HR10-250 strange Dolby Digital Audio problem

[mkertzman]

I posted this on Tivocommunity and thought I'd see if anyone here could help me figure out a strange and difficult problem with Dolby Digital audio on the HR10-250.

My theater configuration is using an HR10-250, optical digital audio out through a Lexicon switcher/processor.

First, the problem - On SOME HD programs on SOME channels/networks, I'm not getting audio out when output is set to Dolby Digital. In all cases, if I select DD to PCM, I get the audio. This is true of BOTH live as well as Tivo-recorded programs.

On some programs (Tonight Show on 83 NBCW is an example), I get no audio (actually it's a low rumbly muffled noise) on the program, but I DO get audio on commercials! On other programs/channels I get no audio at all. I've gotten this on NBCW and OTA, on ABCW (87), on Universal HD (74). I've also seen this on OTA (my local NBC station, 11-1 in SF). I've also seen audio on programming, but NOT on commercials!

I was suspicious of my HR10-250, since I haven't seen other people on this board complaining about more widespread DD audio issues. Today, I swapped a DIFFERENT HR10-250 for the one having problems, and the new one is exhibiting the exact same audio problems - so, unless this is a freak defect in two different HR10-250s, then it's not the individual unit. It's probably NOT DirecTV encoding, since I experienced it on OTA as well as DirecTV-delivered networks.

So, I thought maybe it's the Lexicon processor, so I plugged the original HR10-250 directly into an HDMI input of my Sony Qualia 006, set it to DD output and the audio problem was the same! No audio out at all on the same recordings that I'd experienced before. If I changed to DD to PCM, I got audio.

So, the problem has occurred on two different HR10-250s (6.3c), different networks/programs, both OTA and DirecTV, different digital audio out paths (one optical, one HDMI)....

So that's where I am... I'm posting to see if anyone else has this problem, or if anyone has a theory about what's wrong here - am I missing something? Any other diagnostic testing you can think of?

Thanks in advance for all your help!

[FarNorth]

I posted this on Tivocommunity and thought I'd see if anyone here could help me figure out a strange and difficult problem with Dolby Digital audio on the HR10-250.

My theater configuration is using an HR10-250, optical digital audio out through a Lexicon switcher/processor.

First, the problem - On SOME HD programs on SOME channels/networks, I'm not getting audio out when output is set to Dolby Digital. In all cases, if I select DD to PCM, I get the audio. This is true of BOTH live as well as Tivo-recorded programs.

On some programs (Tonight Show on 83 NBCW is an example), I get no audio (actually it's a low rumbly muffled noise) on the program, but I DO get audio on commercials! On other programs/channels I get no audio at all. I've gotten this on NBCW and OTA, on ABCW (87), on Universal HD (74). I've also seen this on OTA (my local NBC station, 11-1 in SF). I've also seen audio on programming, but NOT on commercials!

I was suspicious of my HR10-250, since I haven't seen other people on this board complaining about more widespread DD audio issues. Today, I swapped a DIFFERENT HR10-250 for the one having problems, and the new one is exhibiting the exact same audio problems - so, unless this is a freak defect in two different HR10-250s, then it's not the individual unit. It's probably NOT DirecTV encoding, since I experienced it on OTA as well as DirecTV-delivered networks.

So, I thought maybe it's the Lexicon processor, so I plugged the original HR10-250 directly into an HDMI input of my Sony Qualia 006, set it to DD output and the audio problem was the same! No audio out at all on the same recordings that I'd experienced before. If I changed to DD to PCM, I got audio.

So, the problem has occurred on two different HR10-250s (6.3c), different networks/programs, both OTA and DirecTV, different digital audio out paths (one optical, one HDMI)....

So that's where I am... I'm posting to see if anyone else has this problem, or if anyone has a theory about what's wrong here - am I missing something? Any other diagnostic testing you can think of?

Thanks in advance for all your help!


I have suddenly begun to have this exact problem with my HR 10-250 - I get the background tracks but not the dialogue on certain recordings. It doesn't happen when watching live. When watching recordings, I can screw around with the output settings on my receiver and get the sound to play but I lose the surround feature and only get stereo. For example, I recorded 'Shark' and could not hear the actors but could hear the music and car doors. Go to stereo and everything is there.

It only seems to happen on ABC and CBS..........any thoughts?