HW-N950 Woes - Page 3

banjax · ‎12-02-2019

So I've had the n950 for a couple of months now and am having a few real issues.

It's linked via HDMI 2.0 to a LG OLED65E8PLA. Sources are the TV itself, Apple TV 4k, Sky Q and Panasonic UB 9000 UHD player all connected direct to the TV.

The room is 16 1/2 foot square with the TV on one side and the Speakers on the other.

1) It frequently loses connection using TV ARC. Generally, I can turn Anynet + off and on but sometimes only a power cycle seems to cure it.

2) It also frequently loses auto power so I've got to also reset that.

3) I had a Sonos amp connected via optical but that seemed to make issue 1 worse. I think may have read somewhere that this isn't an intended use so I can't have multiple devices running at the same time.

4) The rear speakers (Not checked the sub) are a bit like Jack the Ripper. They occasionally appear out of the fog of silence, kick into life briefly and are really notable but generally, you hear hide nor hair from them. I do live in a block in central London which I'm sure does have a reasonable level of interference.

When it's all working its' fab....Dolby vision, ATMOS going lovely but at the moment I'm at the point that I'm thinking that this was a complete mistake and I should have gone for the SONOS, not atmos, solution. In fact, I far get better performance out of the Bean/Sonos 1 pair solution I have in the study.

Any suggestions to troubleshoot/resolve the issues gratefully received.

I would be grateful for any suggestions that anybody has because I'm pulling my hair out.

KU2019 · ‎30-07-2019

did you change the AUDIO setting in the DVD/Bluray movie menu - have you also set the settings to output BITSTREAM dolby in the player (i.e whatever you are using to play your disc) ?

remember; you need to set the audio settings correct on:

- The PLAYER (Bluray player/PS4/Xbox etc)

AND

- within the DVD/Bluray Movie Audio settings menu

Wpc1 · ‎30-07-2019

You dont get it i have no blueray i use a modified Amazon Fire Stick that goes into the TV via HTMI the TV speakers are turned off and i just use the optical lead to conect to the amp, currently Yamaha YSP 5100. My current amp will turn any sorce into a 5.1 stream but from what i have read if the Samsung was used the same way then the rear speakers would be dead. This Samsubg would be good (maybe) with the right HTMI inputs but not really any good just used as a replacement TV speaker.

KU2019 · ‎30-07-2019

Hi Wpc1.
Forgive me if I am wrong here; but I believe your Yamaha YSP 5100 has the ability to replicate 5.1 channels but is not a "true 5.1 amplifier". Your Yamaha virtually splits the incoming sound and sends them out to all of the speakers giving the effect of a 5.1 stream. However, this is not a "true" 5.1 signal (although it probably sounds just as good coming from all angles).

The Samsung on the other-hand is a true 7.1.4 set up. So if the audio content coming out of your Fire Stick is not 5.1 or 7.1.4 coded - then the Samsung will not be able to "virtually" send out signals to the rear speakers. You can try changing the "SURROUND" setting on the remote control to either "Smart" or "Surround" (which will send some sound to the back but it probably wont do as good a job as the Yamaha) - again these are 2 completely different products and technologies. The Samsung soundbar is a high-level "pro" piece of kit and only works if you feed it the correct content and set it up correctly. I can guarantee you that it it produces phenomenal sound and can blow the roof off so long as its set up correctly and given the correct source material.

phneutral · ‎30-07-2019

And this pretty much sums up the mindset of most of the negative reviewers I have seen commenting on the N950.

Why would you even consider paying the premium for Dolby Atmos, not to mention the 7.1.4 surround features of this soundbar, with a setup consisting of optical leads and Amazon Fire Sticks? It beggars belief....

Stick to what you have, or look at the Bose 2 channel / psuedo surround options, they sound amazing

Wpc1 · ‎30-07-2019

Your right if i had an expensive blueray and could afford to by disks then the Samsung would win hands down, sadly i normally watch sorces from my TV and stream films so the Yammy reproduction suits me.

Wpc1 · ‎30-07-2019

Your right i should not have give such a negative view, it's horses for courses and not having a true Dolby Atmos source i am better off with the Yammy.

Bose are good but you cannot plug a nice Rel sub into one

Sean84 · ‎11-08-2019

I think most people are missing the point here with their "feed it the right content argument". While I agree that there's no substitute for a true Atmos/DTS:X feed the problem lies (at least for me) in the soundbar's "surround" mode. As stated in the manual, when fed pretty much any content (5.1, 2.0, anything really) in surround mode, the soundbar will output in a 7.1.4 format. That is, using all speakers. Of course a 2.0 source has no rear speaker information but that doesn't matter, the bar is supposed to output to all speakers in surround mode.

The problem is that the rear speakers and sub CAN output quality sound... they just DON'T. It's an issue with how the "surround mode" works and processes the signals. In which case it's entirely software based and can be fixed with a firmware update.

The main bar benefits from surround mode as the soundstage widens considerably. It's all just an issue with the rear speakers being underutilized in this mode.

Wpc1 · ‎11-08-2019

I was on the verge of buying this model until i read someones blog who said the same he played an Atmos/DTS:X film and the sound was fantastic. Then he watched football (no acounting for taste) and realized the rears don't work without a full Atmos/DTS:X feed. You would have thought for the silly money Yamaha could have added a processor that could handle full Atmos/DTS:X and DTS Virtual: X for when and probably most of the time a plain TV 2 channel feed is used.

phneutral · ‎12-08-2019

@Sean84 wrote:
I think most people are missing the point here with their "feed it the right content argument". While I agree that there's no substitute for a true Atmos/DTS:X feed the problem lies (at least for me) in the soundbar's "surround" mode. As stated in the manual, when fed pretty much any content (5.1, 2.0, anything really) in surround mode, the soundbar will output in a 7.1.4 format. That is, using all speakers. Of course a 2.0 source has no rear speaker information but that doesn't matter, the bar is supposed to output to all speakers in surround mode.
The problem is that the rear speakers and sub CAN output quality sound... they just DON'T. It's an issue with how the "surround mode" works and processes the signals. In which case it's entirely software based and can be fixed with a firmware update.
The main bar benefits from surround mode as the soundstage widens considerably. It's all just an issue with the rear speakers being underutilized in this mode.

Fair point, I get it, maybe people are switching from real surround systems which had a better 'fake' surround mode than this one. For me personally I would never use it, if you can afford this soundbar then you can afford REAL surround content and not have to rely on crappy DSP fake surround.

I would admit that this bar is wasted if you don't have any Dolby Atmos content, but I'm happy with the rears (in smart mode) for everything else.

phneutral · ‎12-08-2019

@Wpc1 wrote:
I was on the verge of buying this model until i read someones blog who said the same he played an Atmos/DTS:X film and the sound was fantastic. Then he watched football (no acounting for taste) and realized the rears don't work without a full Atmos/DTS:X feed. You would have thought for the silly money Yamaha could have added a processor that could handle full Atmos/DTS:X and DTS Virtual: X for when and probably most of the time a plain TV 2 channel feed is used.

rubbish

for the TV channels that support it, the N950 most definitely outputs discrete audio to the rears via Dolby Digital.

As for your last sentence, really?