# Audio Crackling (fuzzy, popping, crackling sound)



## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Hi,

I had tech support here a moment ago and he checked the grounds and replaced all 3 of my boxes (one HR24/100 DVR and 2 H25/500 boxes) and still having an issue. 

I am getting what seems to be random audio "crackling". Very annoying.

It happens on all HD channels and is totally random it seems. But yes it really starts up when there is a lot of action.

Like I said, it happens on all 3 TVs. And like others have stated it's just DirectTV. Blu-Ray, XboX 360, PC, etc. all work fine.

The tech support guy also updated the software on all 3 boxes (HR24 running 0x5d2 and both H25 running 0x59d) to the latest software as of today, July 17th 2012.

A few moments ago I was watching "In Time" on HBO HD East and it started acting up once again. Lots of audio crackling. Very annoying.

I have tried turning off/on "Dolby Digital" but makes no difference. Switching out HDMI cables and using digital cable makes no difference.

Here is my signal information:



> Satellite transponders (32 total at 101º) Tuner 1
> [Most of your standard definition channels are beamed from 101ºW]
> 1-8 99 100 99 100 99 100 100 100
> 9-16 99 100 100 99 100 100 100 100
> ...


Thanks for the help,

Will


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## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Well looks like most of it has been fixed, now it is just HBO doing this.

Anyone else having problems with HBO sound?

Updated: OK thought it was fixed, nope. Just was temporary.


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## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Well after 5 tech visits and being escalated to case management my issue still has NOT been fixed.

DirectTV is blaming it on some sort of Interference beyond their control.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Do you have any microwave or cell towers REAL close?


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## inf0z (Oct 16, 2011)

war59312 said:


> Well after 5 tech visits and being escalated to case management my issue still has NOT been fixed.
> 
> DirectTV is blaming it on some sort of Interference beyond their control.


I have a feeling that it's just an issue with HBO, I have been experiencing the same or similar issue with HBO, but it's not frequent enough for me to want to call to D* let alone five service calls. It happens to me when specific sound pitches / bass levels (terminology?) are being hit. I find it often happens during sounds of explosions or loud engine noises during car chases. The issue is present on different receivers/cables/tv's.


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

war59312 has a lengthy thread about this issue at the DirecTV Support Forum ....
http://forums.directv.com/pe/action...PostID=11092520&channelID=1&portalPageId=1002

Still not clear why this only seems to affect a very few folks. Perhaps an electrical grounding issue?


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## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Davenlr said:


> Do you have any microwave or cell towers REAL close?


Thankfully, no I do not.

I live out in the country. 



inf0z said:


> I have a feeling that it's just an issue with HBO, I have been experiencing the same or similar issue with HBO, but it's not frequent enough for me to want to call to D* let alone five service calls. It happens to me when specific sound pitches / bass levels (terminology?) are being hit. I find it often happens during sounds of explosions or loud engine noises during car chases. The issue is present on different receivers/cables/tv's.


Well I thought so too for a second.

But it's been happening on all channels for a few months now.

And indeed only during dynamic sounds like you said, explosions, multiple loud gunfire, car chases, etc.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

war59312 said:


> And indeed only during dynamic sounds like you said, explosions, multiple loud gunfire, car chases, etc.


 Do you know what clipping sounds like, war59312? It might be that.

For everyone else, clipping is an overload. It's the inability of the system to handle the signal. It's especially a problem with Dolby Digital, which has a lot of dynamics and can overload things.

The most common form is output clipping. Turn your car radio up way too loud. That's output clipping. Your amplifier has run out of steam (for those steam powered amplifier users out there  ) and the distortion you hear is the amp clipping. You can also have input clipping and mechanical clipping. Have you ever heard a bar band or been to a concert where the singer sounds like crap even though the volume isn't that loud? That's either input clipping, which is the fault of an inexperienced soundman and could be solved at the mixing board, or mechanical clipping, in which the vocalist is singing just too loud for the microphone to handle.

I doubt you have output clipping, war59312. You'd hear that on your other sources. Why you are getting clipping at all is curious to me. I have no solution.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

war59312 said:


> Well looks like most of it has been fixed, now it is just HBO doing this.
> 
> Anyone else having problems with HBO sound?
> 
> Updated: OK thought it was fixed, nope. Just was temporary.


