Audio Stutters (drops out) on Certain NBC HD Shows only

[danwassink]

I bought a new S3 TivoHD with two Comcast cable cards about 2 months ago. It has been running fine on all the channels up until about two weeks ago. The sound stutters (or drops out every two or three words might be a better way of saying it) on NBC HD. It started with an episode of the Office and has grown to include Heroes, Journeyman, and Bionic Woman. The strange thing is that last week it was only Heroes and The Office. Chuck, CSI, and others are still fine. I am afraid that next week these other NBC shows will stutter.

It is fine if I switch to the SD channel. It stutters during live television and Tivo'd shows.

Anyone else having this issue? Any suggestions? My wife is telling me to record the SD versions of Office and Heroes (the other shows I am losing interest in, so it does not matter yet), but then what's the point of HD?

[cableguy763]

Sounds like you could have signal issues with your cable. You can go into the diagnostics of your box while tuned to that channel and check what the S/N ratio is. It should be over 33.

[danwassink]

I do not have a cable box. I was thinking (hoping) I would not need one with Tivo HD and cablecards. Is there a way to check the S/N ratio via the Tivo interface?

It's annoying that it worked for about 6 weeks and then the stuttering started and it seems to be getting worse.

Thanks,
Dan

[cableguy763]

You can totally check this without a cable box. I am not in front of my tivo, but I believe if you tune to the channel and then go into your troubleshooting (once again, not in front of my tivo) screen, you can find these numbers. It may be under settings, but if you look around for a sec, all the info is available.

[bkdtv]

System Information -> Diagnostics will display your signal strength, SNR, and errors.

The key field to look at is the Uncorrected Errors. Uncorrected Errors is how the TiVo measures signal issues causing pixelization, picture skips, and audio dropouts.

Tune to a channel where you are experiencing the problem and check the Diagnostics screen for Uncorrected Errors. If you see a steady stream of Uncorrected Errors, then you need to improve your cable signal, which may mean eliminating splitters, adding an amplifier, or in some cases, adding attenuation [to reduce a signal that is too strong].