# L3.65 Audio Loss Issues - Report Here.



## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Please post all details of audio loss issues here. I am trying to collect as much information as I can about it. Things to note:

* What were you watching when it happened? i.e. Station, HD, SD, OTA, Show
* Was it Live, Delayed, or a DVR Event?
* What did you do if anything right before you lost audio? i.e. pause, stop, exit a show, etc ...
* What mode are you running in, Single or Dual?
* Did the front panel lights all go out when it happened?
* How did you have to recover, i.e. front panel reboot.
* What type of audio connection are you using? HDMI, Optical, RCA?
* Anything else you think might be useful.

Thanks everyone for your help.

Also, if your audio issues seem to have been address with L3.65 report here also.


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## karspur (Aug 16, 2006)

So far so good here with L3.65. I was having frequent audio losses that I had reported in other threads. I have been watching KABC for the last two hours, as I do almost daily at this time, and have had no problems yet. During the last week I was having at least three or four drop-outs during this time. Happy camper here so far, even if I did miss the first few minutes of Supernatural last night. If this has fixed the problem, I can deal with that minor problem!


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## bigwave (Sep 27, 2006)

On 09-27-06, I had my existing vip622 replaced with another one. That day, I had a few quick audio drop outs which came back after about a split second. No need to reboot. No picture problems. I am new to all this satellite stuff, so how do I know if I have L3.63 or 3.65?


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## boylehome (Jul 16, 2004)

At present all 4 ViP622 receivers are running very well with L365. Audio is great. I have also noticed that my, "Lost Lock" issues are gone!


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## cooldude919 (Sep 21, 2006)

bigwave said:


> On 09-27-06, I had my existing vip622 replaced with another one. That day, I had a few quick audio drop outs which came back after about a split second. No need to reboot. No picture problems. I am new to all this satellite stuff, so how do I know if I have L3.63 or 3.65?


Hit the menu button twice. Should say either 363 or 365.


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## markdc (Sep 27, 2006)

The big test will be this weekend with all the football games. I'll post my results on Monday.


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## bigwave (Sep 27, 2006)

cooldude919 said:


> Hit the menu button twice. Should say either 363 or 365.


Thanks cooldude, I'll give that a try. Yes, the football games will be a test. I'll post back after the weekend and advise if I have any problems.


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## wlambert38 (Jul 16, 2006)

Audio has improved with L365 upgrade. I still get a very quick "blurp" when audio makes the transistion (after skipping through commercials) from stereo to DD 5.1 on some HD recordings. I guess the sound is catching up with the picture during the skipping. This, however, is minor compared to the audio drops that would periodically occur during the middle of HD, DD 5.1 recordings with the earlier L363.


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## tomcrown1 (Jan 16, 2006)

How about have not gotten L365??


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Hmm would have figured everyone would have gotten it by know.. Well wait until you get it and give it a spin before voting. Based on the posts so far, looks like improvment in the audio area has occurred.

I am curious about the 2 folks that voted they had no issues but L3.65 introduce some.


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## gsarjeant (Sep 15, 2006)

My issue with brief, intermittent, non-reboot-inducing dropouts appears to be fixed with 2.65. Thanks!


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

My second 622 had no sound this morning on the second tv and a reboot fixed it. My first 622 has been operating just fine since I received the new software.


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## redfish99999 (Sep 26, 2006)

Within one hour of a replacement vip622 arriving at my home(but was never installed), the audio dropout problem stopped happening.....

Either:

1. a software fix was downloaded
2. the installed vip622 was jealous and decided to work
3. PFM....(pure f* magic)

I'm holding the replacement box until I have confidence in the old one.....

Q: Is there ANY reason to install the replacement 622????


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## nightfly85 (Oct 6, 2005)

If it is a different hardware revision, yes.


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

Thia afternoon I was trying to watch some college football. CBS HD frm Los Angeles. Sat 148 not sure of which transponder. Dual mode, live not delayed, I kept having "green screen pixelation" and the new 1 - 2 second audio dropout. If I switch to the SD feed no problems ......just the HD feed. Still using HDMI also.


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## Sam 8 (Feb 4, 2006)

I have not paid much attention to the forums lately; we have had no problems up until this latest update.
No, for the first time, I am experiencing audio dropouts, noticed first on Equator HD and a couple of other HD specific channels.


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## munsel6 (Oct 26, 2003)

I didn't have audio issues until 363 but things seem to be ok with 365


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## bavaria72 (Jun 10, 2004)

Unfortunately I am now having problems with loss of audio whether OTA or sat. Basically it seems that my receive looses any type of input from the 622. I have to hardboot the box. It is happens about every 3 days.


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## phatal (May 15, 2006)

I have 2 vip622's connected via HDMI to their respective HDTV's. This morning one of them had no sound at all. Disconnected/re-connected the HDMI cable from the back of the 622 and sound returned. Both are running L365.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

I am seeing green pixelation/macro blocking at least 10 times during an hd show last night on DIsh channel 6390-ABC HD CHANNEL 13 in Houston. Also audio drop outs and warbeling during Good Morning America today.


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## Slordak (Dec 17, 2003)

I'm seeing two separate issues (via optical connection):

1) The audio seems to studder at some points for roughly a second, as if the 622 is intentionally repeating the last audio frame in order to avoid the audio cutting out for that period of time. The signal strength and video are fine, but the audio gets a brief repeat, as in "St-st-st-st-studder".

2) The audio is still cutting out completely for some brief periods of time, although it seems to be coming back on its own. This can cause a word or a sentence to be dropped. Again, the signal strength and video are fine.

It does seem like the 622 is trying to do some sort of synchronization catch-up in some cases, which causes it to play audio with no video or vice versa, but the current solution is not exactly ideal.


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## mchaney (Aug 17, 2006)

With 3.60 I had very few dropouts, maybe 1 or 2 in an hour show. Now I have a half dozen or more every hour on both OTA and satellite. 3.65 seems much worse for me in this regard. Using Toslink on a Yamaha RX-V2600 but the audio is also going through a VP30 scaler which has issues of its own. IMO, it's really a sad state of affairs when it comes to HDMI and DD. There always seem to be bugs or "incompatibilities" with digital audio/video to the point that almost every piece of equipment out there will have problems with some other equipment. I really wish manufacturers could get their act together and produce compatible equipment and/or make sure the equipment follows specs. These bugs are frequent and not limited to any one device and are really getting annoying. I'm starting to think the weak link might be some commonly produced chip that has inherent/intermittent bugs: a chip that most people are using.

Mike


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## aszulc (Feb 5, 2004)

I have noticed audio drop outs on 365 different from 363. I seem to lose the voice track and get the backgroud track for episodes btween commercials . This happens on all dvr recordings and is intermetant.


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## mchaney (Aug 17, 2006)

aszulc said:


> I have noticed audio drop outs on 365 different from 363. I seem to lose the voice track and get the backgroud track for episodes btween commercials . This happens on all dvr recordings and is intermetant.


I had something similar yesterday but thought it was just the broadcast. After pausing/forwarding I lost the voice track up front (center channel went out) and it sort of shifted to the rear speakers at half volume. Rewinding and then forwarding fixed it. Maybe a bug now that I hear I'm not the only one?

Mike


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## vttom (Sep 29, 2006)

I initially reported in the 3.63 thread that I was having audio problems with a local OTA HD station. It persisted through the 3.65 upgrade. To make a long story short, it turned out to be a problem at the broadcaster's end after all. Their PSIP data wasn't quite right. An email to the engineer got it straightened out. So far so good...


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

aszulc said:


> I have noticed audio drop outs on 365 different from 363. I seem to lose the voice track and get the backgroud track for episodes btween commercials . This happens on all dvr recordings and is intermetant.


I had that occur last Tuesday evening on an OTA channel. I could not watch Boston Legal because of no voice track. It was only that one channel and a 622 soft boot did not help. It was on both live and recorded. Commercials and the background music came in loud and clear. If the sound was turned up all the way you could just make out what they were saying but when the background kicked in you would get blasted out. I thought it was the broadcast. Everything was fine the next day.


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## markdc (Sep 27, 2006)

I still had problems this weekend with Sunday Night football on NBC (HD). It wasn't as bad as last week and pausing seemed to help. I'll vote after I watch MNF tonight. 

It appears to me that they made some improvements but the problem is not completely fixed. I never experienced any technical issue like this with my prevous provider so this is frustrating and I hope they can get it fixed soon.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Markdc..

Says you are in the LA area... Assuming SoCal and that is where I am also located. Are you seeing this on your Dish HD locals or are you seeing this on Dish OTA. I have definitely seen more audio issues with Dish HD locals that date back before L3.63 than on OTA. 

L3.63 made things worse. L3.65 has improved things but I did get a popping sound last night on a Dish HD local. For me.. 3.65 made things much better but still running into an occassional audio issue.


