# Elite Sound Effects



## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

I've got an Elite set to Dolby Digital with audio and video going to an Onkyo receiver via HDMI. I do not use the Picture in Picture window. This is the exact setup that I used with a non-Elite Premiere.

With the Elite, I don't get sound effects on the HD menus. If I go to an SD menu, the sound effects come back. Once they're back, I still have them when I go back to an HD menu. But if I go to any program with DD audio, the sound effects are gone again when I go back to any HD menu. Is anyone else having this problem?


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## MC Hammer (Jul 29, 2011)

generaltso said:


> I've got an Elite set to Dolby Digital with audio and video going to an Onkyo receiver via HDMI. I do not use the Picture in Picture window. This is the exact setup that I used with a non-Elite Premiere.
> 
> With the Elite, I don't get sound effects on the HD menus. If I go to an SD menu, the sound effects come back. Once they're back, I still have them when I go back to an HD menu. But if I go to any program with DD audio, the sound effects are gone again when I go back to any HD menu. Is anyone else having this problem?


Switch Dolby Digital to PCM.

Settings and Messages -> Settings -> Audio -> Dolby Digital -> Dolby Digital to PCM


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

MC Hammer said:


> Switch Dolby Digital to PCM.
> 
> Settings and Messages -> Settings -> Audio -> Dolby Digital -> Dolby Digital to PCM


Thanks, but I don't want to use PCM. If I want my receiver to get the Dolby Digital bitstream, I need to keep the TiVo set to Dolby Digital. This is how my Premiere was set. I understand that I won't get sound effect during a program since the TiVo is just passing along the DD stream. But I should get the sound effect while in the TiVo menu. At least, that's how it worked with the Premiere.


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## MC Hammer (Jul 29, 2011)

generaltso said:


> Thanks, but I don't want to use PCM. If I want my receiver to get the Dolby Digital bitstream, I need to keep the TiVo set to Dolby Digital. This is how my Premiere was set. I understand that I won't get sound effect during a program since the TiVo is just passing along the DD stream. But I should get the sound effect while in the TiVo menu. At least, that's how it worked with the Premiere.


There is no way to make it work the way you want without changing that setting.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

MC Hammer said:


> There is no way to make it work the way you want without changing that setting.


I appreciate the help, but I don't think you're understanding. It worked fine with the Premiere. If I were to change the setting to PCM, I would give up 5.1 audio entirely. I understand that there are no sound effects while watching a show (i.e., ff bloops), but there should be sound effect while in the menu as long as the PiP window is turned off.

With the Premiere set to Dolby Digital, the audio would change to PCM any time you went into the menu. With the Elite, this behavior seems to be different. If the last audio stream that the Elite output was DD, it seems to stay on DD when you go into the HD menu. If you go to a part of the menu that's SD, it switches to PCM audio. Then it will stay on PCM audio even if you go back into an HD menu screen, which makes the sound effect audible again. But if I play another show with DD audio, the sound effects are gone again when I go into the HD menu.


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## jfh3 (Apr 15, 2004)

If the behavior is different from a base Premiere, I'd call and report it to Tivo as a bug.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

jfh3 said:


> If the behavior is different from a base Premiere, I'd call and report it to Tivo as a bug.


That's my plan, but I wanted to see if anyone else was seeing the same behavior first.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

generaltso said:


> Thanks, but I don't want to use PCM. If I want my receiver to get the Dolby Digital bitstream, I need to keep the TiVo set to Dolby Digital. This is how my Premiere was set. I understand that I won't get sound effect during a program since the TiVo is just passing along the DD stream. But I should get the sound effect while in the TiVo menu. At least, that's how it worked with the Premiere.


Do you have the window in the upper right corner? To get the sound effects in the HDUI you need to turn off this window, since when playing back any content in DD, the DD audio is still being sent when the program is playing in this window.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

aaronwt said:


> Do you have the window in the upper right corner?


I have the PiP window turned off.


