View Full Version : Law & Order no voices Friday night
dbconsultant
09-30-06, 11:34 PM
We dvr'd Law & Order on NBC (004 HD, not OTA) this week and for the first 40 minutes it was like they weren't transmitting one audio channel. You could hear background music, people talking in hallways, etc. but when the main characters were talking, you couldn't hear them. About 40 minutes in the picture went from 16x9 to 4x3 then back to 16x9 and the voices came back. We backed it up and played it several times just to verify this was happening. Commercials played normally just not the 'center' channel on the program.
Anyone else experience this?
whatchel1
09-30-06, 11:43 PM
We dvr'd Law & Order on NBC (004 HD, not OTA) this week and for the first 40 minutes it was like they weren't transmitting one audio channel. You could hear background music, people talking in hallways, etc. but when the main characters were talking, you couldn't hear them. About 40 minutes in the picture went from 16x9 to 4x3 then back to 16x9 and the voices came back. We backed it up and played it several times just to verify this was happening. Commercials played normally just not the 'center' channel on the program.
Anyone else experience this?
I had none of the problems here in the center of the US. I got it OTA from local NBC. So if you were have problems w. the sat feed why didn't you check to see if OTA was having the same problem?
dbconsultant
09-30-06, 11:55 PM
I had none of the problems here in the center of the US. I got it OTA from local NBC. So if you were have problems w. the sat feed why didn't you check to see if OTA was having the same problem?
I don't have OTA - live out in the country - and I had dvr'd it from my sat-supplied hd locals out of LA.
James Long
10-01-06, 12:10 AM
About 40 minutes in the picture went from 16x9 to 4x3 then back to 16x9 and the voices came back.Sounds like a problem with the local station. Every once in a while encoders lock up and need rebooting.
I don't see any specific reports in your area for this problem on AVSForums. But it has happened in other areas.
jmsteffen
10-01-06, 05:51 AM
I had the same thing happen last week for the Jag's - Colts game. I could hear everything except the commentator's voices...
It was actually wonderful :)
Unfortunately, it corrected itself before half time.
J.
Richard King
10-01-06, 08:10 AM
I used to see this often in the c-band days while watching network feeds. Sounds like a local station goof of some kind since they probably are using the same feed as every other NBC station in the country.
dbconsultant
10-03-06, 08:31 AM
Ok, now I saw the same thing on my dvr'd recording of cold case Sunday night - different network and the same situation happened intermittently throughout the program. I am now more inclined to think it is a software problem and so have posted comments on the 622 support threads on bugs/audio loss for 365 and have also sent e-mail to dishquality@echostar.com.
I just watched a recording of Boston Legal from last week. Believe it is on ABC. It was recorded via my 622 using the OTA tuner. I had no audio either. Well, the truth is, I had all the audio channels except the main center channel. It was really strange, could hear background noises and music, but could hear no voices. I assumed it was a local channel issue. It sort of scares me to see this post and see other people having trouble with different shows. I hope it is not an intermittent reciever issue.
dbconsultant
10-03-06, 09:15 AM
I just watched a recording of Boston Legal from last week. Believe it is on ABC. It was recorded via my 622 using the OTA tuner. I had no audio either. Well, the truth is, I had all the audio channels except the main center channel. It was really strange, could hear background noises and music, but could hear no voices. I assumed it was a local channel issue. It sort of scares me to see this post and see other people having trouble with different shows. I hope it is not an intermittent reciever issue.
If it was a receiver issue, I would think that we would have seen the same thing on the commercials that played during the portions of the shows where the voice track was missing but the commercials played fine. Since I have only seen this since the 3.65 downloaded, I'm still inclined to believe it is a software issue and have e-mailed dish at disquality@echostar.com. Maybe if we all e-mailed them about this issue they will see that it is more than just one viewer and get it fixed sooner?
James Long
10-03-06, 09:57 AM
If things are changing based on the content on the channel (program vs commercial) it is most likely a station problem. Your receiver doesn't know the difference between a commercial and program to selectively mess up one and not the other.
It is interesting that more than one network is involved but these audio issues are common at stations. The threads I read at AVSForums have regular reports of how some station or another messed up an audio feed in some way. Even times when the station ran an upconvert instead of HD because they "forgot to throw the switch" or some deeper issue. These problems are not limited to one network station or another.
Not to say that E* could not find some way of ruining a signal, but these reports are very similar to what we read on AVS from non E* subscribers using other receivers.