Hello again. I posted a couple of questions on the DTV Forum awhile back for you.
New questions:
How is the sound hooked up to each of these 3 setups ? 
Are they going thru an AV receiver ?
What kind of cables ?
Thanks


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## inf0z (Oct 16, 2011)

jimmie57 said:


> Hello again. I posted a couple of questions on the DTV Forum awhile back for you.
> New questions:
> How is the sound hooked up to each of these 3 setups ?
> Are they going thru an AV receiver ?
> ...


If the additional information helps I'm connected using a 6' HDMI cable directly from the receiver to the TV. I do not have any other cables or devices connected to the receiver or the TV.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

inf0z said:


> If the additional information helps I'm connected using a 6' HDMI cable directly from the receiver to the TV. I do not have any other cables or devices connected to the receiver or the TV.


Have you tried any other connections for the audio ?
Does your TV have any settings that are adjustable for audio, like and EQ ?

What is the brand and model of your TV ?


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## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Carl Spock said:


> Do you know what clipping sounds like, war59312? It might be that.
> 
> For everyone else, clipping is an overload. It's the inability of the system to handle the signal. It's especially a problem with Dolby Digital, which has a lot of dynamics and can overload things.
> 
> ...


If it were clipping then I would not expect every TV in the house to have the issue.

Like you mentioned, I'd also expect my other devices on same TVs to have the issue. I watch a lot more dynamic sound on BluRay then on DirectTV which has no issues.



jimmie57 said:


> Hello again. I posted a couple of questions on the DTV Forum awhile back for you.
> New questions:
> How is the sound hooked up to each of these 3 setups ?
> Are they going thru an AV receiver ?
> ...


Sorry, not sure how I missed that.. Thanks for the help, again.

At the moment everything is going through my Sony BDV-E370 Blu-ray System and connected via HDMI.

I've tried RCA, Digital, Optical, etc. Same problem. Tried many different cables. It's not the cables.

And again, all TVs are having the issue. So it's not my Blu-ray system either. It's obviously only hooked up to one TV.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

And you never see any picture glitch at the same time?

You can isolate where its occurring. When you are watching live tv (or a recording), when you have an audio crackle, back up the DVR and see if the crackle occurs at the same exact spot on the recording. If it does, its a DirecTv problem. If it doesn't reoccur, the problem probably lies after the DVR.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

war59312 said:


> If it were clipping then *I would not expect every TV in the house to have the issue*.
> 
> Like you mentioned, I'd also expect my other devices on same TVs to have the issue. *I watch a lot more dynamic sound on BluRay *then on DirectTV which has no issues.


Based on that latest information....perhaps a grounding issue / problem is in play within your DirecTV setup. I've seen a poorly grounded situation cause those kinds of symptoms throughout the whole home setup as you've described.

It might be worth check any outside grounding block near your Dish to see if there is any weathering of those connections or the grounding itself. If not at that location, you could report the home-wide audio problem and have an installer check out your overall grounding integrity.

Just a suggestion.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

Question:
If the OP has wall plates or a barrel connector in the coax somewhere,
if it is sub standard, will the sound clip or just the video have problems ?

Thanks


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> Based on that latest information....perhaps a grounding issue / problem is in play within your DirecTV setup. I've seen a poorly grounded situation cause those kinds of symptoms throughout the whole home setup as you've described.
> 
> It might be worth check any outside grounding block near your Dish to see if there is any weathering of those connections or the grounding itself. If not at that location, you could report the home-wide audio problem and have an installer check out your overall grounding integrity.
> 
> Just a suggestion.


Yes, that's the theory we were exploring in the thread at the DirecTV Forum (and mentioned earlier in this thread).

Still waiting for details about the home's electrical wiring, dish grounding, etc.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

jimmie57 said:


> Question:
> If the OP has wall plates or a barrel connector in the coax somewhere,
> if it is sub standard, will the sound clip or just the video have problems ?
> 
> Thanks


If I understand Mpeg4 correctly, the audio (and sometimes two versions of it or more) are embedded in the same transport stream as the video. I do not understand how the OP could have audio crackling or breakups without a simultaneous video glitch, unless the issue is actually something after the receiver, where the signals are split.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

war59312 said:


> If it were clipping then I would not expect every TV in the house to have the issue.


