Hopper doesn't send audio out the optical port (for all channels)

[toddjb]

So, I have two Hoppers w/ sling.

On one of them, I have it going to a TV direct. No audio receiver connected. Sound is fine.

On the other one, I turn off the TV speakers, and all the audio goes out the optical jack to my Yamaha receiver.

I had no issues on the prior 722.
With the Hopper, some channels come up only on the center channel (louder) and others go to surround sound.
Some channels do not pipe ANY audio through at all!

For instant, I turned on Travel channel tonight and Man V. Food had no volume.
I went to the other Hopper (connected only to the TV) and the sound there was fine.

I did scroll around the channels a bit and found several channels with now sound. None of them were prime channels. (movies, networks, etc.)

So, it seems that my Hopper only sends audio out the back if it is encoded a certain way. I'm guessing anything with DD surround goes to the speakers, everything else only hits my center channel, and perhaps shows that are only mono don't go at all.

I know my AVR will process different content different ways, but it always figured everything out and I can see on the display what encoding it detects and it just used to spread to the speakers as needed. This is kind of annoying.

So, before I call Dish...is this a known bug? Any tips to remedy?

Thanks!

 

[n0qcu]

Its a known problem for some people.

Sent from my iPhone

 

[Dishman1978]

Menu, settings, audio, audio output. Change it from Dolby/pcm to pcm only.

Maybe that will fix it.

 

[KKlare]

Changing Mode from Line to RF will typically be louder--my ears cannot hear the HiFi difference, Line should be better quality.
Enable Volume Leveling only if you must keep the sound level on louder channels or have backgrounds that would block low levels.
Decoder Dolby/PCM is needed to get Dolby 5.1 but PCM works in most cases.
Mono sources, for example: ads, will be louder than decoded stereo especially on SD channels.
Most HD sources are not mono.
My opinions, -Ken

 

[toddjb]

I'll give that a try when I'm I'm this evening. I did notice that it is set to "dolby/pcm". The line/RF setting was greyed out. Volume leveling was enabled.

Thank you.

 

[mitchflorida]

If you can run a cable from the TV digital audio output to the AVR, it should work okay. Don't connect Hopper optical to AVR optical.

 

[toddjb]

If you can run an optical cable from the TV digital audio to the AVR, it should work okay. Don't connect Hopper optical to AVR optical.

No dice. Strangely enough, my Sony TV only outputs stereo from it's audio output jack. It's really odd and I wanted to use that for something in the past. I tried to get the rationale for that out of Sony...good luck. Seems like it'd be a pretty easy thing to fix with firmware but when you get into companies that large, you have zero influence on bugs, features, or whatever.

That came up for me in the past because my Sony has integrated apps for NetFlix and their own PPV movies. They have some HD movies listed with Dolby Digital, but there is no way to get the DD to your AVR, so you are limited to stereo. Stupid.

At least with Dish if we gripe loud enough someone will hear! LOL

 

[mitchflorida]

The other "work-around" is to swap a Joey for the Hopper. The Joey doesn't have the same optical audio problems as the Hopper. You may not have a Joey though . .

 

[toddjb]

Setting the Audio to PCM only seemed to have fixed it!

I had to switch away from the quiet channel and back but the sound returned.
It also seems to have gotten rid of the loud differential between certain channels also.

I'll post if I notice any other issues (or side effects of not being able to have the Dolby selection?)

THANKS!

 

[mitchflorida]

As long as you don't care about receiving Dolby sound, you are good to go.

 

[dwarren2]

AFAIK, most TV"s only send Dolby 5.1 from the internal tuner. Any signal sent to the TV and then to an AVR will be down converted to 2 channel stereo.

 

[n0qcu]

AFAIK, most TV"s only send Dolby 5.1 from the internal tuner. Any signal sent to the TV and then to an AVR will be down converted to 2 channel stereo.

True but reading these threads here it is evident that some TVs do pass the 5.1 audio.