Had to reboot the DVR.  So far so good in the New Haven CT area.  Hooked up with HDMI to a sony soundbar.

Thanks for the update and summary.  So far, there has been no improvements to the issues outlined in my 9/8/2010 post to this thread.  I would appreciate your review and comment.  Thanks.!

I have to retract my statement.  Lasted about 15 min.  then the drop outs started.  This should have been corrected in the beginning.  I am wondering whether or not this is a ploy from AT&T to keep our business?  Just a thought.

I would like to hear from someone, anyone, who had the audio drop-outs previously, and now, it is completely fixed for them, on all channels.

For me, it seems fixed only on NBC and Fox, but not fixed on any other channels (including CBS, ABC, none of the ESPNs, and none of the pay channels HBO, SHO, STARZ, Cinemax of TMC).

Basically, at this point, the "fix" is worthless to me.

Thats a drag.  Maybe they are doing the fix regionally the way they do the rollouts.  It takes a bit of time for everyone to get it. 

I'm in St. Louis and assume the 'fix' isn't being applied to our area yet.

I'm about done with UVerse.  The DVR isn't that great and ongoing lack of reliable 5.1 sound for HD stations is RIDICULOUS!

Make sure you call cs and request they send you out the information to return the ATT equipment.  At 30 days they will bill you for the equipment, and it isn't worth the aggravation.

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Dashel wrote:

I'm in St. Louis and assume the 'fix' isn't being applied to our area yet.

 

I'm about done with UVerse.  The DVR isn't that great and ongoing lack of reliable 5.1 sound for HD stations is RIDICULOUS!

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I consider myself a TV fanatiac, but giving up on a provider over Dolby 5.1???? RIDICULOUS!

I have been struggling with the 5.1 issue for what seems like 2 years. In the last few weeks, things have improved, but are far from perfect. I was watching one of the pay movie channels a few days ago and the 5.1 audio was perfect for over the hour I watched. I was delighted. Yesterday the drops were back and quite noticable on several channels that were listed as "fixed". Thanks for trying but do not celebrate yet. The picture was perfect during these recent 5.1 audio dropouts. I am in the Chigago suburban market.

I found that rebooting the DVR seems to have improved things considerably.  If you haven't done this recently, it might be worth doing.   Still, probably going to get one of the sat tv deals - a nice pic with intermittantly choppy audio is just not worth the annoyance.   U-verse is just not quite ready for prime time, to create a mixed metaphor...

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dvlack wrote:

I have been struggling with the 5.1 issue for what seems like 2 years. In the last few weeks, things have improved, but are far from perfect. I was watching one of the pay movie channels a few days ago and the 5.1 audio was perfect for over the hour I watched. I was delighted. Yesterday the drops were back and quite noticable on several channels that were listed as "fixed". Thanks for trying but do not celebrate yet. The picture was perfect during these recent 5.1 audio dropouts. I am in the Chigago suburban market.

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Do you recall the channels you were watching, the frequency, and duration of the drops? The upgrade we've applied will not eliminate or care for all possible causes for audio discontinuity but the frequency of dropped audio should be much less than you experienced prior to the upgrade. I'm sorry for your experience but we do value any constructive feedback you provide.

I hope this response is not evidence of ATT UVerse attitude about its serious audio deficiencies vis a vis other satellite and cable providers.

I happen to like the UVerse system, services and programming (except the loss of Hallmark) but really hope the 5.1 HD sound is fixed better than it is now.  There are very few things more annoying than to get ready to watch a recorded show in HD only to discover that the sound has been dropped throughout the recording.

The ATT attitude SHOULD  be:  "We are very sorry this problem is still affecting you.  We are not sitting on this 5.1 fix but working DESPERATELY to make this a 100 percent fix with extremely few audio drops!!  Please stick with us a little longer."

Please make it so!!

I counted 11 significant audio drops during the Top Chef finale on Bravo last night.  That's all I can take.  Dish is being installed on Monday.   Good luck, everyone.   You'll evidently need it. 