Good point.

I was looking at this from the point of view of the distortion. I was trying to figure out what could affect the dynamic peaks. Compression, limiting and clipping were the only three I could come up, and clipping was the only one you could possibly fix. Your description also sounded like clipping.

Maybe it's a dead end.

I'll still ask the question: What global device in his system could limit the OP's audio headroom? Where in his system could he suffer an overload that would affect all TVs?

About the only thing I can come up with is DirecTV itself but then we'd all be hearing this. What your describing is not subtle, war59312, and if there is an accurate description of many of the posters here, myself included, it is "not subtle." You'd hear about it if this was a DirecTV-wide problem.

I'm at a loss.


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## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Davenlr said:


> And you never see any picture glitch at the same time?
> 
> You can isolate where its occurring. When you are watching live tv (or a recording), when you have an audio crackle, back up the DVR and see if the crackle occurs at the same exact spot on the recording. If it does, its a DirecTv problem. If it doesn't reoccur, the problem probably lies after the DVR.


Correct, picture is always 100% crystal clear.

Yes it occurs again with DVR at same exact spot.



hdtvfan0001 said:


> Based on that latest information....perhaps a grounding issue / problem is in play within your DirecTV setup. I've seen a poorly grounded situation cause those kinds of symptoms throughout the whole home setup as you've described.
> 
> It might be worth check any outside grounding block near your Dish to see if there is any weathering of those connections or the grounding itself. If not at that location, you could report the home-wide audio problem and have an installer check out your overall grounding integrity.
> 
> Just a suggestion.


DirecTV has sent a tech 5 times and he checked the ground and all good according to him. I'm no expert.

DirecTV has known about my issue for 3 months and they have known from day 1 that all TVs are affected.

The tech is case management certified. Take it for what's it worth.

DirecTV has stated they will NOT be sending a tech again. That was from a supervisor in case management.



jimmie57 said:


> Question:
> If the OP has wall plates or a barrel connector in the coax somewhere,
> if it is sub standard, will the sound clip or just the video have problems ?
> 
> Thanks


I have no wall plates and I have no clue what a barrel connector is.

@Carl Spock That what is driving me crazy about this. And I'm not alone.

Others are reporting it at the DirecTV forums that litzdog911 linked to before.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> Based on that latest information....perhaps a grounding issue / problem is in play within your DirecTV setup. I've seen a poorly grounded situation cause those kinds of symptoms throughout the whole home setup as you've described.


I love a good earth ground with a copper rod driven into the dirt for any kind of antenna work, satellite included. I could see how a bad ground could limit his potential and add electronic hash to the system.

I guess I've never heard this problem with DirecTV but then, like I said, I like long copper rods and have had good grounds. 

Certainly I have heard how bad grounds will limit the receiving range of OTA TV and FM signals. Half of an AM antenna is the earth ground.

I could get excited about this theory.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

war59312 said:


> Correct, picture is always 100% crystal clear.
> 
> Yes it occurs again with DVR at same exact spot.
> 
> ...


We're all trying to help with a possible diagnosis.

The added information seems to reinforce that the source of your problem is NOT device-specific, rather, it is something in the "infrastructure" of your setup. It becomes a process-of-elimination road to the answer.

Since you indicated the techs were out multiple times...it's safe to assume that your Dish and multi-switches were checked one or more times as well.

The only other remaining variables are your audio system (which you indicate does not have this issue for Blu Ray sourced content) or your home cabling. The cabling is the only remaining item unique to the DirecTV source in contrast to a Blu Ray source. A simple short somewhere could corrupt the signal itself, but the audio and video would likely be affected.

Only the cables to and from the HD DVR to the audio system or audio system to the HDTV remain, and it appears those have been checked thoroughly.

So eliminating all of those possibilities based on your reports...I'm out of ideas at this point.


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## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Well thanks for trying guys, is a stummer.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Repeatable by replay on the DVR...
No video glitches.
Digital signal all the way to the DVR

Assuming its not an issue with the program (we all would be getting it), something has to be introducing the glitch into the DVR while its is recording. I cant figure out why its not affecting the video, unless its so short, its actually being corrected by the DVRs video processor.

