Sound only coming from rear speakers?

[briangtbc]

I have a ViP622 and have had this issue happen on and off for about a year. At times the audio will only come out of the rear speakers in my 5.1 setup. The center channel is completely silent and any dialog comes out the rear speakers.

This only seems to happen on HD broadcasts with Dolby Digital audio, but not all of them. It also only seems to happen with local channels. Most recently all of the Thursday night shows on NBC (Earl, Office, 30 Rock) had this problem. It has also happened a few times when watching Saturday night college football on ABC.

This is really annoying and no one at Dish seems to have an answer. They're sending out a replacement receiver, but I'm doubting that is the problem. Perhaps it's the local affiliate that's broadcasting? Anyone else experience this?

 

[Dirtydan]

What are your settings on the 622 in the Dolby Digital Settings, I use pcm and line?

 

[BuddyBoy]

What are your settings on the 622 in the Dolby Digital Settings, I use pcm and line?

PCM-only is the wrong setting for anyone with an A/V receiver hooked up to their Dish receiver. PCM-only prevents you from ever getting DD5.1 out of your Dish receiver.

FWIW, I've never heard the three fronts get mixed up with the surrounds.

 

[Dirtydan]

So what are the proper settings? I only use pcm when using HDMI direct to my tv, otherwise no sound from tv speakers. When set to pcm and using a/v receiver I still can get decent surround sound.

 

[jerryez]

Try checking all your audio cable connections on your output from your receiver and the inputs on your a/v receiver. Sometimes a loose connection on one of the wires will cause the a/v reciever to intrepret the decoding incorrectly. Wiggle each connection and firmly push it in. It could also be a bad cable, but that could be expensive to correct, so try the connections first. Then maybe you could purchase one cable and swap it out with the others, one at a time.

 

[briangtbc]

I'm 99.9% positive it is not a problem with my cables or the connection of the cables. If that were the case, I think I would experience the problem much more frequently and on multiple channels. As is stands, it is only on local channels.

It was messed up again today for the ACC Championship game on ABC, but now it is working correctly again. I still think it is a broadcasting issue with my local affiliate, but if that were indeed the case, I would think others would be experiencing the problem as well.

My settings on the 622 were Dolby Digital/PCM and RF Mode. I will try to change these and see if anything changes.

 

[BuddyBoy]

So what are the proper settings? I only use pcm when using HDMI direct to my tv, otherwise no sound from tv speakers. When set to pcm and using a/v receiver I still can get decent surround sound.

Well then you've never heard true discrete surround sound from your Dish programming then, as your setting would force everything to be downmixed to two channels first, and you're only getting surround sound by applying Dolby Pro Logic decoding to your two-channel input.

What you are doing is crippling the rest of your system due to a deficiency of your TV, which makes no sense at all to me. Since your TV can't accept AC-3 over HDMI, you have three choices:

1) Cripple everything and output PCM-only from the receiver (what you are doing now)
2) Leave the connections the way they are and switch back and forth from DD and PCM in the receiver's menu depending on whether you're listening to the TV's speakers or your A/V receiver (inconvenient)
3) Use two-channel analog connection to TV for audio (if your TV allows HDMI input w/separate audio - if it supports DVI it probably does) and leave menu at DD and PCM.

As far as I can tell, the selections "Dolby Digital and PCM" and "Dolby Digital only" are the same. I still get PCM audio from non-HD channels with "Dolby Digital only", which is the same behavior as the "Dolby Digital and PCM".

 

[Dirtydan]

My only audio to the tv is via HDMI, so I just might use the two channel analog if I ever need to use tv's speakers. I only use HDMI for watching HD DVDs, Component works best for my 722.

 

[bighick]

I didnt know tv's had speakers, So when it is always on a A/V receiver what should all the settings be?
PCM/DD/BOTH AND LINE/RF i think those are the options. I don't know what to use :x

EDIT
I am using HDMI for video and optical for audio (upgrading my receiver soon i hope)

 

[whatchel1]

1 from column A & 2 from Column B

I didnt know tv's had speakers, So when it is always on a A/V receiver what should all the settings be?
PCM/DD/BOTH AND LINE/RF i think those are the options. I don't know what to use :x

EDIT
I am using HDMI for video and optical for audio (upgrading my receiver soon i hope)

1 from column A & 2 from Column B