ST5000 Sounbar Dolby Digital Plus dropping

[Razzatron]

I have Sky Q connected to this Soundbar via HDMI ARC. All works well and I'm impressed with the sound. What is becoming increasingly frustrating is the need to change the below settings every few hours to get my audio in Dolby Digital Plus which is the whole point of having an Atmos Soundbar! 

Setup

Audio Settings 

Audio Output 

Speaker amend this to Speaker + HDMI 

My Sky audio settings are set correctly but for some reason the soundbar keeps defaulting to Speaker and not Speaker + HDMI. 

Any suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks, James 

[cass_n]

Hi @Razzatron,

I'm just looking into this for you and will come back to you shortly (unless another member of the community with experience of this issue beats me to it of course :)).

Cheers,

Cass

[cass_n]

Hi again @Razzatron,

I have checked this with one of our product experts.  The sound bar will not change settings by itself, unless it receives conflicting instructions from a connected product.  So it’s best to disable HDMI control and, if possible, try a different HDMI cable.  You could also confirm that it is your Sky Q box by connecting a different source (like a BD player etc.) and seeing if you have the same issue.

I hope this helps,
Cass

[Razzatron]

Thank you very much for looking into this for me. 

After carrying out the below tips I am still experiencing this issue. Even if I take out the Sky Q box from my setup completely and access say Netflix / Amazon through the TV apps the Soundbar switches the audio and each time I have to manually go into the settings (outlined above) and switch them back. Surely I don't have to do this everytime I use the TV/Soundbar?! 

To say I'm cheesed off with this is a understatement. £1,500 for a Soundbar then a further £1,300 on a Bravia 49XE90, to be experiencing such basic problems like this is very very dissappointing. 

[cass_n]

Hi @Razzatron,

I’ve spoken with our product expert here in detail about your issue. It seems that “Speaker” only is the mode (using the ARC HDMI port) you need to use to allow the full surround sound set up, as using “Speaker+HDMI” will limit you to Stereo only.

You will also need to ensure the HDMI ARC control is turned on on your TV (details can be found here).

If you've done this already and it still doesn’t help, please contact our Support team so that they can assist you further with this issue (details here).

Thanks,

Cass

[Razzatron]

Thanks for responding. I can confirm ARC is set up and working ok. What I don't understand then is when I select Speak + HDMI the audio from my Sky Q comes out in Dolby Digital Plus and when just Speaker is selected the output is Normal (i.e no Dolby)? 

[cass_n]

I think this will depend on the inputs and outputs you have used in your setup, along with the ARC settings selected. I think your best bet will be to contact Support (details here) so they can assist you further with this.

Thanks,

Cass

[Razzatron]

I have contacted support, no response yet.

It would appear that others are also having this problem - please see the last few posts on this thread https://www.avforums.com/threads/sony-ht-st-5000-owners.2102569/page-27#post-25340714

Thanks
James