Audio dropouts IN the recordings

[joelkfla]

I've had my cable cards installed for just a week now.

I watched 2 shows recorded on the Science Channel this week, which is digital SD, and in both shows I was seeing audio dropouts of about 2 seconds as often as every 5 minutes. The dropouts were in the recording: when I hit replay, they did not go away. Some were accompanied by video stutter or pixellation in a small area at the end of the dropout, others had no video impact.

Most of the discussion I've seen here has been about audio dropouts that go away when the recording is replayed. Has anyone else seen dropouts that don't go away?

Is this most likely a Brighthouse of Central Florida issue?

Thanks,
joelk

[AbMagFab]

Most likely a signal strength issue. The S3 signal meter is useless, you need to test the db on the coax.

[TiVolunteer]

Most likely a signal strength issue. The S3 signal meter is useless, you need to test the db on the coax.

I'm having the same problem as the OP. So, what should we be seeing on the coax? What is a good number? Upper and lower limits? The TimeWarner supervisor who was here yesterday measured it and said that it was "right in the middle of the specs", but frankly I want to check for myself.

I'm seeing the same thing on all three S3's however not necessarily at the same time. As a test, I recorded the same thing on all three and the glitches are not occurring at the same time in the recordings.

[monkeydust]

No, I get them very often too and they are in the recordings.

[SCSIRAID]

No, I get them very often too and they are in the recordings.

Ive got the same issue. Tivo says it is caused by problems with the Tivo MPEG decoding and should be fixed in 8.1. If I record the same shows on a TW 8300 there are no dropouts.

[dig_duggler]

I have seen the same issue pop up in the last week. Odd.

[George Cifranci]

I get a number of dropouts as well on my S3. I have Time Warner Cable in Columbus.

If TiVo said it should be fixed in 8.1 then cool deal.

[monkeydust]

Yeah, I sure hope so. This is my number one problem with my S3.

[Guthruff]

For what it's worth, I have had similar issues (brief audio pause, followed by a burst of pixelation; problem remains during replay) in my S3 since new.

My unit is from weaknees. They first recommended using a UPS, so I installed one, with no difference. Comcast techs who tested the lines say my signal strength is "excellent". I get the drops in HD, SD digital, and SD analog channels about equally. I don't know if they are limited to one cablecard.

It seems to vary, but I'd say we get 1 or 2 every 1/2 hour.

I plan to wait for 8.1 and hope that fixes it, base in part on this thread.

-- Rich

[rczig]

Fingers crossed, but I haven't seen this at all for the past couple of weeks I've had my S3. I have, however, had BRIEF drop outs when scanning through the guide, but nothing in the recorded material itself.

Actually, I haven't had ANY problems with my S3, though I want my MRV and TTG back (oh, and the eSATA port!)!

[SugarBowl]

Fingers crossed, but I haven't seen this at all for the past couple of weeks I've had my S3. I have, however, had BRIEF drop outs when scanning through the guide, but nothing in the recorded material itself.

Actually, I haven't had ANY problems with my S3, though I want my MRV and TTG back (oh, and the eSATA port!)!

Same here.. Got a series 3 for christmas and have not had any problems. I've got basic cable and an antenna hooked to it. I only experience a slight audio dropout when I pull up the guide and scroll from page to page.

The series3 is a lot quicker than my series 2.

[randywalters]

For what it's worth, I have had similar issues (brief audio pause, followed by a burst of pixelation; problem remains during replay) in my S3 since new.

My unit is from weaknees. They first recommended using a UPS, so I installed one, with no difference. Comcast techs who tested the lines say my signal strength is "excellent". I get the drops in HD, SD digital, and SD analog channels about equally. I don't know if they are limited to one cablecard.

