New TV (LG) hiccups on audio

[JohninSD]

Bought a new 32" LG HDTV last week and it works great except for one mysterious quirk - the audio stumbles or hiccups on two of the OTA channels I get. The other OTA channels work fine as do the feeds from my Roku and my Sonicview HD8000. If I use the ATSC tuner on the Sonicview and feed it to the TV via HDMI the audio works fine on those 2 channels, it's only when I use the TVs built in tuner that I have the problem. Anyone have any similar problems? Is it the TV? It seems like a firmware problem to me but LG doesn't seem to offer any way to update the firmware. I bought this set from Amazon and hate to think I'll have to ship it back if this is a hardware failure of some kind.


thanks,

John

 

[JohninSD]

Update;
I replaced the coax between the drop amp and the TV and the audio problems are almost gone. One of the two channels works fine now and the dropouts on the other are nearly gone. I have a new mast mounted preamp on order and will replace the rest of the coax when I install that. Fingers crossed.
John

 

[FrugalTV]

Hi John,
Thanks for posting. I'm having a similar experience with OTA on my new LG 42LD520. I have verified that I get decent signal strength (low 70's) and 100% signal quality while the issue is occurring.
I am using a Motorla BDA100 drop amp/signal booster between my antenna and the TV.
I'll try replacing my coax cables and see if that makes a difference. How did things end up working out for you?

 

[JohninSD]

Right now I have a somewhat awkward workaround. If it ever stops raining I'm going to try going up another 5 feet with my antenna mast. See this thread for the update


http://www.satelliteguys.us/digital-over-air-ota/237282-strange-audio-problem-vhf-channels.html

 

[msp]

Same issue with my new LG 42LD520. Antenna placement seems to have an effect but I can't completely get rid of the audio dropouts on a few channels. Like FrugalTV, signal is high 60's and quality is 100.

Hoping this isn't a firmware or hardware issue... I'll be interested to hear any solutions you guys come up with.

 

[JohninSD]

Sounds like LG has a marginal audio processor - maybe they don't care since most people use cable or DBS and this only affects the OTA users. Funny how the several year old Samsung has no problem feeding the 5.1 audio to the surround sound system but the few months old LG can't do it without dropouts. I haven't yet had a chance to raise the antenna another 5 feet - but the weather report is favorable for the week so maybe I can get it done - will report results.

 

[msp]

Just got off the phone with LG customer service. The rep told me to reset the tv (unplug for over a minute). I rolled my eyes but humored him... and it looks like it fixed the audio issue. We'll see if the problem comes back, I'll be interested to hear if it does anything for you guys.

EDIT: came back after a few minutes. Strange that it would have any effect, maybe something in the tuner is getting overloaded.

 

[mike123abc]

I had a similar problem with a local station. It was odd that it was mostly on one station but not others. I thought it might be my antenna amp that was out, but when I went to replace the amp I found the RG6 cable from the antenna to the amp had gone bad. I was removing it from the old amp and when I did about 2 inches of the core copper came out, the core must have broke in the cable. A new cable and kept the old amp and it is all working. The cable was a bit lose and I figure that the wind was moving it over the years and it developed the break. When the cable would flex in the wind it would momentarily break the connection and the audio would drop.

Needless to say it is all fastened down now with no way for the cable to move. This was not with just my LG set but with other sets in the house too.

Given that one station was affected far more than the others, I wonder how much error correction played a role. The other stations seem to have more error correction and could survive a brief interruption in signal. Or it could be that the affected station was already having some other issue (like multipathing) that error correction was already being used a lot on, and this was just pushing it over the edge.

 

[FrugalTV]

I've replaced all my cables with quad shield coax and adjusted my antenna. Audio cutouts have become less frequent (but have still occurred) and signal strength has improved to mid/upper 70's. Weather conditions have been fairly calm and clear during recent testing which would also help reception.
I had been running a cheap Magnavox digital converter box connected to a traditional tube TV for the past 18+ months with no audio issues.
LG support is confident that the symptoms are due to a reception issue. I don't disagree...but I expected the built-in LG tuner to be a little more tolerant.

 

[DRCars]

Given that one station was affected far more than the others, I wonder how much error correction played a role. The other stations seem to have more error correction and could survive a brief interruption in signal. Or it could be that the affected station was already having some other issue (like multipathing) that error correction was already being used a lot on, and this was just pushing it over the edge.

I would guess "some other issue (like multipathing) that error correction was already being used a lot on" since the ATSC standard for OTA digital broadcasting uses only FEC=2/3 and all stations should be using the same FEC.

I'm still wondering what's wrong with my Vizio HDTV that has a similar problem on only 3 channels out of 15 that I get. In the Vizio's case there is an irritating popping echo much of the time on only those 3 channels. I can't find anything in common about the 3 channels relating to audio type etc. When I first got the Vizio only 1 channel did it for several months then another started and now a third. All 3 channels have very good signal quality from 85-95%, I just can't figure out the common factor between the three. It sure sucks to get a new TV that irritates you.

DRCars

 

[mike123abc]

My TVs all showed good signal strength with the channel that would drop briefly and randomly (which was solved by replacement of the cable).

The 922 would freak out and drop the recording altogether!
The Panasonic Plasma would have an audio drop out and maybe some pixelization.
The TiVo would pixelate somewhat but really not drop audio. In fact I would watch the same program on the TiVo and TV with PiP and the TiVo would show no signs of problem when the TV would drop.
The LG LCD would have the biggest drop out.

 

[Jim5506]

Since the ATSC signal is "all in one" both audio and video are integrated into the whole signal, if you are not having video dropouts with the audio dropouts I would bet that the problem is either in the encoding/decoding of the signal or in the TV itself.

 

[mike123abc]

You notice audio drops far more than video ones. You can see some minor pixelization and your brain somewhat ignores it, but if the audio pops, drops, etc. It really brings it to your mind.

 

[roashru]

hello JohninSD, If you can select it try setting your TVs audio to PCM. If that gets you sound its your TVs demodulator.