Optical audio cuts in and out intermittently

[blank264]

Does anyone know why sound would cut in and out on my home theater setup. The audio works most of the time but several times per movie audio stops for a fraction of a second. The receiver normally shows what audio mode I'm using (ie dolby pro II, etc..) but during the cut out it shows pcm 48 then resumes playing. The receiver is a Sony str-dh500. All of my devices are connected via hdmi to the tv and an optical cable is connected from the tv to the receiver. This happens with all the devices hooked up (apple tv, xbox, blu-ray player).

[scottq]

Have you tried a different optical cable? Is it clean on the ends? Any debris in the receptacles on TV or receiver?

If possible, try running direct from source(s) into receiver with optical cable to isolate if it is or isn't the TV flaking out on the HDMI to SPDIF conversion.

Best of luck!

[blank264]

Ok, My tv is a vizio. I went into tv settings and changed the optical output setting from PCM to Dolby digital and haven't encountered the cut in and out issue so far. I'll keep an eye on it and update y'all later.

[philiparcario]

funny you have this problem. I have the same problem with my diy pc to my sony to my processor. I had to by pass the tv and run an optical cord from my pc to my processor. Do you have cable box hdmi to the tv? If I unplug the cable box all my gear works . so I have a conflict with the hdmi box and the diy pc.

[blank264]

I've had the problem for a while but it finally got on my last nerve. I can run everything through the receiver first but for some reason it won't process the audio from the hdmi connection and would require additional cables for the audio part. Instead, I run the dish box, xbox360, apple tv, and blu-ray player to the tv and run the optical audio from the TV to the receiver. I've been playing halo with the kids for several hours without a hiccup. I guess the sony doesn't like PCM. I'm guessing since the signal is already digital through the HDMI it wasn't really important to use PCM. I think it may have caused additional load on the TV converting 5.1 to a stereo PCM signal and then converting it again at the tuner. It's something I didn't really think about. Generally I listen to music in either stereo or a 2.1 setup. You might want to look at your digital audio settings for your TV.

[robertf]

I had this problem in the past and found out that it was bad cable that was the problem. Check sounds with another cable and see if there is a difference.

[Alien_Shore]

Hi,
as others have said, it might be a bad cable, but more than likely it is an overrun or underrun condition with codec. Essentially what is happening, is the receiver is trying to detect which codec to use. The best way to resolve this is to go HDMI if you can. If you're stuck with optical, you'll need to be sure you have the settings aligned with your receiver and your player so they agree on the codec.

[blank264]

I went into tv settings and changed the optical output setting from PCM to Dolby digital and haven't encountered the cut in and out issue again. The receiver doesn't seem to process the audio from HDMI unless I missed a setting on the receiver. I don't think that's the case because the manual shows that the HDMI connections from the device also requires audio cables of one kind or another. As far as I can tell the HDMI connectors on the receiver act as a video pass through only. It may be a cable issue but after changing my TV settings the issue went away.

[Alien_Shore]

Yep. That confirms the codec issue. Glad that fixed it.
The HDMI interface carries both video and audio simultaneously. There is something definitely up with that. I suggest you read up a bit on your receiver and TV on that one... it's far superior to optical.