Sound Drop on Recordings

inazsully

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Feb 15, 2010
899
56
Sun City West, AZ
10 days ago I began to experience sound drop out on recordings. If I unplug my Hopper and do a cold reboot it's fine again for 3 or 4 days then the problem recurs. The reboot always works but only lasts for a few days. It's happened now four times. I'm rebooting as I type this. Watching regular non recorded TV is no problem.
 
I have massive sound drops when I watch NewsMax channel, almost unlistenable. I am guessing it is the receiver because when I watch the same recorded program on Dish Anywhere it sounds great. I am getting a new receiver next week so will see if that is the problem. Has there been any hardware changes on the Hopper since it was introduced 18 months ago?
 
Probably nothing that would cause this. Did you try swapping between dd and pcm? Did you try other audio cables? Are you using an av receiver or any online devices?

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I went though the very same thing the OP describes. My Hopper was connected to my Yamaha AVR via HDMI. Switching to PCM gets rid of the drop outs, but gets rid of DD as well. Switching HDMI cables did not work. The solution was to add a toslink cable and use that for audio between the Hopper and the AVR. Haven't had a drop out since.
 
I went though the very same thing the OP describes. My Hopper was connected to my Yamaha AVR via HDMI. Switching to PCM gets rid of the drop outs, but gets rid of DD as well. Switching HDMI cables did not work. The solution was to add a toslink cable and use that for audio between the Hopper and the AVR. Haven't had a drop out since.

Same problem with audio. Tried hooking optical for audio from hopper to yamaha rxv1065 and can't get it to play audio. Hdmi from yamaha to tv. What am I missing? Thanks.
 
I would suspect that, since not all AV Receivers are the same, it my end up in you going through the manual for your Yamaha to see if you have it set up properly to provide audio while at the same time you are sending video, via HDMI, to your TV.
I have a similar setup but using an Onkyo AVR.
Did you verify that the optical is lit at the receiver end. Could be a bad cable. They are somewhat fragile.
Seems like you should be able to resolve this............good luck.
 
It seems that nobody wants to blame the Hopper. How it is connected to the TV seems a moot point since a reboot of the Hopper makes the problem go away for several days. I've had the Hopper for almost one year and all other equipment is the same. Considering the possibility that a component could have gone bad I replaced the HDMI cables and TV inputs. No problems with the DVD player which is connected to the Yamaha 663 receiver via HDMI just like the Hopper. The only drop out problem is with the Hoppers recorded material. Keep in mind that everything worked fine for 10 months until a couple of weeks ago and that a cold reboot fixes the problem for several days. A also backed up (RW) from a drop out and replayed it and the drop out was no longer present. I did this several times on different recordings and the offending drop out never recurred. It does seem odd that so far every person that has a problem here in this thread is using a Yamaha.
 
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One great way to test, where the issue starts from, if you bypass the AVR, does the issue continue. If it does, then it is not a fault of the AVR. If it doesn't, then we can look into a setting within the AVR, cables, or a handshake issue between the two devices. I also have a Yamaha AVR with my HWS, and do not experience the issue.
 
Correct. On my Yamaha RX-A810, I needed to choose the correct input for the Hopper and switch "Audio In" from "HDMI" to "AV1".
I have a dumb question.
Correct. On my Yamaha RX-A810, I needed to choose the correct input for the Hopper and switch "Audio In" from "HDMI" to "AV1".
I have a dumb question. Are you running component or hdmi for video in addition to optical for audio? Doesn't look like I have the option to run hdmi with optical with my yamaha and would have to run a 25ft component cable thru my crawl space just to see if it fixes the audio drop out. Thanks
 
I have a dumb question.

I have a dumb question. Are you running component or hdmi for video in addition to optical for audio? Doesn't look like I have the option to run hdmi with optical with my yamaha and would have to run a 25ft component cable thru my crawl space just to see if it fixes the audio drop out. Thanks

I use HDMI for video. If your AVR won't let you choose between optical and HDMI for audio, then component may be your only option. Or a new AVR. ;)
 
OK the problem just started again. Forgive me here because I'm not trying to be a smart ass but I don't see how the problem can be anything but the Hopper. All of the possible problems suggest so far make no sense. The AVR does HDMI switching. The problem only happens during play back of recorded material. The problem goes away if I do a cold reboot. I don't see how this can relate to a bad HDMI cable or any problem with the AVR. It only happens during play back and it is fixed when I reboot only to recur after 4 or 5 days. I noticed that when the drop out happens the lights on the AVR momentarily flash which would indicate a momentary loss of signal. If it was the HDMi cable it should happen on any material. Same with the AVR. Am I missing something here? FYI, drop our occurs on ESPN, PBS, TNT, TBS, NBC, ABC. That's all I've confirmed.
 
Have you tried going directly to the TV with hdmi and wait a few days to see if it happens again? It could be the handshake between Hopper and avr and rebooting it reestablishes the handshake, fixing it.

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Has anybody tried skipping back 10 secs.? I have audio drops at times on both live and recorded programs, in all cases it does not drop audio during that played back 10 secs. I have an Onkyo.
 
OK the problem just started again. Forgive me here because I'm not trying to be a smart ass but I don't see how the problem can be anything but the Hopper. All of the possible problems suggest so far make no sense. The AVR does HDMI switching. The problem only happens during play back of recorded material. The problem goes away if I do a cold reboot. I don't see how this can relate to a bad HDMI cable or any problem with the AVR. It only happens during play back and it is fixed when I reboot only to recur after 4 or 5 days. I noticed that when the drop out happens the lights on the AVR momentarily flash which would indicate a momentary loss of signal. If it was the HDMi cable it should happen on any material. Same with the AVR. Am I missing something here? FYI, drop our occurs on ESPN, PBS, TNT, TBS, NBC, ABC. That's all I've confirmed.

I've been experiencing this as well, exactly the same as you, audio drop out every 15-20 seconds on recorded/on demand material only. It's very frustrating. I have my receiver (main hopper) connected to my Yamaha RX-V663 via HDMI for both audio and video. As you, I notice when it happens the "active speakers" on my AVR display flash indicating a loss of signal. Haven't had a problem until I upgraded to hopper set up a few weeks ago. When you find a solution/explanation please keep me informed as I agree... it's very irritating and frustrating.
 
Just a hunch based on what happened to me. Are you feeding into a Sony TV? If so they had some issues with HDMI sound drop outs. They (Sony) have a firmware fix but it did not resolve my issue. I resorted to component cable and all was fixed!
 
Visio also had/has a firmware issue that they have acknowledged with the audio. Not sure if that would affect any of you, especially since from what I read, you all mostly have avrs but it is worth noting.
 
I've been away for a week and turned on everything last night. Now I have no audio on several recorded programs (most are fine) on both the Hopper and the external hard drive. I've checked every connection again, tried rebooting by unplugging. When contemplating the problem being with the TV Sony 70x850b, or the AVR Yamaha 663, keep in mind this set up has been perfect for the last 9 months that I've had the Hopper. I also changed out all of the HDMI cables. One other thing that has just started happening. When I go to transfer from the Hopper hard drive to the EHD only half of the eligible transferable shows are listed. Everything below o (alphabetical) are not listed even though the measuring bar on the right side of the screen is only down half way. Can anyone suggest a DIRT team member that I might contact?
 
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