# Bolt and Mini's audio is low on Insignia TV



## ukwildcat4life (Apr 13, 2014)

Hi everyone; I have an audio problem going on hoping someone can hopefully help me. I have an Insignia 55 inch LED TV that I bought at Best Buy. The TV has 3 HDMI ports ..... the problem is the volume/audio output is very low and I have changed HDMI cables and ports and even changed out receivers ( bolt and mini) and nothing has worked! this tv does not support dolby; it has DTS whatever that is? and in the TV's settings I have it set to PCM only.......whats odd is that my cable companies cheap set top box and my roku streaming stick will both blast you out set on the same volume as the bolt or mini but as soon as I go back to the tivo device you can barely hear the sound unless you max out the volume nearly...........I have two other tv's in the house and the tiro's volume is fine on them. It's just the Insignia TV that there seems to be some incompatibility. I called tivo support and they are mailing me some component breakout cables to hook from the mini to the Insignia... I have geek squad protection and called Best Buy and they are sending someone out to my home next week to check the TV but I just don't think anything is wrong with the TV because all other devices work fine .... I even went to a local radio shack and bought a HDMI to composite converter just to see if it would make any difference in the audio and it didn't.... if anyone else owns an insignia and has this problem or if anyone might know any help would be greatly appreciated.... I can usually figure out things but this one really has me stumped.... thanks!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Are you sure it doesn't support DD? Does it have a tuner? If so then it has to be able to decode DD since that is the audio format used with broadcasts.

I know with all my TVs i can send DD directly to the TV and it will decode it. whether from the internal tuner or a STB.


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## ukwildcat4life (Apr 13, 2014)

aaronwt said:


> Are you sure it doesn't support DD? Does it have a tuner? If so then it has to be able to decode DD since that is the audio format used with broadcasts.
> 
> I know with all my TVs i can send DD directly to the TV and it will decode it. whether from the internal tuner or a STB.


I'm positive this TV doesn't have Dolby Digital ( my other tv's do though)....this one has DTS and I know for a while whenever I was using my tivo remote I wasn't able to hear the remote sounds because it was set on Dolby in the tivo settings and whenever I changed it to PCM then that fixed that problem.........and then there is my other devices ( my cable companies cisco set top box and this tv has an MHL port for the Roku ready stick) both of those will blast you out.........this is really mind boggling! thanks for trying to help though I appreciate it.....


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ukwildcat4life said:


> I'm positive this TV doesn't have Dolby Digital ( my other tv's do though)....this one has DTS and I know for a while whenever I was using my tivo remote I wasn't able to hear the remote sounds because it was set on Dolby in the tivo settings and whenever I changed it to PCM then that fixed that problem.........and then there is my other devices ( my cable companies cisco set top box and this tv has an MHL port for the Roku ready stick) both of those will blast you out.........this is really mind boggling! thanks for trying to help though I appreciate it.....


Then it sounds like the TV is decoding the DD like it should. WHen TiVos bitstream the DD audio there are no TiVo sounds. I've been using TiVOs for14 years and it was the same way 14 years ago with the DirecTV TiVos I used.

To hear the TiVo sounds the TiVo needs to internally decode the DD audio first, and then mix in the TiVo sounds. Then it is output as PCM stereo audio. There is no DD encoder in TiVos so there is no way to bistream and also have the TiVo sounds.

I'm on FiOS and every channel uses DD. SO there are never any TiVo sounds. When you switch the TiVo to pcm output you are only getting stereo. But for the TV speakers it probably doesn't matter much. But again based on what you said the TV is working with DD.


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## ukwildcat4life (Apr 13, 2014)

aaronwt said:


> Then it sounds like the TV is decoding the DD like it should. WHen TiVos bitstream the DD audio there are no TiVo sounds. I've been using TiVOs for14 years and it was the same way 14 years ago with the DirecTV TiVos I used.
> 
> To hear the TiVo sounds the TiVo needs to internally decode the DD audio first, and then mix in the TiVo sounds. Then it is output as PCM stereo audio. There is no DD encoder in TiVos so there is no way to bistream and also have the TiVo sounds.
> 
> I'm on FiOS and every channel uses DD. SO there are never any TiVo sounds. When you switch the TiVo to pcm output you are only getting stereo. But for the TV speakers it probably doesn't matter much. But again based on what you said the TV is working with DD.


I guess the confusing thing is why do my tivo devices work fine with my two othe tv's ( which support DD) and not with the Insignia? and the other devices I have hooked up on the Insignia via HDMI all work fine... do you think the component break out cables tivo is sending me will make any difference? I do have a sound bar hooked up and if I use that the sound is better but I shouldn't have to jump through al these hoops just to get some decent sound especially using HDMI for a connection... mind boggling!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ukwildcat4life said:


> I guess the confusing thing is why do my tivo devices work fine with my two othe tv's ( which support DD) and not with the Insignia? and the other devices I have hooked up on the Insignia via HDMI all work fine... do you think the component break out cables tivo is sending me will make any difference? I do have a sound bar hooked up and if I use that the sound is better but I shouldn't have to jump through al these hoops just to get some decent sound especially using HDMI for a connection... mind boggling!


