Doby D problems with Sky+HD with new EPG(with miniscreen)

bazza 75

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Hi,
I have a Pace Sky+HD box connected to the latest Onkyo 607 AV amp all connected via HDMI cable and Optical cable. I have the latest EPG from Sky(with mini screen)>All settings have been correctly set on amp and the Pace Sky box default on SOUND setting to DOLBY D. I am able to receive Dolby D 5.1 correctly on a film with HD DD but with the following INTERMITTENT problem.

Sometimes when a film or other prog. is selected with HD DD, I lose the audio completely which has baffled both Sky and Onkyo technical but after a lot of experimenting I have discovered a little trick which works every time to regain the audio dolby D.

When this happens, I go into the SOUND setting on the new EPG(which is correctly defaulted into DOLBY D) and flick back to the NORMAL(stereo)which gets my audio back(albeit in normal stereo) and then immediately I flick back to the DOLBY D setting where sound works correctly in 5.1

If I then change to another film or prog with HD DD sometimes it works correctly without doing my trick,others I have to go through the whole process again(I have tried another opt cable in case this is the prob. but exactly the same) Any techies or other users come across this?

Also, totally unrelated, on the new EPG from Sky there is no provision in the SOUND setting to adjust the audio output level as on the previous old EPG. This fixed setting is approx 50% down on terrestrial progs which is very irritating if like me you have other TVs round the house connected via the Sky link which means turning the sound up and down all the time. Loads of people have complained about this and their answer is that IN TIME they will do a patch to download to overcome this problem-any comments on this please?
 
the source that you watch the Sky HD through is set to HDMI for picture only? and Optical X for sound only? Sounds like the optical signal may come slightly later than the HDMI sound for some reason, so the Amp thinks that the sound comes from the HDMI, but you tell it to come from optical.

Other thing is, i suppose its possible its a faulty optical out/ sound processing thing within the Sky box itself, that may cause the sound to drop out.

Just out of intrest, you could try removing the optical cable, and see if the sound drops out if you listen to just Stereo from the HDMI cable.

And as for the volume level thing, yeah its annoying, not much we "meer mortals" can do about it short of pertition the head office :)
 
Hi Llama,

Thx for your reply. To answer your question both sound and vision are via HDMI but as SKy HD+ only transmits Dolby D 5.1 via Optical lead and not HDMI this lead is connected from Sky box to AV 2 input of Onkyo. I had tried pulling out optical lead whilst the audio was not working on an HD/DD film before and the sound does not come back but tried it again just now-no change. I would also say that all non-HD progs work ok(where there is no DOlby anyway) even tried this test where both progs are running the same content where loss of audio is on the say Sky 1 HD but ok on normal Sky 1- a real mystery:(
 
Sorry, missed the thread as I think it timed out and showed the thread as read. I don't have access to my contacts at Onkyo (having not worked for 8 months in England), so I can't call in a favor.

What I was meaning, try bypassing the Optical for a few days, see if the fault replicated itself with just the HDMI.

I would say it is either the amp HDMI/ Optical signal getting "lost" momenterily when the channel changes and not being able to cope, or a faulty HD box.

Just a quick idea...

The amp shows FL, C, FR, SW, RR, RL when their is a DD5.1 signal going into it? when its stereo coming from the optical is it just FL and FR?

that would be nice to know. And when the sound drops out, does it go from showing 6 to 2? 6 to 0?

I cant remember exactly what an Onkyo amp does. (Sorry :p)
 
Hi LLama,

THx for your last comments. I cannot bring up on the amp the speakerconfig. as you suggested when the problem occurs as the amp. is showing Dolby D anyway in the window but no audio. I have found however another trick to get the audio back(by accident) I went into fast rewind and then forward to activate the "catch up on real time" and the audio in Dolby D came back! Problem was that unless I left it in this mode with the blue circle going round I lost the audio again when the handbook says press SKY to stop it!

