Virgin TiVo box and dolby digital via AV receiver

[Rojoko]

Hi all....I have my virgin box connected to my Yamaha RX-A1040 AV receiver via HDMI. It has worked absolutely fine since I bought the Yamaha a few months ago. But suddenly, I am experiencing issues with sound. Basically I sometimes cannot get sound for certain channels (e.g. BBC1 HD works, but some of the children's channels like Nick Jr do not). The sequence of events is typically: I turn everything on and the sound is fine; then I go to change the channel and the sound goes off. BBC1HD still works though, and some recordings but not all. Oddly if I switch inputs to another source (like my Bluray for e.g.) then switch back to Virgin the sound comes back.

I have tried: a) changing audio setting on Virgin to DD to PCM (currently set to just DD); and b) changing audio settings on Yamaha to 'pure direct' and / or 'straight' - to remove any DSP or surround decoding. Neither have an effect. Even still - it always used to work with any combination of decoding, DSP, etc.

Virgin media have no clue.

Any ideas gratefully received!! Thanks.

 

[Rojoko]

Just playing around some more and there doesn't appear to be any consistency with Virgin channels....sometimes one works and sometimes that same one doesn't. Although it might be a HD vs. non-HD channel thing. What is happening though is that when it works, my receiver shows that it has picked up the audio format (e.g. it says PCM or it says dolby digital or something). When it doesn't work it says 'analog'. I have it set to 'straight' - i.e. no processing of sound; just meant to pick up how it was broadcast.

I'm beginning to be convinced it is a Virgin problem as I cannot believe that my £1,000 receiver is incapable of detecting and playing sound from all HD and non-HD channels. But I don't fancy my chances of getting a Virgin technician on the phone who can help.....will try though!

 

[Native_bon]

Just playing around some more and there doesn't appear to be any consistency with Virgin channels....sometimes one works and sometimes that same one doesn't. Although it might be a HD vs. non-HD channel thing. What is happening though is that when it works, my receiver shows that it has picked up the audio format (e.g. it says PCM or it says dolby digital or something). When it doesn't work it says 'analog'. I have it set to 'straight' - i.e. no processing of sound; just meant to pick up how it was broadcast.

I'm beginning to be convinced it is a Virgin problem as I cannot believe that my £1,000 receiver is incapable of detecting and playing sound from all HD and non-HD channels. But I don't fancy my chances of getting a Virgin technician on the phone who can help.....will try though!

Good luck with that. Let me know how u get on.

 

[abacus]

Sounds like there has been a recent update to one or both of the items (By default most equipment is set to auto update) which has gone ary, (Or there is a bug in the new software) so unplug both items from the mains for 1 minute and then let them restart, which will hopefully solve the problem. (Note: this will not fix any bugs in the software/firmware)

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[Rojoko]

Still struggling with this. The thing that is happening is that it plays the audio on certain TV channels when it automatically goes to PCM, but it doesn't play when it automatically goes to Analog. Once it is in Analog, I can't switch it to another setting. But if I go to another input and then back again it goes to PCM. Really weird.

 

[Native_bon]

Having exaclty the same problems. Am using digital input to my Arcam av amp. looks like it's a problem with either Tivo box or the channels. Sometimes when I press home button screen goes blank for a while, & sometimes nothing at all. Then After a few tries it suddenly agrees to show.

So there is me thinking I try HDMI to solve problem with the sound, but seems thats not the solution.

 

[Andy Clough]

Mmm, odd. I have my TiVo box hooked up to a Yamaha AV amp as well, so will have a play around tonight to see if I experience a similar problem. We had a nine-year-old staying last week and watching lots of kids' TV with no problem, but there might have been an update since then.

 

[Rojoko]

No magical solution I take it? Virgin Media said to replace my HDMI cable; I did this and that didn't work either. Next step is I call Yamaha support I think.

 

[KeithT]

Hi All,

At the weekend Virgin upgraded me to a TiVo box from the very old bog standard one, it's connected to my Arcam Av amp via hdmi but the sound is about 1.5 seconds in front of the picture and the sound is at far lower levels to the previous box. As an example BBC1 HD is now at 39-42db as opposed to 31db on the old box. Just called Virgin and the chap suggested that I switch to an optical cable. Doesn't really sound like the proper solution to me!

Thoughts anyone?

 

[Oldboy]

No magical solution I take it? Virgin Media said to replace my HDMI cable; I did this and that didn't work either. Next step is I call Yamaha support I think.

