# vip622 Audio/5.1 problems on HD channels



## mbarnard (May 4, 2007)

Yesterday I upgraded my Dish Network subscription to HD. That meant switching from the DVR 721 to the vip622.

The equipment involved:
Dish vip622
Denon AVR-2805 receiver/amp
Sharp Aquos 37"
Definitive Technologies Studio Monitor 5.1 speaker combo

In my old setup I had an S-Video input and an optical digital audio input from my 721 to the 2805.

In the new setup I have a component video and an optical digital audio input from the vip622 to the 2805.

What works: Audio and video on SD channels. Video on HD channels.

What doesn't work: Audio on HD channels. The video works fine. When I switch to an HD station there is no sound and the 2805 lights indicating the type of audio feed (ex: DIG and PCM or Dolby) switch off as if the receiver is not receiving a signal from the HD box. If I hook up a regular audio cable from vip622 to the TV, the TV receives and can play the HD audio (just not with good quality).

What I tried: (i.) switching optical cables, (ii.) switching optical input jacks on the 2805, (iii.) having Dish install a second vip622. I also verified that the input settings are correct on the 2805.

Could it be: Dish Networks did not change out the coax from the Dish to the vip622 from the coax that was being used to feed my 721 with SD signal. Could this be the problem - that the coax cannot handle digital feed and therefore is not delivering 5.1 sound to the receiver.

Please help.


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## Marriner (Jan 23, 2006)

have you tried tinkering with the Dolby Digital settings on the 622. Try setting it to PCM only and seeing if you get audio from HD channels. Does your 2805 convert dolby digital content from your DVD player? Is your dvd player connected with a coax or optical digital cable?


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## mbarnard (May 4, 2007)

Marriner said:


> have you tried tinkering with the Dolby Digital settings on the 622. Try setting it to PCM only and seeing if you get audio from HD channels. Does your 2805 convert dolby digital content from your DVD player? Is your dvd player connected with a coax or optical digital cable?


I tried setting it to PCM only, Dolby only and Dolby/PCM - all with the same result. The 2805 does handle dolby digital (it has several Dolby standards available). The DVD player is older so it is connected with Coax, not optical.


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## Marriner (Jan 23, 2006)

dolby digital works ok with coax from the DVD player? This has happened with two different 622's? I would suspect a problem with your 2805. Borrow a dvd player or other source of OPTICAL Dolby Digital (notebook computer with spdif output for example) and connect it optically to your Denon.


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## mbarnard (May 4, 2007)

Marriner said:


> dolby digital works ok with coax from the DVD player? This has happened with two different 622's? I would suspect a problem with your 2805. Borrow a dvd player or other source of OPTICAL Dolby Digital (notebook computer with spdif output for example) and connect it optically to your Denon.


It is receiving MPEG-4 (Apple lossless) files from an optical feed and that works fine. Does that change your diagnosis.


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## Marriner (Jan 23, 2006)

If i understand the MPEG-4 Lossless standard, It is a high bit-rate PCM bitstream and would not utilize the Dolby Labs chip in your Denon. I still would suspect your 2805. The only two ways to know for shure is A. connect your ViP622 optical output to another dolby digital reciever or B. provide your 2805 with a different Dolby Digital optical input.


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## mbarnard (May 4, 2007)

Marriner said:


> If i understand the MPEG-4 Lossless standard, It is a high bit-rate PCM bitstream and would not utilize the Dolby Labs chip in your Denon. I still would suspect your 2805. The only two ways to know for shure is A. connect your ViP622 optical output to another dolby digital reciever or B. provide your 2805 with a different Dolby Digital optical input.


I received a message from the installer who left perplexed yesterday and subsequently talked to a tech and a supervisor who both told him that there is a software issue with the 622 that causes it to not work correctly with the optical feed. He didn't give me any further explanatory detail.

It's hard to believe that they would put an optical outlet on the device and then not ensure it worked. Most of all, its disappointing.


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## tomcrown1 (Jan 16, 2006)

mbarnard said:


> I received a message from the installer who left perplexed yesterday and subsequently talked to a tech and a supervisor who both told him that there is a software issue with the 622 that causes it to not work correctly with the optical feed. He didn't give me any further explanatory detail.
> 
> It's hard to believe that they would put an optical outlet on the device and then not ensure it worked. Most of all, its disappointing.