Is more work going to be put into trying to fix this or is this it?  I hope not because if this is the final thing you're doing to try and fix this you'll be losing customers.

Personally, I hope that uVerse sticks around and continues to improve their services in the number of HD channels we get, the number of HD streams we get, and the quality of the HD picture.  Though, I have a feeling that there will have to be some massive overhawls of the copper networks in the neighborhoods to do all of what I hope AT&T will do with uVerse.

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trparky wrote:

 

Is more work going to be put into trying to fix this or is this it?  I hope not because if this is the final thing you're doing to try and fix this you'll be losing customers.

 

Personally, I hope that uVerse sticks around and continues to improve their services in the number of HD channels we get, the number of HD streams we get, and the quality of the HD picture.  Though, I have a feeling that there will have to be some massive overhawls of the copper networks in the neighborhoods to do all of what I hope AT&T will do with uVerse.

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wd0423 posted this earlier:

 

The "fix" being deployed corrects a clocking compatibility issue existing between two of the network elements in our head ends. This issue manifests itself as CRC errors to our HD encoders. The encoder, when detecting the error, will output a PA alignment error that is detected at the input of the STB along with the momentary loss of audio due to a dropped packet (or packets). Some AVRs handle dropped audio packets more gracefully than others, as you can infer by the various posts here, in that they buffer their audio input and repeat the last known good packet in the event an audio drop is detected. This results in some AVRs experiencing audio drops where others seem to work just fine. That presented a problem for us in being able to reliably reproduce the problem, not only in our Labs, but in our vendor's labs as well, to facilitate root cause analysis and appropriate remediation. As SomeJoe7777 correctly surmised in a previous post, we will be implementing this error concealment technique on the next scheduled HD encoder software upgrade. This "fix" we're presently deploying was tested in our Labs and by our vendors. Once Labs testing was completed, we rolled this fix out to the local HD channels in Austin, Texas as well as six National HD channels where they were monitored for 30 days by AT&T Labs, Operations personnel and friendlies in the Austin area that experienced AC3 5.1 dropouts prior to the "fix."  This "fix" was also implemented by one of our competitors experiencing the same issue with 5.1 audio some time ago. Can you still experience dropped audio with them on 5.1? Yes you can. As I've stated previously, this fix corrects a very specific issue. It's a real issue and this is a real fix. Are we done? Heck no. We'll keep at it. We share your frustrations (although I know it doesn't always appear that way). We know the service is far from perfect but we all take a lot of pride in how far we've brought it since it was launched.

It seems that they know there is still work to be done.

Ok, just as long as they know that there is more work to be done.

CBS in Orlando is not fixed.  Survivor last night was unwatchable.  However, many channels do appear to be fixed.  At this point CBS is the only channel I'm seeing as not fixed, although I have not watched them all.

If I had to estimate, I'd say the drops are about equal to as they were previously.  Strange, since CBS was always the worst for me in terms of the dropouts.

My Tv was installed today and I am diehard for disc science and history so if I have any drops happen I will post back.

wdo43 -

Are there any plans to address picture quality as well?  The picture is more pixelated compared to Comcast cable even, especially during fast movement.

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ERIC8585 wrote:

wdo43 -

 

Are there any plans to address picture quality as well?  The picture is more pixelated compared to Comcast cable even, especially during fast movement.

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That's been a long standing complaint around these forums.  Honestly, if you ask me, the HD quality has gotten better over the last couple of months.  When I first got uVerse about a year ago it wasn't that good, black-levels were all wrong.  Fast-forward to today and there's a noticable difference in what was then and what it is now.

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trparky wrote:

 

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ERIC8585 wrote:

wdo43 -

 

Are there any plans to address picture quality as well?  The picture is more pixelated compared to Comcast cable even, especially during fast movement.

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That's been a long standing complaint around these forums.  Honestly, if you ask me, the HD quality has gotten better over the last couple of months.  When I first got uVerse about a year ago it wasn't that good, black-levels were all wrong.  Fast-forward to today and there's a noticable difference in what was then and what it is now.

 

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While I can't speak to specific strategies, I can tell you we are actively exploring options for improving HD video qualtiy, especially on high motion content. 