I have this exact same problem too and everything you have stated is exactly the same for me. I'm pretty sure it's not my Yamaha receiver at fault as I haven't updated the firmware in over 6 months and the issue started about a month or two ago.

At times the only solution is to power down the receiver and turn it back on again as the problem has gotten to the stage now where occsionally I get no sound from any channel at all! It's quicker to power down the receiver and turn it back on than it is to go through the long boot up process of the Tivo box hence why I use this method.

I'm getting to the point now where it's becoming so frustrating that something needs to be done so I will chip in on this thread if I get any kind of a solution but it's nice to know I'm not alone in experiencing this issue which would point to TiVo problem. My current thought is that an update to the TiVo box is causing a HDMI conflict but that's just a guess.

 

[laserman16]

Might be worth turning HDMI control on or off on the reciever as this can sometimes cause conflicts.

Not saying thats the problem but got to be worth a go.

 

[grdunn123]

I had very similar problem using a Pioneer SC-LX82 receiver and thern bought a Marantz SR7009 and the problem stopped.

 

[Oldboy]

Might be worth turning HDMI control on or off on the reciever as this can sometimes cause conflicts.

Not saying thats the problem but got to be worth a go.

I've already got it turned off as I get a HDMI conflict with all my Sony equipment where it all powers up and switches inputs on the receiver everytime I power up the Tv.

Of course it's still possible there is a conflict even though it's turned off so perhaps I will play around with it tonight. I do remember there being a way to reset HDMI control on all your equipment so will try and find that info tonight too and give it a go.

 

[madbstd]

Hi,

This is defintelty a Tivo problem. I found 60 pages of comments on the Virgin Media forum with users having issues with the sound stopping working with all sorts of setups, cables, AVR's and TV. I just posted the following hoping they can shed some light but Im not too hopefull unfortunately.

'Last week I bought a new AV Receiver and 5.1 speakers. I set everything up, Xbox, PS4, Bluray and Virgin Tivo 1TB box all outputting sound through HDMI into the AVR then connected to my TV through the ARC HDMI port. I was looking at the audio settings on the Tivo and realised it was still defaulted to 'Dolby Digital to PCM' which I believe is only 2.0 stereo unlike bluray player, PS4 and Xbox which decode to multichannel 5.1 PCM. I therefore changed this setting to 'Dolby Digital' and the receiver displayed it was receiving Dolby Digital and outputting 5.1. All was great! However on Wednesday I was flicking through some channels when I realised I was only getting 2.1 through the speakers so wanted to try different channels to see if it broadcast dependent. The sound stopped working and the amp displayed 'analogue' audio. Its set to auto detect the audio input with the analogue being the last one it tries if it doesn't receive digital audio. I turned the amp off and on as I thought the amp had a fault and it seemed to work again. Yesterday evening however I turned on the amp and AVR to see it was receiving a 'PCM' signal again. I went back into audio settings to make sure it still had the 'Dolby Digital' setting which it did but it still seemed to be outputting 'PCM'. I turned the amp off and on but nothing changed I changed the Tivo audio setting to PCM then back to Dolby Digital but that made no difference and incidentally even purposely changing to 'PCM' still shows 'Dolby Digital' when you return to audio settings leading me to believe the software is stuck or in error state. I restarted the Tivo box and it still puts 'PCM' but shows 'Dolby Digital' in the audio settings!

My TV and AVR are

Samsung UE557500

AVR Yamaha RX A1050

All devices are input to HDMI (using Audioquest or QED cables except Tivo which is using the free cheap one) on the AVR then fed to the HDMI ARC output of the AVR to the HDMI ARC input on the TV. Incidentally all other sound options work fine on all devices including streaming Netflix 4k (using the TVs smart app) with 5.1 Dolby Digital through the ARC port into the amp.

There doesn't seem to be a way of resetting the Tivo apart from restarting it without loosing all my recordings which at 750GB might involve me being single again.'

The AVR is amazing and its just Virgin Media that has an issue.

Hope there is a fix for this soon!

 

[Oldboy]

Any reply from Virgin madbstd? My tivo is still playing up and the sheer random nature of it is infuriating! I'm at the point now where I want an engineer out to look at it but I fear they will just say we will swap the tivo for a new one and I will lose all my recordings which as it's already at 94% of my 1tb is a lot of HD material to lose. I suspect a new box won't solve it anyway as like you I'm now certain it's a Tivo software issue.

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

Nice to see you, Oldboy. *smile*