# No Audio with Netflix Streaming on Tivo HD



## thajigga68 (Dec 9, 2008)

Hey Everyone. Well...just like everyone else who is probably reading this thread...I was able to get my Tivo HD to activate and show the Netflix menu and all that good stuff. Video portion is working just fine and I am able to see the HD selections also. Connection/Video quality is full bars.

*My Problem is that I am unable to hear/receive any audio with any type of Netflix streaming...with both SD and HD.*

I have tried multiple fixes such as changing the video output format to 1080i fixed and also hard resetting my Tivo multiple times. Oddly...this is the same type of issue that I was having with YouTube video streaming. Video portion comes through just fine and loads very quicky...but no Audio plays at all.

After speaking with a Tivo Tech Support rep...he mentioned changing the video output format to 1080i fixed...and that would fix my audio issue with YouTube. I could then hear and see the YouTube video just fine.

I have tried the same " fix " with Netflix and I am *not* able to correct the problem 

I have my Tivo hooked up via HDMI (directly...no receiver) and have it connected to my Comcast wireless G home network. I don't believe this is a connectivity issue though because I have 98% in my network status for connectivity and the video portion is loading really fast and I am able to obtain HD content quickly.

Has anyone else encountered no Audio with Netflix streaming and if so...please guide me on how you fixed your problem.

Thank you so much for your time


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## husky55 (Feb 2, 2008)

See this thread!!!

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=412627


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## thajigga68 (Dec 9, 2008)

husky55 said:


> See this thread!!!
> 
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=412627


Thanks for the link to the other Thread Husky55. I read through it...but I dont know if this helps me much because the discussion in there was related to sound not playing with connection to a receiver.

I have not receiver...just direct TivoHD HDMI connection to the LCD Phillips HDTV.

I receive all other audio just fine...Amazon Unbox downloaded movies and shows...Live TV...and also recorded TV in SD and HD.

The only audio issue I have is with Broadband Streaming of Netflix.

It is incredibly perplexing and I just cant figure it out.

I would assume there are other individuals who have the exact same problem as I am having. I am just wondering if there is anyone who has found a solution.

Thanks : )


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## husky55 (Feb 2, 2008)

I am really sorry I misunderstood your problem.

You got no sound with HDMI from Tivo to Phillips LCD. Why don't you try component and an optical or an analog rca cable from the Tivo to the LCD. There is something really weird about this Netflix streaming business.

I think you will get some kind of sound, probably stereo from the analog connection. Be sure to set the TV for proper audio sound. May be changing from dolby digital to PCM from the Tivo box.

Those are all the suggestions I received in the last couple days.


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## thajigga68 (Dec 9, 2008)

Husky55...thank you for the suggestions. I will try to hook up the Tivo to my TV with the Component Audio or Optical Audio cable and I will also play with the audio settings on both the TV and the Tivo. 

Hopefully I will be able to find some sort of configuration that works in switching it around from Dolby D to PCM or vise versa.

Thanks again : )

If there is anyone else out there that has tried any of this and has a known fix...please post. Thanks


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## phetish (Jan 29, 2005)

Similar issue...

I have a Westinghouse LCD, Sony Receiver and a TivoHD. HDMI video/audio from Tivo to TV and optical audio from TV to receiver. Everything has always worked fine and works fine except for Netflix. 

When I start a movie, the audio never starts up, and all sound is missing (whether live tv, or tivo sound effects) for about 10-15 secs after stopping the Netflix movie.

After testing, I noticed is that if I remove the optical cable, the audio works fine through the TV speakers. If I reinsert the optical cable, the audio goes through the receiver fine.


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## thajigga68 (Dec 9, 2008)

****UPDATE****

This is in reference to my first post in this thread...

Ok...after spending about an hour and a half on the phone last night with Tivo Tech Support...I think I might know what is causing the issue with the no audio on Netflix streaming. ( This is only with direct HDMI connection to your TV...no audio receiver involved in this scenario )

Yesterday when I got home from work...I said what the heak...I'll see if the audio is working with Netflix. Keep in mind...the audio was not coming through just 8 hrs prior when I left for work in the morning. I went in to the instant queue and played the same exact episode of The Office and guess what??? The Audio was playing just fine! So now Im really confused. 

This is where things start getting really weird. I noticed that at this point...all is working fine...I am getting audio and video coming through for Netflix. So...I click my Tivo button on the remote to take me back to the Tivo Central menu. I notice that the Tivo is playing the System Sounds ( tones the Tivo makes when you navigate up and down through menus and make selections ). I then go back in to Netflix and resume playing the episode. Audio is still working fine at this point.

