AZBox Audio Problem

[Lone Gunman]

I did several searches and found nothing to help so here goes.



I've got a problem with sound on my AZBox Elite. Any time I want to send the RF output signal across the coax in my house to other TVs, I have to “jump through hoops” to make the sound work? That and when it does work, the volume is way down to where even if the volume on the TVs is WFO it's barely audible. The big screen TV it's connected to isn't a problem as I have S video and the RWY connectors plugged into the TV from the AZ.


Here is the “jump through hoops” deal I have to do to make the sound go out on the RF connection (coax) to the TVs in other rooms.

1. Choose the TV station, movie, etc that I want to watch and sound does not work on remote TVs.
2. Hit the blue “home” button and arrow to the “Settings” menu and hit OK.
3. Arrow down to “display”, hit OK and then arrow down to “RF Audio type, which is D, K 6.5Mhz. Arrow one way or the other to change that output (usually right to M 4.5Mhz) then hit the “home” key and go back to TV or movie, etc. Then hit “home” again and left arrow back to “settings” where you repeat the beginning of #3 only switch back to D, K 6.5Mhz?

I have to do this every time I turn the AZ off and back on or I have NO audio on any TVs connected to that coax. And not only that but there isn't much volume available either as I stated in my first paragraph.


So has anyone else experienced this and if so, did you find a fix for it?


Thanks

 

[hd fan]

why are u using D,K? last time I checked in North America the standard is NTSC-M therefore the audio shlould be 4.5 Mhz away from the video carrier. an NTSC TV channel is 6 mhz wide , with the video carrier at 1.25 mhz above the lower boundary and audio at 0.25 mhz from the higher boundary therefore separated 4.5 mhz from the video carrier. your tv being ntsc-m compatible for north america is expecting audio at 4.5 mhz from the video carrier with in the 6 mhz channel. for more info read ntsc on wikipedia.

 

[Lone Gunman]

why are u using D,K?

FYI I'm using D,K because that is the only thing that will work at all of the 4 audio formats listed? And, to get any audio through the "TV Out" connector to the coax to the other TVs, I have to do EXACTLY what I wrote out in my original post?? Yeah, I don't understand it either but NO SOUND will come through that coax until I perform the above ritual. Video comes up every time though???

Oh, one mistake in the first post. There is no Svideo on this AZBox. RCA jacks only. The Svideo is on my DVD player.

 

[hd fan]

My premium + does not have that capability, maybe someone with an Elite can chime in and help you further. It is very strange what you describe since I beleive that D,K +6.5 even refers to the standard SECAM D,K so unless you bought those other TV's in France (acctually it uses SECAM-L) or any other SECAM country then you should hear no audio at all unless I guess the Elite is defective and what it says does not correspond to what it acctually outputs (I just remembered my Bell TV HD PVR receiver after the last firmware update it always outputs TV 2 out on ch 85 no matter what channel number I select on the menu) so I suspect this is the case here. Try another firmware , and earlier one if possible and see if it still happens.

 

[Lone Gunman]

My premium + does not have that capability, maybe someone with an Elite can chime in and help you further. It is very strange what you describe since I beleive that D,K +6.5 even refers to the standard SECAM D,K so unless you bought those other TV's in France (acctually it uses SECAM-L) or any other SECAM country then you should hear no audio at all unless I guess the Elite is defective and what it says does not correspond to what it acctually outputs (I just remembered my Bell TV HD PVR receiver after the last firmware update it always outputs TV 2 out on ch 85 no matter what channel number I select on the menu) so I suspect this is the case here. Try another firmware , and earlier one if possible and see if it still happens.

Hummm, you mean your Premium + has NO RF (coax) out for TV? That wouldn't work at my house cuz I don't have receivers at each of the 3 TVs in the house?? I only got one?

FYI, that TV output on my Elite is actually a PAL connector but I put an NTSC adapter on it so an F connector will hook to it.

Two TVs are USA models bought from WalMart years ago and my big screen projection TV is also a USA model bought from Circuit City a number of years back.

