Distortion while streaming content from Netflix/ Amazon Prime etc.

[superczar]

I use a denon 2400 with Dali z3,vokal and Z1. While watching netflix and amazon prime contents i also get a distorted sound. Even even while listening to music with Bluetooth or spotify. To explain the sound it will be like a crackling sound especially at high notes. But while listening to the same songs in you tube or the movies that have this noise in netflix and prime dont produce this noice in bluray content. So i finalized it is an issue with source and content and moved on.

Highly unlikely to be an issue with NF/Prime
Don't forget that Millions of people use them worldwide with no SQ issues (Including I)
It is in all likelihood a problem with the way your streaming setup is feeding data into your AVR

Your streaming setup ideally needs to bitstream the untouched audio stream to your AVR
Unfortunately the myriad possible combinations of AV setups make it difficult to trubleshoot
Add to it the the problem of TVs managing the audio stream (for those who use ARC) as different TV models and even diff series for the same brand use differing terms & names for the Audio settings.

The problem that the OP has however seems a little odd as the NR1609 should easily be able to drive the speakers
I am not sure if the NR1609 has straight RCA Pre-in but if it does, testing via that should be able to tell if the issue is with the amp or pre-processing

 

[Love4sound]

Highly unlikely to be an issue with NF/Prime
Don't forget that Millions of people use them worldwide with no SQ issues (Including I)
It is in all likelihood a problem with the way your streaming setup is feeding data into your AVR

Your streaming setup ideally needs to bitstream the untouched audio stream to your AVR
Unfortunately the myriad possible combinations of AV setups make it difficult to trubleshoot
Add to it the the problem of TVs managing the audio stream (for those who use ARC) as different TV models and even diff series for the same brand use differing terms & names for the Audio settings.

The problem that the OP has however seems a little odd as the NR1609 should easily be able to drive the speakers
I am not sure if the NR1609 has straight RCA Pre-in but if it does, testing via that should be able to tell if the issue is with the amp or pre-processing

There is no problem with my avr or speakers. Millions of people are happy with 2.1 creative speakers as well and that doesn’t mean it’s the best sq. Netflix and amazon prime imo is just average interms of sq. I have done all types of test with my current set up and with different avr, speakers and wires. All tests had the same issue at certain scenes.

 

[superczar]

There is no problem with my avr or speakers. Millions of people are happy with 2.1 creative speakers as well and that doesn’t mean it’s the best sq. Netflix and amazon prime imo is just average interms of sq. I have done all types of test with my current set up and with different avr, speakers and wires. All tests had the same issue at certain scenes.

Of these millions, hundreds of thousands use good to insanely specced HT setups as well.
What you are saying is right in that NF won't be as good as a good UHD BR disk

However the SQ of NF for UHD streams is ~640kbps if you have a good network and ISP
While the bitrate for DTS on a vast majority of commercial BR disks is 768kbps so not a major difference

In any case, neither of them would sound the way you have described - A lower quality stream on a properly configured system would at worst mean some loss of presence/fidelity but never distortion or noise!

Your equipment should be perfectly capable of managing streaming services without a hiccup

That's the reason I said there has got to be something else at play here.

While watching netflix and amazon prime contents i also get a distorted sound. Even even while listening to music with Bluetooth or spotify. To explain the sound it will be like a crackling sound especially at high notes. But while listening to the same songs in you tube or the movies that have this noise in netflix and prime dont produce this noice in bluray content. So i finalized it is an issue with source and content and moved on.

 

[Love4sound]

Of these millions, hundreds of thousands use good to insanely specced HT setups as well.
What you are saying is right in that NF won't be as good as a good UHD BR disk

However the SQ of NF for UHD streams is ~640kbps if you have a good network and ISP
While the bitrate for DTS on a vast majority of commercial BR disks is 768kbps so not a major difference

In any case, neither of them would sound the way you have described - A lower quality stream on a properly configured system would at worst mean some loss of presence/fidelity but never distortion or noise!
That's the reason I said there has got to be something else at play here.

You seemed to me missing the point. None of ur explanation is going to help me in any way and I am not the one who has asked for assistance here. And I am sure high end HT users will know the difference between good and average SQ and won’t care about the millions of others opinions as they will have their own taste and knowledge on good sound.

 

[superczar]

You seemed to me missing the point. None of ur explanation is going to help me in any way and I am not the one who has asked for assistance here. And I am sure high end HT users will know the difference between good and average SQ and won’t care about the millions of others opinions as they will have their own taste and knowledge on good sound.

True - and I do apologize to the OP for having digressed here.