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## bigwave (Sep 27, 2006)

Before the update, I had no audio when I turned the system on, so I would have to reboot. Then, once everything was working, the audio would go out when ever it wanted to, and I would have to regoot again. This would happen several times per day. Since the update, I have not had to reboot once. On one or two occasions the day after the update the audio went out for a split second but came back on its own. Since then....no problems. Audio connected to surround system via optical connection.


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

aszulc said:


> I have noticed audio drop outs on 365 different from 363. I seem to lose the voice track and get the backgroud track for episodes btween commercials . This happens on all dvr recordings and is intermetant.


I experienced the same thing on dvr recordings of Law & Order last Friday night, NBC, sat local 004 (don't have OTA) and Cold Case Sunday night, CBS, sat local 002. My locals are out of Los Angeles. I don't have OTA. Friday night the voice track came back on after 40 minutes of no voice. Cold Case had the voice track cut out intermittently throughout the broadcast. In both cases, when the voice track was non-existent, the screen would go to a 4x3 display, then the voice track would come back on, then the screen would go to a 16x9 display. On Cold Case this happened numerous times - both recordings from the two shows were unwatchable.

I have the audio hooked up via optical to my a/v receiver. I also have it connected via rca composite to a dvd recorder and the sound was the same on both connections. Fastforwarding, rewinding or pausing did not correct the problem and the voice track would go out during Cold Case when I wasn't doing anything but watching it - not pausing, ffing or rewinding. Commercials were fine just the voice track on the actual programs was lost. Didn't happen during the footballl games recorded on the same channels only network programs.


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## David_Levin (Apr 22, 2002)

Loss of center channel could also be a problem at the source.

Last Sundays West Coast Feed of Cold Case also had the video flipping between 16:9 & 4:3 as the audio went in and out (that's the channel messing around trying to get the audio back).


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

David_Levin said:


> Loss of center channel could also be a problem at the source.
> 
> Last Sundays West Coast Feed of Cold Case also had the video flipping between 16:9 & 4:3 as the audio went in and out (that's the channel messing around trying to get the audio back).


I also thought it was source after it happened on Law & Order. But now seeing the same thing happen on Cold Case - different network - I am more inclined to think it is a software problem.

I sent an e-mail to [email protected] regarding the problem.


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## Rommel (Aug 28, 2006)

When was the update done? I'll check when I get home which version I have but I did lose audio last night when switching from dvr SD to live HD.


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## markdc (Sep 27, 2006)

Ron Barry said:


> Markdc..
> 
> Says you are in the LA area... Assuming SoCal and that is where I am also located. Are you seeing this on your Dish HD locals or are you seeing this on Dish OTA. I have definitely seen more audio issues with Dish HD locals that date back before L3.63 than on OTA.
> 
> L3.63 made things worse. L3.65 has improved things but I did get a popping sound last night on a Dish HD local. For me.. 3.65 made things much better but still running into an occassional audio issue.


Dish HD locals. I get the LA locals but I can't tune OTA in my area. Definately more problems with HD locals than others. 3.65 is an improvement, but I still don't think it's fixed. I've only been a customer for about a month so I think I started with 3.63.

-Mark


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## hmcewin (Jun 30, 2006)

Watching DVR of CBS Smith tonight . Lost all audio. Tried live on other stations and audio was dead. Had to do soft reboot to regain audio.


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## geoinacton (Jun 17, 2006)

Only getting 6-10 audio dropouts per show, mostly together in a cluster. The dropouts are much shorter in duration than before and have not had the total audio losses that I got with 3.63

* What were you watching when it happened? i.e. Station, HD, SD, OTA, Show
KNBC HD, was watching NCIS
* Was it Live, Delayed, or a DVR Event?
Delayed
* What did you do if anything right before you lost audio? i.e. pause, stop, exit a show, etc ...
Was just watching - not hitting any buttons.
* What mode are you running in, Single or Dual?
Single
* Did the front panel lights all go out when it happened?
No
* How did you have to recover, i.e. front panel reboot.
Did nothing - it quickly recovered on its own.
* What type of audio connection are you using? HDMI, Optical, RCA?
Optical
* Anything else you think might be useful.
Another show (NOVA on PBS in SD) was recording at the same time.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

6-10 I would consider excessive. Was this on your DIsh HD locals or OTA? I am also in SoCal and I have not been seeing minor audio loss to the point I have not noticed it. Once a day perhaps? Any video breakup?


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## roguenode (Sep 26, 2006)

I've seen audio dropouts on the dvr content I've recorded since getting my replacement 622 (L3.65) a few days ago. Here are the details:

* What were you watching when it happened? i.e. Station, HD, SD, OTA, Show
Was watching local SD, recording HD (Rush - Boston Bike Battle), audio problems in the HD recording, not the SD I was viewing. 

* Was it Live, Delayed, or a DVR Event? DVR event.

* What did you do if anything right before you lost audio? i.e. pause, stop, exit a show, etc ...
Nothing, sound drops, followed by slight freeze/studder in video, then both come back a few seconds later. Easily half a dozen times during the program.

* What mode are you running in, Single or Dual? Dual.

* Did the front panel lights all go out when it happened? No.

* How did you have to recover, i.e. front panel reboot. - Just wait.

* What type of audio connection are you using? HDMI, Optical, RCA? Optical

* Anything else you think might be useful. 
I've actually had this happen both times I've recorded HD content this week. The first time it only happened a couple of times during the playback and I was not watching anything during the recording. I have recorded 3 SD programs during same period. None of them have had audio issues. Since I don't watch much live tv, I don't know if it's confined to DVR content at this point.


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## bigwave (Sep 27, 2006)

I have had split second audio drop outs, but the audio comes right back. Some nights it happens 2-3 times per night, sometimes not at all. Very unpredictable. I have had a few instances of picture freeze the past couple of nights, but it only lasts a second or two and returns to normal by itself. When the picture freezes, sometimes the audio drops, sometimes it doesnt. I would say that since the update, the performance of my 622 is about 97% better.


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## dude2 (May 28, 2006)

I had some problems with audio (raspy sounding voices) prior to 363 but after that no problems and with 365 I have found everything the same as 363.
Does anyone know what dish did in software 365?


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## benn5325 (Mar 16, 2004)

I seem to have audio issues with HD channels only. Nothing specific, it can happen at any time.
I am connected to an A/V receiver with an optical cable.
The sound will drop for a spit second then come right back.
I also get what I can only describe as a rapid deep burring sound that’s lasts about a second every now and then.
As I said, this only happens during HD programming, SD seems to be fine.


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## langlin (Apr 8, 2005)

As far as I'm concerned, the audio problem I had is fixed with 365.

-Leon


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## stol (May 31, 2006)

Since I received 3.65, sometimes when I turn on the ViP622, I have no audio on my TV (HDMI) or from the optical. TV2 through the modulator is working fine. 

Changing channels, turning off and on, playing recording, nothing makes sound work.

The only way I can get the audio back in the reboot the ViP622. It has happened twice so far, I did a soft boot and a hard boot the second time.


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## GG_Elgin (Jan 9, 2006)

Brand new 622 installed Oct. 1. Only noticed the audio issues with recorded content but experienced the stutter and then drop-out. Happened about once a minute. Recorded program from local ABC affiliate in HD.

* What were you watching when it happened? i.e. Station, HD, SD, OTA, Show
Recorded HD ABC broadcast.

* Was it Live, Delayed, or a DVR Event? DVR.

* What did you do if anything right before you lost audio? i.e. pause, stop, exit a show, etc ...
Did nothing.

* What mode are you running in, Single or Dual? Single.

* Did the front panel lights all go out when it happened? No.

* How did you have to recover, i.e. front panel reboot. No way to recover.

* What type of audio connection are you using? HDMI, Optical, RCA? Optical.

* Anything else you think might be useful.


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## UTFAN (Nov 12, 2005)

Ron Barry said:


> Please post all details of audio loss issues here. I am trying to collect as much information as I can about it. Things to note:
> 
> * What were you watching when it happened? i.e. Station, HD, SD, OTA, Show
> * Was it Live, Delayed, or a DVR Event?
> ...


We lost audio twice while watching the NASCAR race at Talladega on Denver HD local KUSA. We're also experiencing audio distortion on ABC HD affiliate KMGH.

We weren't doing anything out of the ordinary, the audio simply went a way. Front panel resets took care of it.

Audio distortion has been around, mostly on the ABC affiliate. On DVR records of ABC HD it is simply unwatchable due to poor audio quality.


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## cooldude919 (Sep 21, 2006)

lost audio last night after watching a DVR'd show and going back to live tv. Front panel reboot fixed it.


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## zdman (May 26, 2006)

Never had an audio loss until now (with 365). I have had my 622 for about 4 months with no problems. Since I have gotten the latest software it has had two problems, once it just shut off during DVR playback and rebooted. That happened two days ago and has not happened again. Today I had a complete loss of audio on all channels. My daughter paused the show she was watching (not sure what but was in SD) when I came in the door from work, then started it back about 15 seconds later. Once she hit play again, there was no audio. I changed channels, turned the box off and on and still nothing. Finally unplugged it and plugged it back in, that restored the audio. I will try and record more details if it happens again.


