# wobbly audio



## aerialplug (Oct 20, 2000)

Over the last week, I've noticed my TiVo's audio start to warble. No picture breakup whatsoever and everything else is is working fine. Warbles are now almost constant on programmes with music (where they're noticeable). Regular as clockwork - as often as every 30 seconds.

I've previously advised people I know to replace their drives when the audio starts to play up - but this one's got me stumped as it's not accompanied by the other usual suspects of hard drive faliure that happened when other people started getting the wobbly audio.

I already have a drive ready for replacement (well, it was bought for another purpose) but I could do without the hastle of drive replacement right now as I'm perfectly happy with the 120Gb drive. What complicates matters somewhat is that my current PC is SATA only - though I do have an older PC somewhere in storage I can dig out that would be adequate for a TiVo drive upgrade.

So, what's it to be. should I be running to the second drive and my PC to clone this drive asap or is it probably OK to wait a little longer to see if symptoms get worse/sort thesmselves out (yeah..)?

Still... exactly 3 years isn't too bad for a Hitachi Desk Star before it starts to show signs of getting old, isn't it?


----------



## TCM2007 (Dec 25, 2006)

Got any stuff running on the TiVo in the background?


----------



## benallenuk (Aug 1, 2005)

This used to happen to me like clock work. I record the breakfast show on radio 1 (7-10), the warble used to kick in like clock work at 8.00am, i tracked it down to dailymail compiling its daily email. I put the warble in that case down to excess processor load.

I now get warble, when I'm watching live tv and tell it to record it (including the buffer), which bascially then records in mode 0, again i think down to processor load.

Ive set all my hacks to run in the background, this has helped.

Cheers

Ben


----------



## RWILTS (Apr 21, 2006)

I had this sound problem last monday whilst watching prison break on 5. Every few minutes it would warble.. I tried watching via AUX and the problem was still there so I thought it was 5's signal. 

I havent had any other sound problems since on any other channel.


----------



## smatson (Mar 14, 2001)

Yes had the same last week or so very strange ?


----------



## OzSat (Feb 15, 2001)

My CSI warbled this week - on SkyHD


----------



## aerialplug (Oct 20, 2000)

Well, I've noticed that quite a few American shows (especially ones with long drawn out notes) warble occasionally. I've always put this down to some form of strange standards conversion that changes the speed of play slightly in order to cushion the artefacts caused by the 30->25 Hz frame rate conversion.


----------



## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

aerialplug said:


> Well, I've noticed that quite a few American shows (especially ones with long drawn out notes) warble occasionally.


Go on, admit it, you've been watching American Idol


----------



## kitschcamp (May 18, 2001)

ozsat said:


> My CSI warbled this week


On my setup (non HD) it happens on CSI, CSI: New York and a few other bits and bobs, but all on Five. I never get it on any other channel.


----------



## smatson (Mar 14, 2001)

Well at least its not the tivos


----------



## -MC- (Dec 9, 2005)

Have a look at this thread

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=480928


----------



## PhilG (Jan 15, 2002)

I have something similar to this, but usually on Ch4 (Sky 104)

The sound goes "warbly", usually after an ad break and STAYS warbly until I change the STB channel. If I change up to 105 and back to 104 the warble has gone

Most odd

It's definatelty NOT a Tivo problem......


----------



## Cainam (May 25, 2004)

Posted by RWILTS


> I had this sound problem last monday whilst watching prison break on 5. Every few minutes it would warble.. I tried watching via AUX and the problem was still there so I thought it was 5's signal.


I am so glad you said that...I thought my Tivo was on its last legs! For the past 2 weeks this has happened, but only for this program.


----------



## aerialplug (Oct 20, 2000)

All my wobbly sound problems were recorded on Five too in retrosepct - Columbo (several episodes) and CSI!!!

At this stage I feel relieved! No need to replace the HD yet!

Tonight's CSI sounds fine off TiVo - no audio wobbles or glitches.

I wonder if they had some problems with their playout suite? Strange that friends I moaned about this didn't notice it, though.


----------



## gremlin82 (Apr 11, 2004)

Just made the first ever modification to my TiVo and replaced the original drives with a 400Gb one from Tivoheaven.

All seemed fine except that I too am now getting audio glitches/warbles which are really intrusive where music is involved and not quite so noticeable with just speech. About every minute or so and accompanied with a barely noticeable screen dither.

Can anyone give this upgrading novice some pointers please? The only thing I changed during the new set up is the RF channel. I think I used to use 65 and for some reason set it to 60 during Guided Setup.


----------



## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

If it's a Seagate drive then it could be a recurrence of the "helium sound" problem that used to plague the older 160gb Seagate drives. Nobody has ever reported it with a 400gb drive before but I guess Seagate could have changed the firmware.

Get in touch via email and I will sort something out 

Cheers
Steve
www.tivoheaven.co.uk


----------



## ColinYounger (Aug 9, 2006)

I noticed the warble on Last Night of the Proms...


----------



## Ian_m (Jan 9, 2001)

Seen it with a 300GB Seagate drive, odd warbly sound and sometimes picture breakup.

Passed SeaTools diagnostics OK but during some of the tests seemed to be excessive disk seeking compared to another Seagate disk. Tested with fresh install of Windows and again excessive disk seeking.

Drive returned to supplier and replacement has worked fine for the last 27,000 hours odd.


----------



## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Interesting that a replacement _Seagate_ drive did not exhibit the same behaviour. I had previously put it down to a firmware issue.

I know that the reason newer Seagate drives don't work in pairs in a TiVo is firmware related because Seagate borrowed a TiVo of mine and a copy of Hooch and confirmed it to me. So I had always assumed that the "helium sound" problem was firmware related as well as, like yours, returned drives have always passed all the diagnostic tests with flying colours.


----------

