Ok. Its not my receiver, and its not my speakers. I have tested them both with various other materials and sources, and its not them.

Its the PS3 I think, and its weird. For instance, last night I was playing a downloaded file off of a torrent, it was a TV show. Sometimes through the show when someone would talk there would be a bit of a crackle noise with it, noting major, but you notice it, and its annoying.. and bad.

OK, so watch another episode, doesn't happen. Ok..... I assume at that point that its the show I downloaded. But it wasn't, it happened on a track I ripped from a CD, but then not again after...... even the same material!

Then I was in the HOME BETA (just got in) and I was in the theater area and it was crackling again, and then again outside by the music area. Crackling at some parts of the song.

Then I go play Socom and other games, no crackle..... same music that crackled before.. no crackle now.


WTF!? It sounds terrible when it happens. I really don't like that, and would like it fixed somehow. Before I call Sony or test the HDMI cable, anyone else experience this at all??

Sounds like the cable to me. Make sure it's seated properly at both ends. Or try going staight to tv and see if you still hear the crackle.

I changed the cable for one I know is fine and causes no issue with audio. It still does it.

I use a Denon 4308 receiver and good AscendAcoustics speakers, I went again and tested and its not them........ they preform wonderfully with Blu-ray, DTS:MA tracks, 5.1, 7.1, SACDs, etc...... its just what seems like RANDOM stuff off of the PS3 or at random times.

I contacted Sony through their consumer care..... it will be 2 days before they get back to me.

Crackly audio..... SUCKS.

It does this for some reason when the CPU is heating too quickly. Best thing to
do is just rest it for a while (power supply off). I've had it 1 year ago on my
60GB launch edition but never had since I did that. Also if it helps, update the
firmware (2.43) to kind of reset the current firmware. This is based on my experience
and I am not endorsing it to be true. Trying never hurts.

i get the crackles through my good old tried and true red/white stereo rca cables.

I don't think its the cables. It is random, and non repeatable.

It happens lots.... heres what I tried so far:


01. I tried switching HDMI ports, same cable, so the PS3's HDMI port on the receiver is now being used by the cable box HDMI cable. NO CRACKLE.

02. Put the PS3's HDMI directly into the TV (set the proper HDMI settings for such a thing, 2 low levels of PCM) and I got the exact same CRACKLE. I got the damn CRACKLE ON MY TV.

03. Again, double checked the Optical port and cable, ran it through the cable box into the SAME optical port as before. Sounds great, and doesn't drop out.


So... the big one is #2. I put the HDMI into the TV and it was crackling just as it was on my speakers. Put the Cable box (HD material and SD, 2.0 and 5.1, DTS, etc.) HDMI into the PS3's HDMI port on the receiver. Not a single problem, no crackle.




I have the latest firmware (2.43, even though it was meaningless for NA owners).

The thing is, this happens when I've had it on for a few minutes. Perhaps it is getting old? I've had it since launch day, and use it quite often. I've been having other weird connection issues with it lately too.. been questioning its life span at this point.

Someone here had an issue similar but with MP3's only. Try to adjust the PS3's volume settings and see if that helps.

Thats funny, the one downloaded thing I had, was using MP3 audio..... I dunno.. I rip everything else in ATRAC or AAC.... so who knows. But at the moment all I can get it to do is happen in HOME, at least that is consistent. Perhaps a firmware thing.

Another thing you might try, clean out the HDMI port on the PS3. Blow air in there, using one of those air cans. My initial thought was the cable, but if you ruled that out then my second guess is the contact.

The contact? Hmmm.... but would it not happen all the time then? I'll try and clean it out.

Someone here had an issue similar but with MP3's only. Try to adjust the PS3's volume settings and see if that helps.
I had audio distortion, and yes, my problem was caused by the volume setting being too high. I set it back to 0 if I recall, and the problem went away.

That is not the problem on mine, its always at NORMAL or whatever the setting is called.