I exit Netlix program and click the Tivo button to go back to Tivo Central and all of a sudden I notice that all of my Tivo System Sounds are not longer playing. I get no tones when navigating through the menus. I then decided to go back in to Netflix and try playing the same exact video I know the audio was just working on 2 minutes prior. And guess what....*NO AUDIO!!!*

There seems to be a direct correlation between being able to hear or not hear audio from Netflix when your Tivo is able to play the system sounds. I tested this theory about 4 or 5 times yesterday afternoon after having to hard reset ( unplug the tivo from the wall ). After I hard reset it...the Tivo menu tones/system sounds came back and then I was able to regain Audio for Netflix videos.
As you all can see...this is a big pain in the but just to be able to play Netflix videos.

I guess my next question would be...does anyone out there know why the Tivo system sounds/tones would go away all of a sudden when Navigating back and forth between applications like Netflix?? Is there some type of audio decoding that the Tivo performs when you are watching/streaming broadband content...and then when you switch back to just your local menus...the Tivo does not know how to switch back off of the audio it was encoding and causes the Tivo to just not play any audio system sounds/tones at all???

Very Confusing....and btw....Tivo support was not able to tell me why this was happening. The representative seemed to think is was a bug in the software update/release...but this is just skepticism.

Any thoughts on this one???


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## plumeria (Jun 14, 2005)

I also am using an optical audio input to my Pioneer 1014 receiver and get no sound whatsoever - very disappointing indeed!

Reading the threads, this seems like a very common major issue when using digital audio to a receiver. I need the digital output to get surround sound when playing HD TV from my Tivo. I don't wish to revert back to stereo RCA plugs.

I guess I'll just keep doing Netflix via snail mail.

peter


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## phetish (Jan 29, 2005)

Further testing....

My TV has a setting for audio using internal/external/both speakers.

Set to internal or both, the audio works fine. Set to External, it's borked.

I suspect it's an HDMI DRM issue - DRM was assisted by Microsoft if I remember correctly...

Pertinent info:
TivoHD with 2 cablecards (S-cards)
Samsung TV with HDMI
Sony Receiver (no HDMI)

Tivo connected to TV via HDMI for both Audio and Video
TV connected to Receiver by Optical cable for Audio
(No direct connection from Tivo to Receiver)


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## sepo01 (Dec 12, 2008)

I lose all audio after I start to stream netflix shows. I have no audio on the Netflix stream and wen I go to Live TV , I have no audio. I have to restart my Tivo to get regular cable TV audio back. Very frustrating since I can stream on my Mac and Xbox. 

Sorry I don't have a solution to the problem.

Dave


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## willier9 (Mar 22, 2008)

I had the same problem when I tried Netflix for the first time today. I pressed the left direction button to get back to the main menu of the show I was streaming. The TiVo sounds came back, and when I pressed play, I had audio. Probably luck of the draw, but it worked. BTW, I use HDMI.


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## brettlyman (Aug 4, 2009)

I have the same issue....no sound on Netflix when I'm connected through my HDMI splitter (to three TV's). If I connect a TV directly to the TiVo HDMI port, I have perfect sound with Netflix streaming. 

So, I'm thinking it has to do with connection fidelity....either you need a better HDMI cable, the HDMI port in the TiVo is dirity/loose/bent/etc, or your TV doesn't support the latest HDMI standards (i.e. you need a newer TV). 

Another option would be to use a different port on your TiVo for audio (RCA, optical). That's not an option for me since my TV's are in different rooms. 

In my case, I'll probably have to buy a more expensive HDMI splitter to get Netflix audio to work. I might also consider just connecting the TV directly to the TiVo HDMI port whenever I'm about to use Netflix, because we don't use it very often.


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## net114 (Dec 29, 2000)

Yes, I think you guys have it being an HDMI issue. There are times with my Philips LCD TV that sound stops working all together, and sometimes this occurs after going into netflix or any other "mode" than just getting cable signal. The one way I could get the sound back was to leave Netflix running and totally unplug the TV, then back on again, and a message saying "HDMI restored" comes on. 

I hate to say spend the extra money, but did you try a new HDMI cable? When I switched cable's, the sound came back with very few problems, but still about once a month it does it and I do what I said above. 

I can't remember off the top of my head, but if anyone wants to buy the cables I got from Newegg I'll look up the link for you. They weren't much, less than $15 I think, just a different brand. 

This all comes down to how really stupid and insanely erratic the HDMI works.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Drop the DRM damaged HDMI connection and use component video, digital audio connection. your troubles will be gone. Its an HDMI issue because of the worthless DRM imposed on you.