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## JerryEl (Oct 10, 2006)

Had many short audio problems watching Monday Night Footbal on DVR last night Some minor pixelation.

Since I installed a Thermaltake USB fan blowing in the slots on the front left side I've had no reboot issues. Not one!

A new issue has cropped up in the last week or so where it won't let me leave a channel that is being recorded and says I have to stop recording in order to change channels. This when only that one recording is taking place and nothing in scheduled timers conflicting. IOW's it acts like the unit is in dual mode but I never use dual mode. Don't know when the software was updated to 3.65 and if that had anything to do with it.


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## tedb3rd (Feb 2, 2006)

I do not experience audio loss until pressing pause on an HD channel. After that, all channels have no audio. It requires a reboot to correct. There are significant audio SYNC problems with local HD stations via satellite (Channel 2 in Atlanta~notice this on local news, but this might be due to the fact that the station just switched to broadcasting news in HD.)


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

If a tuner is being used to record a program, you can't change the channel that tuner is set on without the warning and stopping the recording. You have to switch to a different tuner, either use the Guide to switch directly to an OTA channel if that's what you want or swap to the other tuner. You can't use the channel up or down remote buttons if the next channel is of the same type (sat or OTA) that the tuner is using for recording.


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## benn5325 (Mar 16, 2004)

LOST last night was awful..... Audio kept dropping about every 2 mins.


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## voripteth (Oct 25, 2005)

I had major frustrations with sound dropping out or being garbled with Lost last night as well. It seems that WLS-ABC in Chicago and Dish just aren't getting long very well. Interestingly enough I didn't see any video corruption on the HD picture while the sound was going wonky.

About halfway through the episode the sound started to work correctly again. I'm not sure why it would act funny for only half the episode.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

benn5325 said:


> LOST last night was awful..... Audio kept dropping about every 2 mins.


What channel? I watched it Delayed on OTA and did not have any audio loss. Was it a Dish HD local? If so what one. My guess is they are still tweaking the Dish HD locals and that is resulting in a lot of the Audio issues people are saying. Definitely not all of them, but a lot.


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## benn5325 (Mar 16, 2004)

Ron Barry said:


> What channel? I watched it Delayed on OTA and did not have any audio loss. Was it a Dish HD local? If so what one. My guess is they are still tweaking the Dish HD locals and that is resulting in a lot of the Audio issues people are saying. Definitely not all of them, but a lot.


Channel 7 Chicago, same problem as Voripteth. Yes, DISH local.
As he said, there was a stint about 1/2 way through when it was fine, then towards the end again the sound kept dropping.


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## geoinacton (Jun 17, 2006)

I just experienced a total loss of audio on both optical and RCA outputs. That's the first time I've had that since 3.65 was downloaded. As mentioned in my previous post, I have also had momentary audio dropouts on occasion, though less often than with 3.63

* What were you watching when it happened? i.e. Station, HD, SD, OTA, Show
Was watching Numbers (KCBS) in HD, from satellite locals
* Was it Live, Delayed, or a DVR Event?
DVR event recorded last Friday night, viewed tonight (Sunday).
* What did you do if anything right before you lost audio? i.e. pause, stop, exit a show, etc ...
Repeated the same scene 3 times by using the "skip back" button. Then pressed pause. Then pressed play and the audio was completely gone. Stopped and switched to live TV, still no audio.
* What mode are you running in, Single or Dual?
Single
* Did the front panel lights all go out when it happened?
No
* How did you have to recover, i.e. front panel reboot.
Front panel reboot fixed it.
* What type of audio connection are you using? HDMI, Optical, RCA?
Both optical and RCA outputs were connected to my receiver. Audio loss was on both outputs.

I tried to recreate the problem after the front panel reboot, but I was unable to.


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## geoinacton (Jun 17, 2006)

Ron Barry said:


> 6-10 I would consider excessive. Was this on your DIsh HD locals or OTA? I am also in SoCal and I have not been seeing minor audio loss to the point I have not noticed it. Once a day perhaps? Any video breakup?


Hi Ron. It was on dish locals - OTA signals are extremely weak in my area. I get maybe 10-15 dropouts per hour, but they occur within a period of a few seconds. Then I hit the stop button and resume and I can go back and repeat the same scene with no problems. No video breakup until tonight - one weird sort of a 1-second zap on the audio and the video fritzed at the same time. I assume it was a satellite feed problem because I could back it up and play it again and it looked the same. With the audio issues I can back up and view the same scene with no problems.


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## stol (May 31, 2006)

stol said:


> Since I received 3.65, sometimes when I turn on the ViP622, I have no audio on my TV (HDMI) or from the optical. TV2 through the modulator is working fine.
> 
> Changing channels, turning off and on, playing recording, nothing makes sound work.
> 
> The only way I can get the audio back in the reboot the ViP622. It has happened twice so far, I did a soft boot and a hard boot the second time.


It happened again:

Just switched from watching a recording, to live TV on a SD SAT channel. Pressed skip back, and the sound was gone. Front Panel reboot to resolve. Duel Mode. Lights were on. Everything except the audio functioned normally.

(Update to the above - a found out when my kids lost audio, they just turned it off and went away, that's why I didn't have audio when I turned it on sometimes.)


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## scottr_4 (Sep 7, 2006)

I have always had audio problems with my system since day1.That was back in April 2006 when I originally got my system. Seems to happen on any channel whether HD or SD or if it is live or recorded. If I did not have so many $ invested in my Dish I would dump it in a heartbeat.


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## gsarjeant (Sep 15, 2006)

There were some odd issues with the audio in CBS' Sunday afternoon broadcast of the Steelers/Chiefs game in Baltimore. The sound kept switching between Dolby Digital and Dolby Pro Logic during the game. There was an accompanying dropout, but that was probably just the receiver switching modes.

This was an OTA broadcast. DISH doesn't offer Baltimore locals in HD yet, so I wasn't able to test that. My guess is that the problem was just with the local CBS affiliate, but I figured I'd report it just in case.


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## markdc (Sep 27, 2006)

Lost sound completely during a recorded game this weekend: Philly vs New Orleans. Since it was recorded I couldn't recover from it.

Dish HD local.


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## karspur (Aug 16, 2006)

markdc said:


> Lost sound completely during a recorded game this weekend: Philly vs New Orleans. Since it was recorded I couldn't recover from it.
> 
> Dish HD local.


We had the same problem. I think it was something with the Fox HD feed and not the 622.


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

markdc said:


> Lost sound completely during a recorded game this weekend: Philly vs New Orleans. Since it was recorded I couldn't recover from it.
> 
> Dish HD local.


Same here.


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## markdc (Sep 27, 2006)

karspur said:


> We had the same problem. I think it was something with the Fox HD feed and not the 622.


Good to hear. I'm glad it wasn't the 622.


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## articos (Oct 10, 2006)

I'm back to having audio stuttering - esp prevalent on HD locals, but not confined to just locals...Boston Legal tonight was bad. Audio drops every couple seconds, and gets progressively worse if I let go. Pausing it and restarting seems to fix it, but it doesn't stay for long before it goes back to stuttering. Also noticing various channels have various differing issues. KNBC seems to have intermittent full dolby digital 5.1 - some programs have full 5.1, others have no center channel and it seems to drop back to 2 channel. It wreaks havoc on my volume too. (I'm using the optical connection)


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## dmacy (Apr 12, 2006)

I have the same problem. If i change the chanell up and come back it clears it


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## ottokrat (Nov 19, 2005)

I get a sudden pop followed by about a 1 second (or maybe 1/2 second) dropout. (If I rewind, the audio is fine: no pop, no dropout.) It happens as often as every 2 min, though most often every 5 min. I have no OTA. It happens on both HD and non-HD programming, basically all channels as far as I can tell. It happens on live and recorded programming. Seems to clear up after rebooting, but only for a while, then comes back. Super annoying!

Also, lots of audio-video sync problems, mostly in HD programming. Audio seems to lag quite a bit. Have played with all installation options I can find, with no improvement. This seems mostly channel/show specific. Sure would be nice if there was a tuning setting (that would be as easy to use as a volume control) that I could adjust to get them in sync. It really sucks to have HD, your best and most expensive programming, out of sync. I understand it may be the programming broadcaster's problem/fault (as if technology can't fix this), but give me some control on my 622 to fix it on my end!


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## SonicBee777 (Aug 2, 2006)

ottokrat said:


> Also, lots of audio-video sync problems, mostly in HD programming. Audio seems to lag quite a bit.


Saw this last night (Thursday) on some local HD (not OTA) show wife was watching. Pushed 10-sec skip back button and sound was sync'd. Went back to "Live", sound was out-of-sync again (sound lagged pic). Pushed 10-sec skip back, sound was then in sync. I hit the sack, advised wife to watch rest of show with 10-sec delay, since that cured the sync problem.


