Boxee Box update keeps surround sound speakers quiet

Who would have thought that your surround sound speakers would end up muted after installing the latest Boxee Box 1.1 update? That is what happened to users who were rocking to surround sound systems before the update, rueing the fact that the removal of volume controls affected their listening experience. Nice to know that Boxee has confirmed that these volume controls will be making a comeback in the next update though.

This latest update paved the way for an undocumented change via the way it handled stereo PCM audio sources for users who own surround sound systems. No longer does it send to the user’s receiver as a two channel source for it to be processed to fill all the speakers, but rather, it is sent as a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio source, hence playing only through the front left and right speakers – leaving your center channel and rear speakers high and dry. This might not seem like such a big deal to some, but for folks who want to watch Netflix streams, MLB.tv, listen to select lossless audio files or any other stereo audio source, won’t be able to take advantage of such a step.

Look out for a fixed update that will feature the volume control toggle later this week, and at least you don’t have to wait as long as PlayStation 3 owners for the PSN to get back online – with hiccups to boot.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Audio
Tags: boxee, boxee box