Why does non-Atmos sound drop occasionally on Signa S4

earwyrm

Hello,

I posted a question a while back about this but unfortunately nobody was able to help.

I'm re-posting with a little more info just in case it helps anyone to help me...

My Signa S4 is connected my Philips PUS8536 via eARC. If I am watching something with Atmos audio (blue light on S4) then everything is great. If I am watching non-Atmos Dolby (green light) or non-Dolby (white light) then occasionally the sound will drop out for about 10 seconds and then return by itself without any intervention from me.

The issue seems unrelated to what is being watched as I can pause and start, rewind, forward the program whilst the sound is gone and it seems to have no effect. Once the sound has recovered I can replay the same part of the program and the sound works fine.

Thinking it may be a TV issue I contacted Philips support and we had a bit of back and forth and sharing of diagnostic logs but they couldn't identify the issue.

Sometimes the issue can occur a couple of times in an hour - other times it may be a couple of hours before I see the issue again. Doesn't seem to make a difference whether I'm watching live broadcasts or streaming from a variety of services.

Needless to say I have tried resetting both devices and changing HDMI cables all without any success. TV is on latest firmware version but I have been unable to find any new firmware versions for S4 (are firmware updates even possible to do for this soundbar?).

Any help would be appreciated (including advice on updating S4 firmware!).

Thanks.

txcoastal1

It's probably handshake issue as the source streaming content changes. example: Watching a show then switches to commercial, recalibrates from the stream change.

earwyrm

Thanks txcoastal1 for the info.

That seems like a reasonable explanation, but unfortunately I haven't seen a link between the issue and changes in streaming content...

I can be in the middle of a non-Atmos movie (or most recently an episode of Star Trek: TNG on Netflix) and the issue can occur. Also, if I rewind to before the point that the sound dropped the issue does not happen again at the same point (it may be minutes or hours before the problem resurfaces).

If it is some kind of handshake issue then would this be common to all S4 soundbars or just the combination of TV and soundbar I have? And how could I attempt to resolve the problem (without having to buy expensive (to me) replacement kit?

txcoastal1

You can go through these steps. Also make sure your HDMI is ethernet capable
https://thehometheaterdiy.com/how-to-fix-hdmi-arc-issues/

You can also try using a optical from S4 and TV

When I was doing the final tuning on my HT and my AV buddy came over the program my ELAN remote, mentioned that eARC and CEC are sometimes glitchy between manufactures as why I/He suggested the optical solution.

txcoastal1

Hello @earwyrm
Any updates on the issue

earwyrm

txcoastal1 wrote: »

Hello @earwyrm
Any updates on the issue

Thanks for the additional info - I have ordered another HDMI cable so will test that when it arrives, meanwhile I have connected via optical as you suggested and so far I haven't noticed the issue (but I guess I won't get any benefits of Atmos if I continue to use optical).

I will update this thread when I have tested with the new HDMI cable (or if I encounter the issue when using optical).

Cheers.

earwyrm

Ok, so when connecting with only the optical cable I didn't see the issue happen again. But using optical cable I don't get the benefit of Atmos (which is kind of why I bought the S4).

Using the new HDMI cable (ethernet capable) I continued to see the issue

I thought I'd try connecting both HDMI and optical at the same time thinking I may be able to easily switch between the two but this didn't work. Firstly I couldn't see an easy way on my Philips TV to switch between HDMI and optical. Secondly all kinds of weird stuff started happening like I would turn off the soundbar but it would turn itself back on, or wouldn't turn off in the first place.

I've settled on sticking with the HDMI connection but only using the S4 when watching stuff that supports Atmos - otherwise I will just use internal TV speakers. Not ideal but I guess I will have to save some cash for some better sound gear in the future.

Thanks for your help!

Whitingx

I'm experiencing the exact same problem with the same Philips TV and the same Polk soundbar. Being intermittent it's really frustrating.

Did you get any further info/fix from Polk Support? Thanks.

earwyrm

Hi Whitingx,

Unfortunately I've still not got a resolution to this problem.

Polk provided fairly generic troubleshooting steps (pretty much the steps described earlier in this thread) and Philips asked me to send them logs from the TV, which I did, but then I heard no more from them.

I still don't know if it is the TV or the soundbar at fault, and I've resorted to only using the soundbar when watching Atmos content and using the TV speakers for everything else.

Sorry it wasn't better news.

josee

Hola, soy nuevo por aquí. Yo tengo más de 1 año esta barra de sonido signa s4 y nunca he tenido problemas con el sonido de esta barra. Yo lo conecto a la tv en formato pcm ya que mis tvs tienen algunos años y no me deja Seleccionar dolby atmos en ninguna de ellas, por lo tanto aún no tuve la oportunidad de escuchar el atmos de esta barra. Cuando la compré no sabía los requisitos de los formatos de audio atmos y la tvs. Pero ya digo, en formato pcm ningún problema ni caída en el sonido. Un saludo.

SeleniumFalcon

Translation:

Hi, I'm new around here. I have had this signa s4 sound bar for more than 1 year and I have never had problems with the sound of this bar. I connect it to the tv in pcm format since my tvs are a few years old and it won't let me select dolby atmos on any of them, therefore I still haven't had the opportunity to listen to the atmos of this bar. When I bought it I didn't know the requirements for atmos and tvs audio formats. But I already said, in pcm format no problem or drop in sound. All the best.

treitz3

Whitingx wrote: »

IBeing intermittent, it's really frustrating.

I bet it is...

Tom