Audio Issues on HD Locals

[Qtzar]

While watching our HD locals we sometimes get audio dropouts while the picture remains perfectly clear. This is very annoying, especially when you miss an important line in Lost or Jerico. Reversing back in the live buffer does not help, the audio is missing even in the buffered version.

I'm wondering if it might be some sort of signal issue.

Sat 99b : Trans 1 - 6 : 51 91 39 94 53 0
Sat 103a : Trans 1 - 6 : 95 0 94 0 95 6 : Trans 17 : 0


Any ideas what could be done to solve the audio problems or is this a common problem that needs a software update to fix ?

[texasbrit]

Your locals are on either one or two transponders on 99, you have two transponders in the 90s so your signal strengths look fine.

Which HR20 do you have (the number is under the smartcard flap)?

[Qtzar]

It's the HR20-700.

I have the audio connected to my HT system via optical cable and the video connected to my tv by the HDMI connection if that's any help.

[texasbrit]

It's the HR20-700.

I have the audio connected to my HT system via optical cable and the video connected to my tv by the HDMI connection if that's any help.

If you are getting an occasional dropout in the middle of the program it's probably in the DirecTV signal, and may even be in the OTA signal that DirecTV is receiving from the station. On OTA here in DFW I get the occasional dropout on both my H20 and HR20-700, and on the MPEG-4 channels these dropouts become more severe because the encoders that go from MPEG-2 (OTA) to MPEG-4 (DirecTV HD locals) seem to magnify the dropouts. You also get glitches if the station temporarily drops the DD 5.1 signal because the sound suddenly goes back to stereo and many A/V receivers don't handle that very well.
There seem to be less dropouts now than there were when the stations first started broadcasting OTA but they are still there.