OP: If you have a UPS, can you disconnect everything from the DirecTv system except one DVR, one plugged into the UPS, and also plug the TV into the UPS, and run it completely off the grid? That would totally isolate it from your home electric.

I have had issues before at a house that had 240V service, and had part of the equipment plugged into one leg of the power, and other equipment plugged into the other leg. There was enough of a voltage differential between the two legs, as to cause an interaction through the interconnecting coax, which also was causing small arc's, which were appearing as pops in the audio, and a subtle "hum bar" on the video.

Another issue I came across once, was having a cable tv coax plugged into the same system as a satellite system, and there was a voltage on the cable TV cable that caused issues with the satellite.

Other than checking things like that, which are hard to track down, Im at a loss.

To check the dish ground, if you have a voltmeter, set it to A/C voltage at the lowest setting, and measure the voltage between the disconnected outer conductor of the satellte coax, and the ground tap on the outlet where the receiver is plugged into the wall. If you get any voltage between the two, the dish is not bonded correctly to the house electrical system.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

war59312, do you have these components on your system? They would be outside, running from the dish to the ground. The quad grounding block would be at your dish and the copper rod would be driven into the ground. Alternatively, the installer could ground your system to a water pipe running into the ground or even the electrical box (that would obviously be inside). Some RG-6 coax cables have an attached ground wire but most often the ground wire is separate. It is always green.










If you do have these components, do all the connections look good? Are they solid, corrosion free and clean?

I can't believe with the attention you've received that grounding was not fully addressed but if it wasn't, you need to hire a local antenna guy to take care of this. You can get the copper rod and quad block from Solid Signal for $11 plus shipping. He will have the green wire. Unless your dish is in a weird location, the install should cost you less than $75.


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## 242424 (Mar 22, 2012)

war59312 said:


> *DirecTV has stated they will NOT be sending a tech again. That was from a supervisor in case management.*


Sweet


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## onan38 (Jul 17, 2008)

war59312 said:


> Well thanks for trying guys, is a stummer.


War,What kind of internet do you have,DSL? Its a long shot but maybe the noise is a bad DSL filter connected to something.


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## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Davenlr said:


> Repeatable by replay on the DVR...
> No video glitches.
> Digital signal all the way to the DVR
> 
> ...


I do have a UPS (CyberPower CP1500PFCLCD) but right now it is disconnected (has been for weeks now).

I will try everything you suggested probably this weekend. I work 16+ hours every day this week so don't have the time.

I don't have a voltmeter but pretty sure a friend does, will check with him this weekend as well.

Thanks for all the ideas.



Carl Spock said:


> war59312, do you have these components on your system? They would be outside, running from the dish to the ground. The quad grounding block would be at your dish and the copper rod would be driven into the ground. Alternatively, the installer could ground your system to a water pipe running into the ground or even the electrical box (that would obviously be inside). Some RG-6 coax cables have an attached ground wire but most often the ground wire is separate. It is always green.
> 
> If you do have these components, do all the connections look good? Are they solid, corrosion free and clean?
> 
> I can't believe with the attention you've received that grounding was not fully addressed but if it wasn't, you need to hire a local antenna guy to take care of this. You can get the copper rod and quad block from Solid Signal for $11 plus shipping. He will have the green wire. Unless your dish is in a weird location, the install should cost you less than $75.


Will check all of that out this weekend as will. Will hopefully get some help from a friend.



onan38 said:


> War,What kind of internet do you have,DSL? Its a long shot but maybe the noise is a bad DSL filter connected to something.


I have TWC, Road Runner. As in Cable. Never have had DSL and home phone is all with TWC, as in VOIP. Thanks for trying though.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

I continue to ponder your situation...but have failed to come up with any new ideas that haven't already been proposed by others or my previous posts.

I'm sure that is frustrating.

If I were in that situation...most likely I'd re-investigate all the cables/connections on the non-DirecTV parts first (especially since those appear to have been checked multiple times). 

I'm reminded of a time several years back when I had a weird audio issue that I simply could not solve at first. After going back to square one with all the cables and connections, as I pulled off one of my audio cables, the end of it actually fell off. It had been there for a couple of years, and looked perfectly fine just looking at it. I replaced it, and my problem was resolved.

