# Premiere Audio Bug - Anyone Else?



## Kivo (Feb 20, 2003)

I have a Premiere set to output Dolby Digital. When watching a show, it randomly messes up the audio, making it sound scratchy and high-pitched. It happens with live TV and recorded programs and without exception, when you go to the menus and go back to live or the recorded program, the audio returns to normal.

I've exerienced it with the HD menus and SD menus. I've tried turning off the video screen on the menus and it's happened with a Harmony as well as the original remote. I haven't yet tried setting it to PCM audio.

I've searched through the forums and haven't heard anyone else complain about this problem. Is anyone else experiencing this? Any ideas on whether it could be something in my setup or just a Tivo bug? It's getting very annoying.

Thanks for your feedback.


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## bkdtv (Jan 9, 2003)

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.


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## global_dev (Mar 15, 2010)

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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## Kivo (Feb 20, 2003)

bkdtv said:


> 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 do have HDMI running directly to the TV. However, I'm not using the audio from that connection. I have an older Denon receiver that does not have HDMI, so I have an optical connection running from the Tivo to the receiver.


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## markus2 (Sep 16, 2003)

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).


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## Kivo (Feb 20, 2003)

markus2 said:


> 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.
> 
> ...


Thanks. I appreciate the feedback. This, however, is my main TV, and sacrificing the audio quality is not an option -- that's half the reason I bought the Premiere, upgrading from a Series 2.


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## spookycat (Apr 14, 2010)

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&#37; 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?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

spookycat said:


> 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.
> ...


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).


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## RoyK (Oct 22, 2004)

aaronwt said:


> 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?


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## crj1 (Apr 21, 2010)

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.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

RoyK said:


> 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?


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.


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## innocentfreak (Aug 25, 2001)

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.


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## Kivo (Feb 20, 2003)

crj1 said:


> 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.


I talked to Tivo customer service about this problem. After a front-line CSR and a manager told me that they don't support the optical audio jack on the Tivo (yes, you heard that right), they suggested that I try hooking the Tivo up to another receiver. Luckily, I also have a newer Denon receiver with HDMI. So, I tried that for a few days and did not experience the problem. I also have a Tivo HD that I hooked up to the older receiver the same way I had the Premiere set up. The audio glitch did not occur on either Tivo during that time. However, when I swapped the Tivos back again, the glitch returned to the Tivo Premiere.

To solve the problem, I changed the way I have the Premiere connected. Currently, I have HDMI from Tivo to TV and optical from Tivo to receiver. I changed it so that the optical goes from the TV output to the receiver. I've been using that setup for about a week and have not had any problems. Functionally, it works exactly the same.


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## Andrel (Oct 19, 2000)

Kivo said:


> I talked to Tivo customer service about this problem. After a front-line CSR and a manager told me that they don't support the optical audio jack on the Tivo (yes, you heard that right)...
> To solve the problem, I changed the way I have the Premiere connected. Currently, I have HDMI from Tivo to TV and optical from Tivo to receiver. I changed it so that the optical goes from the TV output to the receiver. I've been using that setup for about a week and have not had any problems. Functionally, it works exactly the same.


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


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## jscheeringa (Dec 27, 2010)

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


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## Kivo (Feb 20, 2003)

By changing the audio to 5 ch audio, your not actually fixing the problem. You're settling for inferior audio, since the 5 ch setting just sends the same audio through all five speakers. This is not the same as dolby digital where specific sounds are coded to go to specific speakers, such as ambient sounds going to the surround speakers.


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## tomhorsley (Jul 22, 2010)

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.


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## hchang2k (Oct 16, 2003)

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.


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## DeWitt (Jun 30, 2004)

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.)


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## vurbano (Apr 20, 2004)

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.


