High Def sound dropouts

DaCommish · ‎04-14-2008

I'm really starting to get aggravated over the sound dropouts during high def broadcasts. Has there been a solution? I have read and posted on this topic before, but still have not read a solution. Pausing live TV and starting a minute later is not a solution. In fact, my recorded HD has the same problem. Sometimes it happens 20 times in 5 minutes, other times I can go almost a whole show. Is this AT&T or the Broadcaster? Help me!

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

Search sound dropouts, there are many about 5.1 dolby sound dropouts, but I don't know if you have that setup and can't give you a thread reference. I hear them sometimes w/ no audio system, many days I don't hear them but the days I do hear them, I hear them all day.

Chris

I want Good weather w/radar & 6 day forecast -coming soon!
I want CBET Channel 9 Please NO SD stretch-o-vision HD Channels
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ChoochMohony · ‎07-22-2008

Unfortunately that is the optical out port on the back of our boxes, there's no fix but switching over to analog should correct the sound issues unfortunately there's no 5.1 channel sound on analog

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

I have noticed audio drop outs on sd tv of late. It happens on the big 3 networks for the most part, and in the evening.

Pip_2 · ‎09-30-2007

We get the audio dropouts on both SD and HD and they occur on various channels, but we notice them more on the Encore channels the most.

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

With system maintenance, weather, and equipment malfunctions we are always going to experience audio dropouts to some degree. However, I do realize that there are more times that they are related to equipment and or service issues occurring in the homes of some subscribers.

squareeyes · ‎11-07-2008

i've been experiencing audio dropouts via the optical out since i started the service months ago. it's not sporadic as much as it is continuous every minute to few minutes on all hd and sd programming, recorded and live. i'm on my third motorolla dvr, have trouble shooted (trouble shot?) the problem with tech support, and att still has not provided a fix. it's the only issue keeping me from wholly enjoying the service. att tech support in my area seems to be completely unaware that the problem exists with users other than myself. any fix would be well appreciated as i'm going to cancel the service if they can't resolve the issue by february.

Message Edited by squareeyes on 12-29-2008 07:32 PM

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

squareeyes wrote:

i've been experiencing audio dropouts via the optical out since i started the service months ago. it's not sporadic as much as it is continuous every minute to few minutes on all hd and sd programming, recorded and live. i'm on my third motorolla dvr, have trouble shooted (trouble shot?) the problem with tech support, and att still has not provided a fix. it's the only issue keeping me from wholly enjoying the service. att tech support in my area seems to be completely unaware that the problem exists with users other than myself. any fix would be well appreciated as i'm going to cancel the service if they can't resolve the issue by february.
Message Edited by squareeyes on 12-29-2008 07:32 PM

Send an email to David explaining your issue and how long you have had this issue. Along with any ticket numbers and or the names of csrs you have spoken to. Here is the link

http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?board.id=calling&message.id=344&query.id=4611#M344

oz_1 · ‎10-25-2008

i thought that there will be a firmware fix for this in January.

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

oz wrote:
i thought that there will be a firmware fix for this in January.

That would be great if there is. I hadn't heard about it but that doesn't mean anything.

randyl · ‎10-25-2007

oz wrote:
i thought that there will be a firmware fix for this in January.

rumors rumors

randy

SomeJoe7777 · ‎01-30-2008

oz wrote:
i thought that there will be a firmware fix for this in January.

The rumor is that it may be fixed in 1st quarter of 2009. But you know what they say about rumors ...

randyl · ‎10-25-2007

yep yep and that rumor had it to be release 1.6.3*** etc and we have passed that allready ??

randy

squareeyes · ‎11-07-2008

thanks rcsmg. i'll send a note to dave. however, i have spent a large amount of my time trying to solve this problem that att should take care of. i've been in contact with two different managers, three different installers and several tech support personnel without a solution and without their acknowledgement that this audio bug is a widespread issue. it feels like att has rushed to get their service out without properly testing their hardware and i don't feel like beta testing their equipment anymore.

while i appreciate the diligence of the different att csrs i've dealt with, i'm out of patience. if dave cannot provide a firm date for a fix (and by other posts on this forum about this issue i don't expect him to) then i'm switching back to cox cable in february. while their hd channels are limited and their dvr is cumbersome, at least it works as advertised.

rant over. thanks again for your help.