However all of the systems being talked about here including yours and mine are mid fidelity at best so its fair to assume that there is no point getting into the small incremental improvements that differentiate average and Good SQ .

And while there is a subjective difference between average and good sound, distortion/noise is a clear indicator of bad sound!

All I am trying to say is that for the OP as well as you and I, these mid-end systems are perfectly capable of managing decent SQ without noise or distortion up till at least reference vol levels.
Thus there is really no reason why Youtube or Netflix would give you (or the OP) Bad distorted sound unless something else is off.

 

[Love4sound]

True - and I do apologize to the OP for having digressed here.

However all of the systems being talked about here including yours and mine are mid fidelity at best so its fair to assume that there is no point getting into the small incremental improvements that differentiate average and Good SQ .

And while there is a subjective difference between average and good sound, distortion/noise is a clear indicator of bad sound!

All I am trying to say is that for the OP as well as you and I, these mid-end systems are perfectly capable of managing decent SQ without noise or distortion up till at least reference vol levels.
Thus there is really no reason why Youtube or Netflix would give you (or the OP) Bad distorted sound unless something else is off.

If u don’t hear distortion noise in Netflix and amazon prime contents then happy for you. But in some contents and scenes there is distortion for sure. I am sure nothing is off in my system and it’s well calibrated. Like I said in my previous comments I have done 100s of tests with different speakers,Avr wire etc to arrive at this conclusion and moved on. So u saying things like there are millions of users is totally not at al valid and irrelevant for me

 

[superczar]

If u don’t hear distortion noise in Netflix and amazon prime contents then happy for you. But in some contents and scenes there is distortion for sure. I am sure nothing is off in my system and it’s well calibrated. Like I said in my previous comments I have done 100s of tests with different speakers,Avr wire etc to arrive at this conclusion and moved on. So u saying things like there are millions of users is totally not at al valid and irrelevant for me

You can leave it as-is since you are happy with the setup.
I did not mean to offend you by talking of millions of users - All I was pointing to is that quite a large number of these users can and do use NF and prime in excellent AV setups.
No one expects the audio stream on OTT streaming to be perfect but distortion/noise on the stream is unforgivable and it is unlikely these two two tech giants would leave it in that state.

 

[Love4sound]

You can leave it as-is since you are happy with the setup.
I did not mean to offend you by talking of millions of users - All I was pointing to is that quite a large number of these users can and do use NF and prime in excellent AV setups.
No one expects the audio stream on OTT streaming to be perfect but distortion/noise on the stream is unforgivable and it is unlikely these two two tech giants would leave it in that state.

So after testing the contents using sony blu ray player, ps4, amazon firestick, nvidia shield and from my tv app connected to different avr's using different hdmi cables, optical cables, wires and speakers. So kindly tell me how exactly at the same scenes i get the distortion in all the tests? I would really love to know what is the source of the noise

 

[superczar]

So after testing the contents using sony blu ray player, ps4, amazon firestick, nvidia shield and from my tv app connected to different avr's using different hdmi cables, optical cables, wires and speakers. So kindly tell me how exactly at the same scenes i get the distortion in all the tests? I would really love to know what is the source of the noise

Am unsure if you are being sarcastic.
I will presume not for the benefit of doubt and ask two questions -

One- Are you routing the signal via the AVR or the TV ? i.e. HDMI of say the PS4 into the AVR and then AVR Out to TV / PS4 to TV and then TV ARC to AVR/TV optical out to AVR ?

Two - Based on the issues you had recently posted about airplay on the Denon, I would think there are network issues in your ecosystem - Possible that your streaming may be running at low bandwidth?
NF/Prime with their dynamic adjustment would cause a really low amount of bandwidth to be allocated to your audio stream if that were to be the case and that would cause unexpected issues especially during passages with complex audio i.e. particular scenes.
Have you run a speed test to netflix servers (fast.com) on your playback device to see what the connection up/downlink rates are?

 

[Love4sound]

Am unsure if you are being sarcastic.
I will presume not for the benefit of doubt and ask two questions -

One- Are you routing the signal via the AVR or the TV ? i.e. HDMI of say the PS4 into the AVR and then AVR Out to TV / PS4 to TV and then TV ARC to AVR/TV optical out to AVR ?

Two - Based on the issues you had recently posted about airplay on the Denon, I would think there are network issues in your ecosystem - Possible that your streaming may be running at low bandwidth?
NF/Prime with their dynamic adjustment would cause a really low amount of bandwidth to be allocated to your audio stream if that were to be the case and that would cause unexpected issues especially during passages with complex audio i.e. particular scenes.
Have you run a speed test to netflix servers (fast.com) on your playback device to see what the connection up/downlink rates are?

