I have looked at some past threads, but they did not appear to have a solution. I am sorry if I am asking an old question.

I have a DirecTV TIVO unit. The manual says that the TIVO outputs "AC-3." My Outlaw 950 keeps losing the digital signal from the TIVO. I was thinking that locking the format on that input would be the solution, but it has not been.

First, which of the formats should I be locking on? DD or PCM (first or third options -- DTS appears to be the only clearly wrong choice)?

Second, how can I tell if the problem is a drop by the TIVO, or an unlock by the receiver?

This is very annoying, and I am thinking that I will just have to using the RCA connectors, which if inferior, should not lose lock.

Any and all suggestions and/or solutions welcome. Thanks in advance.

Use the DD (Dolby Digital). AC-3 is another (older) name for it if I remember correctly.

Actually, I tried DD. No sound. Only PCM gives sound. Still have dropouts. Argh.

The best way to tell what format you are getting is to not lock the format, set the TIVO on a channel, switch the 950 to that input, and watch the front display of the 950. For the few seconds after the 950 detects the digital audio signal, it will display the format on the right side of the screen ("DOLBY D" and "2/0.0" for DD 2.0 or "PCM xxK" and "2/0.0" for a stereo PCM signal at "xx" KHz). Whichever you see is the format you would want to lock to.

If you are getting dropouts even with the signal locked, I would strongly suspect the TIVO. Just to cover all the bases, are there any patterns to the dropouts? Does it only happen when changing channels (which would indicate differing formats on the different channels, and not a problem)? Does it happen at regular intervals? Does it happen with any other digital audio sources?

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gonk -- 950 Review | LFM-1 Review | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | Saloon Links

The lock seems to be on PCM, 48K.

There are still dropouts. Oddly, when I use the DirecTV TIVO replay feature (a few seconds back) the signal does NOT drop out in the same place. It appears that good signal is available on the hard disk.

The dropouts happen at irregular intervals even during a continuously played program and not at commercial/program transitions.

Oh, based on reviews at your web site Gonk, I got my only other current digital audio source, my Samgsung HD931. It does not have digital dropouts. (Btw, at $209 from Amazon is a great deal for 950 owners. No 5.1 analog outputs, no dolby or dts decoders in it, so you don't pay for what you paid the 950 to do. And yes, you do get DVI output.)

I suppose I could try switching to a different digital audio in port, just to see if Optical 1 is fritzed, but not the others. (Only optical from the DirecTivo, no coax)

I'd try a different optical input on the 950 just to be sure, but it sounds like either a problem with the TIVO unit or loose or damaged optical cable. Of those two, I would suspect the TIVO unit more than the cable, but I wouldn't rule the cable out entirely.

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gonk -- 950 Review | LFM-1 Review | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | Saloon Links

Hi,

A couple of thoughts. I have a Sony T60 that when I use the optical connection will delay the sound a few seconds when I unpause the program, FF, 8 second delay, etc. The analog works great. My new HD Tivo works great via the optical connection, no delay. I had a similiar problem with drops and the solution (working with tech support) was to reinitialize the processor of the 950. This was done by removing the volume knob and pushing the little button. Note, you will lose all your settings when you do this. After the reset, the random drops stopped but the T60 delay still remained.

Hope this helps,

John

I had similar problems with my Philips TiVo unit several months ago. I was able to eliminate the 950 as the culprit. In my case the problem was related to the software version running in the TiVo box- although it happened more often if the unit was hot. Since I was upgraded to version 3.1.1c the problem has disappeared. Search http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb, there are plenty of posts related to this issue. Hope this helps, certainly was frustrating.

The problem has gone away. Same cable, same input, same everything. I await the change in humidity, the stars or sunspots to bring it back.

Thanks for all the advice.