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## William (Oct 28, 2006)

Just got my 622 Thursday and have video hooked through HDMI and audio through SPDIF. I'm getting constant audio dropouts especially using the DVR with a higher data rate channel like DiscoveryHD or HDNet. They happen about every 15 to 30 seconds and last from 2 to 10 seconds. If watching live on a lower data rate channel like a Voom the dropouts may only happen every few minutes or so. I called tech support and they are shipping me a new receiver and won't have until next week. What a way to start my E* experience. At least I can still use my HTPC to watch football this weekend but really wanted to be using my 622.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

is your optical a straight connection between the 622 and your AV receiver. I watch the channels with optically and I don't get this issues. Most of my audio issues seem tied to Dish HD locals.


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## William (Oct 28, 2006)

Ron Barry said:


> is your optical a straight connection between the 622 and your AV receiver...


Yes and I even tried a deferent cable.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Hmm interesting. What AV Receiver are you using? Would be interesting to see if someone uses the same one and does not have the same issues or are seeing these issues.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

Ron Barry said:


> is your optical a straight connection between the 622 and your AV receiver. I watch the channels with optically and I don't get this issues. Most of my audio issues seem tied to Dish HD locals.


 ME too. This seems to only happen on my Local hd mpeg 4 Dish ABC station from Houston. All my green screen pixelations happen on this station too. I don't see either audio or video problems on any other hd local station or national station.


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## debpasc (Oct 20, 2005)

I really have not had audio issues until the last few days. First was unsynch on FOX HD Thursday prime time DVR playback. Next was loud snapping on my rear (special effects) speakers followed by total loss of all audio except for background music and noises (i.e birds singing, cars going by, etc) -- no dialogue at all -- on ABC HD DVR playback of The Nine. I have been having picture break-up into green blocks on ABC HD as I have posted elsewhere -- and that happened during The Nine, too. However, this is the first time I hae had any audio issues along with the green blocking. I have component cables, the HD is satellite not OTA, my receiver is Marantz that has worked with my set up flawlessly since April. I seem to get software updates later than everyone else, but I've had 3.65 for awhile and haven't had these issues until the last few days.


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## ottokrat (Nov 19, 2005)

FYI, I get that pop and brief audio dropout I mentioned above using both digital audio and rca audio... In fact, with the rca audio sometimes the pop is unbelievably loud.


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## StandaVlna (May 17, 2006)

My 622 is connected to the tv via HDMI cable, optical goes to the receiver. I always turn the tv on first, than the receiver and after I can see the Dish Network logo on the screen I turn on the 622. Last couple of days after turning on the receiver there is sound coming out of the speakers (last night it was even Dolby D EX) even thou the 622 is not turned on yet! After turning on the 622 it starts on last channel I previously watched. But the sound I could hear before the 622 is turned on does not belong to that channel. I tried to find that channel my mystery sound belong to but I could not. I wonder if anyone else experienced the same thing?


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

My sound problems haven't been too bad until the last week. Up until last week, the worst sound problems were the stuttering but pause or reverse fixed it. Last week, we starting experiencing actual audio drop-outs and lots of them. Tried reversing but the drop-outs happened in the same place. Noticed some screen "blackouts" as well - no video but audio ok. The programs this happened were all on Sat Locals (no OTA where we live) out of LA, all dvr'd recordings (we don't watch live tv) and all the networks, CBS, NBC, ABC. Very annoying as the drop-outs always seemed to happen at crucial times during the program!!! Also happened during the football games several times as well. Nothing has changed in my set up and I use optical out to my AV receiver. Still on 3.65 software.


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

It seems that for the past couple of days the SLC HD locals haver really gotten worse. NBC is to a point where it has become unwatchable. All the voices are like they are "computer generated electronic stuttering" voices.


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## karspur (Aug 16, 2006)

I have been having the same "stuttering" problems. It does seem to be getting worse everyday. My worst channel is KABC-HD, but that might be because I watch that channel most. I don't have OTA, so I don't know if it's a problem with the network or satellite. Sometimes it gets so bad you can't even know what is going on with the show being watched. :nono2:


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## Steve H (May 15, 2006)

karspur said:


> I have been having the same "stuttering" problems. It does seem to be getting worse everyday. My worst channel is KABC-HD, but that might be because I watch that channel most. I don't have OTA, so I don't know if it's a problem with the network or satellite. Sometimes it gets so bad you can't even know what is going on with the show being watched. :nono2:


I have been in contact via email with Dish almost everyday for the past week about the audio. I also don't have OTA. Dish tells me that the problem is at their end and not the networks.


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

Steve H said:


> I have been in contact via email with Dish almost everyday for the past week about the audio. I also don't have OTA. Dish tells me that the problem is at their end and not the networks.


That's good to hear - maybe it'll actually get fixed!!!:eek2:


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## PDR (Jul 15, 2003)

dbconsultant said:


> That's good to hear - maybe it'll actually get fixed!!!:eek2:


I am in LA as well. I have terrible audio drop-out problems on recorded shows. The Amazing Race was unwatchable (no, not just because of ts content). Dish swapped out my old 622 about two weeks ago but the problem seems to be worse with the new one. They also said it is a problem on their end and are sending me another swap. We'll see what happens.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

I saw the same thing on Amazing Race's Sunday Show. This has happend a few weeks back also. The shows in between were fine for me. Hmm possible might be a source tweaking issue. 

For me my Dish HD locals are the ones I have most trouble with. I also have the OTAs version and I have a lot less issues with those. Same goes with other HD versions, but then again I don't watch them as much as the other channels.


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## geoinacton (Jun 17, 2006)

I too have had problems with the L.A. locals. KCBS has audio dropouts several times an hour in the last week.


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## rfowkes (Nov 8, 2004)

Add my name to the people who have been experiencing a much higher number of audio stutters, dropouts, etc. over the past two weeks with my local NYC HD channels. It used to only occur with FOX (way back, six or more months ago) but now has migrated to CBS, ABC and even NBC. Yes, the reverse "trick" sometimes fixes the problem (sometimes only temporarily) but there is definitely something out of whack here that was much better (not perfect) a few weeks ago.

I'm glad to hear the Dish is admitting that it's something at their end since, as others have said, this means that they are working on it. Sometimes this 622 adventure is of the "one step forward, two steps backwards" variety and it can be a bit frustrating.

Overall, I'm mostly satisfied with the performance of all my 622s but I have to say that recently I've gone from ~95% satisfaction to ~90% satisfaction. Usually the level of performance goes up as bugs are attended to, but in this case I'm not so sure. But having lived through the 721 nightmares, I'm still hopeful.


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## F1Fan (Oct 8, 2006)

boylehome said:


> At present all 4 ViP622 receivers are running very well with L365. Audio is great. I have also noticed that my, "Lost Lock" issues are gone!


Dude, you have four ViP622's?  I just signed up and wanted to have two and was told I can only have one.


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## AVJohnnie (Jul 27, 2004)

Can’t seem to get a recording anymore without audio drops in it. Same situation on both of my 622s. Most of the drops are fractions of a second but some can be up to a few seconds in length. Video seems to be unaffected. Problem seems to only be with recorded content – live and trick-buffer viewing is okay. Hope they get this fixed soon, it’s getting kind of annoying. Didn’t have this problem until L3.63 and L3.65 rained down from above. :nono2:


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## rbyers (Jan 15, 2004)

I'm also having increased audio dropouts and stuttering in the past few weeks. Never had this problem at all until recently. Happens on both recorded OTA and recorded local HD channels. Can't speak to SD channels, since we almost never watch them. Also, I haven't noticed the problem on National HD channels. Can't say that it isn't there, only that I haven't noticed it.


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## Rich L (Oct 23, 2006)

I get intermittent audio dropouts and stuttering. This seems to affect primarily WJLA which is the ABC station in DC. I also get intermittent macro-blocking. This was evident on all the LOST episodes this season. It was very bad tonight with the premier of Day Break. This past Sunday Desperate Housewives had loss of AV sync.


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## kikkenit2 (Oct 26, 2006)

3.63 trashed my audio and video playback. 3.65 has just audio problems on playback from Voom(RaveHD), ESPNHD, and local HD. Even SD channels. Makes no difference which channel on both VIP622's. Skip back button clears it up for awhile. Don't watch live. Sounds like hard drive or memory buffer problems. Please, Please Please fix soon.

E* came out for free to troubleshoot 3.63 problems. Checked signal strength on all 3 dishes. All were strong. I told tech video cleared up and was a software issue after reading these forums. Thanks to all here and SatelliteGuys.US

My bill showed $29 service charge(WHAT!), then $29 credit. WHEW!


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

I sent an e-mail to dish about the audio/video drop-outs and increasing stutter and I received a replay this morning:

Thank You for your information. We have had quite a few complaints from the LA area in regards to these issues. We have bundled up all of the emails including yours and given them to our engineering department. They have sent a man to LA to investigate. Please note that some of these issues can be cleared in matter of minutes and other times it can take awhile. Sometimes we not only have to look at our gear but work with your local providers. Thank you for your information, patience, and for being a valued customer.