,r

RCSMG wrote:
squareeyes wrote:
i've been experiencing audio dropouts via the optical out since i started the service months ago. it's not sporadic as much as it is continuous every minute to few minutes on all hd and sd programming, recorded and live. i'm on my third motorolla dvr, have trouble shooted (trouble shot?) the problem with tech support, and att still has not provided a fix. it's the only issue keeping me from wholly enjoying the service. att tech support in my area seems to be completely unaware that the problem exists with users other than myself. any fix would be well appreciated as i'm going to cancel the service if they can't resolve the issue by february.
Message Edited by squareeyes on 12-29-2008 07:32 PM
Send an email to David explaining your issue and how long you have had this issue. Along with any ticket numbers and or the names of csrs you have spoken to. Here is the link
http://utalk.att.com/utalk/board/message?board.id=calling&message.id=344&query.id=4611#M344

Message Edited by squareeyes on 12-31-2008 09:56 AM

squareeyes · ‎11-07-2008

hey! i found a solution to the optical audio dropout. just invested in a new $600 receiver and now the audio only pops and hisses every few minutes. cox cable is looking better every minute.

has anyone considered a class action lawsuit against att for charging consumers for defective hardware? that might light the fire under their butts.

is there a lawyer in the house?

(countdown to post deletion by mod... 10, 9, 8...)

Message Edited by squareeyes on 01-02-2009 11:32 AM

ckellyne · ‎01-04-2009

fyi...I was having the SAME problem with dropped audio ONLY when watching HD channels and figured out the solution and no more audio problems when viewing / listening to HD channels. My system was installed October 31, 2008 and I had the tech out 3x and they couldn't fix it. They thought it was my audio receiver system which I knew it was not since it worked fine with other services and on non-HD channels. This is what I did to FIX the problem:

1. Select "Menu" with the remote

2. Scroll over to "Options"

3. Scroll over to "System Settings"

4. Select "System sound effects"

5. Select "Play sound effects" and then "Save"

Exit and I now listen to HD channels with NO audio drop whatsoever. Yes, I hear a sound effect when I use the remote to view the Guide, or Info for a channel, etc. but that is no problem. I'm not sure WHY this fixed it but there is obviously a bug and this is an EASY workaround to fix it.

randyl · ‎10-25-2007

ckellyne wrote:
fyi...I was having the SAME problem with dropped audio ONLY when watching HD channels and figured out the solution and no more audio problems when viewing / listening to HD channels. My system was installed October 31, 2008 and I had the tech out 3x and they couldn't fix it. They thought it was my audio receiver system which I knew it was not since it worked fine with other services and on non-HD channels. This is what I did to FIX the problem:

1. Select "Menu" with the remote
2. Scroll over to "Options"
3. Scroll over to "System Settings"
4. Select "System sound effects"
5. Select "Play sound effects" and then "Save"

Exit and I now listen to HD channels with NO audio drop whatsoever. Yes, I hear a sound effect when I use the remote to view the Guide, or Info for a channel, etc. but that is no problem. I'm not sure WHY this fixed it but there is obviously a bug and this is an EASY workaround to fix it.

interesting for sure ..... guess we need some more peeps with propblem to try your fix ?

my slant

randy

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

On another thread with this same topic another subscriber said they turned sound effects off and they stopped having audio dropouts on the hd channels. Maybe depending upon the receiver either turning the sound effects on or off may solve this issue. As Randyl said, more people need to chime in with their results after trying this fix.

