Lost Audio on some channels while watching TV. Other channels are fine.

[Username5912]

All of sudden TV audio is gone while watching TV. Picture is fine. Some TV channels have no audio but some other channels are fine. Cable is connected to Nextbox, HDMI to home stereo then HDMI to TV.  Streaming program is fine so the issue is not TV nor home stereo. Turn off Nextbox "explorer 4642HD", wait 1 hour or so, turn it back on, audio comes back. Rogers technical support advised to change Nextbox settings>audio control to "fixed" from "variable". Did that, but issue still exists. Any ideas on the cause and solutions to fix it ?      

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[RogersZia]

Hello @Username5912 and welcome to the Rogers Community Forums!

You've come to the right place, thank you for explaining the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far. When the issue returned did you notice if the audio issues were limited to the same specific channels?

Our resident expert @57 would be the best person to address this for you.

Stay tuned!

RogersZia

[Username5912]

yes.

[Biollw]

Have you tested by connecting the hdmi directly to the TV from the netbox to see if the channels still have no audio?

[57]

Yes, try connecting directly to the TV. This will indicate if the issue is with the box, or some sort of incompatibility with the "home stereo".  What is the make and exact model number of the "home stereo" (audio video receiver/AVR?)

In the NextBox, go to Settings-Audio and select "other" instead of Dolby Digital, or vice versa.  The Fixed setting is appropriate for use with an AVR, but it shouldn't make any difference for an HDMI connection.

Some channels are DD5.1 while others are DD2.0 and that may be the source of the problem.  Turning the box off/on may send audio as PCM (2 channel) which the "other" setting listed above will do.  Most AVRs should be able to handle DD5.1 via HDMI, but it might be an issue for certain AVRs or certain connections/settings.

You could run HDMI directly to the TV and then Optical from the TV to the AVR, with the TV set to "external speakers".  Set the AVR to the appropriate input for the optical cable. That may also solve the problem.

You say streaming is OK. How are you doing that?  Via Optical from the TV streaming via apps on the TV?  More details are probably necessary.

You also need the appropriate decoding setting on the AVR - something like Dolby Pro Logic II.

[Username5912]

did you receive my reply ?

[Username5912]

I have replied to your post twice and for some reason I did see them here.

[Username5912]

I will reply again. This is my third try. My AVR is Marantz SR7001. Got new Nextbox replacement today,  Audio drop from most channels is fixed but couple channels (26,6) still have audio drop sporadically but less frequent. Channel 26 has most consistence audio drop. It stays for few min then gone. Very strange.

[57]

Here are comments and questions.

1. In post 1 you intimated that you don't have audio at all from some channels. That's a totally different scenario from occasional audio dropouts mentioned in your recent post. 

2. Did you try temporarily connecting the HDMI cable directly to the TV to see if you still have dropouts?  Try both cables as the cable may be the issue.  If you don't have problems with the TV, then the issue is with the AVR or the HDMI cable to the AVR.

3. That AVR is roughly 15 years old. Did you try another input on the AVR?  

4. Did you try another HDMI cable or disconnecting/reconnecting the HDMI cable (switching the ends for example).  That will perhaps remove any oxidation buildup on the cable or the HDMI ports?

5. Channel 26 is CBC News, 6 is also CBC.  These channels often send a DD5.1 signal with audio out the Left-Front and Right Front speakers only.  Do you get proper audio out the LF & RF speakers from the other channels you watch, or only from the centre and surround speakers.

6. I ran into a similar issue with improperly encoded DD5.1 signals during my optimization travels years ago.  The AVR had a switch for "speakers" and that switch was set to "off", so whenever a programme came on with only LF & RF audio, there was no sound.  I see that your AVR has a button for A/B speakers. Try pressing that physical button repeatedly because you may have oxidation in that switch which causes the audio to fail intermittently.

7. Run the test tones on your AVR to make sure all the speakers are working.  Run it a few times.

8. Have you invoked the correct surround sound processing on the AVR - for example Dolby Pro Logic II?

9. Does the dialogue come out the centre channel speaker on most programming where the channel is working properly?

10. Try repeatedly pressing the physical buttons behind the front panel.  If these are not used, oxidation can build up and cause issues. Same goes for using the volume control.  If it's not used much, oxidation can cause issues at certain points of volume.

[Username5912]

To answer your questions:
2. Audio from all channels come out fine when HDMI cable is connected to TV from Nextbox.
3. I am not able to use another input for the TV because HDMI port 1 is hard-wired for TV input. Other HDMI inputs are for other input sources. (ie DVD,,etc)
4. I don't have spare DHMI cable to test but I did disconnect/reconnect the HDMI cables, make no difference.
5. Channel 26,6, no audio out from FL & FR, centre, and surround speakers. Sporadically, they seems OK but audio dropout sec later. However, when I am on other channels and change the audio out format to "mult-channel", I get center audio and surround sound and still no FL & FR.
6. Make no difference.
7. Run test tones using auto speaker setup feature but it failed because, for some reason, no speakers found. Tried few times, same error.
8. Tried all sound processing logic (ie auto, stereo, DD, dts ex/es, surround mode,,etc). Only processing logic works is surround mode but only center has audio and sometimes, SR and SL. Center is the only speaker has audio in most TV channels. Channel 26 has no audio at all regardless of sound processing logic.
9. Yes
10. Tried, make no difference.

[57]

7. Based on the fact that the test tones don't work (item 7), you have an issue with the AVR's amplifier, or possibly the connections to the LF & RF speakers.  You can try pressing that A/B Speaker switch again a few times in case that's the culprit.  You can also remove all the speaker connections and redo them. Make sure you check that none of the speaker cables have strands at either end that may short out connections.  Connect one speaker at a time and run the test.

3. I assume you have similar speaker problems with the DVD player.   I didn't ask you to try another input on the TV, rather on the AVR, but if the test tones fail, I'm guessing it doesn't matter which input you use because there's an issue with the AVR and it has nothing to do with Rogers.

2. Since you get audio from the TV when the NextBox is connected directly, it again points to an issue with the AVR, not Rogers.

Edit - One more thing to try.  If you have headphones, insert them into the AVR's headphone jack a few times and also see what you hear.