AT&T U-verse → Dolby Digital Audio Dropouts

Cisco 4320 had it about two years. Triple play 18mbps u300. The internet is great. By the modem stats I have 33 mbps available. I remember the install tech being thrilled with the signal metrics as was I last I looked

HD of course, Dolby 5.1 digital through HDMI

Uverse is constantly dropping DD audio. Here's the thing: Say your watching HBO. All the pre-show adverts, "coming soon", and "previously on's" have so many drop outs they are all but unintelligible. Then HBO starts the film. From the Signature "OM" sound to the end of the film, no dropouts. As soon as it's over, they start up again.

This happens on *all* the HBO channels, Showtime, FX, TNT well, you name it. If there is DD on the line it has dropouts until the show-proper begins.

This is obviously not an equipment malfunction, but some sort of tween-show signal degradation. Neither my receiver nor my DVR has any way of synchronizing decoding failures with such unfailing accuracy.

I have contacted them about it only once and they applied the usual band-aid; "Oh well it must be your DVR we'll send you a new one". They did, it wasn't, and it didn't change a thing. I've been through the wringer more than once with scripted CSR's and stopped banging my head right there since the shows come through OK.

It's really annoying and it seems to be happening more often. I worry that it will eventually damage my receiver or speakers. Anyone know what's going on?

I've been dealing with this for years and still have no clue what it could be. I use digital optical and noticed that plugging the cord directly from the box to the receiver helps a bit. Other than that I never get any help from the techs but to switch to old school rca cables.

I had this problem with a different stb. The 1st Gen Motorola (VIP1200). Swapping it to the new 2nd Gen (VIP2200) fixed the issue. The dropouts happened on certain commercials and the Palladia channel constantly. I believe it has something to do with how the audio is broadcast in those commercials/concerts.

Also switching from the 1st Gen DVR (VIP1216) to the newest (VIP2250) fixed it.

I used to experience it, as well, but only when using surround with a DD decoder on the receiver with an optical TOSLink connection. I can't recall which channel(s) I saw it happen on but I know it was frequent and irritating. The problem seemed to go away and I forgot about it, until this post. I know I tested on multiple sets simultaneously on the same channel and it never happened on the others. Even on the same set using the TV audio it was fine. So, that would point to a signal/synch issue from the STB to the receiver. I assume it is an issue with the DD rx/tx/encode/decode function on the STB itself. It is like it pauses or has some sort of delay transmitting and it causes the receiver to reset the link every time that behavior occurs.

I don't see how that's possible in my case. Why would the hardware screw up *only* between shows, or only certain channels? Ah well, I guess I'll never know. Since posting that, I decided to drop U-verse. There are too many other problems / deficiencies along with sky high prices.

I've noticed what you're encountering also..I just chalked it up to some sort of audio suppressor, if you will, like those during commercials..which, btw, varies from channel to channel for me.. A BIGGER concern is noticeable and sometimes LOUD pops from the NICK network channels..TV Land, Nickelodeon, etc...it's really disconcerting at times..so much, I usually avoid them...

Mine does that as well. I notice if the show you're watching is in 5.1 SS and the STB is set to surround sound no audio drop outs. But if the show is in stereo and the STB is set surround sound I hear the drop outs. If the show is in stereo and the STB is set to stereo, no audio drops. So now i've become accustomed to changing the sound setup on the STB depending on whether the show i'm watching is in 5.1 surround sound or stereo.

That is definitely not the case here. I don't have an STB, I have a DVR. It is set for digital all the time. All audio is HDMI to my receiver. I only watch HD feeds except one and there are zero dropouts there, (of course).

I would also note that digital output is unplayable on my TV except when tuned to a stereo-only channel such as Bloomberg TV.

Though not a DD player it[Pio] is a decoder and played DTV digital output just fine (as stereo of course) and plays the Xfinity/BDP/AppleTV digital output perfectly as well. This is great for when I don't want or need 100W/channel Dolby sound field (like all daytime TV). My receiver is pass-thru when off so that's very green too. It was impossible with the digital output from the IPN4320. Switching back and forth thru the menus is unacceptable.

I have been trying for months to improve my sound, even replacing my receiver and center (I wanted an HDMI switcher anyway). Since turning on the Comcast, sound quality has improved at least 10-fold. I'm not kidding; Jack Nicholson to Tom Cruz. "Crystal Clear". There are no dropouts, DD or not, and my Pio transmogrifies the DD 5.1 to stereo just perfectly. Problem solved.

The problem was clearly either poor digital implementation in IPN4320 (I tried two with no improvement) or poor transmission/encoding upstream since bandwidth and signal quality on my pipe were excellent by all measures. As I said before HBO stutters continuously exactly until the movie starts so it's probably the latter.