Does your TV have a sound leveling feature? Many TVs do and just have different names for them. WHere it will keep the volume at a consistent level that you set it at. That way you don't have issues with it sounding too low or too loud.


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## ukwildcat4life (Apr 13, 2014)

aaronwt said:


> Does your TV have a sound leveling feature? Many TVs do and just have different names for them. WHere it will keep the volume at a consistent level that you set it at. That way you don't have issues with it sounding too low or too loud.


I couldn't find any setting like that and I looked through everything


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## TiVoMargret (Feb 3, 2008)

ukwildcat4life said:


> Hi everyone; I have an audio problem going on hoping someone can hopefully help me. I have an Insignia 55 inch LED TV that I bought at Best Buy. The TV has 3 HDMI ports ..... the problem is the volume/audio output is very low and I have changed HDMI cables and ports and even changed out receivers ( bolt and mini) and nothing has worked!


We have an update that will be released to BOLT by the end of the month that should fix some cases where the audio level is too low.

--Margret


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## ukwildcat4life (Apr 13, 2014)

TiVoMargret said:


> We have an update that will be released to BOLT by the end of the month that should fix some cases where the audio level is too low.
> 
> --Margret


Thanks so much for the update! I'm hoping that will fix my problem with low audio!


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## ukwildcat4life (Apr 13, 2014)

TiVoMargret said:


> We have an update that will be released to BOLT by the end of the month that should fix some cases where the audio level is too low.
> 
> --Margret


I got the 20.5.4a update today on my bolt and mini's and that really seems to have improved the low audio problem I was having with my Insignia TV....thanks!


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## johndoedoes (Oct 10, 2015)

TiVoMargret said:


> We have an update that will be released to BOLT by the end of the month that should fix some cases where the audio level is too low.
> 
> --Margret


Was this issue ever resolved? On my Sony XBR65X930C I normally leave the volume on 25 for Apple TV, PS4, etc. on my about I have to leave it between 45-50.


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## markjrenna (Mar 23, 2006)

The volume on the Bolt is still a bit lower than my Vz STB. It could use a tiny bump up to get even.


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## ukwildcat4life (Apr 13, 2014)

The update improved the volume for me but it certainly didn't completely fix the problem. Like you, I have to turn my bolt's volume up to around 45 to 50....my Roku, cable companies set top box ( cisco), and my playstation 4 would blast you out at that same volume level......it was the same with my Romaio base when I used it.......I've never been able to figure out why exactly this is but its definitely isolated to the tivo DVR's and my Insignia TV......I have an LG smart tv and I don't really notice the problem as bad but the difference is the Insignia TV doesn't have Dolby Digital but the LG smart tv does......its an issue I wish could be fixed.....its very puzzling and I've had no success getting the Tivo's DVR's to sound as loud as my other components on the same TV......


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ukwildcat4life said:


> The update improved the volume for me but it certainly didn't completely fix the problem. Like you, I have to turn my bolt's volume up to around 45 to 50....my Roku, cable companies set top box ( cisco), and my playstation 4 would blast you out at that same volume level......it was the same with my Romaio base when I used it.......I've never been able to figure out why exactly this is but its definitely isolated to the tivo DVR's and my Insignia TV......I have an LG smart tv and I don't really notice the problem as bad but the difference is the Insignia TV doesn't have Dolby Digital but the LG smart tv does......its an issue I wish could be fixed.....its very puzzling and I've had no success getting the Tivo's DVR's to sound as loud as my other components on the same TV......


Does the Insignia TV have an ATSC or QAM tuner? If so then it decodes Dolby Digital. Every modern TV basically decodes Dolby Digital unless it's just a monitor and doesn't have a tuner.


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## ukwildcat4life (Apr 13, 2014)

aaronwt said:


> Does the Insignia TV have an ATSC or QAM tuner? If so then it decodes Dolby Digital. Every modern TV basically decodes Dolby Digital unless it's just a monitor and doesn't have a tuner.


I have no idea...that is a little over my head to be honest....how would I go about checking to see if my TV has an ATSC or QAM tuner? thanks


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

ukwildcat4life said:


> I have no idea...that is a little over my head to be honest....how would I go about checking to see if my TV has an ATSC or QAM tuner? thanks


Look in the manual. But unless it's a very old TV, if it has a tuner, then it will be able to decode DD. Personally, every TV I've owned since 2005 has had that capability.


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## fishy21 (Jan 2, 2016)

Anyone have any news on this? I was told by Tivo that they have no updates or releases scheduled to fix this issue. It's pretty bad on my TV that I have to 2x the volume to hear the same as my other devices.


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