Watching the SB thru DirecTV and the commercials are dropping audio. I think it's due to changing from
Dobly Digital to ????. My display doesn't change

Is it the 990 or DirectTV or ????

Frustrating.....for the SO...

Watch the 990's front panel to see if the speaker indicators disappear or not. If they do, the 990's indicating a loss of audio signal, which is the fault of something upstream of the 990 (DirecTV, most likely). If the lights don't go out, then the problem is actually upstream of the DirecTV receiver.

Lots of technical problems with the rain. Wouldn't want to be in the truck today!

The problem due to changes between DD modes from the program to the interstitial material and commericals could be any number of things.

If the drops are between program and ads, it's the format change from 5.1 to 2.0 (in which case the 990 will indicate a loss and re-acquisition of signal) and it's normal behavior for signal format changes.

I figured it was the switching of formats, but the
Dolby indicator never flickered or went of. Of course the game was fine. I don't recall my Pioneer
doing this (it was the pre-pro before the 990), then
again, I don't watch much CBS. Then again I don't think much of DTV anymore compared to years back.

I was wondering if it was just a quirk with the 990 or if anyone else was experiencing this as well. I will keep my eye on it

If the Dolby indicator never went off, it was happening somewhere upstream. Be curious to hear if it recurs.

I had a couple of dropouts, none longer than 2 seconds. I am convinced it was the broadcast.

I kept looking at the front panel throughout the game and my signal was constant.

BTW, I was watching the game from an over-the-air HDTV broadcast.

Same thing happened to me. The Dolby icon was staying steady the whole time. It was only occuring during the commercials, which weren't all that good any ways.

I've been having the same problems during CBS' broadcasts only during football broadcasts.

Jim

Jim, My situation was identical to yours. The game was perfect, but the dropouts happened only during the commercials. It was quite annoying. I have Comcast. Do you as well? Do you feel it is CBS, Comcast or the 990 and what to do about it?

I (barely) noticed a few short audio dropouts during the commercials but it sure didn't bother me nearly as much as the blasting jump in audio level on the (mercifully few) local commercial breaks.
Since someone's raised the subject of dropouts - right now I have a direct HDMI connection from my Scientific Atlanta cable box to my Panasonic 42" plasma. My Pioneer DVD has only component video output, so with only one digital video source there seemed no point in going through the 990. But a few minutes after turning on the Panny and the SA there's always a 2-3 second dropout in both video and audio. Does anybody have an idea what might cause this?

I have both Comcast HD and DTV-HD.
I was watching in the HT which is only DTV (NFL-ST is why). I didn't check upstairs on the main TV which has Comcast.

Also despite the weather, I felt that the HD quality was a little "soft"...

I am with you. What was up with that? I had a guest who is a big Prince fan and to keep her happy I had to turn up the 990 to -1db during the halftime show - all the while nervously hovering on the mute button in case they quickly threw in a commercial...

WOW....this is weird. I too have DirectTV, it was a clear day here in Dallas (no rain) and we had problems with audio (optical) dropping out only during commercials...it was quite annoying. We had a huge party with the game showing on 4 TV's (all DIRECTTV connected). The only one experiencing the dropouts was in the theater where the 990 is.

I have Comcast HD Cable, and I think there were 2 commercials that DID NOT have an audio drop out. The game istelf was fine, and the CBS commercials (for their shows or whatever) were fine, but every other commercial had many many drop outs...drove me absolutely nuts! Probably a bandwith thing If I had to guess...just odd that the game was fine.

How many advertisers are really pissed at CBS or signal providers, because it looks to have been across the country with different source providers.

I'm pretty confident it wasn't the 990 since there wasn't a blink, flicker or click from it once. And since we all seem to have had the same problems wether it was DTV or comcast...I would guess CBS, but could have been the providers.

I have over-the-air HD for the time being, and I had the same experience (audio drop-outs during commercials). But Prince sounded awesome through the 990!

I have Comcast. My wife switched the game to standard def after I went to bed and the problem disappeared! Seems like it was a CBS problem with all of the different carriers having the same problems!

When I tried to find a place to complain about the drop outs on CBS' , I couldn't find any place to do so. Anyone have any locations to voice our displeasure so CBS fixes their short comings?

Jim

Just for every ones info, Dishnet had the same problems durring the comercials, and this through my soon to be retired HK635. ( retired tommarow cause the 990 shows up )

I too had severe sound issues with all of the commercials during the Super Bowl. I have DTV HD TiVo unit with an optical feed to my 990 for sound. The audio during commercials made them unwatchable. I spent all of my time jumping between audio formats trying to get one that would play properly. I have not had this at any other time while watching HD (or SD) material, or with the actual game itself, so my guess is that it has to have been with the way that CBS was handling the commercials. If I were a sponser who paid mega bucks to air a commercial during the game, I'd be asking for some of my money back. Nobody likes to pay for shoddy workmanship.