EchoStar Satellite LLC

Quality Assurance Department

[email protected]

From: 
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 8:03 AM
To: Audio-Video-Quality
Subject: sat locals sound dropouts

For the last week and a half we have been having problems with sound drop-outs (not just stutter that is fixable using pause/rewind) on all of our sat locals out of LA (OTA not available in our area). We have had the 622 since July and this is the first time we have experienced this. Others have written on the dbstalk forum of experiencing the same thing and one person who e-mailed Dish received a reply that it is a technical glitch on Dish' side not the networks' and that Dish is working on it. We have seen it on Lost, NCIS (particularly bad this week - happened numerous times), Law & Order (regular and Special Victims) and all the CSI programs. Also saw it on various college and NFL games last weekend. Basically all of the locals. When it happens, sound is lost completely and when we hit the reverse button and started playing again, the sound loss is in the same spot so pause/rewind does no good and the missed dialogue is unrecoverable. We have also seen occasional video drop-out - black screen while audio is playing normally. Both audio and video drop-outs usually last a few seconds - no reboot required for the sound or video to return to normal. The audio drop-outs are getting worse and happening numerous times during a show - NCIS was almost unwatchable this week due to all the missed dialogue.

The sound 'stuttering' we've always seen to a certain extent, although it seems to be getting worse also, but have never had audio drop-outs or black screen video drop-outs until last week. The programs watched were all from dvr'd episodes. Movies from TCM or Monsters and programs from Animal Planet, Discovery or TLC have no problems.

Hopefully this information helps you to pinpoint what is happening with your transmission so that you can fix it quickly - it's becoming quite annoying to miss dialogue!

Thank you,


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## MikeHou (Oct 18, 2006)

I had complete audio dropout last night for the first time ever (been on the 622 since late August). Was watching NFL Network, did the go back function a few times, paused, played, then go forward to Live TV and sound was gone. Tried goback again, still gone. Changed channels to both HD and SD, no sound. Turned it off from the remote (I guess that's standby), back on, no sound. Did the reset by holding the power button on the front of the unit and was back to normal after it came back up. 

Didn't check my software rev, assume it's still 3.65 as it was a couple of weeks ago.


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## JackS (Jul 5, 2004)

I had a complete sound loss last Friday night. I was just finishing watching while simultaneously recording a program. When I switched to another program that was just beginning to record, there was no sound. I then tried different live channels and recorded programs and had no sound. I then rebooted and all was fine. I've had the 622 since June and never experienced this before. Previously I had one of the early 921's since January 04.


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## DAG (Feb 7, 2006)

Lost all sound last night on all channels. Was watching a DVR event and went to live TV. Needed reboot (front panel switch) to fix it. This last occured several months ago.


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## Tweakophyte (Dec 11, 2004)

Hi-

I just got my 622 on Wed. night. At first the dropouts seemed to be only occasional, but today was horrible. The sound dropped out for a second, once or twice every 20 seconds. They occured consistently on all of my locals... each of the football games (CBS and Fox)... Desparate Housewives was so bad we switched to the 721. 

I already have 3.65rbdb-n. Now what?


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

REBOOT your receiver when this happens and it should repair your problems til the next time.


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## Tweakophyte (Dec 11, 2004)

Mike D-CO5 said:


> REBOOT your receiver when this happens and it should repair your problems til the next time.


I've rebooted several times by pulling the plug and counting to 30... this does not fix it, even temporarily. Right now Prison Break is dropping out, which probably means Heroes will, too.   

Are there other parameters I should be looking at such as build date, etc.? Should I just tell Dish to give me a new box?

Thanks,


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## sitruc (Sep 13, 2006)

geoinacton said:


> I too have had problems with the L.A. locals. KCBS has audio dropouts several times an hour in the last week.


CBS is the worst for me. Just about EVERY night during prime time. Shows (live or recorded) are almost unwatchable.


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## Tweakophyte (Dec 11, 2004)

Tweakophyte said:


> I've rebooted several times by pulling the plug and counting to 30... this does not fix it, even temporarily. Right now Prison Break is dropping out, which probably means Heroes will, too.
> 
> Are there other parameters I should be looking at such as build date, etc.? Should I just tell Dish to give me a new box?
> 
> Thanks,


FYI... I tried rebooting via the power switch (hold it down for 5 secs +/-). So far, no dropouts... until next time, like you said. Prior to the power switch reboot the dropouts were happening on all of my channels, several times a minute.

We shall see...


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

Try to get another box if you are suffering from audio drop outs on all your hd channels . But if it is just on your hd Dish locals then you need to try writing to the dishquality folks at [email protected] . If a new box and the emails don't work then you might see if a new dish or bigger dish is needed. IF you get your hd on 129 it would explain why you could be having some audio and video problems since the satellite is a wobbly one that is constantly gaining signal strength and then losing it again.


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## Tweakophyte (Dec 11, 2004)

Mike-

Thanks for the comments. In my case I am only experiencing audio dropouts. The video has been great. Could the wobbly sat. be the issue if the video is fine?

Thanks,


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

sitruc said:


> CBS is the worst for me. Just about EVERY night during prime time. Shows (live or recorded) are almost unwatchable.


I almost hate to post this in fear of jinxing but, since Thursday of last week, have seen no audio drop-outs on my sat locals out of LA (no OTA available). Stuttering seems to be improved also. Pixellation on CBS seems to be somewhat worse but at least I can hear them and don't have to stop several times a show to turn on CC! Still have 3.65 so I guess they just did something to the stream - whatever - it seems to be working better!


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

JINX!


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## MikeHou (Oct 18, 2006)

I've had very few audio issues since getting the 622 back in August. In the last couple of days I am now experiencing the "stuttering" I've read about here and elsewhere. This is occuring on 2 HD locals (Houston 11(cbs) and 2(nbc)); is not happening on any other channels I've watched, including HD locals, some of the Zooms, some SD channels, etc.

This happens on both digital optical and RCA connections.

Also am experiencing more audio drops than in the past. I was watching a recording of Dead Like Me off HDNet last night (recorded the prior night) and it was almost like clockwork dropping off about every 2 minutes for about 2-3 seconds. Extremely annoying.

Everything I've read here seems to indicate this is a software issue, but the fact that it's never happened (stuttering) for over 3 months and now is makes me think this is a hardware issue. 

Has anybody had any success in getting a resolution to this with E*?


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

Mike D-CO5 said:


> JINX!


:lol: :lol: :lol:


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

Mike D-CO5 said:


> JINX!


Ack! You were right! I jinxed it! Had audio dropouts on CBS and ABC during college games today (sat locals out of LA). Should never have posted that the problem had gone away!:bang

Also on CBS and Fox on Sunday. Guess the engineers they were sending undid whatever they fixed between Thanksgiving and yesterday. No dropouts for a week and now they're back again - aaagh!


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## rhindle (Jan 29, 2005)

MikeHou said:


> I've had very few audio issues since getting the 622 back in August. In the last couple of days I am now experiencing the "stuttering" I've read about here and elsewhere. This is occuring on 2 HD locals (Houston 11(cbs) and 2(nbc)); is not happening on any other channels I've watched, including HD locals, some of the Zooms, some SD channels, etc.
> 
> This happens on both digital optical and RCA connections.
> 
> ...


Mike,

I'm experiencing the exact same problems on the exact same channels you are in Houston. This only started from what I can tell this weekend. NBC and CBS have garbled sound while watching Saturday Night Live last night and football today. FOX sound will drop every couple of minutes. I haven't noticed any problems on other stations. Seems like something got worse over the weekend. I haven't really had any audio problems since I got my 622 in Oct.

At least I think its comforting to know someone in Houston is having the exact same sudden problems. That would seem to imply that it may not be our hardware if we are having the exact same problems on the same channels at the same time. <shrug>

If this continues I'm going to give E* a call. Post anything here if you find out anything as I will do the same. 

Rhindle


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

I too am having audio warbeling on my Houston channels. It is very annoying . I notice it on my second tv hooked to my 622 more than on my main hdtv. It is not as noticable as I am using the Toslink cable to my a/v receiver. But on my second tv with both rca jacks and coax cable it is very noticable.


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## rhindle (Jan 29, 2005)

Mike D-CO5 said:


> I too am having audio warbeling on my Houston channels. It is very annoying . I notice it on my second tv hooked to my 622 more than on my main hdtv. It is not as noticable as I am using the Toslink cable to my a/v receiver. But on my second tv with both rca jacks and coax cable it is very noticable.


Did you notice the warbling starting very recently? I didn't notice anything until this weekend...


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

rhindle said:


> Did you notice the warbling starting very recently? I didn't notice anything until this weekend...


 I've noticed that it started last week and it is constantly a problem on channel 2 KPRC and it comes and goes on Channel 13 KTRK.


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## rhindle (Jan 29, 2005)

Mike D-CO5 said:


> I've noticed that it started last week and it is constantly a problem on channel 2 KPRC and it comes and goes on Channel 13 KTRK.


I don't watch local channels much other than football so I only noticed it this weekend. Sure sounds like something is going on outside of our hardware as this makes three of us in Houston with the same problems apparently at the same time... hope they fix it soon!