I don't hear it on almost anything, just HOME now.... so perhaps its Home?

I too get some crackling every now and then when on the title screen for Buzz (Aus version). Some audio dropouts on Wipeout HD - everything else is fine.

go in the sound setup menu in yourr ps3 and select the forms that your reciever accepts and deselect all the ones you dont need anyway

How do I know what frequencies to select on the PS3 output? I have a Denon 889 Amp?





Hey, I'm having the same issue and as you know...it's highly annoying. I was curious if you found a fix for this issue? I can't seem to find one on the boards and don't want to start yet another thread on this , but it's maddening>

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am experiencing the same problem too. Only ever occured when playing Blurays through the PS3. Its only the center. My speakers, AVR, PS3 and TV are brandnew. Onkyo TX-SR607, Pana G10, and Jamo Speakers (C607, C605, Sub 650, C60 Center).

I experienced it first in X-Men 1, when Logan fights that bald guy in the cage. First there is the announcer whos voice crackles a bit, and then there is the crackling when Logan headbutts the guy and smashes him on the ground.

Everything is wired through hdmi. The second movie i experienced it was Troy. The yelling of Agamemmnon etc...

Volume on the ps3 is set to normal.

Has anyone found a cure to this?

When I saw this thread resurrected, I hoped someone had come up with a definitive solution for my problem, but it looks like the latest post isn't really relevant.

I have no problems at all playing BDs, DVDs, and many games. But Orange Box (at least HL2, HL2E1, HL2E2 and Portal) exhibits crackling after anywhere from 5 minutes to 45 minutes of play. Mirror's Edge sometimes locks up. I believe it's heat that's causing it, since it seems to go away once the fan kicks into Hi-RPM mode.

I have an Onkyo 606 connected to my PS3 via HDMI, and have the correct audio formats selected for the receiver.

I think that the problem is that the temperature threshold for turning up the fan speed is too high, but that may be because of a thermal sensitivity in the processor or chipset and may not be present in all PS3s.

A short bench-test isn't going to show it, so I'm quite reluctant to send it in for service. Are any of the 3rd party coolers for the PS3 effective?

Does your distortion come from all the channels or just a few?

Just tested the sound with a simple audio cd on the ps3, and the sound was crystalclear. This problem is really weird...Will try with a new hdmi cable.

Though it seems like most people who have this problem do have onkyo receivers..

Are you guys using good quality cable, like Monster?




J/K! I have an Onkyo 605 and I haven't experienced any of these problems. Has any one contacted Sony as it may be of a known issue? I'm sure you guys have tried swapping out your cable just in case.

Does your distortion come from all the channels or just a few?

Mine comes from all channels. It's not just crackling at peak volumes or during certain sound effects during the game; once it starts, its a pretty regular constant crackling with a steady frequency. Kind of like a radio in an old car without RF filters on the spark plug wires.

If it was the cable, I'd it would happen on all audio output from the PS3. Unfortunately it only occurs on specific games.

Mine comes from all channels. It's not just crackling at peak volumes or during certain sound effects during the game; once it starts, its a pretty regular constant crackling with a steady frequency. Kind of like a radio in an old car without RF filters on the spark plug wires.

If it was the cable, I'd it would happen on all audio output from the PS3. Unfortunately it only occurs on specific games.

By the way you describe your problem, chances are its not your cable. But why not swap it jut because its so easy to do? What if some wierd phenomenon like a certain game using more bandwidth than another exposes a problem with your cable? Sometimes you can't tell if theres a leak in the hose till you add a little pressure to it.

Mine comes from all channels. It's not just crackling at peak volumes or during certain sound effects during the game; once it starts, its a pretty regular constant crackling with a steady frequency. Kind of like a radio in an old car without RF filters on the spark plug wires.

If it was the cable, I'd it would happen on all audio output from the PS3. Unfortunately it only occurs on specific games.