That's not to say this is your answer, but my lesson learned was not to assume any connector or cable is OK just based upon a visual inspection.

Wish I could help more.


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## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Yes very frustrating and thank you all for trying to help.

I will be looking over all of this with a fine tooth comb come this weekend. Thanks for all the ideas.

Looks like DirecTV does indeed monitor their forums.

See latest email below that I just recieved a few minutes ago:



> Dear Will,
> 
> My name is David and I'm from DIRECTV Technical Support. I saw your post in our technical forums that you made on 7/17/2012, and I wanted to find out some more information about your account and if the issue has been resolved.
> 
> ...


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Well that is good news. Glad to see they changed their mind about abandoning your issue.
I actually enjoy challenging problems like yours at work. Cant solve all of them, but when one does get solved after several others have tried, it gives you a good feeling.


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

_I have no wall plates and I have *no clue what a barrel connector is.[/*I]

A barrel connector is a short threaded fitting that allows two cables to be connected to make them into one cable length.

Question for all: How could you ground the DTV receiver by itself to the home wiring ?
Can you loosen a screw and attach a wire and then connect it to something else close by ?
Not an electrician and I do not know.
Would it possibly do any good ?

Thanks_


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

I've had this issue where it sounds like a ripped speaker in the center channel and it can "pop". If I turn the channel it goes away and it's only in certain scenes. It happens to me maybe once every couple of months so I'm wondering if it's a bad spot on the HD or if it's just an encoding issue on that one show. I've never had it in a recording but the next time it happens I'll record the show and see if I can recreate it.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

jimmie57 said:


> _I have no wall plates and I have *no clue what a barrel connector is.[/*I]
> 
> A barrel connector is a short threaded fitting that allows to cables two be connected to make them into one cable length.
> 
> ...


_

Best way to ground an individual receiver, would be to attach a ground block behind the receiver. Use a short coax from the receiver to the ground block, then attach the satellite coax to it. Run a green ground wire from the block to the ground terminal on a properly grounded wall outlet, or its center cover screw if its not a plastic outlet box. *IF* the dish is properly grounded and bonded to the house electrical system, this would be totally unnessessary. *IF* the dish is NOT properly grounded and bonded to the house electrical system, this might prove dangerous, as all build up on the whole satellite system would now be inside the house behind your receiver. A lightning strike nearby would follow the coax in the house, right to the receiver ground block, and more than likely vaporize the ground wire, and start a fire. Always best to ground outside.

I had lightning strike a tree about 20' from my 70 foot ham radio tower. It totally vaporized the ground strap (which was about the same size as three 12V jumper cables together, and about 3 foot long). None of the equipment was damaged. If it had been grounded inside, the house would be gone now._


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## jimmie57 (Jun 26, 2010)

Davenlr said:


> Best way to ground an individual receiver, would be to attach a ground block behind the receiver. Use a short coax from the receiver to the ground block, then attach the satellite coax to it. Run a green ground wire from the block to the ground terminal on a properly grounded wall outlet, or its center cover screw if its not a plastic outlet box. *IF* the dish is properly grounded and bonded to the house electrical system, this would be totally unnessessary. *IF* the dish is NOT properly grounded and bonded to the house electrical system, this might prove dangerous, as all build up on the whole satellite system would now be inside the house behind your receiver. A lightning strike nearby would follow the coax in the house, right to the receiver ground block, and more than likely vaporize the ground wire, and start a fire. Always best to ground outside.
> 
> I had lightning strike a tree about 20' from my 70 foot ham radio tower. It totally vaporized the ground strap (which was about the same size as three 12V jumper cables together, and about 3 foot long). None of the equipment was damaged. If it had been grounded inside, the house would be gone now.


Mercy ! That would be bad.

This would just be for long enough to test the ground of the receiver.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Yea, short term would be ok as long as there are no storms around.


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

war59312:

What brand/model HDTVs do you have? 
Does the problem change depending on which audio connection you use to the HDTV?


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## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Davenlr said:


> Well that is good news. Glad to see they changed their mind about abandoning your issue.
> I actually enjoy challenging problems like yours at work. Cant solve all of them, but when one does get solved after several others have tried, it gives you a good feeling.