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## Goldwing2001 (Sep 30, 2006)

I have the same issue. Never had this issue with my Premiere XL either. called TiVo support....they told me that losing the Tivo sound effects is normal and was surprised the sound effects worked on the Premiere XL. He told me I would have to change to "digital to PCM" if I wanted the sound effects in the main menu or my shows menu.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

Goldwing2001 said:


> I have the same issue. Never had this issue with my Premiere XL either. called TiVo support....they told me that losing the Tivo sound effects is normal and was surprised the sound effects worked on the Premiere XL. He told me I would have to change to "digital to PCM" if I wanted the sound effects in the main menu or my shows menu.


That's the problem with the regular TiVo support reps. We know their product better than they do. It's normal to lose the sound effects while watching a show. It's not normal to lose them when in the TiVo menu. Telling people to give up surround sound to get sound effects in the menu is really bad advice. Maybe this will break for the non-Elite boxes too when they get 14.9.


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## rdodolak (Dec 18, 2008)

Definately sounds like a bug.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

rdodolak said:


> Definately sounds like a bug.


The trick is getting the bug report to somebody at TiVo that will actually listen.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

I contacted TiVo Support on this issue. As expected, they said that they've never heard of the problem, so they recommended exchanging my Elite for a new one. I explained that this appears to be a software bug, so an exchange wouldn't fix the problem. The next recommendation was to submit a Feature Request. I wasn't aware that fixing bugs was considered a Feature Request.


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## jay_man2 (Sep 15, 2003)

My Series 3 exhibited this behavior from Day 1, so I'm used to it. I don't know that I'd want the bloops back.


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## HomieG (Feb 17, 2003)

jay_man2 said:


> My Series 3 exhibited this behavior from Day 1, so I'm used to it. I don't know that I'd want the bloops back.


This.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

jay_man2 said:


> My Series 3 exhibited this behavior from Day 1, so I'm used to it. I don't know that I'd want the bloops back.


Really? You don't get any sound effects when navigating the TiVo menu on your S3? Are you sure the sound effects are turned on?


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## andyf (Feb 23, 2000)

This is a bug. I can see on my receiver that when the video window is turned on TiVo is outputting DD5.1. When I turn the window off all source lights turn off which tells me TiVo is not outputting audio at all or it's in an unknown format.

On my Premiere when the video window is turned off it outputs what my receiver calls PL II (it's a Yamaha).


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

andyf said:


> This is a bug. I can see on my receiver that when the video window is turned on TiVo is outputting DD5.1. When I turn the window off all source lights turn off which tells me TiVo is not outputting audio at all or it's in an unknown format.
> 
> On my Premiere when the video window is turned off it outputs what my receiver calls PL II (it's a Yamaha).


Thanks Andy. Now that we know it's a bug that's easy to reproduce, how do we make sure that TiVo knows about it so they can work on a fix?


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## El Gabito (Mar 11, 2004)

generaltso said:


> That's the problem with the regular TiVo support reps. We know their product better than they do. It's normal to lose the sound effects while watching a show. It's not normal to lose them when in the TiVo menu. Telling people to give up surround sound to get sound effects in the menu is really bad advice. Maybe this will break for the non-Elite boxes too when they get 14.9.


Switching to PCM shouldn't "give up sourround sound" - it's just being decoded in the Tivo rather than in your receiver.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

El Gabito said:


> Switching to PCM shouldn't "give up sourround sound" - it's just being decoded in the Tivo rather than in your receiver.


That's sadly not the case. TiVo's PCM output is only 2 channels.


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

Dolby Digital 5.1 is superior to the Dolby ProLogic 2 provided on the PCM tracks. ProLogic 2 is a form of matrix surround sound.

Wan't this a bug early on for the Premieres that got fixed? If so, then perhaps when TiVo split development off for the Elite it was before the fix got implemented. If so, then the fix can be added in a future bug fix rollout.

Using ProLogic is a workaround that can be used until it gets fixed by TiVo, but doing that it isn't a fix by itself.


