Dolby Digital not working

[bsilverm]

I just got a Samsung Q80 TV and a definitive technology soundbar/sub. I’ve been having horrible audio issues with lip synchronizing but worse is anything in Dolby is barely audible. I can change the box and TV to PCM but I don’t get the experience I should compared to Dolby. I’ve tried using digital optical and HDMI ARC with the same issue. Voices are extremely low in Dolby and the sound is just way off. If I stream a YouTube trailer from my phone the sound is phenomenal. Anyone else experience this and knowof a fix?  I see people switching the box and TV to PCM but the sound quality is nowhere near as good isn’t his mode. Thanks,

[clem21]

This has been a long term problem with Fios that they refuse to address in a timely manner. There is SUPPOSED to be a fix in the works, who knows when. Problem is they encode everything in Dolby Digital regardless of source, and the only way out is by switching the box to PCM in the service menu. There are NO enhanced audio formats beyond basic DD5.1 being allowed right now. You could try using the optical out from the box, instead of the HDMI,  but it will still be only DD5.1 regardless of source. Many complaints here, few seem to reach the right people to get the situation corrected. They also use Dolby Audio compression on ALL signals, no choice there either. Do you get correct sound with an OTA  signal?

[bsilverm]

Wow.. so much better with the optical audio going from the fios box to the sound bar. Finally able to actually enjoy this system I bought instead of just having a glorified speaker. I haven’t tested too many channels yet to see if the audio level varies like it did before but so far so good. Looking forward to an actual fix for this issue though. It should be easier than this for sure!!

[clem21]

Not sure if it affects anything except the analog outs, but in the audio menu settings there is an option for compression. Putting that on heavy should level out the station to station levels.

[bsilverm]

Yes that setting seems to help as well. I think this is as good as it’ll get for now. Thanks again!

[bsilverm]

Actually this is still quite bad. I didnt realize my soundbar was turned up all the way to sound halfway decent. Something is very wrong with this Verizon system.. I think I’m going to just get rid of it and go back to xfinity. I spent a lot on this setup and for it to sound like this is ridiculous. 

[clem21]

Look in the settings on the Fios One, find volume control, make sure it is on maximum,  and then make sure it is set to fixed.

[bsilverm]

Yeah the volume is on fixed and all the way up. If I use HDMI, everything just sounds like one channel. Almost as good as the internal TV speaker... If I use digital optical from the box to the soundbar, bass is awesome and voices are nice and clear but you can’t hear anything in between (ie - background music, etc..). 

[clem21]

When you hook this up, do you go direct from the Fios box to the soundbar then to the TV, or are you running from the box to the TV, then to the soundbar?

[bsilverm]

I’m currently using HDMI from the soundbar to the TV using HDMI ARC and of course the fios box is going to the tv as well via HDMI. I’ve also tried the digital audio out from the box to the soundbar. It’s the latter method where I get no lip sync issues, great bass and voice but everything in between is missing.