U-Verse Audio Dropouts - Page 6

How is the 2550 working out? I had Uverse a couple years ago and switched today from DirecTV. Now, I have audio dropout like crazy. Looks like this issue has been going on for a LONG time. They gave me a VIP1200

I also have an Onkyo..

I just had Uverse installed. U450 package , 4 tv's. I have a Cisco 4320 dvr, and Cisco receivers for the other 3 tv's. I have no audio drop outs while watching live tv , on demand, or recordings.

The drop outs were mostly in 5.1 mode, Its much better now...99% better !
Only Palladia music channel in 5.1 is still the worse and never was fix in the two years I had HD U-V service.
Could only enjoy Palladia in analog. Its rare for a drop out in analog, but it does happen..
I canceled the Palladia music channel when att bumped the price up from 5 to 7 bucks..
The HD PQ is better than, and the pricing is afew cents less than comcast...

I am a brand new U-Verse subscriber and immediately noticed these dropouts. More specifically my wife pointed them out to me when she tried to watch Project Runway on Lifetime. (Apparently the worst offender as they always broadcast in DD 2.1) To make a long story short after testing different stations, swapping HDMI and TOSlink audio connections, swapping tuners from one room to another, testing network connections and 4 phone calls to tech support I can relay the following information from ATT regarding this issue.

There is a known issue with ALL channels broadcasting in Dolby Digital 2.1 at any time (which explains why I notice it on HBO HD in between shows/movies but not during). None of the tuners/DVRs ATT do/will offer can/will resolve this issue. It affects both outputs that support surround, TOSlink and HDMI. The backend equipment relaying the signals to your network do not handle DD 2.1 properly causing packet loss, therefore causing audio dropouts or skipping, applying to both live and recorded shows. There is no fix now. There is no fix in the works. There will probably never be a fix. This issue has only been reported by a very small percentage of customers and has existed since the beginning of U-Verse. The only way not to encounter it is to either never watch anything in DD 2.1 or switch the digital audio setting on the tuner/DVR to Stereo and not Surround.

The rep who assisted me on the final phone call to tech support which lasted almost 2 hours, much of it on hold, told me this after apparently speaking to his supervisors, supervisor in engineering. He offered me a $15 discount on my monthly bill permanently and said he would not blame me if I canceled the service, but hoped I didn't.

I have not decided whether to cancel yet. Almost all the TV I watch is recorded and is in DD 5.1 which actually sounds really good. I don't watch sports and my wife doesn't care about surround as long as there is no skipping. She can switch the DVR to stereo when need be. Time will tell if this becomes a deal breaker.

So apparently this issue will never be corrected. Not sure it has to be.

Just an FYI for anyone that encounters this issue and reads this thread.

Thanks to AVS Forums for existing and helping us all share this type of information!

We use a sound bar 95% of the time, and never notice the dropouts with our Cisco IPN7500. Same when we have the Denon AV receiver on. Every now and then, you get a "Hic-Up", but it is only maybe once or twice and that is it. We never hear it on the STB in our bedroom. As for 2.1, it is not Dolby Digital. Your tv will state DD, due to if you have Surround instead of Stereo on the UVerse receiver, but is not in Surround, if the program was not done in surround.

The problems here are prefect examples of the old adage, "trying to some save money can be very expensive". U-Verse uses poor technology and it is the cheapest cable service on the planet!! (and people wonder why they are having problems)?

I like to save a buck like anyone and actually had it installed. I had it all taken out (7 TVs in my house) before the installer finished the install. Pure crap, problematic picture and they had a bandwidth limit on how many HDTVs I could have powered on at once.. I couldn't believe it!

The only meaningful advice here would be to switch to another service provider.

I have the audio drop outs as well, although they have gotten better over the past 4 months, maybe only 2-3 dropouts per day now.

My real problem is with HD quality. 7Mbits per HD stream... awful. I went from a 40" LCD to the LG 55" 7600 to the Samsung 60" EH6000 (looking for the perfect TV). The 55" made the channels look pretty bad, the 60" makes most HD channels look like SD, and when there is a LOT of information going on in the scene, FORGET it- all blocky/microblocking.

I'm going to try a plasma- either ST50 or GT50, but I'm thinking I may have to back down to the 55" again because of the crap quality.

Will they ever up the bitrate???? I would get satellite in a heart beat but I have no line of sight in my APT location (can't mount on roof).

maybe they'll go to h.265 and that will save the quality of the product. at least, even with their bandwidth numbers, the picture should be great quality...

Would they have to give out new equipment for that, or just install a different software algorithm?

That is a $mill question that I don't know the answer to. I'd like to know the answer to that myself. If new hardware is required, maybe it could be rolled out incrementally?

Is anybody still having audio dropouts every few minutes with a ATT UVerse DVR? I have the DVR paired with a Denon AVR-3312CI receiver and Energy 5.1 speakers and all connected via HDMI. The XBOX and Blu Ray has inputs have absolutely no dropouts but with the CBL/SAT input, randomly (every 3-4 minutes) there is a dropout for about 3-4 seconds.

I tried another receiver (Denon 1913) to eliminate the receiver as the source of the problem but still the same issue so it's definitely not the receiver. I have also tried replacing all the HDMI cables (DVR->Denon, Denon->TV) and still the same

I have the Motorola VIP1216 DVR and it seems to have the firmware updates described earlier in the thread...because under MENU->OPTIONS->AUDIO-> I see it set to surround sound audio and on my receiver display I can see it mention Dolby Digital.

Could this be a bad DVR? I've had it for about 4+ years.

I have been through several receivers of late and was having problems with every one of them with the ATT U-Verse 1225 box and Dolby Digital 2.0 programs audio dropping out every 5 seconds or so. Found a thread on the same problem and talked to a tech at ATT "Tier 2" support... they know of the problem and sent me a Motorola VIP2250 that solved the problem... the old technology of the 1225 series is outdated.