HDMI audio quality: Blu-ray player vs android TV box

[zzcraft]

For a long time, UHD blu-ray player users claims that blu-ray player produce better sound than android tvbox or PC through HDMI output , even though these devices all support Dolby TrueHD hdmi passthrough.

I am thinking a way to prove if it is true or not :

UHD player or PC or Android TV box ( enable hdmi pass through ) play a test tone sound track -> hdmi -> Dante output capable AVR(sdp55/58) -> PC sound track recorder software through Dante virtual sound card.

We can theoretically compare the test tone sound track between different hdmi output devices.

Does anyone ever done such experiments or find a hole for such measurement?

 

[voodooless]

For a long time, UHD blu-ray player users claims that blu-ray player produce better sound than android tvbox or PC through HDMI output

Why not let them come up with a proper explanation for this first, before:

Does anyone ever done such experiments or find a hole for such measurement?

I see little point in chasing ghosts...

 

[Philbo King]

Streamed audio (and video) undergoes compression to reduce bandwidth requirements. A bluray player does not. So my guess is the bluray would be better. How much better is a matter of conjecture. It may very well be an inaudible difference.

 

[Fredygump]

For a long time, UHD blu-ray player users claims that blu-ray player produce better sound than android tvbox or PC through HDMI output , even though these devices all support Dolby TrueHD hdmi passthrough.

I am thinking a way to prove if it is true or not :

UHD player or PC or Android TV box ( enable hdmi pass through ) play a test tone sound track -> hdmi -> Dante output capable AVR(sdp55/58) -> PC sound track recorder software through Dante virtual sound card.

We can theoretically compare the test tone sound track between different hdmi output devices.

Does anyone ever done such experiments or find a hole for such measurement?

Saying better or worse is inaccurate, because it glosses over a large number of variables.

The biggest problem that I see, and that I hear people discussing, is that the audio for the streamed version is not necessarily true to the Blu-Ray. It isn't a question of whether or not the compression degrades the audio, because the audio may be changed before it is compressed. Commonly this takes the form of a high pass/ brick wall filter for low frequencies. You can observe this by running an RTA (through REW) while watching a movie. The averaging on the RTA will give you an idea of the frequency range, and it isn't uncommon for streaming movies to roll off between 30-40hz. (There is a community of people who swap DSP corrections to restore a correct frequency response.)

Then there is the question of what audio formats are actually available for each title on each streaming service! The blu-ray will have all the surround options available when the disc was released, but it's anybody's guess what your streaming service will offer. (I understand that the adoption of ATMOS could help with this, since in theory it is a flexible system, where there is only 1 audio track, regardless of if you are listening in mono, stereo, or a 9.6.4 system. I'd like to think that the ATMOS mix would escape alteration that streaming audio often undergoes...)

The worst violation of a movie soundtrack to me was from the movies anywhere website (digital license that came with a blu-ray). I had a code for The Matrix, but the audio was boosted significantly at 100hz, and it rolled off below 100hz. So it sounded boomy, and it lacked any real low frequencies. Remixing the sound track like this is likely based on the assumption that the movie will be viewed on a mobile device or other device with limited frequency range. I don't know if other movies streamed through that service have the same compromised audio.

On the other hand, the audio through Amazon seemed to be pretty good in terms of clarity and dynamic range. But the low requencies are still chopped off. Atleast I believe that was the case. It has been a little while since I streamed on Amazon.

 

[Chrispy]

My bigger gripe with streaming is picture quality, not particularly the audio. I prefer having my own disc rather than being at the mercy of my isp.

 

[zzcraft]

Saying better or worse is inaccurate, because it glosses over a large number of variables.

The biggest problem that I see, and that I hear people discussing, is that the audio for the streamed version is not necessarily true to the Blu-Ray. It isn't a question of whether or not the compression degrades the audio, because the audio may be changed before it is compressed. Commonly this takes the form of a high pass/ brick wall filter for low frequencies. You can observe this by running an RTA (through REW) while watching a movie. The averaging on the RTA will give you an idea of the frequency range, and it isn't uncommon for streaming movies to roll off between 30-40hz. (There is a community of people who swap DSP corrections to restore a correct frequency response.)

Then there is the question of what audio formats are actually available for each title on each streaming service! The blu-ray will have all the surround options available when the disc was released, but it's anybody's guess what your streaming service will offer. (I understand that the adoption of ATMOS could help with this, since in theory it is a flexible system, where there is only 1 audio track, regardless of if you are listening in mono, stereo, or a 9.6.4 system. I'd like to think that the ATMOS mix would escape alteration that streaming audio often undergoes...)

The worst violation of a movie soundtrack to me was from the movies anywhere website (digital license that came with a blu-ray). I had a code for The Matrix, but the audio was boosted significantly at 100hz, and it rolled off below 100hz. So it sounded boomy, and it lacked any real low frequencies. Remixing the sound track like this is likely based on the assumption that the movie will be viewed on a mobile device or other device with limited frequency range. I don't know if other movies streamed through that service have the same compromised audio.

On the other hand, the audio through Amazon seemed to be pretty good in terms of clarity and dynamic range. But the low requencies are still chopped off. Atleast I believe that was the case. It has been a little while since I streamed on Amazon.

There is a misunderstanding here, The discussion here is based on the assumption that both Bluray player and android Tvbox run the exact same media file namely Bluray disk file(bdmv, iso).

 

[Chrispy]

There is a misunderstanding here, The discussion here is based on the assumption that both Bluray player and android Tvbox run the exact same media file namely Bluray disk file(bdmv, iso).

How would you confirm that? I haven't had any streaming file up to the video quality of a bluray after an isp mangled it.

 

[ZolaIII]

HDMI is HDMI and has its quirks, bit streaming is exact. On decoding it to analog top BR players (like Panasonic tested hire) are pretty much best you could still get (much better performing than AVR's as it doesn't have bunch of power amplifiers or huge transformer to pump EMI in) but they are also dead or severely limited regarding input possibilities (deliberately and limited trough network only). For stereo good old Toslink is still best solution to transport transfer to analog decoder.

 

[Chrispy]

HDMI is HDMI and has its quirks, bit streaming is exact. On decoding it to analog top BR players (like Panasonic tested hire) are pretty much best you could still get (much better performing than AVR's as it doesn't have bunch of power amplifiers or huge transformer to pump EMI in) but they are also dead or severely limited regarding input possibilities (deliberately and limited trough network only). For stereo good old Toslink is still best solution to transport transfer to analog decoder.

I used to think that but I've had a volume drop on streaming, which takes it out of exact.

 

[ZolaIII]

I used to think that but I've had a volume drop on streaming, which takes it out of exact.

Would you care to explain? I use DLNA local streaming with EBU R128 pre writen and that's only thing that really works. On demand online services use their own different adoption of it (down to 17 or even less like 13 LUFS from 23) but enough to have cuple dB difference and I don't even want to talk about STB and cable TV.