# Momentary audio dropouts



## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

Tivo Bolt >> Yamaha AV receiver >> Samsung TV, all connected via HDMI. Comcast cable (metro Detroit) with cable card.

On cable channels I am seeing very sporadic and infrequent audio dropouts, sometimes accompanied by mild video pixelation a second or two afterwards. If I rewind and play the segment again, the dropout and pixelation occur at the same place. In past events I did not notice if there was any reaction in the Yamaha display when the audio dropped out. However, in the most recent event, the Dolby and speaker icons blanked during the event.

I have not been keeping track but it is my suspicion that this is confined to a small subset of cable channels. Signal strength and S/N are both fine. 

I am inclined to believe this is an issue with the signal as delivered by Comcast and not an issue in the bolt, AV receiver or TV but I am wondering if there is any way to be sure this is NOT a local equipment issue. Anyone?

Paul


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## JoeKustra (Dec 7, 2012)

There is a high probability you're being fed bad data. There was an audio issue a few years ago and if it did start again you would see a lot of participation. I run my two basic Roamio units to a Yamaha RX-V867. I admit that every month I reset the HDMI connections. Since you can record the junk, it's likely not just random audio dropouts (plus the video glitch).

Since you know how to find Diagnostics, are the bad channels close to each other in frequency? That would point to a bad feed since headend amplifiers usually handle a defined block of frequencies. If the dropouts are in a close group of frequencies, call your cable feed.

If it seems that most channels have dropouts without a pattern, you could ask your cable feed to replace the connector on your drop. Mine lasts about a year. I also see an increase in errors in my modem. An Arris modem has its diagnostics at 192.168.100.1. My Roamio, at this time, has zero RS Uncorrected errors. Like a Bolt, it doesn't display RS Corrected errors. All channels have a signal of 90% (within 2%) and a SNR of 36dB (within 1dB). I consider this normal.


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## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

Thanks Joe. I have not looked recently but I did check a while back when this happened while watching a channel live and did not see any uncorrected errors indicated on the channel I was watching. I assume that would mean the issue was encoded somewhere upstream and not something the Tivo recognized as an error. 

Paul


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## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

This problem has recently re-surfaced. But the symptoms have changed. 

1. The momentary audio dropouts now are NOT accompanied by any video disturbance. 

2. If you rewind and play the same section, there is no dropout. 

3. This is an infrequent issue. But when the dropouts are happening, they seem to occur regularly, maybe every minute or two. When this happens, if you rewind a couple seconds and re-start (or change programs), they go away. 

4. They have happened on Xfinity VOD content as well as recorded cable content. 

This may be some sort of an HDMI issue between the Bolt and my Yamaha receiver.... recently I am finding that if I pause a recording and turn the receiver and TV off, when I turn them on again there is no sound (and no Dolby indication on the Yamaha) until I rewind a couple seconds and restart playback. Not sure if this is related to the audio dropouts or not. 

Anyone else? 

Paul


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## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

pgoelz said:


> This may be some sort of an HDMI issue between the Bolt and my Yamaha receiver.... recently I am finding that if I pause a recording and turn the receiver and TV off, when I turn them on again there is no sound (and no Dolby indication on the Yamaha) until I rewind a couple seconds and restart playback. Not sure if this is related to the audio dropouts or not.
> 
> Anyone else?
> 
> Paul


On further checking, I noticed that the receiver's audio and Dolby indications turned off each time a dropout occurred. Looks like the dropouts had something to do with the HDMI cable between the Tivo and the Yamaha receiver. The cable was brand new and rated for 4K. However, when I replaced it with an older (and longer) cable of unknown rating, the dropouts went away and have not (yet) returned. Very difficult to troubleshoot since as I understand it, there is end to end handshaking between the Tivo and the TV, including the receiver. Anything along that path has the potential to stop decoding.

Paul


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## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

And a further update..... after thinking I had fixed the dropouts by replacing the Tivo to receiver cable, they came back intermittently. As an experiment, I placed a strip of foam front to back under the Bolt which raises the long dimension of the bent housing to horizontal and isolates the air intake and exhaust. I also removed the cable card cover. It has now been a couple weeks with no dropouts at all. Simply turning the Bolt upside down might accomplish the same thing but my cat likes to sit on the Bolt (because it is warm) and that would block the air vents if they were on the top  

Paul


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

pgoelz said:


> And a further update..... after thinking I had fixed the dropouts by replacing the Tivo to receiver cable, they came back intermittently. As an experiment, I placed a strip of foam front to back under the Bolt which raises the long dimension of the bent housing to horizontal and isolates the air intake and exhaust. I also removed the cable card cover. It has now been a couple weeks with no dropouts at all. Simply turning the Bolt upside down might accomplish the same thing but my cat likes to sit on the Bolt (because it is warm) and that would block the air vents if they were on the top
> 
> Paul


Another thing to consider: putting the Bolt box on a laptop cooling fan platform, or using a small fan (the AC Infinity fans (available through Amazon and elsewhere) are a favorite here) pointed at the box, to further cool it down.


