# Watching NLCS Game 7? Report audio dropouts here.



## videojanitor (Dec 21, 2001)

If you're planning to (or already are) watching NLCS Game 7 on FOX, this thread will be used to report any audio dropouts you are experiencing with 6.3a. The hope is that we can determine whether everyone is getting dropouts at the same time, or if they are totally random.

When posting, please note the inning, the batter, and preferably the balls/strike count. If possible, if you can include the last words you heard before the audio cut out, that would be helpful. 

Help us stamp out this pesky bug!


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## merlin803 (Dec 11, 2005)

Figures....it is like watching a pot of water and waiting for it to boil, lol. I have not had any drop outs during the game as of yet but had a couple during the pre game show.


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

I have heard a couple of stutters on ch 88, but then I'm watching with the Hughes HTL-HD non DVR receiver. So that is the source's problem.


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## kbohip (Dec 30, 2003)

Lol, I don't watch sports at all but I happened to turn on the game tonight to see how it looked. Within 1 minute of turning it on I got about an 8 second audio dropout! This FOX OTA audio dropout problem is really bad.


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## rexjak (Sep 21, 2004)

I get an audio dropout bottom of 4th inning when Green swings on strike 3 for the 2nd out.
and another dropout on the first pitch to the next batter (ball 1).

I never had audio dropouts prior to 6.3a upgrade, now they occur very frequently.


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## merlin803 (Dec 11, 2005)

6th inning, 1 out, 1-2 count to J Valintine. About a 15 sec drop.


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## rexjak (Sep 21, 2004)

merlin803 said:


> 6th inning, 1 out, 1-2 count to J Valintine. About a 15 sec drop.


I did not get any dropouts during Valentine's at bat in the bottom of the 6th inning (although he does strike out with the bases loaded!)

this implies it is not a universal dropout. maybe it is a random buffer overflow glitch. or maybe it has to do with the local station? I'm in seattle.


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## deezel629 (May 30, 2006)

Had about a dozen so far. The longest was about 15 seconds.


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## WadeSc (Feb 7, 2004)

rexjak said:


> I get an audio dropout bottom of 4th inning when Green swings on strike 3 for the 2nd out.
> and another dropout on the first pitch to the next batter (ball 1).
> 
> I never had audio dropouts prior to 6.3a upgrade, now they occur very frequently.


I did not have a dropout in the 4th, but did have one in the bottom of the 8th right as Green fouled off strike one and the FOX NLCS graphic flashed on the screen to show the replay, I experienced about an 8 second dropout.

Everyone's appears to be different. I've only had 2 tonight, I think on FOX OTA digital station in Spokane.


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## WadeSc (Feb 7, 2004)

2 more audio dropouts in the bottom of the 9th during Valentine's at bat...


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## mst3k (Jun 11, 2003)

Peeps Im convinced it isn't 6.3. I have always gotten drop outs from live sporting things, even with 3.1. The way they cut from camera to camera and different audio sources, Im surprised that it works at all.


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## bwaldron (Mar 16, 2003)

mst3k said:


> Peeps Im convinced it isn't 6.3. I have always gotten drop outs from live sporting things, even with 3.1. The way they cut from camera to camera and different audio sources, Im surprised that it works at all.


Geez. There is ample evidence, including error logs, that there is a real and specific problem with buffer overflows in 6.3a, especially but not exclusively on OTA FOX; it is not the same as the occasional signal glitches or dropouts that we have all seen.


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## kbohip (Dec 30, 2003)

mst3k said:


> Peeps Im convinced it isn't 6.3. I have always gotten drop outs from live sporting things, even with 3.1. The way they cut from camera to camera and different audio sources, Im surprised that it works at all.


Uh no. I've never had audio dropouts on my HR10 before 6.3a...ever. It's DEFINITELY the software.


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## actionj (Sep 2, 2004)

Have had 6.3a for a week now and it has worked flawless with no audio dropouts on OTA HD, but i don't watch much on fox OTA. Tonight, I watched game 7 on fox OTA HD and had several audio dropouts. Is it official that fox OTA HD is one of the channels that has the most audio dropouts?


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## videojanitor (Dec 21, 2001)

Thanks to all for participating in this unscientific, yet useful test. It proves that there isn't anything in the FOX data stream that causes the dropout at a specific point, but rather something that is causing those buffer overflows at random.

It certainly would be difficult for anyone to deny that this is a real problem -- the evidence to the contrary is mountainous. The only mystery is why most people experience it with FOX stations, while others report it with a variety of stations. Unfortunately, I don't have the test equipment (or knowledge) to examine data streams to see what's different about them.


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## rexjak (Sep 21, 2004)

videojanitor said:


> It certainly would be difficult for anyone to deny that this is a real problem -- the evidence to the contrary is mountainous.


It's not just the audio dropouts. Since I received the 6.3a update a few days ago, my system has spontaneously rebooted itself one time, and another time it hung and had to be powercycled. That never happened before the update.

Does anyone know of a way to revert to the old version?

--rex


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## videojanitor (Dec 21, 2001)

rexjak said:


> Does anyone know of a way to revert to the old version?


The only way I know to revert is from a backup copy of the drive made when the 3.1 was still installed. When I started reading all these horror stories, I did just that, and I'm glad I did because I got hit with the audio problem right away. I studied it for a couple of days, then restored the drive back to 3.1. Problem solved.

Unfortunately, if you don't have backup, it's not quite as easy. I'm fairly certain you can use one that someone else made, but you'd have to go through and pretty much clear and delete everything or repeat guided setup, or you'd end up with that person's Season Passes and other settings.