Just wondering, could the difference between commercial and program be that program is DD5.1, while commercial is Stereo?
dbconsultant
10-03-06, 11:28 AM
If things are changing based on the content on the channel (program vs commercial) it is most likely a station problem. Your receiver doesn't know the difference between a commercial and program to selectively mess up one and not the other.
It is interesting that more than one network is involved but these audio issues are common at stations. The threads I read at AVSForums have regular reports of how some station or another messed up an audio feed in some way. Even times when the station ran an upconvert instead of HD because they "forgot to throw the switch" or some deeper issue. These problems are not limited to one network station or another.
Not to say that E* could not find some way of ruining a signal, but these reports are very similar to what we read on AVS from non E* subscribers using other receivers.
The only reason I think it is software is that I've had the 622 since July and had never seen this before and have now seen it on two separate networks two days apart. Also dDavis's comment about the commercials not being DD5.1 seems very valid as well as to why commercials work but program does not.
WANDERER
10-03-06, 11:32 AM
If it was a receiver issue, I would think that we would have seen the same thing on the commercials that played during the portions of the shows where the voice track was missing but the commercials played fine. Since I have only seen this since the 3.65 downloaded, I'm still inclined to believe it is a software issue and have e-mailed dish at disquality@echostar.com. Maybe if we all e-mailed them about this issue they will see that it is more than just one viewer and get it fixed sooner?
It was an encoder issue here in dallas - there is thread burried somewhere about it - a guy called the local station and they admitted they broadcasted no center dialog channel
dbconsultant
10-10-06, 01:04 PM
The only reason I think it is software is that I've had the 622 since July and had never seen this before and have now seen it on two separate networks two days apart. Also dDavis's comment about the commercials not being DD5.1 seems very valid as well as to why commercials work but program does not.
I had e-mailed dishquality and here is the response I received today:
"Thank you for expressing your concerns and interest in DISH Network. Customer input is an important tool in our efforts to continuously improve the quality of the DISH Network service.
We were having some audio issues last week with LA. We believe this has been rectified and we are curious if you are still hearing this issue. If so, then we will take a look at your receiver.
At DISH Network we appreciate the time customers take to email their audio/video quality concerns. Thank you for your patience, information, and for being a valued customer."
I responded back and let them know that all programs on KCBS were fine but that Law & Order on Friday, KNBC 004 sat local, did the same thing as it did the week before with the missing center channel. Told them that it looks like the problem is almost solved but to keep working on KNBC!
I see this locally from time to time, the problem is the station is trying to send 5.1 audio as 2.0 so you lose the center channel that has the dialog.
A while back my local CBS was having this problem a lot and the engineer said they were having trouble with equipment reading the meta data that flags whether content is 2.0 or 5.1 from the network.
Happened to us this past Sunday on playback of DVRed Desperate Housewives. I was also worried that it was a software bug or hardware defect, but reading this thread, seems more likely to be a broadcast issue at the local station.
Thanks all.
fmcbride
10-11-06, 03:44 PM
We dvr'd Law & Order on NBC (004 HD, not OTA) this week and for the first 40 minutes it was like they weren't transmitting one audio channel. You could hear background music, people talking in hallways, etc. but when the main characters were talking, you couldn't hear them. About 40 minutes in the picture went from 16x9 to 4x3 then back to 16x9 and the voices came back. We backed it up and played it several times just to verify this was happening. Commercials played normally just not the 'center' channel on the program.
Anyone else experience this?
I had the same issue. Live in the LA broadcast area. My dvr was a D* HR10-250 Tivo unit. It was received OTA, not from the D* feed. This happened again last week for the same show. This time, they fixed it a little quicker. I think the Friday Night Crew might be real green. Everyone else in LA is at a club by 10pm on Friday's.
dbconsultant
10-12-06, 09:04 AM
I had the same issue. Live in the LA broadcast area. My dvr was a D* HR10-250 Tivo unit. It was received OTA, not from the D* feed. This happened again last week for the same show. This time, they fixed it a little quicker. I think the Friday Night Crew might be real green. Everyone else in LA is at a club by 10pm on Friday's.
Maybe we should e-mail knbc since it has happened 2 weeks in a row on the same program, Law & Order. Even though my e-mail from Dish said it was their engineering problem, it couldn't hurt to contact knbc as well. Their e-mail is comments@nbc4.tv.
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