DSTV Sound Bitrate over Explora 2

[jpbarnard2019]

I am curious about the current sound bit rates that DSTV provide over satellite (using Explora 2 decoder).

The DMX music channels (PCM streams) have audibly bad bit rates (high compression), when listened to via a high-quality sound system (Marantz NR1508 AVR plus Cambridge Audio CAX60 stereo amplifier into B&W DM1600 speakers L/R and B&W HTM6 S2 on centre channel). Movies - purportedly Dolby Digital - sound of better bit rate, but still sub-standard compared to Netflix or Amazon Prime Video Dolby Digital.

Spotify over Sonos (Uncompressed) has noticeably better sound quality than DSTV DMX over the same system (using Sonos Connect with optical connection direct to Cambridge Audio amp). In all fairness, the sound quality begins the master sample rate released for streaming by the original music producer. These days, many music producers target an audience with little appreciation for high fidility sound and use awful compression to deliver music only fit for ear buds and smartphones. In this scenario, the bit rate offered by DSTV DMX is of small consequence.

I use the Marantz M-DAX feature to improve DMX music sound quality. But the question remains what bit rates we are offered in a service costing up to R850 per month when Netflix and Amazon Prime Video offer better sound at R150 and R85 per month, respectively. (BTW, I stream Netflix & Amazon Prime video over 50 Mbps fibre on Vumatel infrastructure with Afrihost ISP).

 

[WAslayer]

This is not a question of bitrate you get for the price you pay..

It's a question of there being limited bandwidth available over the satellite connection, which is not a concern for streaming services on the internet..

Perhaps they could use different codecs with better lossless compression, or maybe they already are..

 

[jpbarnard2019]

This is not a question of bitrate you get for the price you pay..

It's a question of there being limited bandwidth available over the satellite connection, which is not a concern for streaming services on the internet..

Perhaps they could use different codecs with better lossless compression, or maybe they already are..

DMX does not transfer video, which takes the bulk of a channel stream's bandwidth. So, there is enough bandwidth to transfer 384 kbps of sound, if DSTV so chooses.

In all fairness, the sound quality begins the master sample rate released for streaming by the original music producer. These days, many music producers target an audience with little appreciation for high fidility sound and use awful compression to deliver music only fit for ear buds and smartphones. In this scenario, the bit rate offered by DSTV DMX is of small consequence.