ABC audio issue or more?

Suddenly, about four weeks ago, ABC entertainment programing became an audio nightmare. Programs are simply too bad to tolerate. Here's my trouble shooting to date:
I checked all speaker/receive audio connections. Finding a bad center channel connection, I feared I had cooked my PSB Image C8 tweeter and replaced it. This seemed to slightly improve the issues, briefly.
I have also replaced all HDMI cables. Audio from iPods (direct USB input) and CD player (optical input) play fine. HDMI input is less than ideal. Blu-Ray, DirecTV (HDMI sources) are not performing perfectly, though most are OK. ABC programing is terrible.
Here's my hardware lineup:
Good PSB speakers that have performed well for years;
Pioneer VSX 920 Receiver (I wish I could have done better at the time I bought this - like going for an NAD or at least Marantz) but the Pioneer had performed decently until recently.
Directv HD DVR;
Philips Blu-Ray player.
A bit more on trouble-shooting: I suspected the center channel output in the Pioneer receiver could be failing, but switched the audio to just the main speakers, excluding the center channel, and the audio remained terrible. I moved onto the HDMI theory. Replacing the cable brought brief, partial relief, but the audio again deteriorated (especially on ABC programming).
Questions: Is this all just some ABC audio mess, for which I am pointlessly/needlessly troubleshooting my hardware?
Is this the mediocre Pioneer receiver dying a slow death (with ABC being the first bloody casualty, other HDMI content to follow, and stereo sources destine to be the last hold outs)?

The problem occurs while watching live or replaying from DVR ABC television programing. DirecTV is the source (via HDMI to the Pioneer receiver). Sound is raspy/staticy/fuzzy. Distortion is more extreme at volume peaks and in higher pitches. So the peak speaking inflections of a female voice are the worst.

It is everything from my ABC affiliate; both network programing and local programming, such as the local news (WTEN).

" Speaking of that, can you tune them off-air?[/quote]
Thanks for the help, can you explain "tune them off-air"?

I really think ABC national is part of the problem here. Since I posted this, I've done a ton of trouble shooting. I did (probably needlessly) replace some speaker components. I upgraded my receiver to a Denon 2113CI (big help with ABC audio problems and an altogether better AVR). My local ABC affiliate admitted they were having audio problems. ABC and its locals are trying to deal with audio. It's a though spot. They are trying to mix sound that will work decently through crappy 2" speakers in TVs, sound through "sound bars", sound through tiny plastic-case home theater systems, and through real AVRs with good speakers. Tough job.



since my earlier post, and upgrades to my system, ABC still remains a trouble spot. I believe ABC, and affiliates are in tinker mode, but not really talking about it much. Post upgrade, ABC sounded much better, cleaner, but really base heavy. Then, a few weeks later, the balance improved. Before this problem started, ABC audio was quite good: My wife's "guilty pleasure" Dancing WT Stars and My "Guilty Pleasure", Nashville, were among the best-sounding programs on air. All these months on, both now sound disappointing compared to other sources. Further, I have weird evidence that ABC is tweaking stuff. Dancing with the Stars uses "flash backs" to engage/remind the audience of the past week. During one week's show, the flashbacks were base-heavy, as had been an issue for a few weeks, while the new program content was better balanced.

Now, Center channel (dialog especially) remains disappointing. This is only on ABC content.
Dreamliner, you are in Minnesota and using cable. I am in NY and using Directv. Both of us have isolated the problem to ABC, yet clearly we are dealing with different local affiliates. I am inclined to believe this is an ABC issue. However, since they are a hugh corporate beast, they are likely to be working on this in-house and would likely not admit to any problem.

Interesting, Garrett. "I'm assuming its a local affiliate problem."(Dreamliner)
"My guess the problem lies with WTEN."(Weak knee willy)
It seems to be emerging that there is some audio problem here, but it is inconsistent and variable. Perhaps the problem is originating with ABC national, and local technicians have to deal with sound processing and broadcasting to their local markets. The locals may all be trying different solutions to the same original problems, yielding variable results. I'll see if I can get my local ABC tech to clarify.

Thanks MrVideo. I understand what you are doing on your end (mostly). But, how will we be able to compare the audio?
Regarding picking a show, How about Dancing With the Stars (Monday)?
Thanks again.

I see there is a very similar discussion here:
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1434976/abc-primetime-audio

Thanks MrVideo.
Just a segment of the show should be enough to shed light on this (no need to deal with the full 2 hours).
The MP3 file should be easy to deal with. I should also be able to stream the AC3 file via iTunes from my iMac, using AirPlay to my Denon 2113 CI AVR.
Thanks again. This should be enlightening.

Thanks MrVideo.
I found the other thread, too, a couple days ago. (http://www.avsforum.com/t/1434976/abc-primetime-audio) Would make sense to merge them. In fact, if I had found the earlier thread initially, I would have posted to it, rather than start this thread.
Thanks for capturing the audio. I found the entire DWTS program to be equally poor in quality. If you want to look at one segment, I'd suggest that from about 8:20 pm EST to 8:35.