Then we do not have the same problem. I haven't noticed my problem during games yet. Only with certain blurays, and some highpitched frequencies like yelling, explosions or sometimes deep voices or dialogue. What is strange that it didn't do it in the opening part of Transformers, cause i would consider that a really deep voice...

By the way you describe your problem, chances are its not your cable. But why not swap it jut because its so easy to do? What if some wierd phenomenon like a certain game using more bandwidth than another exposes a problem with your cable? Sometimes you can't tell if theres a leak in the hose till you add a little pressure to it.

One other data point I neglected to mention, and this one likely eliminates the HDMI cable as the source of the issue:

There have been times where the crackling increased to some maximum, and then the audio cut out completely. At that point, game play was still OK, other than the lack of sound. However, an attempt to exit the game would cause the PS3 to freeze for 30 seconds or so, then reboot. On one occasion, the game itself (HL2) actually froze and the console became completely unresponsive.

I really think it's a heat issue . . . again, anyone have success with 3rd party coolers, or are they all scams?

Then we do not have the same problem. I haven't noticed my problem during games yet. Only with certain blurays, and some highpitched frequencies like yelling, explosions or sometimes deep voices or dialogue. What is strange that it didn't do it in the opening part of Transformers, cause i would consider that a really deep voice...

I think we have different problems too. BDs on mine, especially ones using the lossless codecs, sound incredible . . . and the bandwidth doesn't get much higher than what those require.

There's no problem with your cables, the problem is with the PS3 itself. Thats not to say yours has a problem. They all do.

Simply the PS3 outputs (or many do) far too high and this causes distortion. The problem can be fixed by simply going into the options for a game and turning down the music, sfx, etc to say a 1/4 and then obviously turning up your sound systems/TV's volume. On DVD or BD simply going to volume section once playing a DVD etc and turn down the volume to -4 or -2.

In my experience higher end equipment is more susceptible than lower end equipment.

The problem arises because.... well think about a waveform for a sound like you see on a oscilloscope (read windows media player simple wavy line)... if its amplitude is pretty low you can see all the wave (although not very closely)...great... but if you turn up the gain the highest peaks get cut off (but we do see what we see in detail.

These need to be balanced properly to get the best quality sound without getting distortion. Problem is Sony went too far and haven't given us a general option to turn down the soundoutput in the XMB... this would solve all of our problems.... until then just do it in every application you use.

There's no problem with your cables, the problem is with the PS3 itself. Thats not to say yours has a problem. They all do.

Simply the PS3 outputs (or many do) far too high and this causes distortion. The problem can be fixed by simply going into the options for a game and turning down the music, sfx, etc to say a 1/4 and then obviously turning up your sound systems/TV's volume. On DVD or BD simply going to volume section once playing a DVD etc and turn down the volume to -4 or -2.

In my experience higher end equipment is more susceptible than lower end equipment.

The problem arises because.... well think about a waveform for a sound like you see on a oscilloscope (read windows media player simple wavy line)... if its amplitude is pretty low you can see all the wave (although not very closely)...great... but if you turn up the gain the highest peaks get cut off (but we do see what we see in detail.

These need to be balanced properly to get the best quality sound without getting distortion. Problem is Sony went too far and haven't given us a general option to turn down the soundoutput in the XMB... this would solve all of our problems.... until then just do it in every application you use.

Well, if the PS3 offered only analog outputs, you might have a point. Since the vast majority of users here on AVSForum are likely connected via TOSLink or HDMI, your post is incorrect in just about every way imaginable.

Clipping can still occur in the digital domain.

Clipping can still occur in the digital domain.

In what way do you think digital clipping is relevant to this thread? It certainly isn't introduced by the PS3.

I'm not sure if people are going to be willing to help you with the kind of attitude you have. You didn't swap your HDMI cable because you don't "think" its the problem, and you won't try to reduce your PS3 internal volume settings because you "know" that's not the problem. If you know so much then maybe you don't need help.

