Anyone noticing an increase in audio synch drift?

[bernado]

'Coz I have.
I've been using a January firmware since owning the box from new a couple of months ago and apart from an occasional drifting of audio synch on HD AC3 tracks, the synch has always been rock solid. I only ever use it for free to air 28.2 channels, but recently I'm definitely noticing more of a general audio synch drift on SD channels, particularly after viewing the same channel for a period of an hour or more. A channel flip up and down always restores it again when it happens so not a biggie for those odd occasions, but it's going to really hack me off if this continues to worsen as the box ages.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced an increase in this over time. I've made no changes to my box since setting it up, so no reason to suspect anything other than hardware breaking down

[neolxs]

Yep I have, the box seemed fine at first and I was delighted with my purchase, however it seems to be getting worser.

I was going to purchase another box for the bedroom but it now looks like it isnt worth it.

[eattheliving]

no sync problems with the new f/ware....as of yet anyway. might be worth a try guys

[bernado]

Thinking about it, I have recently connected an unpowered USB caddy hard drive to it. I suppose it's possible that may be having an effect, maybe the s9 can't cope with the extra power demand, making it's processor miss a beat or something. Next time it happens I'll pull it out (so to speak) and see what happens.
As I say, it's not happening enough at the moment to be a major issue, so we'll see
Edit - To answer my own question - Just had audio drift out after 90 mins, unplugging the USB drive made no difference, the usual channel flip resymched things again. Bah!

[bernado]

no sync problems with the new f/ware....as of yet anyway. might be worth a try guys

I feel certain that this audio synch problem isn't firmware based. There are others on the new firmware reporting synch problems too unfortunately. My box used to be totally solid regarding synch for a couple of months, sometimes being left on all night, with no drift at all.
This morning, Channel 5 (the SD version) went out after 30 minutes.
I'm beginning to think now that a possible use of inferior components is leading to instability, as they begin to age.
I'm going to try reloading the original firmware to see if it resets something.

I have to say though, this is a bit disappointing as I've bigged up this box on a number of occasions up to now. Unless I can sort this synch thing out, I don't think I could recommend it anymore.


I'm going to try and reload the firmware to see if that resets something

[eattheliving]

I feel certain that this audio synch problem isn't firmware based. There are others on the new firmware reporting synch problems too unfortunately. My box used to be totally solid regarding synch for a couple of months, sometimes being left on all night, with no drift at all.
This morning, Channel 5 (the SD version) went out after 30 minutes.
I'm beginning to think now that a possible use of inferior components is leading to instability, as they begin to age.
I'm going to try reloading the original firmware to see if it resets something.

I have to say though, this is a bit disappointing as I've bigged up this box on a number of occasions up to now. Unless I can sought this synch thing out, I don't think I could recommend it anymore.


I'm going to try and reload the firmware to see if that resets something

how long have you had your box mate?

i bought mine about 3 to 4 months ago seems fine up to yet with new f/ware. did have issues with all others tho re syncimg.

[bernado]

how long have you had your box mate?

i bought mine about 3 to 4 months ago seems fine up to yet with new f/ware. did have issues with all others tho re syncimg.

Mine's the same age as yours, so not very old really. As I say, it had been working just fine upto now on an older firmware. I could update it I guess and see what happens. It's odd though that some experience audio problems straight away, whilst others like me, get it at a later stage.

[neolxs]

I feel certain that this audio synch problem isn't firmware based. There are others on the new firmware reporting synch problems too unfortunately. My box used to be totally solid regarding synch for a couple of months, sometimes being left on all night, with no drift at all.
This morning, Channel 5 (the SD version) went out after 30 minutes.
I'm beginning to think now that a possible use of inferior components is leading to instability, as they begin to age.
I'm going to try reloading the original firmware to see if it resets something.

I have to say though, this is a bit disappointing as I've bigged up this box on a number of occasions up to now. Unless I can sought this synch thing out, I don't think I could recommend it anymore.


I'm going to try and reload the firmware to see if that resets something

Good luck and let us know how you get on.

[bernado]

I've updated to the latest April firmware - ITV1 HD (London) is still hopelessly out of sync as usual, (the Granada variant with mpeg audio works fine); the other free to air HD channels - BBC1, Channel 4 and BBCHD (all with AC3 Dolby audio) work fine; but then they usually did with the older January firmware. It's impossible to say yet if a reinstallation has helped as only time will tell I guess. At least I don't appear to be any worse off with the new firmware - for now at least.

I'll update this thread after a bit of long term testing, in case anyone's interested.

[bernado]

I was hoping to not being able to update so soon - the box was on yesterday evening for hours with all ok, but sync out again this morning on Five (SD) after 45 mins. Channel flip resynchs, 40 mins later drifting out again.
So as expected sadly, firmware has no bearing on the problem at all (for my box at least) so back to my original theory of hardware failing. The way these things generally go, this is only going to get worse.
Pretty rubbish really, I've gone from being really impressed with this box to wanting to throw it out the window

[bernado]

Just one final update on this - It would appear Channel Five (free to air sd version) is the only channel affected by audio sync problems (other than ITV1 HD London, which has always been a write off). I have no idea whay this is the case, the signal strenghth is as good as any of the others and other channels on the same transponder are fine.
This is very odd though and is repeatable 100%, after about 30 mins, it starts to drift out, progressively becoming worse over time.
This only started about a month ago and I've made no changes to the box in that time, so something must have changed somewhere and a complete reinstalation of firmware and channels hasn't sorted it.
It kind of suggests there's something odd about the way Five is being transmitted, but if that were the case I would have thought many other people would be moaning about it as a general problem.
Weird

[hooley]

Bernado, id say most people just flick channels to solve any lip synch problems. For the price of the box its not something that would bother me.

[bernado]

Bernado, id say most people just flick channels to solve any lip synch problems. For the price of the box its not something that would bother me.

Yeah, I know and you're right of course. Now it seems it's only Five that is affected in this way (goodness knows why), I'm not as negative about the box as I was in my last posts and an occasional channel flick up and down doesn't hurt anyone. I wouldn't want to be doing that every 30 minutes though if it was a general problem. The daft thing is Five only generally gets used in the morning for the kids to watch Milkshake's animated programmes, so lipsync isn't really much of an issue. Got to say - that Naomi always used to perk me up in the morning!

Edit: To finally put this to bed, in a last ditch effort to sort this, I deleted the offending Five from my channel list (I had been using a channel list downloaded from this site which had served me well), and manually scanned the transponder to load the channel back in and yes, probabally predictably the sync seems fine now. Been on over 2 hours and still fine. Pretty daft of me not to try that first really.

So, as I was saying, a great box that is thoroughly recommended!