Audio irregularities

syork1

New Member
Original poster
Jan 18, 2010
4
0
Nashville, Tn
I have a customer who I installed last week, called me and says that his HD reception audio goes in and out and at differing times. The picture is fine (no pixellation at all) but the sound begins to crack up and then go out. He can drop down to SD and the sound is fine. If he leaves it on HD the sound will return but go out periodically with no rhyme or reason. I visited him today and found no problem in front of me (of course) but I noticed that the audio was much louder in SD than in HD and also it seemed to be in mono on the SD channel while spread out like stereo on the HD channel. The channel used was the same (105-USA Network) for both HD & SD tests I performed. Television is 1 year old Sony 50" flat screen LCD and I set all TV settings to either normal or off mode in audio settings. I also tried different settings in the dish menu concerning Dolby and the audio with no differences in the sound levels coming in higher in SD than HD. I replaced the receiver last week (VIP722) and the new receiver was working properly when I installed it. I also re-peaked the dish therefore giving exceptional signal (well above minimums on all transponders) and replaced spliced lines with home run cable from dish to receiver/triplexer. Any thoughts???
 
It's been going on for months. And BTW, SD audio is always louder than HD.
 
syork1 said:
I have a customer who I installed last week, called me and says that his HD reception audio goes in and out and at differing times. The picture is fine (no pixellation at all) but the sound begins to crack up and then go out. He can drop down to SD and the sound is fine. If he leaves it on HD the sound will return but go out periodically with no rhyme or reason. I visited him today and found no problem in front of me (of course) but I noticed that the audio was much louder in SD than in HD and also it seemed to be in mono on the SD channel while spread out like stereo on the HD channel. The channel used was the same (105-USA Network) for both HD & SD tests I performed. Television is 1 year old Sony 50" flat screen LCD and I set all TV settings to either normal or off mode in audio settings. I also tried different settings in the dish menu concerning Dolby and the audio with no differences in the sound levels coming in higher in SD than HD. I replaced the receiver last week (VIP722) and the new receiver was working properly when I installed it. I also re-peaked the dish therefore giving exceptional signal (well above minimums on all transponders) and replaced spliced lines with home run cable from dish to receiver/triplexer. Any thoughts???

Been happening here since right before Christmas. Don't know why in 4 months they can't fix. Can we get an update from the dish folks lurking here?
 
There was a thread we were chasing regarding the same issue, elsewhere. We did attempt to recreate the issue and at first it seemed to only affect EA birds. That perception was quickly shattered when people who were WA customers also complained of the issue. As to what it is, I personally have no idea, but I will again try to recreate it and see what we can find out. Is the issue the same (audio drops for anywhere from 1-10 seconds)? Also, is it channel specific or arc specific?
 
I have a 722k and this happens on all different channels. Sometimes for a second on and off for about a minute. Sometimes audio goes out until I change channel then back. I have recorded movies and there too I have sound issues. it seems to be getting worse. i have a EA.
 
Tony, I was watching one of the 211's and as the sound dropped out I also noticed the picture breaking up with big squares in the middle of it. Best way I know to explain it. WA...
 
I've been having audio drop outs on Sat channels for months now. I'm on eastern arc, but get all my satellites strengths in high numbers, so I know it isn't caused by that. Although my counter lost locks are in the 09: 24 range right now. I am begining to think that the lost locks have something to do with it. Maybe when you tune to an ota channel you lose a lock on the satellite ,thus causing a drop out on audio? I do a lot of ota channel recording daily simultaneously with sat channels too. So I am recording 4 shows at a time during prime time. Maybe that is the key to the drop outs? Recording 4 shows at a time; 2 sat/2ota?
 
We're seeing this more and more... I don't think we have a recorded show that doesn't cut in and out at some point, even for just a few seconds.

FYI
 
Is the issue the same (audio drops for anywhere from 1-10 seconds)? Also, is it channel specific or arc specific?

Don't know if it's the same issue, but Monday night (3/28), NBC (NY) was dropping audio constantly in 1-3 second lengths. OTA was fine from what I could tell. Other channels also seemed to be unaffected. I'm on EA.
 
I've had the problem several times. It was noticed on both the USA & BBCA HD channels. As far as lost locks my reading is 4:13. I'm EA & 722k HD DVR.
 
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Tony, it appears to be more arc than channel sensitive. It is happening on different channels. I failed to mention originally that this system is on the western arc.
 
Maybe when you tune to an ota channel you lose a lock on the satellite ,thus causing a drop out on audio?
I've had this occassionally sometimes it seems worse on local stations.. but I'm not using an OTA module .. everything I'm getting comes down from the satellites.

If it were a signal issue, then why is it only effecting the audio... a drop out like this should certainly have at some point in time caused pixelation .. I mean we aren't talking analog anymore.. its a digital stream.. and for the bits to be effected *only* for audio? ... its more likely either encoded with the fault, or its a bit set in the audio that triggers a problem in the digital converters ... but this also effects more than one box.. and unless its a hardware that's common to all of the receiver models effected.. then again it becomes more likely its happening at uplink and getting encoded with the drop out..

one way to prove/disprove .. have 10 people watching the exact same channel on several different models and get syncronized time clocks (easy to do with computers) marking each time they got a glitch. If 8 out of 10 got it ... its more likely the other 2 just missed it.. if no one else gets the glitch within a few seconds of each other ... then you'd tag it as possibly a decoding problem or user side..

other thoughts?? and do we really trust that Dish would do these sorts of things to figure out the problem? ... and I should qualify that ... even though D.I.R.T. is here as dish employees ... I don't mean to include them when I say "Dish" ... :)
 
I have already added this....
yeah.. but it doesn't seem as wide spread ... most of the audio drops I've had.. plus the ones reported here and on other threads... never mentioned video pixelation..

were your other audio drops with pixelation too? or just that one time, where what ever happened, took out more than just sound? ... because I've had one or two of those where the video pixelated too ... but have had way way way more audio drops where the picture is "picture perfect" lol I know.. horrible way to say it..
 
Maybe the audio leveling software added recently to the Vip receivers could be causing the drop outs? I have had my 722k receiver leveled since I got the software . Maybe we should turn this feature off and see what happens?
 
Maybe the audio leveling software added recently to the Vip receivers could be causing the drop outs? I have had my 722k receiver leveled since I got the software . Maybe we should turn this feature off and see what happens?
Mine has been turned off almost from day 1 and I still get it. Even though it is 1 digital stream the coding for the audio is going to be different than the video. So the two could run at the same time & not affect the other are my thoughts on it. I'm EA & my bro is on WA. So I just sent him an email to see if he has had the same problem. Just received a reply from bro and he hasn't had the problem so it may be only EA.
 
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We've started having this problem more and more. It's always just a quick blip, not more than a second (but I can tell from the receiver display that the audio signal was temporarily disrupted). Just finishing up a movie on HBO; it happened about 5 or 6 times over the course of 1.5 hours. Used to have the same problem with uverse (a well-documented issue)--ended up getting rid of it when AT&T failed to do anything to fix it for over a year. Not sure if they ever did.
 
Its only when connected via hdmi from what i noticed I've been to acouple of service calls for this reason so i than connected the at via component cables problem solved
 
I have not noticed the problems for several weeks.
I was right there with you, on not having noticed it much ... but then while watching "The Transporter" just now on ACMax (313 HD) it happened 2 times that I heard, nearer the beginning. The first one I looked up and sure enough saw my receiver re-syncing for Dolby. But it certainly seems its happening much less than it was.
 

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