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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Bad video and sound quality on now tv on LG TV

This page says I should be able to stream full HD and DD 5.1 with my LG TV. I'm getting stereo and video that varies between poor SD and 720p a lot of the time, it does manage 1080p sometimes. I never get DD 5.1

My subscription includes boost - although that seems a waste of money given I don't reliably get 1080p and never get DD5.1

I'm using an LG CX TV with s/w version 04.40.10

ARC to a Yamaha receiver

rock solid 50Mb internet connection

 

 

  • LG
1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION
gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User 

For 5.1 sound you’ll need to adjust settings on the TV along with in the app itself.

https://help.nowtv.com/article/how-to-adjust-audio-settings

To select surround sound:

  • Step 1: In the NOW app, go to My Account and Settings and ensure that Surround sound is selected.
  • Step 2: On your LG TV, go to All settings, then Sound and Additional settings and ensure DTV Audio is set to Dolby Digital Plus orDolby Digital.

As for the 1080p, have you tried unplugging both your TV and router for a minutes?

You could also clear/delete the data and cache of the app.

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help

View solution in original post

16 REPLIES 16
gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User 

For 5.1 sound you’ll need to adjust settings on the TV along with in the app itself.

https://help.nowtv.com/article/how-to-adjust-audio-settings

To select surround sound:

  • Step 1: In the NOW app, go to My Account and Settings and ensure that Surround sound is selected.
  • Step 2: On your LG TV, go to All settings, then Sound and Additional settings and ensure DTV Audio is set to Dolby Digital Plus orDolby Digital.

As for the 1080p, have you tried unplugging both your TV and router for a minutes?

You could also clear/delete the data and cache of the app.

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help
commanda6
Legend 5
Legend 5

Hi @Anonymous User @gavs82008 

the information in the article mentioned above is definitely correct with respect to step one. However, I feel the need to caution users with respect to step two. The setting mentioned in step two relates only to have the TV handles audio with respect to digital TV broadcasts be those via terrestrial or satellite. It has no bearing with respect to now.

The setting you are actually looking for in relation to step two is actually 'digital audio out' this setting must be set to either auto or passthrough in order to achieve 5.1 audio for some reason, by default on many of the later LG TVs. The default setting for this option is PCM and that most certainly is not conducive to achieving 5.1 audio. Indeed, when set to PCM you would be stuck with stereo.

most of the time, you will not need to do anything with respect to step two. As it is only on LG TVs from the past couple of years that have the relevant option set to PCM by default. You only need to check the digital audio out option if completing step one  still results in stereo output. Do not confuse the digital audio out setting with HDMI output format

@Simon-J . Can the  information in the article @gavs82008 mentions above be changed to more accurately reflect the settings on LG TVs with respect to audio as currently what he suggested to step two would actually do nothing. I understand that the information might have been correct at one point in time, but it certainly isn't any more.


I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.
Simon-J
Community Manager
Community Manager

Hi @commanda6 Thanks for the feedback, I've sent it over to the Help team to review 🙂

RoyB
Legend

@Anonymous User @commanda6 

CX is 2020, so not one of the latest two iterations, which are C1 and C2.

I have a GX with a GX soundbar, and on my goto test movie, Dune, Now gives nothing away to the HD BluRay (though the UHD disc does show up what Now lacks).

So something’s not right somewhere with Now on your CX.

It’s worth running WiFi Analyzer on an Android phone or tablet, to see if your WiFi is experiencing contention, maybe moving the router onto clearer 2.4GHz and 5GHz channels, and making sure the TV is using a 5GHz connection, if it is in range and capable of it.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
RoyB
Legend

Sorry, @commanda6, I was obviously too literal-minded there to understand that ‘couple of years’ might be three or more 😛

I do know that the LGs changed after the GX, and gained the Freeview Play that provides the All4 that the -X TVs still lack, but I don’t know if the setup UI changed on these.

But on my GX, and so, I would imagine, on the CX, both the audio settings under discussion, DTV Audio Setting and Digital Sound Out, are in Settings/All Settings/Sound/Additional Settings.

My DTV Audio Setting is Dolby Digital Plus.

Digital Sound Out can’t be set when you are on the internal speakers, but on my usual (e)ARC to the GX soundbar, it shows Passthrough. The LG legend seems to expect you to use Passthrough, and only select PCM or Auto if you can’t hear anything on Passthrough.

All of the DTV Audio Settings work on Passthrough, for me.

I don’t know what the default was for Digital Audio Setting, but the manual provides this small nugget of information:-

If set to Auto the search order is AC4 → HE-AAC → Dolby Digital Plus → Dolby Digital→ MPEG and output is produced in the first Audio Format found.

MPEG seems to be being used interchangeably with Stereo and with PCM.

Playing Dune on the native Now app, with Boost, on the GX TV and the GX soundbar with  the SP8 wireless rears, I get the full 5.1 surround sound experience, showing Stream Quality 7830 when I pause it.

What do you get, @Anonymous User if/when you try this? That will tell us if your stream is what it should be or not.

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
commanda6
Legend 5
Legend 5

@RoyB wrote:

But on my GX, and so, I would imagine, on the CX, both the audio settings under discussion, DTV Audio Setting and Digital Sound Out, are in Settings/All Settings/Sound/Additional Settings.