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## aaroncgi (Apr 13, 2010)

We have a problem with our Premiere that didn't occur with the same receiver, setup, and transmission mode (optical) using a Dish DVR. It's a bit different than described above, though. What happens with ours is that occasionally, after we come out of the 30 second skip, we'll be missing the voices completely. It's odd because the center channel still has sound - just no voices. Backing up 8 seconds will fix it every time. At no point does our receiver (an Onkyo TX-SR805) ever change modes or lose the digital lock. I think we have it set to PCM already, but it might be on Auto.


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## hchang2k (Oct 16, 2003)

I did remove the auto settings from my receiver and it did not help. Switching to pcm did work but of course, no surround sound. This was Tivo's "fix". Which is no fix since suround sound is a feature on this unit. To tivo's credit, they quickly issued a full refund, no restocking fees. Although it's been a big headache to set up, I've switched to using windows 7 media center. The interface is quicker and works as well as tivo. Not quite the same appliance feel but I doubt I'll be coming back to tivo.


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## vurbano (Apr 20, 2004)

aaroncgi said:


> We have a problem with our Premiere that didn't occur with the same receiver, setup, and transmission mode (optical) using a Dish DVR. It's a bit different than described above, though. What happens with ours is that occasionally, after we come out of the 30 second skip, we'll be missing the voices completely. It's odd because the center channel still has sound - just no voices. Backing up 8 seconds will fix it every time. At no point does our receiver (an Onkyo TX-SR805) ever change modes or lose the digital lock. I think we have it set to PCM already, but it might be on Auto.


yup. Loss of the center channel dialog is what I usually get. switched to PCM with dolby pro logic IIX on the reciever.


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## nrobertson (Dec 14, 2003)

I'm having the same issues. I upgraded my living room from a Tivo HD to a Tivo Premiere, keeping everything else the same and the audio screeches and dropouts started. I am using HDMI from Tivo Premiere to receiver but since it's an inexpensive Harmon Kardon AVR 146 that really only does HDMI pass-through switching, I had to use the optical audio. I did verify that auto source tuning is turned off.


So, can anyone recommend a tuner that works well with the Tivo Premiere? I'm at the point that I think buying a better tuner, preferably one that processes audio via HDMI, would be the way to go ????


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I've had zero issues using the Premiere with my Denon receiver and a Sony 3.1 speaker bar.
But I've also not had issues with my Premieres like some people have been reporting. I don't get lockups, reboots, or endless spinning circles.


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## aaroncgi (Apr 13, 2010)

We just got a new TV and so could finally make use of the HDMI connection. We discovered that if using only HDMI, the Premiere presents a brief screech noise when we switch channels (screech is just before the new channel's audio comes on). I added the optical cable back in and used that for audio, with HDMI for video, and we're screech free again.


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## DBCooper (Aug 15, 2000)

I also had audio problems on two different Premieres using two different HDMI cables. I know the HDMI input on the TV works properly because the Blu-ray is OK connected there.

One of the Premieres was losing sound when I changed channels. Setting it to Dolby PCM solved that one. The other Premiere is still a little flaky. I can get video OTA on channel 39 (I'm not near most of the stations) but no sound. Seems to me if video comes through, sound should be a cinch. I did set both TiVos to Dolby PCM.


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## DBCooper (Aug 15, 2000)

DBCooper said:


> I also had audio problems on two different Premieres using two different HDMI cables. I know the HDMI input on the TV works properly because the Blu-ray is OK connected there.
> 
> One of the Premieres was losing sound when I changed channels. Setting it to Dolby PCM solved that one. The other Premiere is still a little flaky. I can get video OTA on channel 39 (I'm not near most of the stations) but no sound. Seems to me if video comes through, sound should be a cinch. I did set both TiVos to Dolby PCM.


Well, the "bad" Premiere works fine on a different TV set. My guess is that the Premiere's HDMI output is a little low and my TV is finicky about such things. I have seen some rare cases of sound loss with the Blu-Ray where the solution is to power-cycle the TV set. Same solution (several cycles) turns out to solve the Premiere sound problem, too.


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