The optical feed works fine on the VIP622. I get full 5.1 surround sound on my Pioneer Receiver. I believe the problem is with your unit. The dolby chip cannot read the digital output. I suggest you use the composite audio output.


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## mbarnard (May 4, 2007)

tomcrown1 said:


> The optical feed works fine on the VIP622. I get full 5.1 surround sound on my Pioneer Receiver. I believe the problem is with your unit. The dolby chip cannot read the digital output. I suggest you use the composite audio output.


The solution was to reset the microprocessor on the Denon AVR-2805 receiver (to essentially reboot the receiver and set it up again from scratch).


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## teachsac (Jun 10, 2006)

glad you got it working.

S~


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## Marriner (Jan 23, 2006)

teachsac said:


> glad you got it working.
> 
> S~


ditto


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## Barnaby112 (Feb 16, 2007)

Mbarnard:

I also have a Denon 2805. Although I don't have the same problem as you did I have very weak sound on my rear surrounds. 

I am curious if when you got your receiver working you were satisfied with the sound levels in the rear surrounds when listening to HD contents which is advertised as Dolby 5.1.


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## booger (Nov 1, 2005)

My Optical Out is not working either. I've got Dobly/PCM both checked and I'm using a fiber cable going to a Sony receiver. I get no audio at all. I know the cable and receiver work because I was using it with my 625.

I rebooted the receiver but no luck. Any ideas? I want 5.1. Should I try the component cables and will I lose a lot of quality going that route?


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## booger (Nov 1, 2005)

Sorry to bump but I'd really like to get 5.1 going.

Thanks,


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Booger,

We need more info... You mention trying component. So are you saying you have HDMI running to your receiver. If so, the 622 support DD 5.1 through your HDMI cable so you should not need your optical in this configuration. Perhaps your receiver is getting confused because it has a DD 5.1 signal from your 622 and one from optical. 

I am not familiar with your receiver, but with mine there is a sound source configuration I have to do. Whenever, I don't get any audio coming out it, the problem lies in this configuration. 

As a test. Remove your HDMI cable and see if sound starts coming out of the receiver. 

For DD, and if you are hooked up to a AV receiver, the most common setting for your 622 should be DD/PCM on for you dolby setting.


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## booger (Nov 1, 2005)

Ron Barry said:


> Booger,
> 
> We need more info... You mention trying component. So are you saying you have HDMI running to your receiver. If so, the 622 support DD 5.1 through your HDMI cable so you should not need your optical in this configuration. Perhaps your receiver is getting confused because it has a DD 5.1 signal from your 622 and one from optical.
> 
> ...


Thanks for the reply.

I'm using an HDMI cable from my 622 to my plasma's HDMI. I have a fiber cable connected to my 622 going to my Sony receiver (no HDMI passthrough).

I just disconnected the HDMI from the 622 to my plasma and no audio is coming out of my sony receiver. I have my sony on video 2 which is the only way it recognizes the fiber optic cable.

Any ideas?

Does the 622 pass 5.1 through the HDMI cable? I'm wondering if I should go pick up a receiver with HDMI passthrough for my 622 and my DVD player.


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## booger (Nov 1, 2005)

Please disregard. It was my receiver.

Sorry everyone.

Damn the HD is so sweet!


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## MikeRobertson (Jul 31, 2005)

Okay, I was looking for place to put this. Mine is a similar problem, but not quite the same. About a week ago, I lost the audio on Universal HD. I'm using the optical out from the 622 to my Yamaha receiver. Component connection to my TV. Then I lost the audio for NFL HD. For some reason, that came back. Most recently, I only receive the left side audio channel on Discovery HD. Even more freaky is that the local audio from my ABC OTA HD channel has disappeared as well. The network 5.1 audio is there, but will drop out when going to commercial (might be a good thing if it wasn't for the other problems). I've swapped the optical cable and changed to another optical input on the receiver. The input works fine with a DVD player. The receiver displays that a 5.1 signal is attached. However, there is no sound. All the other HD channels and all my SD channels work with this setup. I've been on the phone with Dish tech support twice and all they say is that they will pass to engineering. I was running 4.03 when I first called Dish. My 622 is now running 4.05. Audio problems are still there. I've done the reboots, both soft and hard. I've unplugged my Yamaha to force it to reboot. No changes. Any thoughts?