No way i am sarcastic. Since you claim there is no way for distortion i just want to know if it can be fixed. If it is due to low bandwidth shouldn't the distortion occur in random scenes. Why in the same content at the same scenes? My up and downlink rates are at 100 mbps. Netflix and prime loads the content in 2-3 seconds in full HD. And also connection is lan and not wifi. Why does the distortion occur in the exact same scene with different avr, speakers, hdmi cables, optical cables and wires? I tried all connection combinations as mentioned in your 1st question. so the only logical explanation is content. And my usage of netflix and prime is only while travel using mobile. I dont prefer watching netflix and amazon in my HT as i dont like the SQ. So in the end i dont care what the problem is with netflix and prime in my set up

 

[superczar]

No way i am sarcastic. Since you claim there is no way for distortion i just want to know if it can be fixed. If it is due to low bandwidth shouldn't the distortion occur in random scenes. Why in the same content at the same scenes? My up and downlink rates are at 100 mbps. Netflix and prime loads the content in 2-3 seconds in full HD. And also connection is lan and not wifi. Why does the distortion occur in the exact same scene with different avr, speakers, hdmi cables, optical cables and wires? I tried all connection combinations as mentioned in your 1st question. so the only logical explanation is content. And my usage of netflix and prime is only while travel using mobile. I dont prefer watching netflix and amazon in my HT as i dont like the SQ. So in the end i dont care what the problem is with netflix and prime in my set up

Let me try this out..
Tell me any specific movie/series (or two) and the timestamp at which this distortion occurs.
I'll try see if I can replicate this.
If possible, I will try play back the same sequence on streaming and a BR if it's possible for me to source it

I am rather curious about this anomaly as logically this shouldn't happen

 

[Love4sound]

Let me try this out..
Tell me any specific movie/series (or two) and the timestamp at which this distortion occurs.
I'll try see if I can replicate this.
If possible, I will try play back the same sequence on streaming and a BR if it's possible for me to source it

I am rather curious about this anomaly as logically this shouldn't happen

Netflix type solo (Tamil version).At 26.30 seconds a song will start. Play it till the first chorus finishes.You should be hearing some noise from the centre chanel tweeters.And in prime karthik calling karthik starting credits you will have a song with background music. You need to have sharp ears to catch the sound that comes and goes. I have tested them like 5 or 6 months back and have stopped using both netflix and prime in my HT. So chances are the sound may not be there now. I will have to check next week as i am not at home. Will check and update and in the mean time you can check

 

[captrajesh]

Guys let us know of the outcome.

 

[superczar]

Netflix type solo (Tamil version).At 26.30 seconds a song will start. Play it till the first chorus finishes.You should be hearing some noise from the centre chanel tweeters.And in prime karthik calling karthik starting credits you will have a song with background music. You need to have sharp ears to catch the sound that comes and goes. I have tested them like 5 or 6 months back and have stopped using both netflix and prime in my HT. So chances are the sound may not be there now. I will have to check next week as i am not at home. Will check and update and in the mean time you can check

I tried the first one since you said it would be obvious.
I amnot sure if I was looking at the right place as the song did not seem to have any chorus.
I did not find any distortion in the part I heard.

Check the uploaded file to see if I am looking at the right place.
Sorry for the bad recording, it's on a phone kept next to the center channel

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[Love4sound]

I tried the first one since you said it would be obvious.
I amnot sure if I was looking at the right place as the song did not seem to have any chorus.
I did not find any distortion in the part I heard.

Check the uploaded file to see if I am looking at the right place.
Sorry for the bad recording, it's on a phone kept next to the center channel

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Ok TY. I will check it when i go home and update you

 

[Love4sound]

I checked both contents today. I do feel that the distortion is very less compared to previous tests. Well anyways m not going to be diving deep with this as I don’t use Netflix or prime in my HT.

 

[superczar]

I checked both contents today. I do feel that the distortion is very less compared to previous tests. Well anyways m not going to be diving deep with this as I don’t use Netflix or prime in my HT.

Glad to hear about the improvement.
BTW FWIW, UHD tracks on Netflix stream high def ATMOS / MA audio streams so don't let a perceived drop in Audio quality deter you from using OTT services.

 

[Love4sound]

Glad to hear about the improvement.
BTW FWIW, UHD tracks on Netflix stream high def ATMOS / MA audio streams so don't let a perceived drop in Audio quality deter you from using OTT services.

I do use them. Only when I travel. I download al movies and tv shows and watch which gives better audio and video quality. Movies mostly I download Blu-ray Discs in Atmos or dts x.