TV sound quality - which TV?

[Electric_Andy]

In brief: what part of a TV is responsible for the sound?

The background: We bought a Hisense 65" TV back in January, just a normal 4k LED. We were happy with the sound and picture (for the modest price of £400), until the sound started to stutter/fart/fade out whenever there was an action scene or somehting with a "lot" of different sounds. I don't know how to describe it, but it's as if there was a tremolo effect whenever there was too much sound going on e.g. a helicopter, an explosion and dialogue all at the same time.

It wasn't a speaker issue, as I tried playing a sound sweep from 10Hz to 20KHz and it didn't distort when playing the low sounds. It also did this when going through my AV receiver (which has Dolby Atmos and stuff). It's as if the TV processor cannot render complex sounds quickly enough (if that makes sense).

The speakers were replaced by the retailer (Amzaon) and the problem persists, so they have offered a full refund.

My question is, what do I look out for when choosing a new TV now? Is there some sort of spec when it comes to sound processing? They only usually list the speaker wattage which isn't really helpful, and probably unrelated to the issue we experienced.

Thanks in advance

 

[fossyant]

Are you streaming when this happens ? Does it happen with terrestrial TV ?

 

[Electric_Andy]

Are you streaming when this happens ? Does it happen with terrestrial TV ?

yes always when streaming (we don't have an aerial plugged in). And usually at peak data traffic times e.g. evenings and weekends. I did think this was an issue, but I can't replicate the problem on YouTube, it only happens on Prime/Netflix/Disney. The upstairs TV is the same cheap brand, but older, but never has suffered the same problem so that's why I think it's either a TV fault or maybe that particular model of TV has/had a bad component.

Edited to add: the upstairs TV is also streaming only but never has the same problem

 

[vickster]

Do any of the Amazon reviews state the same issue for that model?
Are they UHD broadcasts, maybe it's a bandwidth issue as you say is peak times? Can you upgrade to faster fibre? Try watching in normal HD?

 

[Electric_Andy]

Our wifi is usually up to 240 so don't think that's the issue. It does sometimes scale down to 720p but that doesn't coincide with the sound problem. Also we can watch upstairs TV and no problems,even though Wi-Fi is weaker up there

 

[Dadam]

Sounds like a bandwidth issue, and possibly with the streaming service in question rather than your end. If it also did it on your AV receiver it means it's the signal not the TV's inbuilt processing logic.

If your upstairs TV is not 4K, that means the app is not using as much of the streaming bandwidth for video, leaving more for audio, which may explain why it's not happening on that TV. When experiencing the issues, you could try dropping the video resolution for the streaming service on your main TV to see if that helps.

Have you a Bluray player, console or other source of high definition content to test with?

We also have a Hisense TV (a 48" 4K OLED model) and have no complaints about picture or sound quality in general, though a few months ago we had the odd audio dropout when streaming from Prime, but not the other services. These seem to have resolved themselves though.

The software IMHO is the weak point with HiSense. It works ok but lacks polish and features. I'm just speculating now but it might be a case of the audio processing software not dealing with lower bandwidth as well as better software could?

 

[fossyant]

We have our TV hardwired to the router to avoid any wifi traffic.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Sounds like a bandwidth issue, and possibly with the streaming service in question rather than your end. If it also did it on your AV receiver it means it's the signal not the TV's inbuilt processing logic.

If your upstairs TV is not 4K, that means the app is not using as much of the streaming bandwidth for video, leaving more for audio, which may explain why it's not happening on that TV. When experiencing the issues, you could try dropping the video resolution for the streaming service on your main TV to see if that helps.

Have you a Bluray player, console or other source of high definition content to test with?

We also have a Hisense TV (a 48" 4K OLED model) and have no complaints about picture or sound quality in general, though a few months ago we had the odd audio dropout when streaming from Prime, but not the other services. These seem to have resolved themselves though.

The software IMHO is the weak point with HiSense. It works ok but lacks polish and features. I'm just speculating now but it might be a case of the audio processing software not dealing with lower bandwidth as well as better software could?

ok that is a good idea thanks. We have changed so many things that it's hard to pinpoint the issue, but now I think about it - it didn't seem to do it when we were running a Firestick. It started doing it around the time we took the Firestick off and started using the TVs own smart Apps. I can't be sure though, it's likely that it also did it when using Firestick. It could also coincide with when our son is gaming, so robbing us of bandwidth, but I will try a non-streamed source. It's a bit late now though, as we are having this TV collected on Friday and will need to buy another :/ If we get the same problem then we'll have to find a way around the bandwidth drop. Might have to run an ethernet cable to it, but I still fear that our Virgin Media router is absolute tosh and seems to chuck out a weak signal every time the wind blows the wrong way

 

[vickster]

ok that is a good idea thanks. We have changed so many things that it's hard to pinpoint the issue, but now I think about it - it didn't seem to do it when we were running a Firestick. It started doing it around the time we took the Firestick off and started using the TVs own smart Apps. I can't be sure though, it's likely that it also did it when using Firestick. It could also coincide with when our son is gaming, so robbing us of bandwidth, but I will try a non-streamed source. It's a bit late now though, as we are having this TV collected on Friday and will need to buy another :/ If we get the same problem then we'll have to find a way around the bandwidth drop. Might have to run an ethernet cable to it, but I still fear that our Virgin Media router is absolute tosh and seems to chuck out a weak signal every time the wind blows the wrong way

Ask Virgin for a new one if not on the latest model 👍🏻 they're quite good at replacing equipment.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Ask Virgin for a new one if not on the latest model 👍🏻 they're quite good at replacing equipment.

oh I didn't know that, I will try thanks. It's got to be 3 years old at least. Do they replace it for free?

 

[vickster]

oh I didn't know that, I will try thanks. It's got to be 3 years old at least. Do they replace it for free?

Should do as they provide the kit as part of your contract. If they play silly buggers, threaten to leave 😉
Look at the website for the latest offering before calling so you know what to request

 

[Electric_Andy]

Should do as they provide the kit as part of your contract. If they play silly buggers, threaten to leave 😉

ok I'll try. We can't threaten to leave though, as no-one else can provide full fibre in our area

 

[vickster]

ok I'll try. We can't threaten to leave though, as no-one else can provide full fibre in our area

Do they know that? 🤨 (more precisely do their offshore call centre?)

 

[CXRAndy]

Play a dvd back into the TV HdMI input. If it's fine then it's a front end WiFi or data processing of the audio

At £ 400 it's not worth repairing or if you're lucky to still have a repair shop in the local area

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Is there a digital connection you can make between your TV and AV receiver? Then your AV receiver can do all the translation from digital to analog to feed its own speakers. Unlikely to be streaming bandwidth if the picture is fine.