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audio out of sync and now intermittent sound drop

cawli2
Friendly Neighbour

Months ago, I had an old Telus modem and old PVR.  Everything worked fine.  Happy camper.  Then we experienced some quality problems that were found to be a bad set of wires.

 

The wires were switched out for another pair, and at the same time we were provided with a new modem and new DVR and new HDMI cables.  And that's when the audio-sync issues began.  Fixing this problem requires unplugging the TV.  Annoying.  I find now that I can usually get the audio back in sync with the moving lips on the screen by cycling through the audio sources and back to the sound bar once again.  Still annoying but not as bad as having to go over and unplug the TV.

 

Samsung TV and sound bar.  Modem Actiontec T3200M.  ARRIS DVR VIP5662W.  Telus-branded HDMI cables.  The technician said these are all current devices.

 

I recently decided to upgrade to Internet-75 where a second pair of wires is connected to the modem.  Internet speed is nice.  WiFi fast.  But now the sound on the TV intermittently drops for a few seconds.  Randomly, but frequently enough to be most annoying.  Back up the DVR a bit and replay and the sound is there.  So I think this is something inside the DVR that loses the audio momentarily for some reason.  The sound is there, but it doesn't get sent to the TV unless I back it up.

 

There is no audio sync/drop issue when streaming (WiFi via the modem) from a different device, or DVD player.  Just from the DVR.

 

I think there is a problem with the DVR.  Maybe now the signal is coming in so fast it can't handle it properly?  Buffer overflow?  Can't tell, but I do have an optic cable connection I could plug in and try out to see if it's the HDMI interface.

 

This type of sound cutting out and/or audio sync problem shows up in a number of other posts, but I have not found a definitive solution in any of them.   You'd think someone would have an answer by now?

 

Is there something inherently wrong with this DVR model?

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Nighthawk
Community Power User
Community Power User

I'd recommend starting with a reboot of the modem first followed by rebooting the PVR then the rest of the Optik boxes.  A factory reset is the absolute last step that should be done as it can cause issues in some cases.


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View solution in original post

8 REPLIES 8

Nighthawk
Community Power User
Community Power User

There could be multiple causes for this type of issue so depending on what caused it there may be a different solution. Upgrading to a faster connection will not impact the PVR. TV content still has the exact same bitrate (~3mbps for HD, ~25mbps for 4K)

 

  • When is the last time you contacted technical support?
  • Do you have any other Telus boxes in the house? If yes, any issues with them?
  • Are you watching 4K content or just regular HD content when the audio hiccup occurs?
  • Is the PVR connected directly to the TV?
  • How is the sound bar connected?
  • Have you tried disconnecting the sound bar entirely, rebooting everything, and see if the problem is still there?

If you find a post useful, please give the author a "Like" or mark as an accepted solution if it solves your trouble. 🙂

cawli2
Friendly Neighbour

Observation:  We just watched the entire DVR'd Oscars without a single audio interruption.  Next I will experiment watching live vs. recorded.  If it's just live it might be a clue to help Telus resolve the issue.

 

I'll answer the other questions tomorrow, but now off to bed.

cawli2
Friendly Neighbour

@Nighthawkwrote:

There could be multiple causes for this type of issue so depending on what caused it there may be a different solution. Upgrading to a faster connection will not impact the PVR. TV content still has the exact same bitrate (~3mbps for HD, ~25mbps for 4K)

 

  • When is the last time you contacted technical support?
  • Do you have any other Telus boxes in the house? If yes, any issues with them?
  • Are you watching 4K content or just regular HD content when the audio hiccup occurs?
  • Is the PVR connected directly to the TV?
  • How is the sound bar connected?
  • Have you tried disconnecting the sound bar entirely, rebooting everything, and see if the problem is still there?

A second show recorded on the DVR had audio interruptions when replayed, but when backed-up subsequently played the audio that it had skipped.  And live TV can have audio skips.  So there appears to be no exemption from this.  Random occurrence, but then frequently.

 

1) I worked with Telus support after the new modem/DVR/HDMI to try to resolve the audio sync issue.  It was never resolved.

  I have emailed my support contact at Telus regarding this most recent audio-skip problem as it began after the Internet-75 upgrade.

 

2) a simple Telus box and TV elsewhere in the house has no problems.  It seems to be related to the DVR

 

3) no 4K.  Just regular TV, but I expect most usually it is HD.  I haven't really paid attention to HD/non-HD.

 

4) DVR is connected to the TV via HDMI cable.  TV connects back to sound bar via HDMI cable.  Cables are Telus-branded and of high quality.  I have experienced sound cut outs with and without the sound bar operational.

 

cawli2
Friendly Neighbour

Telus support did a factory reset on the modem, stating that this should correct the audio-dropping problem.  I've not seen the problem in the last 24 hours (we only watch TV in the evening), but I also didn't see it during the Oscars before the reset.  Time will tell.

 

(Note: if you need to reset the modem, don't forget to jot down any modifications you've made - SSID, passwords, VPN tunnels, etc.)

cawli2
Friendly Neighbour

The audio drop seems to have been rectified by the modem reset.

 

However, we have noticed on several occasions that the video and audio simply stall for a number of seconds, then picks up - but skips over the lost seconds.  Rewinding and replaying shows the same stall and loss of video/audio.  This has been observed to date only on CTV, 0-3 times over the course of viewing a program.  Yesterday we did not encounter any.

 

So, is this something to do with the signal from CTV, or is it a coincidence that they occur when we are watching that station?

 

Again, some odd behaviour that so far defies explanation.

I have the same problem. Even live TV. Had to rewind news this morning to get the short skip that cut off a couple of crucial words. Good thing that I could rewind at least. This has been happening a while but not since the beginning. I sure would like to see the solution to this.

cawli2
Friendly Neighbour

a factory reset of the modem fixed this for me.  before you do this (press and hold the red button with a toothpick or such) write down anything you have changed - admin password, SSID on your wireless, port forwarding, etc.

Nighthawk
Community Power User
Community Power User

I'd recommend starting with a reboot of the modem first followed by rebooting the PVR then the rest of the Optik boxes.  A factory reset is the absolute last step that should be done as it can cause issues in some cases.


If you find a post useful, please give the author a "Like" or mark as an accepted solution if it solves your trouble. 🙂