Swap your HDMI cable and lower your PS3 iternal volume settings and report back!

I had the same issue, but it only happened when the PS3 was playing any type of disc. I put in Journey's new DVD...crackle. I put in Journey's new CD...crackle. I put in Guitar Hero World Tour...crackle. Hooked up my laptop via HDMI and played some MP3s...no crackle.

I had the AC off in the house and had the receiver and the PS3 on for a good while. I turned them off for a bit and let them cool off for about 20 minutes. Fired it back up and voila...no crackle.

I believe it's just overheating.

I'm not sure if people are going to be willing to help you with the kind of attitude you have. You didn't swap your HDMI cable because you don't "think" its the problem, and you won't try to reduce your PS3 internal volume settings because you "know" that's not the problem. If you know so much then maybe you don't need help.

Swap your HDMI cable and lower your PS3 iternal volume settings and report back!

The only "help" I'm asking for is to hear what sort of 3rd party coolers people have had success with.

As far as the HDMI cable goes, it's only logical that the issue would be present on all PS3 audio sources if that was truly the problem, and would be much more noticeable on the highest bandwidth sources such as those offered by BD: HD video and lossless audio. I do not have audio issues with anything but HL2 Orange Box.

And the only "PS3 iternal[sic] volume settings" are exclusive to BD/DVD playback. I do not have any BD/DVD playback issues.

In any event, it bears pointing out that some of us do have reasonable analytical abilities.

I do not have audio issues with anything but HL2 Orange Box.
.

Why didn't you say so, I have audio issues with that game too. I'm pretty sure its just the game. Your first post you mentioned you didn't have the problem with many games which implies that you had the issue with "some" games.

In any event, it bears pointing out that some of us do have reasonable analytical abilities.

The only thing your pointing out is your arrogance. :cool:

Why didn't you say so, I have audio issues with that game too. I'm pretty sure its just the game. Your first post you mentioned you didn't have the problem with many games which implies that you had the issue with "some" games.

My first post in this thread, on 5/22/09:

I have no problems at all playing BDs, DVDs, and many games. But Orange Box (at least HL2, HL2E1, HL2E2 and Portal) exhibits crackling after anywhere from 5 minutes to 45 minutes of play. Mirror's Edge sometimes locks up. I believe it's heat that's causing it, since it seems to go away once the fan kicks into Hi-RPM mode.


The only thing your pointing out is your arrogance. :cool:

Still waiting for you to point out the PS3 "master volume control." Thanks.

You're the guy tech support won't help because you refuse to restart your computer when they ask you to. :rolleyes: Since your analytical skills are off the charts maybe you should figure out why your PS3 is overheating and fix the root cause of the issue instead of throwing a crappy noisy USB cooler on it.

You're the guy tech support won't help because you refuse to restart your computer when they ask you to. :rolleyes:

When tech support fails to listen to my description of the problem and points to a solution that has nothing to do with the symptoms (i.e. telling me to reboot my computer when my router won't obtain a WAN IP address), yeah, I'll refuse.

Much like this case.

Since your analytical skills are off the charts maybe you should figure out why your PS3 is overheating and fix the root cause of the issue instead of throwing a crappy noisy USB cooler on it.

You apparently didn't read that posting either, also in this thread.

You must be the tech support guy I usually ignore when he tells me to reboot my computer to fix my router.

Found that "master volume control" yet?

The volume thing wasn't even my suggestion.

Look, Starbucks! Over there!

*walks away while arrogant easily distracted know it all is distracted*

Well, if the PS3 offered only analog outputs, you might have a point. Since the vast majority of users here on AVSForum are likely connected via TOSLink or HDMI, your post is incorrect in just about every way imaginable.