It seems to vary, but I'd say we get 1 or 2 every 1/2 hour.I've had my new S3 for a week now, and had CableCards installed 5 days ago. Aside from local OTA HD broadcasts, i've only watched Speedchannel (ch 266/digital SD) recordings and it seems that every program on Speed has had a momentary audio dropout followed by a momentary picture pixelation a few times during the show. I have not noticed it on any OTA recordings.

I've also recorded the same Speed programs on my SA8300HD and the problem is not there on those recordings, only the ones on the S3. I haven't watched these shows live while recording so i can't say if the problem is in the live broadcast and is being recorded by the S3, or if the recording is fine and the problem is caused by playing the recording back. I'll have to spend more time with the new S3 to determine where my problem lies . . . .

[AbMagFab]

I've had my new S3 for a week now, and had CableCards installed 5 days ago. Aside from local OTA HD broadcasts, i've only watched Speedchannel (ch 266/digital SD) recordings and it seems that every program on Speed has had a momentary audio dropout followed by a momentary picture pixelation a few times during the show. I have not noticed it on any OTA recordings.

I've also recorded the same Speed programs on my SA8300HD and the problem is not there on those recordings, only the ones on the S3. I haven't watched these shows live while recording so i can't say if the problem is in the live broadcast and is being recorded by the S3, or if the recording is fine and the problem is caused by playing the recording back. I'll have to spend more time with the new S3 to determine where my problem lies . . . .
Not only does each device (tuner) have specific signal strength requirements, you're also talking about different connectors, cables, etc.

This is clearly a signal problem to the S3, could be too strong or too weak. You need to play with amps and attenuators to get the signal strength right.

[SCSIRAID]

I've had my new S3 for a week now, and had CableCards installed 5 days ago. Aside from local OTA HD broadcasts, i've only watched Speedchannel (ch 266/digital SD) recordings and it seems that every program on Speed has had a momentary audio dropout followed by a momentary picture pixelation a few times during the show. I have not noticed it on any OTA recordings.

I've also recorded the same Speed programs on my SA8300HD and the problem is not there on those recordings, only the ones on the S3. I haven't watched these shows live while recording so i can't say if the problem is in the live broadcast and is being recorded by the S3, or if the recording is fine and the problem is caused by playing the recording back. I'll have to spend more time with the new S3 to determine where my problem lies . . . .

Known problem.... I have that behavior on all QAM sourced channels. Tivo says it will be fixed in 8.1 (when and if 8.1 ever appears).

Of course... make sure signal levels are ok as that could cause it too.

[bilbo]

Known problem.... I have that behavior on all QAM sourced channels. Tivo says it will be fixed in 8.1 (when and if 8.1 ever appears).

Of course... make sure signal levels are ok as that could cause it too.

i am glad i tried out verizon fios' hd dvr for a few weeks (approximately one month) before i got the series 3. verizon's motorola box had audio dropouts, also. verizon's box also only had a 160GB hard drive (about 15 hours of HD). this is the box they want you to use as a multi-room dvr, also. no, thank you!

we should get an update from tivo in the near future (in the upcoming weeks/months) and hopefully that will fix the problems with audio dropouts. i don't think verizon is doing much of anything to fix the problems with the motorola boxes (after all their real competition is comcast, who has been raiding their voice customers, and comcast also uses motorola boxes).

[hookbill]

Througout this thread I've noticed one thing: Nobody says it can be a broadcast error. I do not believe that the networks and their affiliates have this HD thing down. As I said in another thread for two years I've seen this not just on the S3 but on the SA 8300.

Now having said that I will say that the S3 seems to be much better at avoiding these drop outs. I won't say I never have one but they are far and few between.

Call me a fanboy if you want, but I think too much blame is put on the S3.

[SCSIRAID]

Througout this thread I've noticed one thing: Nobody says it can be a broadcast error. I do not believe that the networks and their affiliates have this HD thing down. As I said in another thread for two years I've seen this not just on the S3 but on the SA 8300.

Now having said that I will say that the S3 seems to be much better at avoiding these drop outs. I won't say I never have one but they are far and few between.

