Crappy Audio

The Olympics have been bad, off and on, but I have not seen any other audio problems.

After posting, the severe audio problems I noted cleared up on both channels. I didn't reboot or do anything differently. The audio problems on the NBC Olympics was evident all day every time I tuned in. The problem with the WATL Falcons game lasted for the first half of the game. It went from almost unwatchable to just fine and they cleared up at the same time. I was switching back and forth between these two stations (I wish I had DLB). This tells me the problems were not channel specific and the root cause was the same. My guess is this was a DTV problem that was finally resolved. While I'm glad it was fixed, trying to watch these two sporting events was extremely unpleasant.

I've been complaining about the stuttering on WXIA's (Atlanta's NBC) feed too. It's really annoying. We recorded the football game from WATL so I guess we'll see that later...great.

There have been reports of this problem on several NBC stations not just in Atlanta. In Austin DirecTV apparently finally gave up on the local NBC station and made the national (NY) feed available instead. My guess is that it is caused by a piece of equipment in the NBC-DirecTV processing chain.

I am also in Atlanta and the audio on NBC has been terrible. It stutters about every two min and has been doing it a few days now that I know of. The OTA feed doesn't do it .

NBC here in Miami has been bad intermittently. The problem slowly comes in and then goes back out. What happens is that all voices slowly start to sound like the "digital noise" in the movie Transformers.

The problem will usually go away on its own in less than five minutes. Or, I can turn off the HR-21 and back on to get rid of the audio noise.

Similar audio issue with the Olympics in the Philly area. Just enough of a stutter/distortion to make you think that the commentator was cut off/or has a slight speach impediment.

rolastro said:

NBC here in Miami has been bad intermittently. The problem slowly comes in and then goes back out. What happens is that all voices slowly start to sound like the "digital noise" in the movie Transformers.

The problem will usually go away on its own in less than five minutes. Or, I can turn off the HR-21 and back on to get rid of the audio noise.

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What I've been seeing on NBC 6 in Miami is that the audio from the Olympics is fine, with an occasional garbling sound. However, when they switch to the commercials the audio volume goes down dramatically. This happens on both CHannel 6 LiL from D* and via 6-1 OTA. I suspect it's NBC 6, since when I go to WPTV (5.1 OTA) I don't have the same problem.

Last night I was having audio issues with the local NBCHD affiliate in Savannah GA, but switching to the Augusta Affiliate was a solution for me.

I was viewing these channels with my antenna, not my DVR.

MartyS said:

However, when they switch to the commercials the audio volume goes down dramatically.

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Wow! How can I get this effect on my receiver? :sure:

The audio "stuttering" has been a problem on and off here near San Francisco -- channels 7 (ABC) was the worst, channnel 11 (NBC) wasn't too hot on the opening day of the Olympics. Both have since cleared up and are both fine as I type this.

SlimyPizza said:

I seem to be plagued with poor audio lately. The intermittent "stuttering" audio signal is present on the NBC Olympic coverage as well as local WATL broadcasting the Falcons game. The audio is so bad on WATL that the game is almost unwatchable. It's present on commercials as well as during the game.
It's not as bad on NBC but still bothersome. It does not seem to be present during commercials on NBC.

I'm wondering if anyone else has this problem and what causes it.

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I spoke with WATL and D today and found out very little, The local is sending up both channels and D is listing both of them on their web guide, but only showing SD on my box. Both have escalated the problem, but I truly believe D has some issues, as the support person with them hinted as much.
More to come as I hear from them.

oled said:

I spoke with WATL and D today and found out very little, The local is sending up both channels and D is listing both of them on their web guide, but only showing SD on my box. Both have escalated the problem, but I truly believe D has some issues, as the support person with them hinted as much.
More to come as I hear from them.

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Good job oled. Follow up when you can. Are you saying that WATL broadcasts an HD channel? If so, I don't see that on my box either.

SlimyPizza said:

Good job oled. Follow up when you can. Are you saying that WATL broadcasts an HD channel? If so, I don't see that on my box either.

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They do indeed and the nice young lady there said the game this weekend would be in HD and they are using their own crew.
I am supposed to follow up with D this week if the channel does not display locally.

As much as I enjoy watching the Birds play, I could never go thru whatever the devil that was last weekend again. Deplorable.

After further review, a reset from D* corrected the problem, which you can do from their website.
Another note: Make sure you current guide settings include WATL-DT. I noticed this potential problem after getting my box reset and you mentioning it did not show up on yours either.
Good luck.

oled said:

After further review, a reset from D* corrected the problem, which you can do from their website.
Another note: Make sure you current guide settings include WATL-DT. I noticed this potential problem after getting my box reset and you mentioning it did not show up on yours either.
Good luck.

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Thanks oled. I don't see WATL-DT. Can you tell me about the online reset procedure?

I first noticed the audio drops on the Olympics as well, but now it seems to be infecting other channels. Nothing has been as bad as the Olympics, but are other people having audio dropouts on other channels as well?

I am in Atlanta, too FWIW.

I've noticed on my audio dropouts that if I rewind and rerun, the dropouts are not there.

Mine is still bad even if I rewind and listen to it. The only thing that helps is it seems to get a little better the longer it's on. It's terrible when I first turn it on.

I suppose I should check the cables before I call Directv to complain.