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## wje (Mar 8, 2006)

MikeRobertson said:


> ...The network 5.1 audio is there, but will drop out when going to commercial (might be a good thing if it wasn't for the other problems).


I would guess that the audio is PCM for the commercial. Check the audio settings on the 622. You have a choice of PCM, 5.1, or both. Be sure it's set to both. Otherwise, either your 622 is sick, or your amp is. BTW, I have a Yamaha amp that I used to feed with optical from the 622. Now that the HDMI feed supports 5.1, I run HDMI to the amp to handle both the audio and video. Works great.


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## MikeRobertson (Jul 31, 2005)

Okay, this is driving me nuts. Today the Universal HD audio comes back. However, I lost the audio on a second OTA HD local. I went in an played with the Dolby Sound setup in the system menu. Tech support had me change it back and forth between Dolby and Dolby/PCM. That didn't change anything. Today, I set it on PCM. I now have sound on all of my HD channels. But it's not Dolby 5.1. I suspect my 622 has problems, but have been unable to get them to send me another. As I said before, my Yamaha works fine with Dolby 5.1 out from a DVD player. And the fact that most of the HD channels on the 622 work as they are supposed to makes this a really aggravating problem.


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## blarg (Apr 15, 2007)

mbarnard said:


> The solution was to reset the microprocessor on the Denon AVR-2805 receiver (to essentially reboot the receiver and set it up again from scratch).


I was just going to suggest this when I read your problem. Often, when you connect a new component to an amp, the amp needs to re-detect the stream. On mine, that means going into the setup and re-associating the optical port with the appropriate video channel...even if the new device will be using the same video/optical pairing.

Also, not call channels broadcast 5.1 audio. It can even vary from one show to the next, or during commercials.


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## Jim5506 (Jun 7, 2004)

Nearly all the optical audio "problems" with the 622 I have seen discussed on this and other forums have been solved at the audio receiver end, not the 622 end.


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## Traveler62 (Nov 20, 2006)

I read the Q&A above and noticed awhile ago there was no DD 5.1 through the HDMI, but would be available later through the HDMI without having to use an optical connection. Has this been made possible through a firmware update? My cousin is updating to a new system which will have a DVR-622 and he has on order an Onkyo 605 which will decode anything audio on the HDMI. I will most likely be getting the Onkyo for my system when I can save enough pennies.


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## ChuckA (Feb 7, 2006)

DD 5.1 is now available through the HDMI connection. It was added back in L4.01 I think it was.


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## jduser101 (May 27, 2007)

MikeRobertson said:


> Okay, this is driving me nuts. Today the Universal HD audio comes back. However, I lost the audio on a second OTA HD local. I went in an played with the Dolby Sound setup in the system menu. Tech support had me change it back and forth between Dolby and Dolby/PCM. That didn't change anything. Today, I set it on PCM. I now have sound on all of my HD channels. But it's not Dolby 5.1. I suspect my 622 has problems, but have been unable to get them to send me another. As I said before, my Yamaha works fine with Dolby 5.1 out from a DVD player. And the fact that most of the HD channels on the 622 work as they are supposed to makes this a really aggravating problem.


Hey now.

I am having the same or similar problem. I just replaced my 811 with a 622. Seemed to be working fine. Suddenly today the dolby digital sound on most of my HD channels, even the locals, only partially work.  I hear muffled sound and the rear background sound. My receiver (Acoustic Energy) interprets the signal coming from my optical digital audio out correctly...as optical digital audio surround. Bizzarely, a few channels seem to work. Maybe because they aren't true 3/2 dolby. They might be 2/1. Anything in PCM stereo work fine of course. Dish Network tech support suggests that the receiver might not be grounded correctly and would cause some channels to lose audio signal because of a bad transformer. They told me a bad transformer can cause this problem.

I remember having a similar problem with my 811 a year or two ago. They went through two replacements before it was corrected. The difference was I had NO audio signal at all on dolby digital.

I switched digital audio cables...didn't change a thing. I tried using the optical digital audio out from my DVD player into the same AE receiver and it works just fine. So it doesn't seem to be a problem with my receiver interpreting a dolby audio signal incorrectly.

I think it is optical output on the 622. DISH is coming out on Tuesday and I'll let you know what they say.


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