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## andyf (Feb 23, 2000)

generaltso said:


> Thanks Andy. Now that we know it's a bug that's easy to reproduce, how do we make sure that TiVo knows about it so they can work on a fix?


I assume that TiVo folks read these posts.

There's also a Tivo owned support forum that may have more visibility to the TiVo folks.


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## CuriousMark (Jan 13, 2005)

andyf said:


> There's also a Tivo owned support forum that may have more visibility to the TiVo folks.


Sadly, I don't really think so. That is a peer support forum. I have actually seen more responses from TiVo employees here.

Don't forget the Suggestion Avenue forum here and there is always TiVo engineering suggestion box at http://research.tivo.com/suggestions

But far and away, the best method is to call TiVo support. They keep statistics on specific issues and the number of calls related to them.


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## jay_man2 (Sep 15, 2003)

generaltso said:


> Really? You don't get any sound effects when navigating the TiVo menu on your S3? Are you sure the sound effects are turned on?


Navigating the SD menus, yes. When watching TV and rewinding or FF'ing, no. As a result, not getting the bloops navigating the HD menus doesn't bother me.


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## Mr. E (May 18, 2008)

FWIW, on my HD I have Dolby Digital turned on, audio going through HDMI. Sound effects don't work in shows, obviously, but they do work intermittently in the menus. I'd say I probably get sound effects 80% of the time while in the menu. The other 20% of the time it's silent in the menu. Kind of strange, but it doesn't bother me.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

jay_man2 said:


> Navigating the SD menus, yes. When watching TV and rewinding or FF'ing, no. As a result, not getting the bloops navigating the HD menus doesn't bother me.


What HD menus are you referring to with a Series 3?


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## jay_man2 (Sep 15, 2003)

generaltso said:


> What HD menus are you referring to with a Series 3?


The Elite, not the S3. The S3 lost the bloops when rewinding or fast forwarding. As a result, when I didn't hear the bloops on the HD menus on the Elite it didn't and doesn't bother me.

If you succeed though, I'll be happy to benefit from the fix.

As it is now you have two choices - switch to SD menus completely, or switch to PCM audio. Both give you the bleeping bloops, at a cost.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

jay_man2 said:


> The Elite, not the S3. The S3 lost the bloops when rewinding or fast forwarding. As a result, when I didn't hear the bloops on the HD menus on the Elite it didn't and doesn't bother me.
> 
> If you succeed though, I'll be happy to benefit from the fix.


Oh okay. So, just to be clear, you weren't experiencing the described behavior with the S3, correct? I just want to make sure that everyone agrees that this is a new bug that only seems to affect the Elite.


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## jay_man2 (Sep 15, 2003)

generaltso said:


> Oh okay. So, just to be clear, you weren't experiencing the described behavior with the S3, correct? I just want to make sure that everyone agrees that this is a new bug that only seems to affect the Elite.


I guess I caused some confusion. I was used to always having the bloops with my Series 2. With the Series 3, the bloops disappeared when rewinding or fast-forwarding, which initially bothered me. The bloops work with the menus on an S3.

Now with the Elite the bloops don't work when rewinding or fast-forwarding, or with the HD menus.

I went from an S3 to the Elite, so I can't comment on what the TiVo HD or Premiere do.


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## jfh3 (Apr 15, 2004)

generaltso said:


> I contacted TiVo Support on this issue. As expected, they said that they've never heard of the problem, so they recommended exchanging my Elite for a new one. I explained that this appears to be a software bug, so an exchange wouldn't fix the problem. The next recommendation was to submit a Feature Request. I wasn't aware that fixing bugs was considered a Feature Request.


Try calling again and be persistent that they take a problem report. Convince them to route it to level 2 support.


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## generaltso (Nov 4, 2003)

This issue has been fixed in 14.9.2. I'm glad my bloops are back


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## HenryFarpolo (Dec 1, 2008)

You are correct!! For me the bloops were on and off. Now they are here to stay if I want them.


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## tunarollz (Jun 2, 2011)

Nice!


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