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So where are the engineers on the HD-Net Audio Loss Issue?
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Posted by: kirkus

I would guess that by now, HD-Net, DirecTV and Hughes have a pretty good idea what is causing this problem, and are arguing over who is to blame (hardware, software, broadcast). We've seen it for years with incompatability among computer equipment where everyone points fingers at each other.

This audio glitch is clearly frequently occuring, repeatable, consistent and verifiable. What's more, as the HD-TiVo actually records the problem, a single event can be observed over and over and over.

I'm not sure who's fault it is, but I suppose HD-Net has the most to lose - viewership. (I'm not likely to return my TiVo, and I'm not likely to cancel DirecTV). It would be nice if a little bird could give us an idea what is going on and what the progress is.

If they're not making any progress given all of the above, I'M REALLY WORRIED.

Posted by: MacTigger

Y'know, I totally agree with you.

I am not going to give up my HDTiVo, I am not going to cancel DirecTV but I certainly will stop watching and recording HDNet programs. And that really sucks cause I watch them a lot. It sucks to record a program and go to watch it just to find the audio drops 1/2 way through.

I hope HDNet is reading this so someone can fix this obviously huge problem.

Posted by: Gomer Pyle

you can always check the end first...

Posted by: kirkus

quote:
Originally posted by Gomer Pyle
you can always check the end first...

Yeah, unless by the time you get around to it and figure out it's screwed up, the show you want is no longer showing.

Call me crazy, but I guess I'd rather the damn thing just work like its supposed to.

Posted by: TiVo8472

Has anyone contacted HDNet Engineering ?

Here are the E-mail address from the hd.net website.

Senior Engineer: Glenn Valenta gvalenta@hd.net
Cable head-end authorization contact: Linda Hanson lhanson@hd.net
EIC HDNet Mobile Unit: Andrew Parris aparris@hd.net
EIC HDNet Mobile Unit: Dan Nabors dnabors@hd.net
EIC HDNet Mobile Unit: Steve Pruszynski stevep@hd.net
Tech Mgr. Of Broadcast Center: Glenn Moore gmoore@hd.net

:confused:

Posted by: ragedogg69

quote:
Originally posted by TiVo8472
Has anyone contacted HDNet Engineering ?

Yes. For every dropout i have had. AND NOT ONE REPLY.

Posted by: TexasRanger74

quote:
Originally posted by TiVo8472
Has anyone contacted HDNet Engineering ?

people have even contacted mark cuban. they are surely aware of the issue.

Posted by: gilcart

FRIGGIN dropped on like Lap 12 or so of CART race, what the F*CK

Posted by: Mark Rubin

Not sure if this will help but:

I was noticing signal strength on SAT C was low (about 65): I had a new Phase 3 dish with single assembly 3X LNB and a new 5x8 Terk switch installed: signal strength on SAT C is now in the 90's

Too soon to tell if this resolves audio dropouts but it seems to reduce pixelization artifacts

Installer told me he recommends old dishes where the third LNB was added be replaced (you will probably need to replace your multiswitch with a cascadeable type):

I wanted to add a Wineguard GainMaster but there was not enough space: the new standard dish does the job nicely

Posted by: richierich

Robert from Value Electronics says D* will have a fix soon, I can't recall the exact time frame but its posted either here or on the AVS forum, I think he said by the end of July.

Posted by: PLUCKYHD

I hope it is sooner than that. I was enjoying the music awards late last night until a lost the audio a little over 20 minutes through. I wanted to burst I was so pissed and so then I flip over to watch the presidents funeral only to have it lose sound also. @#$#$#$

pluckyhd

Posted by: zamzickles

Do these people have any idea how P.O.ed we are about losing concerts, racing events and other programs from our brand new $1000.00 plus dollar investments? I will not be satisfied until the problems are fixed. We've seen the lame responses from their officials acknowledging the problems without EVER getting a fix, like the now infamous "acquiring satellite data". Appearently these people think "just live with it" is a satisfactory answer.

Posted by: Beany

That was a good Champ car race now wasn't it! For me the audio didn't drop out, though. Then again, I was there :)

Posted by: Morris Jones

It's a safe bet that if they have a software fix, they're going to roll it into a scheduled release with other fixes and spend some time doing QA on it before the start deploying it on the satellites.

Of course it'd be nice to have someone who knows tell us these things. :)

Mojo

Posted by: rad

quote:
Originally posted by TiVo8472
Has anyone contacted HDNet Engineering ?

Here are the E-mail address from the hd.net website.

Senior Engineer: Glenn Valenta gvalenta@hd.net
Cable head-end authorization contact: Linda Hanson lhanson@hd.net
EIC HDNet Mobile Unit: Andrew Parris aparris@hd.net
EIC HDNet Mobile Unit: Dan Nabors dnabors@hd.net
EIC HDNet Mobile Unit: Steve Pruszynski stevep@hd.net
Tech Mgr. Of Broadcast Center: Glenn Moore gmoore@hd.net

:confused:

I e-mailed Glenn a number of weeks ago, his response was:

DirecTV is aware of the problem and they have assured me that they are
working on a resolution. Sorry I can't be of more help as this is all
the info they have given me.

