Losing center audio channel and other problems with 5.1 audio

I have an xbox one.

I have a Vizio SB4015-C0 sound bar

I have a Vizio E-390I tv.

The TV had terrible sound quality so I went and bought the $300 5.1 soundbar.

Everything seemed great. But then I put in a movie and had all the sounds but none of the voices. I played a game and the same thing. I finally figured out it was dropping my center audio channel. But I could fix it if I went into Settings -> Display
& Sound and then change the video input from Auto-Detect to HDMI (then change the resolution which defaults to 640x480). So I manually turn off Optical Audio (not using an optical cable) and set the HDMI audio to 5.1 uncompressed. There are some... Audio
anomalies where when I'm moving through the menus sometimes the sound stutters or fails to beep as I change items, but overall, it seems to work. Blu-Rays sound great.

And then I turn the xbox one off. Next time I turn it on, I've lost the center channel again. Rinse, lather, repeat. So in an effort to just fix it and not have to reset the inputs every time I turn the xbox on, I was experimenting. I found out that
I've got no audio coming from my rear speakers. When I do the built-in audio test from the soundbar, all 5 work fine. But the xbox is not putting out any audio to them at all.

Heres the first issue, the xbox doesn't have ANY way to test individual speakers... But that's a whole nother complaint.

I've tried setting it to bitstream (both dolby and dts) and no audio comes out the rear speakers. I've set it to 7.1 and nada. Hell, I even put it on stereo to see if it would duplicate the front speakers, and still nothing. I've spent a couple hours
fiddling with chat support and all they say is to use an optical cable. Optical cables don't support uncompressed audio format. HDMI cables do. That's why I purchased an HDMI capable soundbar.

So... What the hell do I do now?

:)

 

Xbox One - Low Sound on Sony HT-RT5 Soundbar

Check to see if you're getting audio out of your rear speakers at all. I'm having a similar issue where I can't get 5.1 audio from my xbox one through my soundbar. I've got a 5.1 system connected via HDMI (and tried all of the 5.1 uncompressed, bitstream,
and everything else) and I keep losing my center channel (the one where all the voices come from) and the rear channels are just gone.

 

XBox One 2 channel sound problem

Hi,

I have a 5 channel audio system and when streaming from xbox's spotify (for example) i can't get correct 2 channel audio. There comes some sound from surround and center speaker. Only if i turn settings from xbox from 5.1 uncompressed to the 2 channel uncompressed
i can get true stereo sound. Other way is to use av-receiver settings to convert 5.1 audio to the stereo sound. There is also obvious drop of treble when xbox one 2 channel uncompressed is in use. Bitstrem setting from xbox converting audio to dts or dolby
digital (depending settings) and problem is the same: with a 2 channel source there is all 5 channel somehow active. Seems like xbox has a serious problem to get audio encoding on xbox work properly. Help, anyone?

-AL

 

As a side note, I've not tried using an optical cable (which only allows bitstream) and still got no rear channels.

 

(Correction, I've NOW tried using an optical cable. And no luck)

 

HI Dhaerow,

From what I've seen when you lose the center channel like you're describing it's because the Xbox is trying to use a bitstream of some kind. I would suggest trying to set the 5.1 uncompressed again, or stereo uncompressed to see if your sound returns.
If it does not, then try a hard reset, then setting the sound back. To do the hard reset, with the Xbox on hold the power button down for 5-10 seconds until the console turns off. Then turn the console back on. After it boots up verify your uncompressed sound
setting is still there. That said, also check your sources. Make sure if you're using 5.1, you're using a 5.1 source for audio. If not then I would recommend using the Stereo uncompressed.

 

I've got another forum post up here.

forums.xbox.com/.../2064586.aspx

I've spent at least 9 hours trying to fix this to no avail. I believe my issue is that the xbox can't figure out the soundbar and even though I've told it specifically to send 5.1 uncompressed, the xbox thinks that the receiver can't handle it, and so won't
transmit it.

 

Oops, I thought your reply was on another soundbar thread I was posting in. Could you give an example of a 5.1 source? I've played xbox one games that have 5.1 options, I've watched blu-rays, I've ran youtube 5.1 speaker test videos and none of those have
given me rear channels.

 

Try ESPN, Pretty sure that is a 5.1 source app, some netflix are depending on the video. Hit the right thumb stick in to see what the audio out is.