Sluggish Response and Poor Sound Quality Sometimes

[JohnWMentor]

I've had the Stream box for a few months now and, sadly, I think it still needs some improvement in order to compete with other streaming equipment.

The actual responsiveness is painfully slow, whether it's moving around menus, selecting something to watch, loading content or getting up to the maximum available picture resolution. It honestly feels like my remote batteries are running out (trust me, they aren't!) and, despite having one of the fastest available broadband speeds, it can take several seconds to even load something, let alone get up to HD or UHD picture-quality. If I'm short on time, I often have to just watch stuff on my Apple TV 4K box instead, as that's lightning fast in contrast.

Additionally, since subscribing to Sky Cinema HD before Christmas, I've noticed that the sound quality for that is very quiet. I often have to turn my volume up a lot to even remotely hear anything, especially dialogue. This doesn't seem to be a problem when watching anything from literally any other service, such as Netflix, Disney+ or even BBC iPlayer! If anything, it's beautifully loud and clear, meaning I have to keep the volume level down a lot lower.

I really hope all these problems get resolved soon, whether with newer hardware in the future or just a system upgrade.

[Ilyas_Y]

Hey @JohnWMentor, thanks for reaching out to us on the forums.

I'm sorry to hear about the issues with the stream box 😞
May I ask if you've been able to re-establish the internet connection to the stream box?
It seems as if the entire performance of the box is acting sluggish.
Please let us know how it goes and we can go on from there.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.

[JohnWMentor]

Thanks for your response. I'm really sorry I'm only now replying, as I didn't realise you'd replied before now!

I'm afraid nothing's changed or improved since my initial post. The whole box is pretty sluggish, no matter what I'm doing. I don't think it's a problem with the Internet connection, as that's working fine and fast with absolutely all my other devices. It's only the Stream Box which is sluggish with everything, even when using the remote to move around menus, select stuff etc.

Regarding the sound quality, I've actually cancelled my Sky Cinema subscription due to the poor sound issues. However, I was just about to post about a similar problem I've just recently had with the Netflix app. When I go to watch something on Netflix, the sound selection seems to vary randomly between 5.1 surround and Spatial Audio (even when watching the exact same title, such as "Stranger Things"!). I know that Netflix have only just introduced Spatial Audio with selected titles, so I had wondered if it was a glitch with Netflix alone. However, when it's outputting in Spatial Audio, the sound only comes out of the front speakers of my 5.1 Home Cinema system. Nothing's coming out of the other speakers! Yet, when it chooses to output in 5.1, it works correctly!

Anyway, I hope to hear from you soon and that I get notified of a response too!

[Travis_M]

Hi @JohnWMentor 

Thanks for your post, sorry to hear about the issue with your sound quality.

If you load up something such as YouTube, are you experiencing the exact same audio issues as you do on Netflix?

Regards

[JohnWMentor]

Hi again, I've tried watching things on the Disney+, Prime Video and even the My5 apps. The sound seems fine on all of them, it just seems to be the Netflix app or (as previously said) when I used to watch movies on Sky Cinema. It's worth mentioning that I also sometimes watch exactly the same content on my Apple TV 4K box (using the exact same HDMI cable!) and I've not had any sound problems, so far.

[Gareth_L]

Hello JohnWMentor.

Thanks for replying. 

Can I send you a private message so I can look at this in more detail?

If you can check the purple envelope top right of your screen that would be great. 
Regards     
Gareth_L
 

[Gareth_L · Accepted solution]

Thanks for those details JohnWMentor

We are aware of this issue and our technical teams are currently working on a resolution, once there is a fix we will send a software update to resolve the issue.

In the meantime can you go to Settings>Audio & Video> Audio delay and adjust the audio sync manually.

Gareth_L

[JohnWMentor]

Thanks for looking into that. I'm glad it's not just me and it's good it's being looked into. Let's hope it gets sorted ASAP.