# Audio dropout problem gets worse



## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

I'm on my 8th 921. The last several units had this annoying problem on a recorded event where the audio suddenly drops out for a few seconds, then there is a "wrinkle" (similar to a wrinkled videotape) in the picture as the audio returns.

Up until now this happened maybe once every couple of recordings. One recording made this last Thursday however was riddled with multiple "wrinkles".

I'm wondering if it's my LNB (DPP twin with a DP dual for 61.5, Dishpro seperator at the receiver and a dioplexor for the OTA antenna)? When I check signal strenght on both tuners everything is over 100+. I used to think it was the hard drive. My current unit has only been in service for about a month. By the way for the first 3 weeks I did not catch a single "wrinkle". Perhaps the wrinlkes happened during a commercial that I skipped over.

Anybody else see this problem? Any clue on what is causing the problem (a software issue perhaps)?

BTW: my units were not replaced because of this problem - mostly they were replaced due to the "lost ATE" condition (which can and had fixed itself - yet they still replace the unit if that happens).


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## mwgiii (Jul 19, 2002)

That is a know bug and probably will never be corrected.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

mwgiii said:


> That is a know bug and probably will never be corrected.


If it's a known bug, what causes it? My first thought was a bad sector on the hard drive, or the splitting of the program onto two different sectors of the Hard drive. My second theory got blown out of the water when I got several back-to-back dropouts on the same program.

The interesting thing is this bug suggests that the audio and video are recorded seperately, ala Tivo. One of the arguments used in the Tivo case was the "fact" that E* DVR's don't record the audio and video seperately. The other possibility is that the audio and video are recorded together similar to VHS Hi-Fi. When a dropout occurs on a VHS Hi-Fi tape you first loose the audio (or it jumps to the liner analog audio track).

Is this bug strictly a 921 issue, or do other E* DVr's share this issue?


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## ClaudeR (Dec 7, 2003)

8th 921? Yikes! I remember several months back where there were 2 cases of people getting a 942 by "accident" on a 921 warranty replacement. I was kind of hoping that they would do that more often; but if you've been through 8 swaps, it must have been a fluke. We can always dream...


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

ClaudeR said:


> 8th 921? Yikes! I remember several months back where there were 2 cases of people getting a 942 by "accident" on a 921 warranty replacement. I was kind of hoping that they would do that more often; but if you've been through 8 swaps, it must have been a fluke. We can always dream...


I acually begged for a 942 at one point to no avail.

It's no accident when that happens, it's usually due to the stock of 921 refurbs on hand.

I even aked for a non DVR replacement the last time. believe it or not that would have cost me $. I'm still getting replacement 921's for no charge. The only sticking point is that I'm paying the DVR fee for recordings that I lose when the box has to be replaced.


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