My DTV Audio Setting is Dolby Digital Plus.

Digital Sound Out can’t be set when you are on the internal speakers, but on my usual (e)ARC to the GX soundbar, it shows Passthrough. The LG legend seems to expect you to use Passthrough, and only select PCM or Auto if you can’t hear anything on Passthrough.

All of the DTV Audio Settings work on Passthrough, for me.

I don’t know what the default was for Digital Audio Setting, but the manual provides this small nugget of information:-

If set to Auto the search order is AC4 → HE-AAC → Dolby Digital Plus → Dolby Digital→ MPEG and output is produced in the first Audio Format found.

MPEG seems to be being used interchangeably with Stereo and with PCM.

Playing Dune on the native Now app, with Boost, on the GX TV and the GX soundbar with  the SP8 wireless rears, I get the full 5.1 surround sound experience, showing Stream Quality 7830 when I pause it.

What do you get, @Anonymous User if/when you try this? That will tell us if your stream is what it should be or not.


Hi @RoyB   

I was operating on the assumption that @Anonymous User was not using the internal TV speakers as would be standard practice when wanting 5.1 audio as very few TVs would support this by internal speakers. My experience you would have to pay several thousand pounds for such a TV

in my experience, the DTV audio setting should never be touched and should be letting a lot. This is because of the weird and wonderful things we do with TV audio here in the UK, especially on digital terrestrial while everyone else HD channels uses good old Dolby Digital plus, we use HE-AAC , which sometimes leads to weird and wonderful things happening (yes, I say that with sarcasm) . I know why we do that here in the UK that it can be a real pain . As I said above that setting actually has no bearing on Now whatsoever. On leaving you to alter should the least achieve your desired results. Almost every time.

I have an LG sandbar (SP8YA) with SP8 rear speakers as well, and I see the exact behaviour that you see your setup and achieve full 5.1 audio on Now

my settings are as follows

  • digital audio out: passthrough
  • HDMI output format: bitstream
  • DTV audio: Auto

I hope that the steering all of these details helps @Anonymous User sort out their issue😀


I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.
Anonymous User
Not applicable

I'm mostly getting stream quality 7830 now, although it does lapse lower fairly regularly. I'm assuming this is Now TV's servers / network as I can stream 4k HDR using iplayer flawlessly, and that needs LOTS more bandwidth than full HD. I'm just really disappointed that there is no way at all to get 4k HDR for HBO in the UK (well apart from VPNs etc).  Good 4k HDR is SO much better than 1080p (for example His dark materials on BBC iplayer and Blade runner 2049).

After the fix @gavs82008 posted for sound, I am getting 5.1 reliably to my receiver. The TV was already setup to deliver 5.1 to the receiver via ARC, I just didn't realise the app would need to be told to do this rather than picking the info up from the TV as most other apps seem to do automatically.

just as a further note to @commanda6 

For all except my blu-ray player, sound is from tv back to yamaha receiver via ARC; youtube, BBC iplayer apps all work flawlessly. I do have a problem with some 4k blu ray discs as the LG CX won't pass some surround sound formats back through ARC, even though my receiver handles them, so the blu-ray player (LG) uses a toslink connection direct to the receiver, which works for all the older surround sound fornats (DTS, DD 5.1), but I miss out on the joys of dolby atmos for now.

commanda6
Legend 5
Legend 5

@Anonymous User wrote:

 

After the fix @gavs82008 posted for sound, I am getting 5.1 reliably to my receiver. The TV was already setup to deliver 5.1 to the receiver via ARC, I just didn't realise the app would need to be told to do this rather than picking the info up from the TV as most other apps seem to do automatically.

just as a further note to @commanda6 

For all except my blu-ray player, sound is from tv back to yamaha receiver via ARC; youtube, BBC iplayer apps all work flawlessly. I do have a problem with some 4k blu ray discs as the LG CX won't pass some surround sound formats back through ARC, even though my receiver handles them, so the blu-ray player (LG) uses a toslink connection direct to the receiver, which works for all the older surround sound fornats (DTS, DD 5.1), but I miss out on the joys of dolby atmos for now.


Hi @Anonymous User 

so your LG CX or receiver don't support eARC? If that's the case then @RoyB is correct you would be better off connecting your Blu-ray player directly to one about HDMI inputs on your Yamaha receiver. eARC support is needed for the newer sound formats (anything newer than Dolby Digital plus). Connecting your 4K Blu-ray player directly to your receiver and allow you to bypass the limitations of ARC and you would have access to all the formats that your receiver supports when playing Blu-ray/4K Blu-ray and would probably no longer need the toslink connection. 

 


I do not work for Now . I am simply a Now customer trying to help I am a Community Contributor This means that I know a lot about the service. But just like you I am still a customer. This means I cannot help you with issues that would involve looking into your account directly. A member of the now TV forum team or live chat will need to assist you with these issues.
Anonymous User
Not applicable
The cx supports eARC. My old Yamaha amp only supports ARC. With the blue
ray player running hdmi to the tv and toslink to the amp, the amp
automatically flips to the toslink for dd5.1 etc. when I play a blue ray
disc