How does apple tv have the best PQ and SQ?

[MaSh]

Wow, excellent thread and great points differentiating ATv, Shield and Xbox. I was just wondering how bad is the top of the line Fire TV stick 4k MAX compared to these? Has anyone compared the stick to the others?

MaSh

 

[ssf]

Is the xbox set to bitstream? Also, is the TV audio via eARC?

Reason to ask is that the unprocessed audio track, if bitstreamed without additional processing on the renderer/player should sound exactly the same (or with subtle differences at most)

The only scenario in which there will be a large difference is when one of the devices under comparison is doing additional processing or normalization.

PQ can vary (e.g. some may prefer the color calibrated / frame rate matched output of ATV while others may prefer the upscaled o/p from a shield) but the Audio stream is meant to be unprocessed and shouldn’t really differ

After I had some issues with my receivers ports, my xbox is now connected to the TV and from TV to receiver via Arc. (No eArc) So, a few of features of xbox will not be available, like Atmos, a few sound settings etc.

Edit: Audio passthrough is enabled in xbox.

Yet, the sound is clearer, louder and more impactful than what I get from my Sony TV at the same volume levels of the receiver. This coming from someone who can't tell Spotify from Tidal.

It's not that I want xbox to sound better. I would have liked it if the firestick gave the best performance as it is connected directly to the receiver and it is easier to use. No need to turn on another box to watch movies.

 

[superczar]

After I had some issues with my receivers ports, my xbox is now connected to the TV and from TV to receiver via Arc. (No eArc) So, a few of features of xbox will not be available, like Atmos, a few sound settings etc.

Edit: Audio passthrough is enabled in xbox.

Yet, the sound is clearer, louder and more impactful than what I get from my Sony TV at the same volume levels of the receiver. This coming from someone who can't tell Spotify from Tidal.

It's not that I want xbox to sound better. I would have liked it if the firestick gave the best performance as it is connected directly to the receiver and it is easier to use. No need to turn on another box to watch movies.

Not saying that your observation is not true.. am just curious about how that can be.
Passthrough audio is entirely dependent on the decoder (AVR in this case) regardless of streaming source.
Resampling may bring about some changes, but they will be subtle (like you said, you can’t tell spotify from tidal)

I don’t have a xbox to test this though

 

[ssf]

Not saying that your observation is not true.. am just curious about how that can be.
Passthrough audio is entirely dependent on the decoder (AVR in this case) regardless of streaming source.
Resampling may bring about some changes, but they will be subtle (like you said, you can’t tell spotify from tidal)

I don’t have a xbox to test this though

No no, I got that. You were looking at the why.

If you figure it out, please let us know.

 

[superczar]

No no, I got that. You were looking at the why.

If you figure it out, please let us know.

so tested on ps5 atv and tv app.. SQ remained the same (Atmos track)

So I got a xbox series s today in the name of science
Will test tomorrow and see what it yields

 

[superczar]

I don’t think I have it figured out yet.
There was a very noticeable level difference between the two sources even though both were set to passthrough audio (xbx was louder for the same volume level on AVR)

When i checked under AVR settings> Information, I see the ATV is applying a level offset of 31db (reduction) while xbox isn’t for the same content (Altered carbon s01e01- Netflix) (see screenshots)

Not sure if its the dolby encoded level offset . Posting it here for pointers (and also for others to check) and will also raise a thread on ASR