I have recently noticed a difference in the sound modes

[ziggurcat]

I don't know when the difference occurred, but I have recently noticed that Shaw might have tweaked the sound mode settings.  The three options available are Stereo, Auto Detect and Expert Mode, and I have always had it set to Expert because when I did that, the volume output seemed to be about 2 or 3dB louder.  

I noticed the other night that the volume output wasn't as loud, so I checked to make sure that I still had the sound mode set to Expert Mode in the off chance that something funky happened and the settings reverted back to the default Auto Detect.  There had been no change, so I tested just switching it to Auto Detect, and that's when I noticed that there was no difference in the volume output, which lead me to believe that Shaw might have changed something in a FW update?  

As another test, I went into my AVR settings, and turned on Loudness Management, which would previously produce a drop in the volume output.  With the Xi6 cable box set to Expert Mode, turning on Loudness Management in my AVR yielded no difference in the volume output, either, which is another reason why I think Shaw changed something. 

Can someone from Shaw confirm/deny this? 

[shaw-petty]

@ziggurcat Thank you for bringing this to our attention! It sounds like a firmware update had reverted all setting to default values. It'd be best for you to reach out to our Technical Support Team directly here for assistance.

[ziggurcat]

Hi @shaw-petty 

I reached out to Technical Support, but it was a bit of a waste of time.  They blamed my TV and AVR even though neither of those devices have undergone any FW updates for several months, so there's simply no way that those two devices are the culprit (my TV doesn't even control the audio, either).   

I get why they may have thought that, but if changing an Audio setting in the Xi6 affected the volume level before, and it no longer does now, that means that there's something off with the Xi6. 

[ziggurcat]

@shaw-petty 

And as another test, I reverted my AVR's firmware back to its original state just in case there was a secret FW update I wasn't aware of, and still... changing the Audio setting from Expert Mode to Auto Detect yielded no change in volume as it had previously done.

For once I'd like someone at Shaw to admit that the problem is on their end, and to please stop blaming people's equipment - especially those who are more well-versed with technology, etc... and just because no one at "Technical Support" had heard of the issue doesn't mean that it doesn't exist.  I may have just been the first person to actually notice the problem.  There was another issue I had reported several years ago related to audio/video that no one seemed to know was a thing, and it eventually was discovered to be a problem, and eventually resolved.  Of course, even at that time, they blamed my equipment, and never took ownership of the issue.

[Rwhitzman]

Same problem. Tech support is useless and refuses to escalate.  Same effect when I watch some talk shows and they show a clip. The volume of the clip drops down substantially.