Premiere Audio Bug - Anyone Else?

Many TVs can't correctly handle Dolby Digital 5.1 streams (and especially the breaks in Dolby Digital streams that occur on the DVR) through HDMI. If you run HDMI directly to your TV, you should set the TiVo to output PCM.

 

I had something like this happen 1 time (optical spdif) to a receiver during the "What I love about TiVo" recorded advertisement that comes with the TiVo. Backed out and selected again and audio went to normal and haven't had an issue in since.

 

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Not sure this is just a premier problem, and not sure Tivo.

I recently moved my older HD Tivo to a bedroom tv. Untill then, I had no audio issues with this tivo. On the bedroom TV, going direct tivo-hdmi out-tv hdmi in, the audio would occasionally distort and sound digitally. To fix, I would either turn on and off tv, or as you said, go to a menu choice. I had set the tivo to pcm output.

The permanent fix... take the analog audio feed out of tivo and feed to analog input of tv. (Since I'm only using the tv speakers in the bedroom unit, high quality is a non-issue. The problem is no longer there.

Leads me to deduce that it was an hdmi issue. Don't know what the solution, other than to compromise quality and use analog (not a solution if this were my main tv).

 

I have had the same audio annoyances:
They usually only happen on certain channels - and it doesn't matter if my TiVO is set to PCM or DD.

If I go a channel up and then back down sometimes it goes away.
I get the same noise in the analog audio outs of the TiVo hooked to my stereo.
For giggles I tried and another TV - same thing.

TiVo told me it my be due to the digital signal strength the cable company is sending, so I attenuated the signal to 92% signal strength (they said 100% causes macroblocking, and audio issues). Still no luck.


This is making me crazy trying to trouble shoot, the only thing I haven't tried is waving a dead chicken over the thing.

What's even more annoying is that I bought it directly from TiVo and I don't think they are going to cross ship a replacement.

Any suggestions?

 

It's probably some incompatibilty between the Tv and the Premiere. I've used the HDMI out directly to five TVs with no issues. Two Samsung sets(one DLP one LCD), one toshiba(DLP), One Westinghouse(LCD), and one HP(LCD).

 

I guess you missed the part about the analog out of the TiVo having the same problem with his stereo and the part where he tried it with another TV?

 

Same thing is happening to me. I have an older Denon receiver and connect through the optical input - hdmi right to the TV. It seams to me that the signal is too hot - however I'm only in the high 80's maxing out at 92 channel strength. I can make it happen when I push the 8 sec rewind button in fast succession or come out of a fast-forward (sometimes). I had a feeling that the Denon was having trouble decoding the Dolby signal (newer version of Dolby or something like that) so I switched the audio to PCM and let the Premiere decode the Dolby - issue went away. I had other issues with hdmi cables that weren't compatible (older versions of hdmi) for the Premiere during set up, so I'm going to try new optical cables as well. I can't really tell the difference between Dolby D and PCM settings (maybe someone could enlighten us). At the very least, the PCM option is WAY cheaper than buying a new receiver so I'll probably stick with that.

 

Yes I missed the analog part.

I use the analog out on my Bedroom Premiere that is split between a Hava Platinum and a DVD burner. That has been fine from what I've seen for my occassional Hava use, but my girlfriend uses it the most for remote access and to burn her Lifetime recordings.
I use the HDMI to the TV for when I mainly watch the Premiere in there.

 

I don't know if this is the same thing, but I get audio glitches when I fast forward and it stays that way until I rewind. It is almost like it goes from stereo to mono with lots of treble and no bass.

I am using the SD menus and I will have to check the connection. It is a SD set but I don't remember which cables I used.

 

After reading your post, I thought" hum, I haven't tried that" So I connected the optical from TV to Receiver (Tivo HDMI to TV) and played a recorded program that I know had the noise. No joy

Someone said earlier that if you reset your Tivo, the noise is gone until such time as you record from an certain analog channels.

As for the CSR, same happened to me except on Virtual channel. CSR and manager said that Tivo does not map OTA virtual channel as they change all the times

 

All,

I am having the same problems witht he premiere. After connecting it to my receiver, I found that ALL HD channels the audio would fade in and out. Or I would get a warbling effect on voices. I found that this was because my receiver no longer correctly auto detected the sound encoding via the HDMI cable. I changed my receiver to 5ch. audio and everything works just fine now.

Hope this helps some people out.
Jason

 

A lot of receivers (especially older ones) don't have the firmware to correctly handle sudden changes in the digital data stream. My newer Onkyo TX-SR606 seems to have many many fewer problems than the old receiver I replaced. Switching channels, going from 5.1 HD broadcasts to stero commercials, all made my old receiver flake out randomly about 1/3 of the times it happened. (Not to mention comcast "digital quality" audio dropouts .

Still, even with the Onkyo I sometimes lose sound - most commonly when going from the main tivo menu (with the small preview live TV window) back to live TV. The digital audio stream always cuts out, and sometimes never comes back till I do something like change channels then change back again.

 

I worked with tech support a number of times. First call they said they would look into the problem. The next time I call to follow up they said it's a setting in your receiver or don't use dolby digital. I said I wanted to return my tivo and they tell me my 30 days is already past (by a couple of days). I asked for a manager repeatedly then finally got one. He tells me they'll look into it further and they could extend my return period to 60 days.

Three weeks later I call again and tech support says the problem is not resolved and it was unknown when it would be. Sadly after 8 years with a series 2 tivo, I'm saying goodbye to tivo. I'm using win7 media center now which is a bit of a headache to configure but works great. Kind of sad to see tivo go. I loved the appliance like simplicity and reliability. I really enjoyed tivo and the product has shifted my paradigm of tv watching.

 

I once had this problem with an older receiver using optical.

The problem was caused when the Tivo would stop sending the digital signal during FF and menu transitions. This caused the receiver to search for an input trying to detect optical versus RCA. Made for a nasty screech occasionally.

The fix turned out to be on the receiver side. I went into the set up on the receiver and changed the input selected from auto detect to optical only. No more issue.

My old Direct Tivo did not cause this issue, but it was introduced by a change in behavior on the HD (And I assume the Premiere, I no longer have that receiver to try it.)

 

switch to PCM its the only sure fix. I Have had this problem with old and new recievers, optical and HDMI, TivoHD's and Premiere. it doesnt matter. The problem is tivo's and they have never fixed it. never had the problem with directv's boxes.