# What's up with the sound dropouts?



## richardsp (Sep 21, 2005)

I've seen some complaints in this forum about the sound dropping out in recordings. 

Now it's hitting me.

We couldn't watch Saturday Night Live tonight because it was so choppy... I know what you're thinking - no big loss there... but the sound has gotten horrible for every show, recorded or live.

Are there any fixes at all? It makes the TV difficult to watch. This is really causing problems on the Wife Acceptance Meter.


----------



## waltinvt (Feb 9, 2004)

richardsp said:


> I've seen some complaints in this forum about the sound dropping out in recordings.
> 
> Now it's hitting me.
> 
> ...


The 942, like some other receivers preceeding it (4000, 7200,...), although in relativly decent shape at first, has been rendered unstable by Dish software "upgrades".

They have been trying to repair the damage but from viewer posts, it seems that what helps some, hurts others.

As for the status of Dish's attempts to fix it, they're not talking, so who knows - we'll just have to wait until the next "fix" and see.


----------



## voripteth (Oct 25, 2005)

I've been struggling with the audio dropout issues since I got my 942 in October. My understanding is that Dish knows about the problem and has engineers working on it. 

I expect it will be fixed when they do the next update. They just want to be extra careful to make sure that updates fix more things than they break. Sounds like they learned the painful lesson about last September's update.


----------



## Jon Spackman (Feb 7, 2005)

vori-

Are you using analog or digital audio output? I see no audio dropouts with optical connection. What channels show it all, OTA, SD sat??


----------



## voripteth (Oct 25, 2005)

The dropouts happen with all my outputs: Component, HDMI and Optical. It happens on SD and HD. I don't have an antenna so I can't test OTA.

Testing the problem is pretty easy. Once you hear an audio dropout, rewind. On my 942 the dropout isn't there the second time meaning the problem is in the 942 playback and not in the original recording.

Another audio issue is that the audio is out of sync with the picture. This can change during playback. This happens on all channels and all outputs. A very annoying quirk is that the sync is often much worse with one output than another.

There is also a sync problem between output from HDMI and optical not being in sync. I'm told this is a very difficult problem that will probably not be solved soon if ever. This is particularly annoying since I'm constantly switching between my home theater speakers (optical) and the TV speakers (HDMI). I prefer the surround sound from the theater but it is often so far out of sync that I have to switch back to the TV speakers.


----------



## harlock328 (May 4, 2004)

Once I get the sound drops I have to power cycle to correct the issue. every week I have to do this. This is such BS


----------



## srrobinson2 (Sep 16, 2003)

j5races said:


> vori-
> 
> Are you using analog or digital audio output? I see no audio dropouts with optical connection. What channels show it all, OTA, SD sat??


I am using component video and optical audio:nono2: , and I have audio dropouts in every recording!


----------



## voripteth (Oct 25, 2005)

The Dish engineers decided to send me a replacement 942 to see if my problems go away. I've watched several hours on the new 942 and haven't seen a single audio dropout yet. It's too early to tell if the problem is fixed but I'm optomistic that it was some sort of hardware problem.


----------



## srrobinson2 (Sep 16, 2003)

voripteth said:


> The Dish engineers decided to send me a replacement 942 to see if my problems go away. I've watched several hours on the new 942 and haven't seen a single audio dropout yet. It's too early to tell if the problem is fixed but I'm optomistic that it was some sort of hardware problem.


Funny that mine started with L280...


----------



## SingleAction (Apr 29, 2005)

It's not your receiver! I had a 811, which was swapped out for a 942 today, and the problem on HD channels, out of sync, and audio dropouts persist. Plus the problem with Voom, which has pixelation, freeze ups, and audio dropouts. I hope this is corrected soon, because I'm not enjoying the reason I spent all this money to watch "HD"


----------



## voripteth (Oct 25, 2005)

srrobinson2 said:


> Funny that mine started with L280...


I'm a new Dish customer as of October so I had L281 with a bunch of problems and then L282 which didn't fix any of them.



SingleAction said:


> It's not your receiver!


When I got a replacement 942 the problems suddenly went away. I was having dropout and sync problems on a daily basis. I'm now on day 2 the with new unit and no problems to be heard. Perhaps you somehow got 2 bad receivers.

One other thing to try is to maximize the ventilation on your unit. Make sure nothing is around it and it has as much air flow as possible. I suspect the 942 is especially sensitive to heat.


----------



## Avillant (May 21, 2004)

I have had a different sound drop out problem and was hoping that 283 would fix it, but it didn't. My problem is with a specific OTA channel WB39.1 every once in a while (10 or 15 minutes), the sound drops out. To restore it, all I have to do is to change to a different channel and then back again or to go to stand by and back on again. I have 2 942s and it happens on each one. It never seems to happen on my ABC, NBC or CBS HD channels so I don't know if it is related to something the station is doing or not. I plan to experiment with my UPN and PBS channels to see if WB 39.1 is the only channel that causes this problem. Anyone else had a similar problem?
Tony


----------



## Ken Howe (Aug 9, 2005)

you try smacking the Wife Acceptance Meter? ^_^ j/k btw... i do not promote domestic violent in any shape, way, and/or form. Thank you and drink responsably.


----------



## Antknee (Oct 13, 2005)

I have it on my 625 also. If I switch channels, then switch back to the channel I was watching the sound is restored.
It is a P.O.S in my opinion.


----------



## Avillant (May 21, 2004)

Avillant said:


> I have had a different sound drop out problem and was hoping that 283 would fix it, but it didn't. My problem is with a specific OTA channel WB39.1 every once in a while (10 or 15 minutes), the sound drops out. To restore it, all I have to do is to change to a different channel and then back again or to go to stand by and back on again. I have 2 942s and it happens on each one. It never seems to happen on my ABC, NBC or CBS HD channels so I don't know if it is related to something the station is doing or not. I plan to experiment with my UPN and PBS channels to see if WB 39.1 is the only channel that causes this problem. Anyone else had a similar problem?
> Tony


I have tried to repeat this problem on PBS and UPN digital stations in my area to no avail. This problem only occurs on OTA stations. Last night I made an interesting discoveryl I recorded channel 39.1 (the one giving me the problem) and monitored it at the same time. The sound was lost on TV1(HDMI on one receiver and component on the other) and TV2 (RF channel 48) however when I played back the recording, there was NO sound loss on the recording. I guess this indicates that the sound is getting to the point where it is recorded, but is lost before it gets to the TV1 and TV2 outputs??? Comments??

Other than this problem, both receivers are working trouble free.
Tony


----------