So your saying that there's no such thing as an amplitude setting through a hdmi or toslink cable?...If that were the case then you wouldn't be able to turn the sound up or down....and of course an attempt HAS to be made to convert that digital info to analogue before it can be sent to the speakers...so what happens if the resulting analogue signals peaks and troughs are beyond those that can be output by you sound systems "sound card"...yep clipping...

Admittedly I only engineer sounds themselves so hell what would I know.

Reporting back after some further investigation on my problem, which seems to be different from jdrumms.

I set the ps3s volume to -4 without any effect on the problem. And I found a good description of the sound it makes. Its like i play a video on my iphone 3g with the volume to the max. It only seems to do it on certain frequencies though.

I changed the hdmi cable too. Only the one from the PS3 to the AVR. Could the one going from the AVR to the TV produce such a problem?
Anyway it didnt solve the problem either. Also tried the intellivolume function on the onkyo. Set it to -12db without effect. Well it was not as loud but the sound issue was exactly the same.

Something i noticed too is, that on normal dd 5.1 it isnt as noticable as with say DD-THD.

Still trying to find the source of the problem. Might lend a stand alone BRP to check if it even is the PS3 that produces the problem.
Any tips are appreciated.

I've experienced the same sound cracking problem couple of times in the past (specially when playing Killzone 2) but lately this problem haven't showed up but on the other hand, there is another problem that I've been experiencing in KZ2, when playing very longs matches the sounds completely goes away and all I can hear is my gunshots, kill chime and objective status rest of the sounds just go mute.

I know this is an old thread - sorry in advance.

I had a similar issue. My PS3 Slim is connected to an Onkyo 807 via HDMI. I read here ( http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=ps3&thread.id=1647107&view=by_date_ascending&page=2 ) to make sure the volume in the PS3 control panel was set to zero at the most. I then remembered a week ago I had turned it up when I was just playing around with some settings. Sure enough, I went back into the control panel and the volume was +3 or so. I turned it back down to 0 and the problem seems to be fixed.

Here is a link to Sony's site that even says "Hint: The sound may become distorted if the volume output level is set too high. If this happens, lower the volume output level.". http://manuals.playstation.net/document/en/ps3/current/music/panel.html

I also changed the output to [44.1 / 88.2 / 176.4 kHz] - admittedly though I'm not sure if this setting change was helpful or not.

I hope this helps anyone else experiencing this problem.

I get a crackle on some voices and explosions through the center channel.

This was by far the worst In Transformers 2, almost every time Optimus Prime would speak, it would be crackly.

I always keep my volume at 0 so I know that isn't the issue. I thought for a while it might be the sub-par speaker wires I was running, but I have just recently replaced all my speaker wiring with 16 gauge. I have tried 2 different HDMI cables and ports on my receiver, all are the same.

I get a crackle on some voices and explosions through the center channel.

This was by far the worst In Transformers 2, almost every time Optimus Prime would speak, it would be crackly.

I always keep my volume at 0 so I know that isn't the issue. I thought for a while it might be the sub-par speaker wires I was running, but I have just recently replaced all my speaker wiring with 16 gauge. I have tried 2 different HDMI cables and ports on my receiver, all are the same.

Do you get the same problem with audio cds?

Do you get the same problem with audio cds?
I have not tested audio cds specifically, but I do not notice any crackle when playing mp3s over PS3MediaCenter (at upwards of twice the volume), if that helps at all.

I have not tested audio cds specifically, but I do not notice any crackle when playing mp3s over PS3MediaCenter (at upwards of twice the volume), if that helps at all.

Ok, thats interesting, because I WAS noticing it with mp3s and PCMs over PS3MediaCenter. I'm not sure if it was doing it with movies or not. Is it possible that you have a defective unit? Some people have mentioned overheating, but I'm not really sure about that. I have a new Slim.

Have you tried moving the plug to another outlet?, perhaps directly on the wall. I just bought a PS3 Slim and had this problem only when the PS3 would switch to either 720P or 1080i. I moved the plug from my power bar to the wall and the noise is gone.