Barry
 
I have been having the same problem for years with sky. It all started ages ago with my sky+ box. Every-time I watched a channel with a Dolby feed, the sound dropped out intermittently. I have a onkyo amp which works fine on any other Dolby feed (PS3,DVD Player) but the sky does not! I thought that the problem would be sorted when I upgraded to a sky HD box but it wasn't. I have scoured the forums and found that loads of people are having the same problems and are coming up with different ideas to sort it out, but none of them are working. I have spent hours on the phone to sky and they have read me the prepared statement which goes something like ,we are aware there is a problem and are sorting it out, but when sky? when!!!
The last time I spoke to them was years ago and it's not sorted yet!! One guy told me that it was a problem with Sky's Dolby encoders and that they could not sort it out. Why are we paying for this service if they can't provide it? Is anyone actually getting top quality sound through there hd box? Everyone needs to get together and get hold of watchdog or somebody to get this sorted!!! I have had enough of this now, i want proper sound on Dolby films without the sound dropping out!!
 
Hi All,

Suprised to read that other people are having same problem as me, I was going to ring Sky tomorrow morning with sound dropout on all films thinking my box had seen its time.
realising now after reading your thread and trying my SkyHD box it is only DD. My box is connected to an Onkyo 875, disapionted a bit knowing if I get a new box the problem will still be there.
Is cancelling Sky Movies and just renting fims answer? Does dropouts occur on football too, mine do but very rare were as films is every 5-10 mins.

Gadjet
 
problem is, we (my old company) fit many Onkyo amps, 875's included with Sky HD boxes, apart from the delay on changing channels, we never had anyone complain about the sound dropping out.

boxes were always set on DD

ill speak to an old colleage about it and try and get back anyway
 
they had no problems of this sort.

maybe... is there a firmware update for your amp? try speaking to Onkyo about such things.
 
Hi - is anyone suffering intermitant loss of DD 5.1 sound for a split second or so through HD broadcasts, every few minutes or so ?

I have a Pace HD box connected to a Pioneer 500A via HDMI and optical connection to a Pioneer SC -LX71 amp. For the past few months I have been suffering with a problem Sky are failing to understand or even respond too. The issue is evident from watching the planner, anytime or broadcast channels in DD with 5.1 surround sound, particularly movies.:lease:
 
Yes I recognise this issue. I have a panasonic g series TV and a 470 surround system. Happens all the time for a split second on movies. It drives me mad!!!!!!!!
 
Ditto....
 
Thanks for your quick feedback Gents. At lesast I know that I am not he only customer experincing this dropout issue.

I have just recived an email from Sky asking for details of my TV and AMP ?. I presume they will attempt to blame these components for the issue rather than there own HW or more likely SW that is causing this issue.

I'm not sure how to proceed with Sky in trying to get them to recognise the issue and resolve in a timely mannor.

Any ideas ?
 
Hi folks - new user so bear with me!

On the 30/11/09 I had my EPG upgraded automatically overnight and immediately the Dolby 5.1 signal was distorted - it almost sounds like it is being streamed but with not enough bandwidth if you get what I am trying to describe. It is not out of sync, just distorted.

Since then I have had 4 replacement Sky+HD boxes - 2 Amstrad, 1 Samsung and 1 Pace and they have all done the same thing. The audio is perfect on the old EPG but the second it updates the 5.1 signal is distorted and it means I have to go into the settings and select the optical output to 'Normal' or listen through my TV speakers via HDMI.

The amp is a Kenwood KRF-X9050D which is fine with other optical devices using the same cable and port (Tried new cable just to make sure). I should point out that the coaxial output from the Sky+HD box is giving the same result once the EPG is upgraded.

Sky are being less than helpful, but their engineers have told me that they have seen the same issue elsewhere - anyone here seen this problem or have any advice?

Thanks!
 
Welcome paddybloke,

Can I ask you to explain the distortion you are hearing and that you are not hearing audio dropouts since receiving your new EPG upgrade ?

The reason I ask is that I have been hearing DD audio dropouts since receiving the new EPG on my Samsung HD box. I have tried to discuss with Sky, but there are not interested, stating that it must be my Pioneer amp and that very few other customers are complaining about the issue. The only solution they could offer was to cancel my contractÂ…..

From reading various notes on AV forums it appears there are many others suffering the DD dropouts, hence it requires more of us to complain to Sky, to help resolve the root cause of this issue
 
Try disabling the mini-screen function.
 