Posted by: scooby2

Cuban also said its a DirecTV problem. I now harass directv for every drop i get. Damn that drop on the cart race. I ended up watching it in sd on my normal tivo. What a waste.:(

Posted by: Bananfish

quote:
Originally posted by richierich
Robert from Value Electronics says D* will have a fix soon, I can't recall the exact time frame but its posted either here or on the AVS forum, I think he said by the end of July.

My prediction: This does not get resolved until at least 2005.

D* simply will not go the extra mile to please their installed base ... their philosophy is to do just enough to keep you from jumping ship. Unless and until this becomes an issue that they perceive is preventing them from actually picking up *new* customers or is causing them to *lose* current customers, they're not going to rush to fix it.

Posted by: Toeside

quote:
Originally posted by Bananfish
My prediction: This does not get resolved until at least 2005.

D* simply will not go the extra mile to please their installed base ... their philosophy is to do just enough to keep you from jumping ship. Unless and until this becomes an issue that they perceive is preventing them from actually picking up *new* customers or is causing them to *lose* current customers, they're not going to rush to fix it.

So call them up, cancel the HD package and tell them you won't add it back to your account until it is fixed. If we all do that, I'm sure they'll fix it to get the subscription $$$ back.

Posted by: genearch

quote:
Originally posted by Toeside
So call them up, cancel the HD package and tell them you won't add it back to your account until it is fixed. If we all do that, I'm sure they'll fix it to get the subscription $$$ back.

How about a different approach. Have them credit you for the HD package back to when you recieved your HD10-250 and forward until the problem is resolved?

That's what I did... :up:

Posted by: turls

I like this. And add the video drop outs to the mix. Let's use the lack of choice we have in HD PVR's against them. There is only one box, everybody is having the same problems (if you think you aren't having the HDNet audio problem, maybe you haven't tried enough HDNet. Its only happened once to me in probably 15 hours of recorded HDNet content--that could easily probably be 30 or 50 hours for others). We all need to send the same e-mail.

Posted by: Cody21

I was just WATCHING live HDNET the other day. The sound went away. I left it like that for 15 mins just to see if it would come back. It never did until I switched to another station and back to HDNET - it was back. This never happened with my HUGHES E86.

Posted by: turls

Here's my e-mail I just sent from their "contact us" page:

I have two issues with my new HR10-250 DirecTV Tivo HD receiver that according to tivocommunity.com, are widespread and are not defects with my setup or with my equipment.

#1) Video dropouts--during recordings the screen will go black for about 1-2 seconds while the audio continues to play. This will happen numerous times during a movie for example. I believe the latest I've heard about this is that it has something to do with compression that DirecTV uses. I have now spent almost $2000 on DirecTV equipment in the past two years and DirecTV has still not fixed this issue.

#2) this issue is specific to the HDTivo and HDNet--sometimes recordings are ruined because the audio drops off and never comes back. Now I have to check the end of recordings before I start watching to see if the recording is no good before I waste my time watching it.

I believe it is only fair to ask for suspension of my $11 fee per month for HD content until these issues are completely resolved.

Please consider this, and let me know ASAP. I should not need to discuss this with you as I have given you all necessary details but if necessary please contact me by e-mail.

There are many other satellite options for HD and I feel I have given DirecTV more than enough time to correct these issues.

Posted by: scooby2

quote:
Originally posted by turls
Here's my e-mail I just sent from their "contact us" page:

I have two issues with my new HR10-250 DirecTV Tivo HD receiver that according to tivocommunity.com, are widespread and are not defects with my setup or with my equipment.

#1) Video dropouts--during recordings the screen will go black for about 1-2 seconds while the audio continues to play. This will happen numerous times during a movie for example. I believe the latest I've heard about this is that it has something to do with compression that DirecTV uses. I have now spent almost $2000 on DirecTV equipment in the past two years and DirecTV has still not fixed this issue.

#2) this issue is specific to the HDTivo and HDNet--sometimes recordings are ruined because the audio drops off and never comes back. Now I have to check the end of recordings before I start watching to see if the recording is no good before I waste my time watching it.

I believe it is only fair to ask for suspension of my $11 fee per month for HD content until these issues are completely resolved.

Please consider this, and let me know ASAP. I should not need to discuss this with you as I have given you all necessary details but if necessary please contact me by e-mail.

There are many other satellite options for HD and I feel I have given DirecTV more than enough time to correct these issues.

Please let us know how this goes.

Posted by: richierich

I understand from Robert at VE that the fix will be released in the July-August time frame.