Well this is good:



> Response Via Email(David S (ID 419129)) - 10/05/2012 01:41 PM
> Dear Mr. xxx,
> 
> Thank you for writing back with the requested information. I am very sorry to see that you are still experiencing this issue. I have forwarded your account information to our Case Management Team. I see that you were previously in their care, so you may already be familiar with this department. Our Case Management Team will continue to work with you until this issue is resolved. We are dedicated to resolving this for you. You will be contacted soon by a Case Manager.
> ...





litzdog911 said:


> war59312:
> 
> What brand/model HDTVs do you have?
> Does the problem change depending on which audio connection you use to the HDTV?


I have two Sony HDTVs and 1 standard def Panasonic.

Nope same problem no matter the audio connection.


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## twentysided (Jul 27, 2010)

I have a similar issue. 

I have only noticed it on the movie channels, HBO and Max HD both have it - Max Comedy, East and West recently.

Titanic is one example I found (and recorded). Regardless of the level my system is set at, it will happen in specific situations and is easily repeatable by rewinding the program to the point at which the distortion or clipping appears.

When the score of the program would be at a peak, there is what I would call clipped track - it pops and crackles. I can repeat this at fairly high levels, and then replay it very low and still hear it at exactly the same points in the programming.

I found this on Titanic recorded from 516 today (basically now). An earlier playing of Titanic (when I first noticed) was on East I think 515 - had the same issue at exactly the same spots in the program.

I strongly suspect mine is an issue with the audio encoding in the program.


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

twentysided said:


> I strongly suspect mine is an issue with the audio encoding in the program.


 Something that repeatable, yes, I agree.

Your DirecTV signal is compressed. That's what mpeg4 is, a compression algorithm. You could be hearing that. The signal could also have been too hot. Hot is good. It's loud. It's bright, both visually and sonically. Content providers like hot. If the signal is too hot, you will hear that, too.

It would be interesting to download Titanic through VOD and see if you still have the same issue. Would the mpeg4 compression on VOD be the same as mpeg4 algorithm through the satellite? I don't know.


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## Jt1967 (Nov 20, 2012)

Did you get the issue fixed ?
I have the same thing after my hr23-700 box took a dump.
They put in the hr24-200 (brand new out of the box), box is fast, pict is nice but the audio cracking and popping on high action sceens while in Dobly it's loud and drives me nutts.
For me seams like if I played at a higher volume the popping would hurt the speaker esp the center channel.
Switch to pcm and it's still there but pcm on this box is a lot lower in volume than DD.
Does it on almost every hd channel and esp the movie channels.
Does it on the Sony Home Theater system 5.1dd and the tv speakers.
Done the same things as you, and also tried all the audio outs, optical, coax, hdmi they all do it.
Also have tried new cables.
I am wondering if the software did not install correct in the box. After they came to swap it out about 2 hrs later it downloaded the latest software.
Audio is hooked right now with toslink optcial from the box to the Sony Home Theater.


Thanks
Bill


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## war59312 (Jul 17, 2012)

Afraid not. DirecTV never followed through. I give up on them!

I checked everything and all connections are good. Everything is ground correctly, etc.

I really think its the boxes themselves and crappy firmware/software.


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## Jt1967 (Nov 20, 2012)

I agree the hr24-200 is the box what we have now.
Nice picture and fast but the sound blows big time.
I did the typical things of checking the ground, new cables, moving power to a dif outlet not on the same as the Living room.
Popping noise is on all outputs, coax digtal, hdmi, toslink and rca outs.
Then I took the box to our bedroom tv, no home ent system and it pops over the tv speakers.
My hr23-700 never did this, yea it was slow but had a great pict and sound even in dolby digtal.
Just glad only 3 months left on my contract, cause I will be dropping them and moving on.
For the yr and half we have had direct tv, never so many problems and issues.
Dish was great and cable was so so but better than this.
I miss Dish we never had issues like this.
Guess we will be going back.
You call direct tv and they blame everying ecp their equipment.
Me personally I think it a source issue or a buffer issue with this box cause of mpeg4.
Thanks for letting me know 
Bill


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