Audio "hangs" with new tv and decoder

[Greenwaterhoses]

Hello, dear community!

I am going to try and make this easily understandable . . .

Old Setup:
I just replaced an old decoder which only had Scart which I connected to the old tv. From the Tv I had an optical cable going into a reciever which have L R Center speakers connected to it.

Decoder -> Scart -> Tv -> Optical cable -> reciever - > Speaker Cables -> Speakers

The audio from the speakers were pretty good though the center speaker did not work ( dunno why) but thats not the main issue.

So I just got a "fairly" new LED TV and a new decoder(no optical input) which has HDMI input but the Audio is definetely not the same. When I switch channels the sound halts for a second or 2 before the audio begins. It even kind of sounds like the speakers are broken. It is not the worst difference but noticable enough to irritate :-/

It is the same when I connect a laptop by HDMI to the TV . Only the second half of the music when powering on windows is heard. Also, when I adjust the system volume on the computer it "hangs" for a second. It is hard to describe, but when I drag the volume marker up or down the sound is really low at first but if I do it in a quick succession the speakers play normally. If I wait 2 seconds and try again the sound is low again. Its like I have to double-(drag)click the sound to get it to work properly.

I thought it may be the optical cable, so I bought a new one but alas, no workie.

Someone mentioned it might be because the TV or the decoder mix 5.1 and stereo or something and cant quite make up its mind. I have no idea but I really thought things would be super with a new tv and decoder.

By the way. When I change the settings on the TV from "External Speakers" to "Tv Speakers" it still plays on the external speaker. Not that its a problem as I really dont want to use the TV speakers but maybe it is part of the problem.

I can take pictures of the setup if needed. I can also get the information about the reciever, type of tv and decoder if needed.

Thanks in advance!

 

[chriscornell]

If the decoder is setup to downmix 5.1 audio to 2.0 and the internal processing unit is underpowered, the conversion will take time and can result in dropouts and distortion.

Is it setup to downmix?

 

[Greenwaterhoses]

Hi! I do not know how to check if it is. But even so, If I plug in the computer and still have the same problem ( not using the decoder ), wouldnt it be something wrong with the TV/reciever? All help appreciated, will check out the "downmix" regardless.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Greenwaterhoses]

So I found a setting in the decoder which allowed me to set it to dolby digital. When I switched it on some channels were incredibly loud while some were really low, dont know why. Sooo I turned it off again, and put it on ice for the moment.

In any case - I figured, hey, why not just plug an optical cable from the laptop directly to the reciever, to eliminate the tv/decoder, just to check if it might be the reciever.

The sound is still bad ... I cant fathom that as I just hours ago with the old tv had perfect sound. But that time, I had an hdmi cable to the tv, and an optical cable from the tv into the reciever - instead of just plugging the laptop with optical right into the reciever.

So - Forget about the decoder for now -

Old setup -> Laptop -> hdmi -> old tv -> optical -> reciever = great sound ( though no center, but nvm )

New setup - Laptop -> hdmi -> new tv -> Optical -> reciever = terrible sound

Alternative - Laptop -> Optical -> Reciever = Terrible sound


Isnt it strange that it worked daisychained into the old tv instead of direct approach I just tried? Thoughts?


Thanks in advance!