Message Edited by RCSMG on 01-04-2009 11:18 AM

SomeJoe7777 · ‎01-30-2008

ckellyne wrote:
fyi...I was having the SAME problem with dropped audio ONLY when watching HD channels and figured out the solution and no more audio problems when viewing / listening to HD channels. My system was installed October 31, 2008 and I had the tech out 3x and they couldn't fix it. They thought it was my audio receiver system which I knew it was not since it worked fine with other services and on non-HD channels. This is what I did to FIX the problem:

1. Select "Menu" with the remote
2. Scroll over to "Options"
3. Scroll over to "System Settings"
4. Select "System sound effects"
5. Select "Play sound effects" and then "Save"

Exit and I now listen to HD channels with NO audio drop whatsoever. Yes, I hear a sound effect when I use the remote to view the Guide, or Info for a channel, etc. but that is no problem. I'm not sure WHY this fixed it but there is obviously a bug and this is an EASY workaround to fix it.

Unfortunately, this does not work correctly. Please see my response here.

ckellyne · ‎01-04-2009

When the receiver is setup the default is "Mute Sound Effects"...I have an optical connection to my Sony Receiver re: my config. I just changed the Sound Effect Setting from "Mute Sound Effects" to now be set at "Play Sound Effects"...the result, no more dropped audio when viewing HD channels. Very odd fix, but it works...it is golden now watching / listening to HD channels. There is obviously some kind of software conflict when that setting is set to "Mute" and it doesn't need to be. The default should be set to "Play Sound Effects" so this problem will be eliminated for a lot of customers.

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

ckellyne wrote:

When the receiver is setup the default is "Mute Sound Effects"...I have an optical connection to my Sony Receiver re: my config. I just changed the Sound Effect Setting from "Mute Sound Effects" to now be set at "Play Sound Effects"...the result, no more dropped audio when viewing HD channels. Very odd fix, but it works...it is golden now watching / listening to HD channels. There is obviously some kind of software conflict when that setting is set to "Mute" and it doesn't need to be. The default should be set to "Play Sound Effects" so this problem will be eliminated for a lot of customers.

Here is what SomeJoe wrote in another thread, about that solution.

A very good effort, but unfortunately, this is not working the way you think it's working.

When you have sound effects turned off, the U-Verse receiver will send the 5.1 Dolby Digital output directly to your AV receiver through the optical connection. This is what we want.

When you turn the sound effects on, what the U-Verse receiver does is internally decode the Dolby Digital audio to PCM, so that it can mix in the sound effects. It then sends the 2-channel PCM audio to the AV receiver.

When the U-Verse receiver internally decodes the Dolby Digital like this, the dropouts vanish, but you no longer get the 5.1 sound.

If you have an audio receiver that shows whether it's receiving PCM or DD, you can see this as follows:

1. Turn sound effects off.

2. Go to an HD channel with 5.1 audio. Your AV receiver will show DD. You will be getting 5.1 sound (probably with dropouts).

3. Turn sound effects on. Your AV receiver will now show PCM. You will only be getting 2.0 sound.

4. Turn the channel to a different channel, and then back to the one you were watching. Your AV receiver will show DD with 5.1 sound, and dropouts.

5. Hit guide to bring up the channel guide. You will get a sound effect, and your AV receiver will again revert to 2-channel PCM.

Basically, you're trading the lack of dropouts for the loss of 5.1 audio. This is equivalent to using the HDMI audio (2.0) or using the L/R stereo audio outputs (also 2.0).

So yes, you do eliminate the dropouts when turning on sound effects, but you also lose the 5.1 Dolby Digital, which is counterproductive.

ckellyne · ‎01-04-2009

Oh, I see what you are saying. I still hear sound from all 5 of my speakers with "Play Sound Effects" but it may not be 5.1...I'll have to check. I honestly did not notice but will trade 2.0 sound for an HD picture until they find a "real fix". I'll double check to see if I am reverting back to 2.0 sound as you said. Thanx for the heads up.

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

Your welcome.

oddness · ‎12-30-2008

After I filled out a survey negatively about how my problem had been handled by support, I got a call from AT&T and they asked for specifics about the problem, they told me they are very much aware of the problem and hoping to get some kind of fix out soon for the Toslink audio problem on HD channels. They told me the Cisco boxes have the same problem as the Moto boxes with optical outs. I told them to check these forums as well as uverseusers.com and do a search for optical audio dropouts. I also referred them to the engadget website where they mentioned the Cisco boxes as a cure for the widespread problem. I think they were convinced the problem does exist widely. Let's keep our fingers crossed...!