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Intermittent loss of audio on ONE channel only

Discussion in 'TiVo Roamio DVRs' started by austinsho, Oct 16, 2020.

  1. Oct 16, 2020 #1 of 11
    austinsho

    austinsho A repeated victim of Time Warner DBA Spectrum

    286
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    Oct 21, 2001
    Austin Texas

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    Folks...got a weird one here. I have an intermittent loss of audio on my Roamio Pro , which is also showing up on the two networked TiVo Minis. I'm on TE3

    I have a Season Pass set for the local and national news on my local NBC station. About one recording out of four will have NO audio whatsoever. If I go to the channel live, the audio is normal. This happens ONLY on the NBC station. It is not a station origination problem. If I play the recording while the show is in progress and find no audio, then use a different tuner to watch the show live, the audio is there.

    So far, this has affected only one channel, the local NBC station.

    Any thoughts? Anyone?

    Thanks! Mike Nassour
     
  2. Oct 17, 2020 #2 of 11
    JoeKustra

    JoeKustra in the other Alabama TCF Club

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    Ashland, PA...
    While on the silent station, hit Right then Down 3x. What does it say about the audio? Can you change it?

    In Diagnostics, find the channel and check the Audio PID. (AC3) is Dolby.
     
  3. Oct 17, 2020 #3 of 11
    austinsho

    austinsho A repeated victim of Time Warner DBA Spectrum

    286
    6
    Oct 21, 2001
    Austin Texas
    Thanks...I'll be back with the result.
     
  4. Oct 17, 2020 #4 of 11
    austinsho

    austinsho A repeated victim of Time Warner DBA Spectrum

    286
    6
    Oct 21, 2001
    Austin Texas

    Wow, this is interesting. when I do that I have two settings one English Dolby audio, two Spanish Dolby audio. when I select Spanish, I hear the audio track in English. When I select English, there's no audio at all!

    But once again, remember, when I listen to the program live, I hear English audio.
     
    Last edited: Oct 19, 2020
  5. Oct 17, 2020 #5 of 11
    austinsho

    austinsho A repeated victim of Time Warner DBA Spectrum

    286
    6
    Oct 21, 2001
    Austin Texas

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    So one of two things is happening... Either the TiVo isn't playing back the English audio track, or the station isn't putting audio on the English audio track and when live, the TiVo automatically goes to the track where there's audio?
     
  6. Oct 17, 2020 #6 of 11
    JoeKustra

    JoeKustra in the other Alabama TCF Club

    20,287
    3,764
    Dec 7, 2012
    Ashland, PA...
    You might wish to contact the TV Channel with this information. TiVo does weird things, but I've never felt it was smart enough to only mess with one program. I'm sure they have a web site. Use Google. BTW, this is not the first time I have heard of a similar problem. You could check with your cable company to see if they can help or at least duplicate the problem.
     
  7. Oct 17, 2020 #7 of 11
    austinsho

    austinsho A repeated victim of Time Warner DBA Spectrum

    286
    6
    Oct 21, 2001
    Austin Texas
    Well, a small update...I've found the same issue not only with the local news, but also with the NBC National News that precedes it. I've spoken with my friend down at the station and he recommends watching a recording in progress and confirming audio. If the audio is NOT on the main channel, switch the TiVo to another tuner and watch the SAME show, and confirm that we're getting audio from both the English and SAP (Spanish feed). If we are, then we have a TiVo tuner problem....which is probably the case. Durnit.
     
  8. Oct 18, 2020 #8 of 11
    V7Goose

    V7Goose OTA ONLY and Loving It!

    1,703
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    New Mexico...
    I have found that this is a very common problem with NBC in some areas - I have heard similar problems about other channels, but my personal experience and research has been limited to NBC in Dallas and New Mexico. In short, the issue is that the center channel where the VOICE is supposed to be does not always carry that signal, even though the Dolby decoder shows that the center channel is still there.

    Unfortunately, the only real solution with some amplifiers seems to be to change the TiVo audio to PCM only.

    There is something odd and WRONG with the Dolby signal that some NBC stations use, and it has NOTHING to do with the particular transmitters or TiVo (I researched the identical problem with Dish and their Hopper DVR, proving that the problem is embedded in the original signal as it leaves the local station). But it IS a much bigger problem with some audio amplifiers. Here in New Mexico, the problem is MUCH worse on local news programs on the NBC affiliate, and it seems to go away on the national NBC programs. And in both Dallas and here in New Mexico, this problem is ONLY on the NBC station.

    When I lived in Dallas before 2012, the problem was TERRIBLE with NBC on FiOS. And when I moved to NM, I found it with Dish on NBC, and also with TiVo and OTA on the same station. While typing this, I just did a new test, changing the Bolt audio to Dolby while the NBC network news was playing - it was fine until they went to one of the regular short breaks for local weather, and BAM, super low audio on the center channel!

    The problem is not consistent - when watching the local news, the voice audio can come and go randomly. And I have one Sony AV receiver where it is so bad that I cannot use Dolby with the NBC channel at all. In contrast, an older high-end Yamaha AV receiver connected to a different Bolt is not affected near as much. When watching the same program on that system, I can hear the audio shift from center to side speakers at the same points that the Sony amp seems to almost totally loose the voices, but the affect on the Yamaha is not so bad that I have to use PCM audio with the Bolt.
     
    Last edited: Oct 18, 2020
  9. Oct 18, 2020 #9 of 11
    austinsho

    austinsho A repeated victim of Time Warner DBA Spectrum

    286
    6
    Oct 21, 2001
    Austin Texas
    Yikes! I had heard various audio issues with the local NBC before, but that's ridiculous. Here, I'm not seeing audio come and go, but rather it is either there...or not...throughout the entire program.

    The next time I can catch it when a program is recording, I'll go to the menu and see if the main channel has audio. If it does, then I've got a problem with the Roamio. If there's no audio there, then it's a station issue.
     
  10. Oct 18, 2020 #10 of 11
    V7Goose

    V7Goose OTA ONLY and Loving It!

    1,703
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    May 28, 2005
    New Mexico...
    There is a simpler test - just play any recorded program you have with an audio problem (restore one from the trash even), and then pause the program and change the TiVo audio setting to PCM. If the program then has audio, you know the cause.
     
  11. Oct 19, 2020 #11 of 11
    austinsho

    austinsho A repeated victim of Time Warner DBA Spectrum

    286
    6
    Oct 21, 2001
    Austin Texas
    OK folks, update time.

    There is currently a local NBC news show recording.

    When playing the recording in progress, there is no audio on the English channel, only on the second audio program.

    Switching to LIVE video of the program (on another tuner, I assume) gives me audio on both the English and SAP program.

    Switching back to the recording shows no difference, that there is no audio on the main audio, just the SAP channel (which happens to be reserved for Spanish audio in this case, but this station normally runs English audio there when no Spanish audio is available).

    Switching from Dolby Audio to PCM makes no difference, the exact same situation occurs.

    Any thoughts?
     

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