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## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

Yes, I have seen the threads about additional cooling fans. I even have a whisper fan to use. But while the whisper fan is quiet it is not silent. I realized, though, that we have a spare laptop cooling pad so I just placed it under the Bolt with a couple foam baffles so the cooler draws cool air in under both sides of the bolt (intake and exhaust) and blows out the front into the room. ODT was 61C when I started and 56C after about three minutes.... lets see if it drops any further. I'm also curious how long the cooler fans last under 24/7 usage  

I like the idea someone had earlier of placing the bolt board in a larger enclosure with a better fan. 

Paul


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

I'm doing some experimenting with cooling opportunities right now and am finding a nice effect with the cablecard compartment hatch removed and using a fan cooling pad--perhaps a cooling factor of around 10 degrees C. (the ODT temp.), at 70/72 degrees in the room, using an old, generic/inexpensive, laptop fan cooling pad that I had around. I'm experimenting with a "better" fan cooling pad right now which is kicking back higher cooling numbers, at less or no noise, depending on setting. Hoping to have more complete numbers over the next few days.


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## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

That squares with what I am seeing.... ODT=61 before the cooling pad (cable card cover removed) and ODT=53 after the cooling pad. My particular cooling pad (that we had lying around) has two fans, both configured as intake, and blowing out the edge of the pad. Because of the shape of the Bolt housing and the fact that I have the Bolt on two pieces of foam, each fan draws air away from the Bolt and exhausts it out the front edge. This may reduce the effectiveness of the internal fan intake but there should be enough free air space that the cooling pad fan does not actually apply suction to the Bolt fan. 

At this point I am tempted to cut a hole in the top of the Bolt and install a much larger fan blowing directly into the enclosure. The only missing piece of information is whether or not there really is an adverse effect (sound dropouts in my case) at higher temperatures. Not sure I want to intentionally elevate the ODT to confirm my anecdotal observation. But of course the hard drive can be expected to live longer at lower temps......

Paul


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## Mikeguy (Jul 28, 2005)

Personally, I would be way hesitant to cut into the case--I would give it more time to see if the issue recurs before going dynamite (but that's me).


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## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

I'm not that reluctant to cut a hole in the case..... can't hurt anything other than resale and I'm not planning on selling it  

That said, I removed my foam baffles and just placed the Bolt on the pad over the intakes and the ODT dropped even further to 43C so I'd say this is a fairly permanent (and simple) solution. Might look for a USB powered cooling pad just for simplicity.... mine is older and uses a separate 120VAC brick. Might also be an interesting experiment to reverse one of the two cooling pad fans so the fan under the Bolt intake blows upwards. 

Paul


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## rusa8 (Jul 9, 2013)

pgoelz said:


> Tivo Bolt >> Yamaha AV receiver >> Samsung TV, all connected via HDMI. Comcast cable (metro Detroit) with cable card.
> 
> On cable channels I am seeing very sporadic and infrequent audio dropouts, sometimes accompanied by mild video pixelation a second or two afterwards. If I rewind and play the segment again, the dropout and pixelation occur at the same place. In past events I did not notice if there was any reaction in the Yamaha display when the audio dropped out. However, in the most recent event, the Dolby and speaker icons blanked during the event.
> 
> ...


I have the same issue with a Tivo Priemiere, a Comcast cable card, an LG TV with LG sound system.


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## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

Since I last posted we have cut the cord and tossed Comcast Cable. We now stream to / from an LG OLED TV and have no dropouts. However, I have found that very occasionally the ARC to the Yamaha amplifier does not connect. Sometimes the Cinema decode annunciator flashes randomly and the connects. And I have also observed that if I walk across the carpet and touch the TV, the audio drops out momentarily. All this seems to indicate that digital audio is fairly fragile and easily confused. 

Sorry none of that addresses the dropout issue directly, though.

Paul


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## riponhd825 (Sep 26, 2009)

Just thouight I would revive this post. We are experiencing many of the same issues described here: intermittent audio cutouts with occasional video pixelation We have charter/spectrum internet/tv, a tivo bolt and a yamaha reciever that feeds the video to the samsung tv. 

Problem is VERY intermitent. Some nights, a show will be unwatchable. I found that switching to the non-HD version of a channel helps, a lot. But, that is a lousy picture. 

The problem is definitely related to the tivo bolt and it's connecton to a yamaha receiver. I have a firestick plugged into a different hdmi port in the receiver and it NEVER has this problem. It is only related to our cable/tivo. 

Trying to decide is it the internet connection? Tuning adapter? Cable card? Bolt machine? Hdmi connection to the stereo? 

The bolt box gets its picture/sound from the cable right? Not its internet connection. It is my understanding that it only uses the internet connection for the guide stuff. I do have the bolt connected to an older network switch. I could upgrade that to a 1 gig switch if needed. 

If anyone has actually solved this problem (other than cutting the cable), I would sure like to hear it. We are not really ready to cut the cable just yet. Have used tivo for many years.


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## pgoelz (May 1, 2005)

Most of our viewing these days is on a Roku but we do still use the Bolt for OTA recordings. We rarely have a dropout on the Bolt. Very occasionally on the Roku. 

My best guess is that the issue is either poor cables or differences in ground potential between the two ends of the connection. In my experience the dropouts got worse when I changed to no-name cables. I settled on good quality high bandwidth certified cables from Amazon and the dropouts are..... almost gone. VERY occasionally we will get a single dropout during a show. No pixellation ever. 

One oddity is that quite frequently, there will be a single dropout about 30 seconds into a new show. Not always but often enough to notice the pattern. 

Paul


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