Hi tony,

Have you experince of the DD dropouts and found disabling the miniscreen resolves this ?
 
Hi Nsmith2

I have tried disabling the miniscreen but it makes no difference.
With regards to the actual sound - I have attached a couple of clips for you to listen to which is better then me trying to explain it I would think. Hope this helps. They were just recorded on my iPhone so won't be the best quality, but they should give you what you need.
 

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  • Memo2.mp3
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Hi tony,

Have you experince of the DD dropouts and found disabling the miniscreen resolves this ?

No problems personally, but certainly the mini-screen causes problems with picture quality - think I read this in the Video Processing Forum - so thought it might be worth trying.
 
I thought I would post my recent experiences on this and my conclusions:

I had Sky HD installed (Amstrad Box) on 18 December and did an update to new EPG. Quickly experienced lip sync problems on some HD channels – video well before audio. Only way to correct it was a Sky + rebuild. Would then work for a while. Box replaced Xmas eve (Amstrad). New box OK for a week then started same thing and suddenly (overnight on 4/5 January) lost sound on optical output to amp (Denon 3803) on HD channels and movie channels – both HD & SD. All other channels sound OK through optical out and sound OK on all channels through scart out.

On Thursday this week engineer came back to replace the box. On first attempt worked OK until forced update to new EPG – sound from HD channels and Sky movies through optical disappeared. All other SD channels sound OK through optical.

Replaced with a second set (Pace) which had new EPG – no sound through optical out on HD channels and Sky Movies (HD & SD).

Then replaced with an Amstrad – worked OK – sound OK – did not do EPG update and still OK. Waited to see what happened when new EPG and OS automatically installed (see below).

My conclusion is that there is something in the software update/new EPG that is seriously screwing up the Dolby Digital decoder/sound decoder on HD channels and movies output in the box and that there are 2 separate problems.

1) Total loss of sound through the optical output when set to Dolby Digital for HD and Sky movie channels

2) Serious lip sync problems that are intermittent – mainly on recorded or following pause but extending to live sometimes. (this was my original problem but after loss of sound problem has not rematerialised - yet.

I know there is no problem with my amplifier and the optical input – clearly evidenced by the fact that it has been working, is still working and even when the sound was lost from the HD and Sky Movie channels was still working on the other SD channels.

Overnight the automatic update took place and – now no dolby digital output through optical on HD and Sky Movie channels.

The only way to get sound back through the optical out on the HD and Sky movie channels appears to be to change the sound setting from Dolby to normal – save the setting change channel and then change back – lo and behold sound reappears. If you then reset to Dolby it appears to continue OK – but actually no change takes place (my amp tells me whether I am getting true dolby digital) and as soon as you change channel and back again the sound has disappeared.

I do not know if this is similar to what anyone else is experiencing but I am now about to contact sky again to see what they have to say.

Given a choice of either HD or true DD sound on the movie channels I would rather have the sound but as I am paying for both I want both.
 
I'm having probs with no Dolby D on Sky HD as well. I posted the question on the Onkyo 876 forum thinking that it was a noob setting up mistake by myself, but maybe it's not my fault after all :)

I wish I had just stayed on normal Sky instead of upgrading. That worked like a dream and the picture was certainly better across all the channels (apart from HD obviously) and my films came through in Dolby D.
 
I have no problems with the picture on either HD or SD channels just the sound.

I have now spoken to Sky, the person I spoke to had not heard of my problem although he was aware that there had neen a number of issues re sound and the HD boxes that were or had been dealt with by updating software. He was going to pass the details to a senior technician as it sounded like a software upgrade problem and someone would ring me. I am waiting to see if someone does.

I will post an update when i hear anything
 
I had the sky samsung hd box installed just over a year ago.Hdmi to tv and optical to my Yamaha amp. In December had the new epg. I've never had any lip sync issues and no issues with sound drop out.
Could it be an issue with certain brands of amps and the sky boxes?
 
Hi Mike TK

May be but the no sound was on both Amstrad (3) and a Pace. However, no sound did not start until 5 Jan. Prior to that 2 Amstrads with lip sync (video before sound).

Definitely not a problem with the amp - optical input is fine - so long as it is not Dolby Digital from the HD box
 

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