Watched WFAA Channel 8( ABC in Dallas) news in HD 5:30 PM to 6:00 PM CST on 9-16-10.  Several 15 to 45 second audio drops in the "Surround" digital sound mode.

Had to revert to "Stereo" to get reliable sound AGAIN! (BTW, I have zero audio drops in the stereo mode.

Please keep working on this!!!

CBS in Orlando is not fixed.  Survivor last night was unwatchable.  However, many channels do appear to be fixed.  At this point CBS is the only channel I'm seeing as not fixed, although I have not watched them all.

If I had to estimate, I'd say the drops are about equal to as they were previously.  Strange, since CBS was always the worst for me in terms of the dropouts.

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I concur with the above...Survivor was a mess on Thursday here in Orlando.  CBS continues to be one of the worst offenders (Neil Diamond's primetime concert last year had dropouts every 3 min)--the other notable channel i've seen is Palladia who's concerts cut out too.  Those really are noticeable and disconcerting. 

gbh62...try that Palladia channel if you have it and see what you get.

Dropouts during a concert are indeed disconcerting... 

I've been having audio problems in 5.1 for some time,and the techs seem to think I'm crazy or something..  The problem is the audio cuts out for less than a secon, sometimes it happens sequentially, lie a short stuttering.  Seems to happen mostly in evening, but havenoticed dukring the day.  I do have it switched through a receiver with HDMI, but have played around with inputs and now have it set up with optical.Still happens and is very annoying.  The issue doesn't occur with other inputs or over the air. Is this the problem that the audio fix is directed to? If so, anyway to get a fix? I am in the Kansas City area.

By posting, your situation will be looked at by the ATT person on the first post of this thread.

 

Make sure you have all the settings correct as he asked for in that post.

 

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hmarch wrote:

I've been having audio problems in 5.1 for some time,and the techs seem to think I'm crazy or something..  The problem is the audio cuts out for less than a secon, sometimes it happens sequentially, lie a short stuttering.  Seems to happen mostly in evening, but havenoticed dukring the day.  I do have it switched through a receiver with HDMI, but have played around with inputs and now have it set up with optical.Still happens and is very annoying.  The issue doesn't occur with other inputs or over the air. Is this the problem that the audio fix is directed to? If so, anyway to get a fix? I am in the Kansas City area.

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Obviously you aren't alone hmarch...after blowing it off for over a year they are just now getting around to trying to figure it out.  Be patient--if you can.

Hey...while they are at it, is it possible we can join the rest of civilization and actually get SLOW-MO on the DVR (it is football season as you know).  Is it really THAT difficult to get that added? 

One more pet peeve:  When I had DTV and I "missed" a show, as long as it was still in the buffer I could record it (makes sense right?).  With AT&T, as soon as the show's ALOTTED TIME passes, (regardless if still in buffer) you are screwed and can't record anymore.  I dont know how many times that's come back to bite me...

I  really did not notice this until last spring.  Did have other problems of pixeling etc but those seem minimized now,  My dropouts are of a very short length but extrememly annoying.  Especially watching a concert.  Was considering going the sat route but might wait it out a bit if I'm having the same problem everyone else seems to be having.  I had an appt with a tech, set 4 days in advance,and all he did was call me up  and suggest it was my receiver that was the problem (and a veiled threat that they would charge for the service call if nothing wrong was found).  After playin around with different inputs for a while, I'm pretty sure the receiver is not the problem.   I did watch a syfy show this afernoon, since the fix was supposed to have been rolled out to that channel.  I still experienced 2 instances in an hour, but did not seem as bad as on my local channels. Jury is still out here. Paying what we do for this service, they ought to get it fixed completely.

I got ~one second dropouts about every ten-to-fifteen minutes in Starz West HD (1903) during the movie "2012" today (9/18) during the afternoon showing.

Chicago, Yamaha RX-Z7, HDMI audio, from the Cisco DVR.

I loss Count how many HDMI Audio drops outs I get through the day. These Audio drops outs are so random. Any Channel any time of day or night,