Help! No Audio on 199 and 332

[michaelbudney]

This has been driving me nuts for some months now. On channels 299 and 332 (NickHD and Palladia) the Dolby Digital audio source on these channels breaks up. Originally the problem did not exist but I think it started after one of the CE updates but I'm on the national release now. I haven't seen this occur on any other HD channels yet.

On Nick it seems to be related to SD programs (broadcast in HD) but on Palladia it can impact either HD or upconverted SD. Most of the time the concert series on Palladia are fine but not videos. Commercials on these two channels always have the issue.

My theory is it might be related to 2 channel stereo sources over Dolby Digital. I can turn off DD in the audio setup and the stereo source is fine. However, that's not an acceptable solution for me. I could also get a new receiver, but the thing sounds amazing and it would be expensive to replace with something of equal quality. I've also tried several cables and both the optical and digital coax connections. No setting on the audio receiver fixes the issue. Also, playback from the buffer does not fix the problem as it does with some audio issues.

My audio receiver is a Sherwood Newcastle R-863 Sherwood Newcastle R-863T A/V Receiver. The DirectTV receiver was a HR21-700 and it also does it on a replacement HR22-100 they sent me because of this issue. I had hoped to get the HR23 as there were some reports of the audio being different on that box. I'm desperate enough to try a HR23 from retail if D can't send out a specific model.

There was an earlier CE that was really incompatible with my audio receiver. I and a few others with different makes of audio receivers reported it but it went national anyway. It was quickly corrected by another NR. This symptom sounds the same but only on the two channels.

 

[michaelbudney]

I just got off the phone with Sherwood. Wow, that company really knows how to do customer support.

Anyway, they suspect it has something to do with the way DirecTV is converting the 2 channel source to Dolby Digital. Either that or an issue is being introduced from the broadcaster.

I figure there must be other people experiencing a similar problem but not in large enough numbers to be heard.

I just looked back through my older posts and it started happening on 2/7/2008.

 

[talos4]

I watch Palladia quite a bit, Nick not so much anymore and have never had this issue.

I have a Yamaha receiver and have just recently changed my STB to an HR-22 from a HR-21.

I've seen the sporadic posts about the issue, but have not had a problem.

 

[michaelbudney]

Were the posts you read in regards to this channel or just the software issues that have crept up in the past? Just looking for some ammo to point at a source for the problem.

My kids watch Nick so that's a big deal for me. I basically have to not hide the SD dupes and manually tune to 299 sd. For Palladia I'm out of luck if the source is stereo. Well, I could change the audio option in setup if I really wanted to. Coincidentally, the engineer I spoke with at Sherwood was a fan of the Palladia channel.

Basically, I think there is a problem with the way DTV is converting the stereo sources from these channels to Dolby Digital. Sherwood suggested they should have an option to pass the original PCM stereo source through. So instead of On/Off there could be an On/Off/Both.