Oh, and you also have to download some Linux tools in order to do it, and you have to put your TiVo drive into a PC. It's not real complicated, but it's not trivial either. Kinda depends how "techy" you are. The instructions make it look worse than it is.

If anyone wants to try this, I'd be happy to put my 3.1 disk image on a drive that you supply. For instance, if you have a 250GB or larger drive that's gathering dust, I can blast my 3.1 image on there and you can pop it into your machine and verify that the problem(s) is now gone. Send me a PM if interested.


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## kbohip (Dec 30, 2003)

It's $20 and a piece of (Instant)Cake to revert back to 3.1 if you have to. Before you do though, try a clear and delete everything. It fixed my reboot problem.


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## bluesman64 (Jan 25, 2005)

"Clear program information and to do list" solved my reboot problem - with the added benefit of not losing any recorded shows!


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## chris_h (Dec 17, 2003)

bluesman64 said:


> "Clear program information and to do list" solved my reboot problem - with the added benefit of not losing any recorded shows!


Interesting. How long has the "no spontaneous reboots" period lasted so far?


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## chris_h (Dec 17, 2003)

videojanitor said:


> Unfortunately, I don't have the test equipment (or knowledge) to examine data streams to see what's different about them.


If I were to provide you with the equipment and enough knowledge to be dangerous, would you be willing to put in the time? My recollection is that you are in the Sacratomato area, so that would be a prereq too.


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## whsbuss (Dec 16, 2002)

I had a few dropouts in the beginning of the game. Then no dropouts until the 6th inning.... that's almost 2 hours with perfect audio. Then towards the end, one or two more.

Fox OTA 29 in Philly.


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## Flee (Aug 27, 2004)

Get this, I had an audio dropout and then my HR10-250 rebooted right before Chavez stole Rolen's home run. I missed the whole damn thing thanks for our wonderful 6.3a package. This is getting just downright out of control and downright unacceptable. I NEVER had these problems with 3.51.

I'm just about to clear and delete everything but no way do I want to do this until I hear from other people who have done the same thing and it fixed the problem.


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## kroddy (Oct 31, 2001)

WTXF-DT - Fox 29 Philly here as well... 

one drop out in the first minute during the U2 ong, lasted ~7 secs, then good until about 30 minutes, when there was a bunch of dropouts lasting 5-10secs each over a ten minute period... after that I was skipping FF a lot and didn't notice any more.

I was sceptical about it being 6.3a related, but I'm now convinced it is a factor: I've definitely never experienced anything like this before getting the upgrade this week - although about the only Fox HD I watch is football.


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## fjwagner (Jan 22, 2006)

Go Cards!!!!!!! 
Loved the look of "we cant lose, we are from New York" from the fans. Losing to a mid-west team! Must be global warming or was it the pending ice age the media extolled 30 years ago. Nonetheless, a great series and my team won for a change!. BTW, no drop-outs.


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## BruceShultes (Oct 2, 2006)

There were drop-outs in my area as well, but 6.3a had nothing to do with them. My box is still running 3.1.5f. 

In my area, the problem is at the local stations. I tried watching the game using the HR10-250, a SA 8300HD STB over TW cable, and directly over the air from my TV's internal tuner. All three of the sources experienced occasional drop-outs on my local FOX channel. 

By the way, there were also problems during CSI on both the D* and the TW boxes. 

I can't guarantee that the problem would not be worse with 6.3, but it does exist without the upgrade.


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## henryld (Aug 16, 2005)

Watched through the 6th inning (switching back & forth between NCAA football game) and experienced two dropouts. One was the classic with 8-10 seconds audio loss and the video blip at the end at the top of the 3rd IIRC. The other was when they did the Beltran bit and did not have the video blip at the end; could have been network or whatever.


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## bmw528is (Sep 30, 2006)

Noticed one dropout that lasted about 5 seconds watching most of the game (OTA with optical cable). Bummer about the Mets. What has DirecTV been offering, if anything because of this issue? For me, it's difficult to determine exactly what the cause is, considering that there are problems (audio and video) occurring at the source as well.


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## stealthie1 (Jan 25, 2004)

I too had never had audio dropouts with any 3.1 software and have had quite a few since geting the upgrade. I experienced at least 6 of them during the game last night on local OTA Fox2 St. Louis. It's funny though I don't recall having any dropouts on other channels though, but all I've been watching lately is the baseball games.


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## stiffi (Jun 14, 2006)

Just to Add my 2 cents

During the World Series Game last night on Fox OTA, I had the 8 second drop out.

Top of the Ninth, Albert Pujols at the plate, 1 and 1 count.


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## rod456 (Oct 23, 2006)

stiffi said:


> Just to Add my 2 cents
> 
> During the World Series Game last night on Fox OTA, I had the 8 second drop out.
> 
> Top of the Ninth, Albert Pujols at the plate, 1 and 1 count.


I have audio dropouts during the WS games, mine is with D* Sat and not OTA. Happens with all the D* HD networks, including NASCAR on NBC, ESPH HD, etc. So, the Audio dropouts occur on both OTA and Sat HD channels.


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## wjbjr (Nov 9, 2000)

I have experienced many brief audio dropouts while watching FOX baseball OTA via HR10-250. I also have a Hughes HTL-HD hooked up to the same TV and A/V receiver, and by means of quick fingered switching, found that the dropouts were not occurring on the Hughes.

Strangely -- or perhaps not -- I watched FOX HD football Sunday (10/22) via both OTA and Sunday Ticket HD. There were no droputs. Nor have there been any on other channels/networks. They returned for Sunday night's baseball game.


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