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## MikeHou (Oct 18, 2006)

rhindle said:


> I don't watch local channels much other than football so I only noticed it this weekend. Sure sounds like something is going on outside of our hardware as this makes three of us in Houston with the same problems apparently at the same time... hope they fix it soon!


It was sometime last week that I first noticed it, on 2 and 11.

It seems to only be on the HD feed. The SD feed is normal.

Anybody asked E* about this yet?


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## retexan599 (Aug 1, 2006)

MikeHou said:


> It was sometime last week that I first noticed it, on 2 and 11.
> 
> It seems to only be on the HD feed. The SD feed is normal.
> 
> Anybody asked E* about this yet?


I have complained to DISH via email about the HD locals audio distortions and received this response:

"Thank you for your e-mail. Thank you for providing the information for our engineering department. They will try to resolve this issue as soon as possible. Unfortunately, there is not a way for us to know the status of their work; these issues are usually fixed in a software update. Please remember to turn off your receiver when you are not watching TV, so that it can receive the update when it becomes available"

I now intend to start using the phone about it, and may contact my local stations about it as well. It has been a problem for me since about 11/28. I have posted elsewhere in this forum about my problem:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=71689


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## rhindle (Jan 29, 2005)

I will report this problem as well. I'm in Sugar Land too! 

Rhindle


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

Keep sending the emails to the dishquality folks and they will have to fix the problem I 've sent them before and they fixed the warbeling before and it wasn't due to a software update either. THis is something to do with the mpeg4 encoding they do at the uplink. They can tweak it to fix it if enough of us email them.

[email protected]


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## MikeHou (Oct 18, 2006)

Mike D-CO5 said:


> Keep sending the emails to the dishquality folks...
> [email protected]


Done!


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## dbconsultant (Sep 13, 2005)

I just got a response to an e-mail I sent regarding the audio/video drops:

Dear ******,

Yes, this information does help! We forwarded it on to our engineering team. They were aware of the issue and your email helped confirm it. They believe they may have isolated the issue and would really like your opinion. Could you watch for the next few days and get back with us as to whether you notice any signs of improvement or degradation.

Thanks again for the help and for being a valued customer.

EchoStar Satellite LLC
Quality Assurance Department
[email protected]

Sent: Tuesday, December 05, 2006 8:12 AM
To: Audio-Video-Quality
Subject: Audio dropouts

I have reported the audio dropouts (on Sat Locals out of LA, no OTA available where I live) before and was pleased to see that the problem with the audio dropouts (not stuttering, complete dropouts that cause me to back up and turn on CC to find out what was said) had been fixed the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Did not see this happen again until this last weekend during several college and NFL football games. Dropouts occurred on CBS, ABC and Fox. Thought you had it fixed but it looks like it is happening again. I have a 622 receiver and watched these programs as DVR recorded events. When I contacted you last month about this, you told me you were sending engineers (I assume to LA) to investigate the problem and it had appeared they fixed it until this last weekend. Noticed numerous dropouts during the game and a couple during Cold Case. Also saw some video dropouts as well but only a couple (screen goes black, audio continues, then video comes back).

Hope this info helps!


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## thatzall (May 27, 2006)

I live in the San Diego market and have been experiencing audio sync issues since they turned on the HD locals here about eight months ago. The problem has not been resolved to this day. We get the "stuttering" and now the audio loss problem along with constant picture drop on both our 622 and 211 receivers. This is on the HD locals only. All others are OK. You would think that eight months would be enough time to work this out. Basically, we were sold equipment and it's included software that was not ready for release. I have been in touch with the Audio Video Quality Dept., and basically get the "we are working on this" answer. They need to work quicker.


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## retexan599 (Aug 1, 2006)

Mike D-CO5 said:


> Keep sending the emails to the dishquality folks and they will have to fix the problem I 've sent them before and they fixed the warbeling before and it wasn't due to a software update either. THis is something to do with the mpeg4 encoding they do at the uplink. They can tweak it to fix it if enough of us email them.
> 
> [email protected]


This evening I listened to each of the three local Houston channels that had been having the warbling/echo problem. All three of them sounded fine during the evening news broadcasts. Hopefully this means the problem has been addressed and resolved. I think it clearly was not my ViP622 at fault, as it is the same unit I have had all along. It is good to have a forum like this to marshall together a common effort to proactively go after such problems. Thanks to all!


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## douginhouston (Dec 12, 2006)

I too am having audio and video problems with my Houston local channels. Mostly on ABC 13HD. Atleast one audio drop out on recorded shows and some green pixelation. On live TV the audio is choppy and sometimes out of sync. Even when using the off-air-tuner the audio is the same. I have emailed the problem to the address that the other Houston posters emailed to. Hope it helps as my wife has made me reset all my timers to the SD ABC 13 channel


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

douginhouston said:


> I too am having audio and video problems with my Houston local channels. Mostly on ABC 13HD. Atleast one audio drop out on recorded shows and some green pixelation. On live TV the audio is choppy and sometimes out of sync. Even when using the off-air-tuner the audio is the same. I have emailed the problem to the address that the other Houston posters emailed to. Hope it helps as my wife has made me reset all my timers to the SD ABC 13 channel


 IF it is on the ota station as well as the Dish hd channel then it is a problem at the station itself. Then I suggest that you send an email and a phone call to Channel 13 KTRK itself. I too have seen the green screen pixelations and have heard the audio drop outs. I hear the audio drop outs on just about every show I watch on that channel whether live or recorded. I don't notice out of synch issues on the station though. I also noticed yesterday that the color had drained out of the soap operas my wife and I watch on that channel yesterday. WHile it is not in hd it used to look like it had good color and now it looks like it has no color. I am begining to think it is all related to the station itself.


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## offline (Feb 14, 2004)

I'm still experiencing dropouts on recorded programs in Single mode. Most notable with CBS.


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## Tweakophyte (Dec 11, 2004)

The dropouts are getting worse. So much so I just wrote to [email protected] to request a new box. You know you've got it bad when Noggin is dropping out a few times a minute, despite rebooting. Many of my recordings drop out, too. In summary, no channel is safe.

Are boxes with the latest hardware revision better with this issue?


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## DanoP (Sep 29, 2006)

Question about:

[email protected]

I've emailed them repeated regarding my audio garbling problem. They have never responded. I just spoke to a CSR about my audio problems and she's never heard of this email addy. What gives?


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## jhall (Oct 16, 2002)

Hello,
I am a new HD customer, and don't know what fun was had with L3.63, but with L3.65, we watched our first HD event, the Kennedy Centre thing, on WUSA. We were watching live, and about half way through, I switched to the HD channel instead of the sd version. (i.e. 6360, not 8071)
I thought I heard a single drop-out block, and my Sony lost sync once--it was about 20ms--just enough to get my attention. We have good signal strength on 61.5.
On a related note, I am using the HDMI output, and all channels when using the HDMI output are louder than normal, (I had to pull down the audio from my receiver about 10db)
All channels experience clipping, and during the clapping, something was throwing some sort of volume reduction algo like an overdrive protection. Traditionally on this tv, ota channels, when they are watchable, are about 20db quieter than their analog counterparts. I'm sure this HDMI problem is a local problem, but as far as which piece of equipment is at fault I can't tell. I can't see, but others tell me the component is unusable, and they really want to watch the HDMI version.
Any help would greatly be appreciated.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

DanoP said:


> Question about:
> 
> [email protected]
> 
> I've emailed them repeated regarding my audio garbling problem. They have never responded. I just spoke to a CSR about my audio problems and she's never heard of this email addy. What gives?


Most csrs know nothing about the email addresses. THE dishquality email address is correct but the people who answer it are most likely on vacation for the holidays. I get answers once a week when I send them something and I know that most people who work at Echostar take off for the vacation time, that they will lose by the end of the year if they don't. You can always talk to the Dish tech department by phone if you like.


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## DanoP (Sep 29, 2006)

Mike D-CO5 said:


> Most csrs know nothing about the email addresses. THE dishquality email address is correct but the people who answer it are most likely on vacation for the holidays. I get answers once a week when I send them something and I know that most people who work at Echostar take off for the vacation time, that they will lose by the end of the year if they don't. You can always talk to the Dish tech department by phone if you like.


I finally got a reply from them today with the explanation you suggested. They were apologetic about not getting back to me earlier and said they would investigate the sound studdering issues coming from the two Dallas affiliates I've been having problems with.


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## jhall (Oct 16, 2002)

During George Lopez last evening at around 2144, the audio "hung" for about half a second, as if to grab at the last 200 frames or so, looping them. It was WJLA-dt, sat feed.


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## Tweakophyte (Dec 11, 2004)

Well... I got a phone call from Dish in response to my email... we have not been able to speak directly yet, due to my work schedule, the snow storm(s), and the holidays. Let's see how it goes.


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## Tweakophyte (Dec 11, 2004)

I spoke to a woman from Dish Quality. She was very good to work with (i.e. not asking me if the yellow wire was connected to yellow input, which I got from the help desk). In the end, audio drop-outs are a known issue they are working on. The work-around they gave me was to use the L/R analog... not digital, but at least I'm not driven nuts AND my wife is no longer hammering me for sound issues!