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## ejh4isu (Aug 6, 2008)

My Netflix audio suddenly quit on both my Tivo HD and network LG blueray player, which means with almost certainty that it is a Netflix issue. So far, however, I'm getting no help from their customer service center.


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## jaredmwright (Sep 6, 2004)

I also had issues with HDMI with both video and audio, especially with Netflix and moved to all component and optical audio. I haven't had one problem since and I can't notice any difference between the two. I would recommend jcthorne's suggestion and I bet you will never look back.


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## SKInouye (Nov 22, 2009)

Hi there,

I read this thread and got the idea to try watching Netflix streaming movies through my TV>Audio settings>Internal speakers and TV>Audio settings>Mixed setting. Guess what? The audio works. 

So then, while the movie was playing, I decided to try switching the audio back to TV>Audio settings>External speakers while the movie was playing. Guess what? It worked too. I guess doing this resets the HDMI function and solves it long enough for me to watch the entire Netflix streaming movie.

I have a TiVo XL connected using HDMI to my LCD TV and stereo system.

Cheesy fix, but it works. Prevented my spouse from canceling Netflix...

BTW, called Netflix and the second rep I talked to was familiar with this problem. The rep I spoke to at TiVo was not. 

Now I wish Netflix or TiVo would just fix the problem!


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## jacooley42 (May 29, 2008)

I don't know if this thread has been continued elsewhere, but I have a slightly different twist on the issue:

I had been playing Netflix shows and the sound worked just fine - HDMI between TiVo and Sony LCD TV. Then I replaced my two-year-old Sony for a larger, new Sony TV. Then the sound stopped working.

No other differences. Just unplugged the HDMI cable from the old Sony TV and plugged it into the new Sony TV. Suddenly no Netflix audio.

I've tried all the shenanigans mentioned on this forum (excepting switching to component video and separate audio cables), and nothing brings the sound back.

Interestingly, the old TV - now in the bedroom - still plays Netflix audio just fine via HDMI.

??


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## rmcoomes (Aug 3, 2007)

A couple of more data points if Tivo were to decide to look into this... 

I have the same problem with one of my Tivo HD's, no sound when streaming from Netflix (works fine in all other cases). I just noticed today the if the "quality" indicator has full bars and the "hd" symbol, I have sound! Any less than that and I have a good picture with no sound. This Tivo is connected to a Brite View Air Sync HD which has HDMI pass through to my Vizio TV, and wireless to a second TV. If I remove the Air Sync, and connect directly to my Vizio TV, everything works fine. 

My second Tivo HD, attached to an Onkyo receiver then to a Samsung TV also works fine in all cases.

Something in the Tivo HDMI audio changes when streaming netflix, and only some HDMI chipsets/software seem sensitive to it. Maybe Tivo could ping Brite-View and see what HDMI hardware/software they use......


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## gyee (Jun 20, 2011)

I'm not a technical guy, but I was having the same problem (no audio) when I switched from my YPbPr cables to HDMI. I couldn't figure out why the sound dropped out, but after two weeks of no Netflix, and reading through this forum, I thought I should at least give it a try, so I switched my cables back to TPbPr, and voila, the audio now works. I have no clue what the true difference is in video/sound quality, but I'd rather have Netflix audio than none at all. Anyway, let me know if this is useful.


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## mtroy (Jan 8, 2005)

I have a Tivo HD that cannot play Netflix audio through the HDMI. If I hook up an external device and use a different connection, the sound works fine, so the problem is definitely HD related. Also, once I try to play Netflix, all my normal Tivo sounds are gone until I try to play a regular TV show. Then all audio returns to normal.

Unfortunately the problem is not a "cheap cable." I have another Tivo Premiere which came with an HDMI cable. Netflix works find on that one. I tried that cable on the problem Tivo and the problem persisted.

The only work-around I can find is to set up a separate audio system an use a non-HDMI connection to pass through the sound. This is very inconvenient given my setup, but I don't really have any other option.


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## hinesdesign (Dec 30, 2011)

I was having problems with watching Netflix videos and not getting any audio, too. My set up was similar to yours, thajigga68: direct TivoHD HDMI connection to an LCD Phillips HDTV--no receiver. I was finally able to resolve the problem without having to switch out the HDMI cable. I discovered that the settings in my TV for sound were set for Dolby Surround, as opposed to just Stereo. Switching the option from Dolby Surround to Stereo solved the problem. So it wasn't a TiVo problem or a Netflix problem; it was the default Dolby Surround setting under Sound for my Phillips HDTV that was causing the problem.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

I didn't see anyone mention trying to change the audio from Dolby 5.1 to PCM in the audio portion of the settings. This should fix it.


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