On the firmware deal, I've always had this problem and I've been changing firmware right along over the last year. I've also done several "resets" too and that didn't help either. Right now I'm on 5020 and everything works OK except for the audio thingie.

RE: Channel out? One of those TVs will receive the AZBox RF on channel 14 and the other receives it on 65?? If memory serves, the setting in that Display menu says 21??? Both those TVs normally receive signals on channel 3 from my 920.

 

[hd fan]

re channel out: I beleive ch 21 on the display menu on AZbox means ch 21 antenna mode or frecuency (513 Mhz) then in cable mode that would be close to ch 72!!!. not 65 (there is no much diff in frecuencies between the different cable modes IRC , HRC and STD). pretty much like the dual linear LNB (Focus brand) that a co-worker was using today that had the LO as 10781 or 31 Mhz above the normal 10750 I guess your AZbox is outputing the RF signal on another different frecuency rather than the one set in the display menu on azbox. (I am assuming you have tested the RF out with every tv independently eliminating intermodulation problems). Very extrange your azbox , funny that no other user seems to complain about it. like i said try testing every tv independently and make sure they are on antenna mode not cable and see which frecuency they tune in the video /audio with good quality. I use RF modulators for that , they are fairly cheap these days but the azbox premium plus should have kept the RF modulator in my opinion.

 

[Lone Gunman]

like i said try testing every tv independently and make sure they are on antenna mode not cable and see which frecuency they tune in the video /audio with good quality. I use RF modulators for that , they are fairly cheap these days but the azbox premium plus should have kept the RF modulator in my opinion.

Will try disconnecting other TVs. FYI, two of the three TVs are portables that are NOT cable ready, only one connection on them and it says "antenna" and is F connector. The Hatachi has 5 different inputs and right now I've got the AZ on one input, a DVD player on another, my 920 on one and an OTA digital converter box on the other so it's almost a full house on that one.

You said "I use RF modulators for that , they are fairly cheap these days" referring to what? Is this what you use with your Premium to get RF output to go to other TVs in your house? If so, then I might need to know what/where these are available and is it something that I can do here at home. Was thinking about upgrading to an Ultra for blind scan but if it's got no RF out then it's worthless to me.

Oh, and thanks for the replies!! I learn stuff but I'm 65 and a little slow at times!

 

[hd fan]

Try Frys.com at Fry's Electronics | . It has 3 of them at 20 USD but the first one , GE Jasco , unlike the other 2 (fixed ch 3 or 4 like old VCR's) has the avility to modulate the A/V input to any channel (I assume VHF/UHF from 2 to 69 but I it does not say) and it has 2 keys Ch UP /CH Down to set the RF output channel.

The blind scan on the ultra is very usefull if you use it as a hobby and almost insanely like most of us feel the urge to scan de skyes for new channels lol , but if you only need the STB for a few channels that you normally watch and just need to send the video/audio to other tvs in the home then just get an RF modulator and save your money. Well I would first test the azbox independently with every tv to troubleshoot what the problem is.

Your welcome , I am acctually surprised noone else has chimed in with ideas since that is the spirit of forums like this is, or at least naively I beleive so, lol.

 

[Lone Gunman]

UPDATE:

Bought and just received an RCA CRF-940 from a vendor on fleabay for $20 shipped and the problem is solved! I've got a little bit of snow in the pic but the audio is back to normal on channel 3. I've got to move some stuff around to get the snow out but other than that everything is OK.

This RCA modulator has 4 inputs that will allow me to connect other stuff to it as well.

And thanks again for your help as I've been fighting this problem now for over a year!:up

 

[hd fan]

Glad to hear that. So it only modulates ch 3 or ch 4 eh?. there should be no snow in the picture unless there is signal ingress in your inside cabling from a strong local OTA ch3 (or adjacent channels 2 or 4). If you have analog cable that uses ch 3 then you get more problems than just snow or maybe analog cable 2 or 4 in your home. Or, last possibility ,there are lots of signal loss for ch 3 frecuency due to bad connectors , humidity/rust on connectors or just a damages cable (more likely the connectors rusted/water specially if higher channels like 40 above are picture perfect).