By the way, the drop-outs were so bad my wife would only watch the 721 on our HDTV.


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## humara (Jan 12, 2007)

been getting the drop out issue for as long as i can remeber. i think i got the box back in august. not really that big of a deal i guess. the occasion quick pause-pause button press takes care of it. seems to only happen on hd content on the sat locals. dunno if its related to the 5.1 or what.
using optical out to my old school pioneer surround sound. have hdmi going to the plasma but have the tv set to mute so i dont know if its hdmi related or optical related or both.
for us on a regular basis its not a big deal. but when friends come over to check out the HD goodness, its a little embarrassing.


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## DanoP (Sep 29, 2006)

DanoP said:


> I finally got a reply from them today with the explanation you suggested. They were apologetic about not getting back to me earlier and said they would investigate the sound studdering issues coming from the two Dallas affiliates I've been having problems with.


They fixed one of the channels that was studdering (or dropping out???? I'm wondering if these are the same things.) But ABC is still problematic. Hopefully that will be solved at some point soon.


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## ottokrat (Nov 19, 2005)

Still having annoying pops & clicks every two minutes or so, seems like the audio chips is being quickly reset/restarted. If I rewind, the audio was fine. Happens with both live and recorded. Happens on both digital audio out and rca audio out. Happens with both HDTV and regular tv, like HISTI, HIST, VS., SPEED, etc...

*As a matter of fact, I'm sitting here with playback paused, and it still pops every two minutes!
*

Really annoying. Can't recommend this receiver to anyone as long as it has these terrible problems.

P.S. Very surprised there hasn't been any updates in so long! Do they think this is acceptible?


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## Tweakophyte (Dec 11, 2004)

I spoke to tech supprt (dish quality) a while back. They had me hook up the L/R stereo outputs until a fix is in place.

<sigh>


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## screen1st (Dec 13, 2006)

Last night, American Idol was out of sync a good 4 seconds! No rewinding or catching up would help. The problem was it had already recorded for 30 minutes. I had to stop the recording, reboot and the problem went away. My wife was really upset since the first 30 min recording couldn't be fixed. It's hard to defend a $90 satelite bill to my wife with audio issues on a daily basis. I really love the 622, but these audio problems are annoying.

still getting (mainly on locals):
pops
clicks
audio loss
audio sync
digital squeeks on ABC


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

screen1st said:


> Last night, American Idol was out of sync a good 4 seconds! No rewinding or catching up would help. The problem was it had already recorded for 30 minutes. I had to stop the recording, reboot and the problem went away. My wife was really upset since the first 30 min recording couldn't be fixed. It's hard to defend a $90 satelite bill to my wife with audio issues on a daily basis. I really love the 622, but these audio problems are annoying.
> 
> still getting (mainly on locals):
> pops
> ...


By locals... are you referring to OTA locals or Dish locals?


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## hendritr (Jan 29, 2007)

I'm having an issue of audio being out of sync on the Dish locals and it seems to be only a couple of the stations (Fox & ABC). Last week Dish sent me a new 622 because they couldn't seem to fix it. But last night it was doing the same thing on the new one. It is so far out of sync it was unwatchable. I really regret leaving Directv for this.


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## Scotty (Aug 10, 2006)

I have had a problem twice with losing audio completely from the beginning while playing back a recorded show:

* What were you watching when it happened? i.e. Station, HD, SD, OTA, Show
*ANS: Once OTA local, and once SD channel.*

* Was it Live, Delayed, or a DVR Event?
*ANS: DVR Playback*

* What did you do if anything right before you lost audio? i.e. pause, stop, exit a show, etc ... 
*ANS: Watching a show only.*

* What mode are you running in, Single or Dual?
*ANS: Single*

* Did the front panel lights all go out when it happened?
*ANS: NO*

* How did you have to recover, i.e. front panel reboot.
*ANS: Once - FForward to about a fourth of the recording and Once - a front panel reboot.*

* What type of audio connection are you using? HDMI, Optical, RCA?
*ANS: Both Optical thru a separate receiver and HDMI thru TV.*

* Anything else you think might be useful.
*ANS: Have experienced some minor audio sync problems, stutters, and short droup outs.
Also, F model receiver with lap top cooling fan and open shelf front and open back.*

This is a replacement machine for another 622 that lost HDMI sound in June 06.

Scotty


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## Lnd Svyr (Mar 19, 2006)

Ron Barry said:


> Please post all details of audio loss issues here. I am trying to collect as much information as I can about it. Things to note:
> 
> * What were you watching when it happened? i.e. Station, HD, SD, OTA, Show
> 
> ...


I've only ever had 3.65


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## DanoP (Sep 29, 2006)

[email protected]

Email them. Believe it or not they can be helpful. They helped me though they took their time (holidays).


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## Tweakophyte (Dec 11, 2004)

Tweakophyte said:


> I spoke to tech supprt (dish quality) a while back. They had me hook up the L/R stereo outputs until a fix is in place.
> 
> <sigh>


Update... I got a replacement box... so far so good. The old box was made in India, while my refurb was from Mexico. The replacement process was very easy.

...we shall see...


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## Grandude (Oct 21, 2004)

I don't have too much of a problem with audio dropout but yesterday watching the Nascar Busch series race on ESPN2 was especially bad. Just during the singing of the National Anthem the audio cut out three or four times. (It was a lousy rendition of the song so nothing lost there) This continued off and on during the race.
I'm wondering if it has something to do with the MPEG4 encoding on that channel or was it an ESPN problem? 

I had no pixelation at all during the race. Checked signal level from that transponder and it was in the mid 60s from satellite 129. I am on the west coast and that is often typical of the signal I get here. Since there was no pixelation, I can't blame the audio dropout to low signal, or is that an incorrect assumption?

Was it just me or did anyone else have that problem yesterday?


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

My series"B" ViP622 did not have any audio dropouts on ESPN2 yesterday. I have a small fan pulling air out of the left side of the unit. Sometimes audio dropouts and pixelization are heat related.


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## rustamust (Feb 22, 2006)

No dropouts or pixilation during entire race on Espn 2. My avg. temp. 110 and high 117 since 5 feb. set up.


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## R MaN (Feb 23, 2007)

I was gung ho on getting Dish but with the problems with the vip622 dvr and the vip 211, I'm going to stick with cable... No offense to current customers!! If one is paying good money for the satellite service and these audio and video problems exist, no thank you.....


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## steveT (Jul 12, 2002)

R MaN said:


> I was gung ho on getting Dish but with the problems with the vip622 dvr and the vip 211, I'm going to stick with cable... No offense to current customers!! If one is paying good money for the satellite service and these audio and video problems exist, no thank you.....


I've been a DISH customer (and cable-basher) for 9 years, and just switched to the 622 about 10 days ago (from a 721). With the audio and video problems I've experienced, I can't believe I'm saying it, but I don't blame you. I just tried to watch "24", and it was excruciating. Audio skips, drop-outs, video freezes, video blackouts lasting up to a minute (and losing the show content during the blackouts), pixelization... My list of problems is over a page long, and each time I call Dish, I get excuses, requests to reboot, and nothing else. It's really pathetic and frustrating.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Steve, 

I looked back and I don't see any posts regarding audio issues you are having with your 622.. Can you elaborate more? Sounds like you are pretty frustrated. I also am having audio issues but they are more concentrated without a high frequency? If you look up a few posts I have a series of questions. Would appreciate all that are having issues if they could provide as much detail around the questions.

When L4.01 releases, Plan on creating a new thread and see if we can correlate issues with the current problems some are seeing.


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## steveT (Jul 12, 2002)

Ron Barry said:


> Steve,
> 
> I looked back and I don't see any posts regarding audio issues you are having with your 622.. Can you elaborate more? Sounds like you are pretty frustrated. I also am having audio issues but they are more concentrated without a high frequency? If you look up a few posts I have a series of questions. Would appreciate all that are having issues if they could provide as much detail around the questions.
> 
> When L4.01 releases, Plan on creating a new thread and see if we can correlate issues with the current problems some are seeing.


Ron, answers are below. Yes, I'm pretty frustrated, especially after tonight. It really bothers me that I can watch "Mr. McGoo" in perfect audio and video, but if I try to watch a top rated show which gets 15M viewers each week, it's terrible.

* What were you watching when it happened? i.e. Station, HD, SD, OTA, Show
- Happens on all HD major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox), received over Dish (I don't have OTA). The problems occur on all network programming (prime-time, weekend sports, national evening news, etc.) The problems are so numerous I'd write a full page with the complete list, but here are the major ones:
- Audio drops out for a few seconds
- Audio drop-out plus loud "buzzy" electronic-sounding noise for a second or two
- Picture freezes, then goes black, stays that way for anywhere from 1 sec to ~1 minute, content during that time is lost
- No center channel dialogue for hours/days at a time. For example, on NBC (Dallas), one program will have only Left/Right audio (with dialogue erroneously on those tracks) during the show, then during the commercials it will go back to normal 5.1. Some programs are the exact opposite, with the commercials screwed up and the program OK (I could live with that!). Sometimes one program is fine one week, then bad the next week. Sometimes the audio will go back to 5.1 in the middle of the program. Each channel seems to have its own pattern.
- major pixelization problems. Sometimes it's once an hour, most days it's 20-30 times per hour. The pixelization sometimes is in a horizontal block, or one section of the screen, sometimes the whole screen. It usually lasts 1-3 sec or so.

