Bad sound quality on some downloads.

[giddyup]

Only noticed this since the purchase of a new Sony Bravia 4K TV, but some TV episodes, ie Homeland and Devs regularly have a bad soundtrack, which I can only describe as having a "warbling"effect. Movie soundtracks generally are OK. I tend to download a couple of the same episode, like 720 and 1080 just to guarantee that the soundtrack is OK. All my downloads are played using a USB stick, and I use different sticks, so that's not the problem. Any ideas as to what's causing this?

[kekalot]

try the files on a computer (or phone, tablet if you don't have a computer) and see if it does the same thing

if it does have the sound issue, then its the files

if it doesn't have the sound issue, it's the TV

 

using an application like Media Player Classic Home Cinema https://mpc-hc.org/  (or other apps) you can right click when its playing and hit Properties

 

first tab should show you what kind of audio it is

as an example, this file I have shows: Audio: AAC 48000Hz stereo 128kbps [A: SoundHandler (aac lc, 48000 Hz, stereo, 128 kb/s)]

 

there is a MediaInfo tab as well at the top which would include information as this:

 

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 1 h 57 min
Duration_LastFrame : -11 ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 128 kb/s
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : Front: L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 108 MiB (5%)
Default : Yes
Alternate group : 1

 

you can compare the files who have no issues with the ones that do, usually checking the bold parts (rest don't make much difference)

 

I reckon you will find that a certain Format or different Channel(s) will not work well on your TV, then it would be your TV that is not able to play those files codecs properly

I had similar issues when my TV was trying to play DTS files with 5.1 or 7.1 content (surround system)

 

it sucks but if that is the case, then usually the simplest fix is to get a proper Android TV box that doesn't have those restrictions.

[RichCor]

As the second poster mentions, "reckon you will find that a certain Format or different Channel(s) will not work well on your TV, then it would be your TV that is not able to play those files codecs properly".

 

The same file will probably play fine on a PC as many codecs will translate the special audio tracks to stereo, or utilize a codec specifically compatible the digital audio compression type. 

 

Your TV is pretty much an as-is device so if it doesn't handle the digital audio type you'll stuck unless you can find another version of the file or convert the one you have.