Call me a fanboy if you want, but I think too much blame is put on the S3.

I consider myself an S3 'fanboy' too... but Tivo has acknowledged that there is a dropout problem on digital channels which is being addressed in 8.1.

I too have run the test with recording the exact same content on the 8300 and the S3 at the exact same time from the same cable feed (at 0 dbm) and the dropouts are only on the S3 (with the bug that Tivo acknowledges). So... for the issues I see, and based on the testing and admission from Tivo, its a known bug that will be fixed. However, that doesnt mean that EVERY dropout that somebody may see is due ot this bug though... Signal levels need to be acceptable and the broadcaster has to not be causing the error. The totality of the reports are likely a mix of the bug and other factors.

[aaronwt]

I noticed some occasional dropouts. But when they happen they happen on all three units in the exact same location. Everyone I've seen, if I go to one of my other S3 boxes that are recording the same thing, I will see the dropout in the same spot. But it only happens with channels tuned from the cable card decryption. I've never had any audio dropouts from OTA HD or analog cable channels.

[PhillyGuy]

I've been having occasional audio dropouts as well on OTA HD channels. I've never had these issues before using a different HD tuner. The quality of the audio drop is very different from the momentary signal drops that I've had. Instead of a few momentary streaks of pixellations due to a poor signal, on my S3 I've been getting prolonged 30 sec or so audio dropout followed by a few seconds of stuttering in the picture and audio. It looks more like an encoding/decoding issue than a signal issue.

[Saturn]

I've seen this too. Digital Sd recordings, and the problem is "replayable" and thus in the recordings (or a decoding problem.) Really fairly annoying, but like the freeze issues I'm also having, I'm confident TiVo will work the bugs out. Anybody remember the S1 stutter/stopple issue? For the longest time TiVo claimed there was no software issue and anybody who had problems likely had a bad drive. But then 3.0 came out (or was it 2.5?) and a the complaints died down.

[fzz]

I've had my new S3 for a week now, and had CableCards installed 5 days ago. Aside from local OTA HD broadcasts, i've only watched Speedchannel (ch 266/digital SD) recordings and it seems that every program on Speed has had a momentary audio dropout followed by a momentary picture pixelation a few times during the show. I have not noticed it on any OTA recordings.


Interesting. I have problems with the SPEED channel too (digital SD, ch 135, COX RI). I wonder if the MPEG decoding bug is a function of how the channel's MPEG encoded?

I also have problems with DIY (digital SD, ch 144) and ALL of my digital music channels (901-941). I have good (97+) signal strength on all of these channels.

Here's hoping 8.1 does the trick. Any ideas when it'll be out?

[jkj]

Througout this thread I've noticed one thing: Nobody says it can be a broadcast error. I do not believe that the networks and their affiliates have this HD thing down. As I said in another thread for two years I've seen this not just on the S3 but on the SA 8300.

Now having said that I will say that the S3 seems to be much better at avoiding these drop outs. I won't say I never have one but they are far and few between.

Call me a fanboy if you want, but I think too much blame is put on the S3.

I thought all this was a problem with my S3 for months. Finally just to see who was to blame got a cablebox (also with a cable card inside) and connected it directly into the TV. The SAME audio dropouts occur. SO I called a Comcast repairman. It happens mostly on High Def NBC (No pixilation).

I suggest eveyone do the same is the Tivo upgrade doesn't help... may not be the fault of Tivo.

[gwsat]

I get occasional audio dropouts, too, but it seems to me that they are a transmission problem and probably have nothing to do with the S3. I had exactly the same kind of problem with my old SA 8300HD. The problem with my S3 seems to be identical: an occasional loss of audio for a second or two. It didn’t happen often enough with the 8300HD to cause me to worry about it much and the situation has remained the same with the S3. Thus, I was a little puzzled to read that TiVo has said the problem is a bug. Maybe my old 8300HD had the same bug.