WTMJ Audio Problems

[pkphreak]

2 Weeks ago, I was watching "My Name Is Earl", and I lost all of my surround channels except for the front left and right.  The center was gone, so I couldn't hear any of the main dialog.  Tonight I was watching "Heroes" and experienced the same issue.  I'm using the fiber audio out on my TWC HD 8300 DVR.  I also seem to get more dropouts lately in general on both my audio and video.  Is this unique to my setup, or have other people noticed this too?

-PK

SONY KDS-R60XBR1 60" Grand Wega
Yamaha RX-V659 Receiver
Monitor Audio Silver RS6 Front L/R
Monitor Audio Silver RSLCR Center
Denon Surround & Sub

[LoadStar]

Well, I can at least confirm your report from tonight... I'm just using the RCA L/R output, not surround at all, but I too lost what would be the center channel during "Heroes," making the dialog inaudible for a couple of minutes.

[kjnorman]

I found exactly the same.  A couple of weeks ago with My Name is Earl and now last night with Heroes.  In each case I had to revert to close captioning to follow what was going on.  At least last night the sound came back.  With Earl it never did.

Very strange audio loss.  I did not check my surrounds - so I am not sure about these, but I did lose my center dialog though I still had L + R sounds coming out of my center channel.  It was almost like the 5.1 lost the center (and surrounds?) channel and the remaining image collapse into mono.

For reference I recorded the show OTA on a Directv HD TiVo with the sound fed to a Yamaha DSP-A1 amp.  This is definitely a WTMJ issue and not an equipment issue.

Where's Sean?  Hopefully he can add some light to this most annoying problem.

[Talos4]

Well I for one had the same problem during Sunday Night football.

It was pleasure to lose the center channel audio a couple of times for several minutes at a time.

Crowd noise only out of all speakers expect the CC.

No Madden and Michaels!!!

[klwillis45]

The Office had the same problem a few weeks ago for ~5 minutes.

[mrmike]

FWIW, I can confirm the same issue on Heroes on OTA with a Series 3 TiVo, both digital and the stereo downmix were 30+dB down on the center/vocal mix (by ear) for almost a complete break-to-break time.  I watch with CC on since I often have trouble hearing anyway, but I could still tell (for instance) that all I could hear during the diner scene with Hiro was the background music even if I cranked it up.

[kermtfrg]

I had the same problem with all of those shows using TW DVR.  

Amazing how NBC keeps screwing up the audio on their 3 most popular shows.

[pkphreak]

I'm glad it wasn't just me then. I was worried I had a bad component there for a second, but I guess not.  As said above it amazes me as well that WTMJ/NBC have so many problems with their top rated shows.

[FiberOptic]

I had the same problem on Heroes and then last night on Dancing with the stars, my wife got mad she missed Emmit's first dance because the signal went crazy

[Dan the Man]

Same problem here on Heroes on Monday. The center channel dropped out. This seems to be a problem that is getting worse on WTMJ. When I watch Law and Order, the audio kind of drops out when the do that L&O "du-dunk" sound.

I have TWC.....

[Mark Strube]

Dan the Man... does L&O only do that drop-out on the recorded version? Or does it happen when watching a true live version as well? (Unbuffered - so you didn't have to press the "live" button, you just tuned to the channel)

[oflaherty]

Engineering management has been pressing for an answer to this problem. It only happens on shows with 5.1 audio.

We suspect our encoder is not switching from 2 channel audio (called 2/0) to the 5.1 channel audio (called 3/2).

A home-made relay system controls that switching. The best theory is that relay is getting stuck. Or the relay might not be getting the signal to switch. Or maybe the encoder itself is refusing to switch.

All of this equipment just celebrated its sixth anniversary on November 3. This is one of the drawbacks to getting into HD so early.
--
Sean at TMJ

[Mark Strube]

Perhaps I should also mention this then - 4-1 HD is the only channel my receiver tends to get "stuck" on. This is usually only once during a program, however I believe your channel is the only one this happens with. When NBC is coming back to the show from the local commercials, my receiver doesn't always switch out of Pro Logic mode back into Dolby Digital mode. I usually have to rewind my DVR a bit, and then my receiver will snap into DD mode. It seems perhaps some audio flag is missing or something.

[kjnorman]

All of this equipment just celebrated its sixth anniversary on November 3. This is one of the drawbacks to getting into HD so early.
Sean at TMJ

Let me guess... It came with a six year warranty?  Then on November 4th it went kaput!

[SRW1000]

Engineering management has been pressing for an answer to this problem. It only happens on shows with 5.1 audio.

We suspect our encoder is not switching from 2 channel audio (called 2/0) to the 5.1 channel audio (called 3/2).

A home-made relay system controls that switching. The best theory is that relay is getting stuck. Or the relay might not be getting the signal to switch. Or maybe the encoder itself is refusing to switch.

All of this equipment just celebrated its sixth anniversary on November 3. This is one of the drawbacks to getting into HD so early.
--
Sean at TMJ

As a work-around, would it be possible to convert all of the 2.0 material to 5.1 instead of using a switcher?

My receiver also pauses for a second or two every time the audio stream changes format.

Scott