* Was it Live, Delayed, or a DVR Event?
I always watch either delayed or DVR'd. But when I try checking out live programs, the audio and pixelization problems are there.

* What did you do if anything right before you lost audio? i.e. pause, stop, exit a show, etc ... 
- Nothing, just watching and it happens.

* What mode are you running in, Single or Dual?
Single

* Did the front panel lights all go out when it happened?
- No

* How did you have to recover, i.e. front panel reboot.
Nothing seems to fix any of the problems, including front-panel reboot. Skip back, and I still get the same audio/video problems.

* What type of audio connection are you using? HDMI, Optical, RCA?
Optical to Yamaha AV receiver

* Anything else you think might be useful.
I really think the center channel audio problem is either at Dish's processing center, or with the local stations. Last week, "Shark" on CBS just had perfect audio. Two hours earlier on the same channel, "Survivor" audio was just terrible. When CBS doesn't have any center channel audio, which is most of the time, everything is pumped out of all front and rear speakers, so the effect is like listening in the bottom of a well. So much for my high-end home theater system (which worked perfectly for 4 years with my 721.)

I won't even go into all the problems on the "regular" SD channels (CNN, superstations, etc). They look much worse than they did on my 721. Which is easy to see, since I have it hooked up to another input on the tv, and can easily compare the same programs recorded from the same stations as on the new 622.

What bothers me even more is that my 721 worked so well for so long, and I hadn't planned to switch to this 622 for at least another year, figuring by then Dish might work out all the bugs. But then the 721 started losing it's mind (couldn't hold the time of day, and just started recording randomly, then labeling those recordings with dates out in the future...) What's really disappointing from Dish is just how unhelpful and uncaring the CSR's are when I call.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

SteveT.

Thanks for the details... I was curious if your drop outs and reliability issues were mainly tied to your locals. Definitely is where most users are having issues. Hopefully L4.01 can bring some relief. Well all I can say is that when I first got the LA HD locals there was lots of audio issues. They still have some but it has definitely improved and hopefully it will continue this trend and spill over to other areas that came later. 

As for the SD quality. What input is the 622 hooked to and what input is the 721 hooked up to. Are you comparing s-video to s-video?


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## Tweakophyte (Dec 11, 2004)

SteveT-

How long have you had your 622? I would skip the normal help-desk and write the [email protected] . You'll get a real problem solver on the phone with a real knowledge base. If that does not help you can write [email protected] a short note.

By the way, if the problem is on HD locals only, it may lie with the local TV stations.


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## steveT (Jul 12, 2002)

Ron Barry said:


> SteveT.
> 
> Thanks for the details... I was curious if your drop outs and reliability issues were mainly tied to your locals. Definitely is where most users are having issues. Hopefully L4.01 can bring some relief. Well all I can say is that when I first got the LA HD locals there was lots of audio issues. They still have some but it has definitely improved and hopefully it will continue this trend and spill over to other areas that came later.
> 
> As for the SD quality. What input is the 622 hooked to and what input is the 721 hooked up to. Are you comparing s-video to s-video?


The 622 is hooked directly to a component input on the TV. Since the 721 doesn't have a component out, I have it hooked to a S-Video input on a Sony DVD-R, which then has component out to the AV Receiver, which is then component out to the TV. So there is that one S-Video link in the loop on the 721. However, I would expect that to result in lower quality than the direct component out of the 622, not higher.

Basically, the SD channels on the 622 are much more pixelated, appear to be lower res than the 721, flatter colors...


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## steveT (Jul 12, 2002)

Tweakophyte said:


> SteveT-
> 
> How long have you had your 622? I would skip the normal help-desk and write the [email protected] . You'll get a real problem solver on the phone with a real knowledge base. If that does not help you can write [email protected] a short note.
> 
> By the way, if the problem is on HD locals only, it may lie with the local TV stations.


I've had the 622 for about 11 days now. I'm pretty sure it's a refurb unit, because the first problem I had was that it one tuner was "locked" onto a DVR event, which wouldn't "release". The Tech Support person for that problem told me it was probably a random DVR event that never got erased during the factory refurb.

Thanks for the email address; that's my next step...


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## TNVOL1111 (Apr 13, 2006)

Ron Barry said:


> Please post all details of audio loss issues here. I am trying to collect as much information as I can about it. Things to note:
> 
> * What were you watching when it happened? i.e. Station, HD, SD, OTA, Show
> * Was it Live, Delayed, or a DVR Event?
> ...


First ever complete audio loss tonight. Happened after pausing Live TV and then pushing PLAY. Video plays but no audio at all. DVD plays fine so its the 622 with audio problem. Do I just need to push the reset button?


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

TNVOL111. What I would try first is jump back. IF that does not fix the audio, try a PIP swap. If audio is not restored then do a soft reboot.


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## TNVOL1111 (Apr 13, 2006)

Ron Barry said:


> TNVOL111. What I would try first is jump back. IF that does not fix the audio, try a PIP swap. If audio is not restored then do a soft reboot.


Tried the front panel button reboot which didn't work. Then unplugged the DISH 622 for 30 seconds and when rebooted back up from that then waalah- sound was back. Fortunately the shows being recorded tonight were fine.


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## caseystone (Feb 21, 2006)

Hello:

I just have to vent a bit here. Right now (Sunday night 9:46pm Pacific), I'm watching 011-00 KTTV Los Angeles FOX. On live tv, the audio is working fine*, but if I skip back or pause so it is not live, there is no audio at all. Skip ahead back to live TV and the audio comes back.

(* fine = pretty solid but with the typical occasional drop-out)

Also, more disturbingly, it recorded The Simpsons tonight and when I play it back there is no audio. That also happened to an episode of House a few weeks back -- no audio, probably on the same channel. 

This is a channel that comes in from DISH, not from an antenna.

I have other audio problems, but I'll post that separately.

I sure wish Dish would get this audio stuff together. Does this happen to other people or is my ViP622 more messed up than usual?

BTW, I use optical digital out into my Denon receiver.

Thanks.

-Casey


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## caseystone (Feb 21, 2006)

Hello:

I just wanted to report here that the short audio drop-outs that occur from 622 to my Denon receiver on optical connection were moderately improved by placing the 622 on an elevated perch... so air can circulate below it.

It is on its own shelf in a cool area with no obstructions near by, so it really should not have problems, but I think the next step might be a little fan for it -- I heard of someone using a USB fan.

-Casey


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

I am having audio drop outs now on my Dish local hd Abc station. I also heard it when I watched Sci Fi Battlestar Galactica on recording. REboots didn't help. I wonder if it is related to the last update? NO audio drop outs on Sci fi till this week.


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## TP715 (Jan 15, 2007)

caseystone said:


> Hello:
> 
> I just have to vent a bit here. Right now (Sunday night 9:46pm Pacific), I'm watching 011-00 KTTV Los Angeles FOX. On live tv, the audio is working fine*, but if I skip back or pause so it is not live, there is no audio at all. Skip ahead back to live TV and the audio comes back.
> 
> ...


The exact same thing happened to our 622, on the same shows (Simpsons last night and House from a few weeks ago). I tried everything but nothing fixed it: not even hooking up analog audio via RCA or using the HDMI audio or using the fiber optic audio. While we get repeated stuttering audio often (which is fixed by pausing playback), Fox LA is the only channel that manages to find a way to completely prevent our 622 from recording any audio at all (not that I'm saying it's intentional, mind you , since the advertisements don't record audio either)

BTW- the only fix we found was to play back the recording via TV2 and turn on closed captioning. Still no audio but at least we could read the jokes


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## steveT (Jul 12, 2002)

Tweakophyte said:


> SteveT-
> 
> How long have you had your 622? I would skip the normal help-desk and write the [email protected] . You'll get a real problem solver on the phone with a real knowledge base. If that does not help you can write [email protected] a short note.
> 
> By the way, if the problem is on HD locals only, it may lie with the local TV stations.


Several people recommended to me to contact [email protected] with my audio problems. It's now been 5 days since I emailed a detailed list of the audio problems, and I've received no response from them. So neither calls to Tech Support nor this email address are accomplishing anything. I just can't believe this is the way Dish treats a customer of 9 years.

In addition to the previous audio problems, now the CBS station is blanking out audio for minutes at a time. Missing entire segments of shows.


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## JDGJr (Mar 1, 2007)

steveT said:


> In addition to the previous audio problems, now the CBS station is blanking out audio for minutes at a time. Missing entire segments of shows.


CBS has always seemed worse to me


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