfuAv6A

 

schnapps
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @expectingtofly 

 

From what i can tell the Volume Levelling feature is missing from both the older NOW black box and NOW Freeview Smart box when pressing the star button on the NOW remote.

 

I am sure this feature was available previously on both of them.

 

I did have a quick look in the NOW Freeview Smart box menu settings and couldn't find an option for Volume Levelling instead of using the star button on the remote.

 

To be honest i am out of ideas, apart from maybe play around each of the Audio settings on the box, from memory when i used my old NOW box i had it set to either Auto or D+ and maybe try forcing 1080p in the box Display settings if you was using Auto.

 

I doubt this will help because you mentioned you are getting 5.1 on the Netflix App from the NOW black box.

expectingtofly
Scholar

Hi @schnapps   Many thanks for your help.

 

Yes, I've tried everything I can think of.  As you say, 5.1 is working fine from the Netflix app on the same device.  So there is something specific to the now tv app aspect preventing it from working.

I'm loathed to buy another device, even though they are cheap as chips.  I'm not a big fan of electronic waste.   This should work!   (the bt youview now app works find for 5.1 connected to the same av receiver with the same hdmi lead)

 

The big difference with the BT youview box is that you can go to Manage account and go to the boost settings and select "Dolby Digital Surround".  That is not available on the black now tv box, it just states "go to settings->audio".   So I am guessing that there is a bug somewhere preventing from selecting the dolby digital plus audio stream.