Hi,
I've owned my 1070 since last September. Monday evening I started experiencing audio drop outs while watching cable television. I downloaded and installed the software from the "sticky" no audio topic, but am continuing to experience the problem.

Here are my particulars:

Cable company is RCN via a Motorola DCT2100 cable box (digital box not HD). I watched cable TV for 10 months using the 1070 in this system with no problem.

For cable TV, the 1070 is set for coaxial input with the initial Dolby mode set at Dolby D + PLIIx-C and polling is set for "auto". Over past 10 months the 1070 would switch from coaxial input to analog input based on the signal from the cable box and that process was seamless.

Never had a problem until Monday July 17th. Most of the time I could change channels and then go back and audio would return, or turn everything off and back on. But that's not the case now.

When the audio drops out I hear a clicking sound from the receiver. Occasionaly I would hear another clicking sound and the audio would come back. But now it seems I have to do something to get audio back. I've tried changing the 1070's Dolby setting from the remote with some success for a few minutes at a time. For example, I turned my system on and was watching the news, 1070 reported coaxial 2 Dolby D + PLIIx - C. 10 minutes later audio dropped out. I changed the 1070 to Dolby D + PLIIx - M and audio came back for a few minutes and then dropped out. I changed the 1070 to Dolby D + PLIIx - X and audio came back for a few minutes and then dropped out.

You get the picture. Sometimes I can get sound back for a few minutes every time I cycle to the next Dolby selection on the 1070.

After coming home last night (after seeing a great game at Fenway - RedSox 1 - O with a one hitter by Lester), I turned the system on and could get no audio. I tried changing to different Dolby setting - nothing, then tried changing to anaolg - nothing. Finally I turned off auto polling, and I got audio.

The system seems to be functioning fine with auto polling turned off. Since turning auto polling off I've experienced no audio drop outs. Fingers are crossed as I've used the system in this mode for only a couple hours. As I write this my system is set for coaxial input, initial surround setting is Dolby D + PIIx - C, with auto polling OFF.

While not using auto polling is sort of acceptable, I watch one cable channel a lot for which RCN still uses analog audio through the digital cable box - i.e. when on that channel the 1070 OSD reports "analog" while for all other cable channels the 1070 reports using "coaxial" input.

To use the system with auto polling off for the previously mentioned channel I have to go into the OSD and change to analog. Hopefully with some help I can get back to auto polling as this is a great feature to the 1070.

Audio problem must have something to do with the 1070's interaction with RCN's audio signal and the auto polling function. It's as if there's something in RCN's audio stream that trips a software flag in the 1070. What's odd is that sometimes I could watch for 30 minutes or more before it happened, but once it dropped out the first time the problem came back every few minutes and I'd get to a point where cycling through Dolby functions would no longer get audio back. Other times I had no audio when I turned the system on. (In other words no consistent pattern, except that with polling off there haven't been any audio drop outs.)

Have emailed information to the Outlaws and will be interested to see what they suggest. Posting here to see if anyone else is having the problem.

Cheers, Jim

Good, detailed summary of the situation, Jim. You've done all I could think of to do aside from trying other sources to see if they exhibit any similar behavior. I suspect that Outlaw will get back to you shortly with some feedback.

Was it the Latest firmware update ?
I did my upgrade today...
I had two different links...and to my surprise two different firmware, http://www.outlawaudio.com/support/prerelease.htmlone was from may 06 and the other
http://www.outlawaudio.com/support/1070.html
from febuary 06...
You might want to look at that...
Good luck...

Personally, when I had the no-audio issues, I never heard a click. This sounds more like the amps are shutting off to protect from damage or something (ie, is it the same type of click you get when the receiver turns on?)

After a day or so of problems everything started working fine for two weeks. I thought perhaps it was something in the RCN audio stream, because it never repeated, and I know RCN has been doing some upgrades. However it's not RCN.

Last evening the audio drop outs started again. Now it happens in video mode and DVD mode as well. Only thing that works all the time is AM/FM tuner. So I'm wondering what is different between tuner and rest of the 1070. Maybe it's because the tuner doesn't use the Dolby processing section, or uses a different amp area?? I'm an engineer but not electrical or electronic so am just scratching the ol' bald head here!

In any case, the click is the same click normally heard when turning the unit on. This morning I was troubleshooting and had TV on for 2-hours before it started. I heard the click, lost audio, changed channels, heard a click got audio for a few minutes, got the click, lost audio, etc. After that I could sometimes get the audio back by changing channels, but there was no consistent pattern and eventually I'd lose audio and not get it back. DVD was having the same problem and its audio comes to the 1070 via optical, so it's not an audio cable problem.

AM/FM always worked. I noticed if I had AM/FM on for a while, I could go back to TV and have audio for 5-7 minutes and then click, gone. I ran FM for three hours as well with no audio drop.

1070 has 2-inches of clearance all around with plenty of room for warm air to rise away from the unit. 1070 is cool to touch, except over the heat sinks or amps back right where it's warm. Behavior certainly seems heat or failing component related to me. House is always at 78 degrees, so it's not hot weather related (112 heat factor in Boston today). After no sound last evening, everything worked fine this morning for a while. Again sort of sounds like a component gets hot and the amplifier turns itself off.

I've got an email in for the Outlaws. Looks like my 1070 may need help.

Cheers, Jim

Hi Again,
Someone asked about firmware updates. I do have the May 06 update installed. Thanks it was confusing trying to find the May update.

In corresponding with Scott at Outlaw, he indicated the symptoms I had were not like the ones the firmware was designed to address.

Cheers, Jim

Hi Jim
I'm sorry to read about your situation...
I hope it doesn't leave you without your receiver for too long...
Let us know how it goes...
Good luck !

Hi Again,
Some developments. Steve from Outlaw called yesterday and had me do some things like reset the 1070 to its defaults. Audio drop outs continued. Put the 1070 in various modes and drop outs continued in every mode except AM/FM or playing a CD via analog input and then in bypass.

I continued troubleshooting and taking notes as I put the 1070 in various modes. I went back to a mode in which drop outs had occured after a couple minutes playing a CD (analog input with dolby processing) and played the whole album, then another album, went to optical input and played an entire CD no problem, put in a DVD played the entire movie, went to TV and haven't had a drop out since. Weird as I didn't do anything.

My posit it this - the problem is related to outside temperature getting into or near the 90's. I know this sounds weird, but both times this happened it was hazy, hot, humid conditions here. Looking back two weeks the problem went away in the morning (cooler), came back mid-morning as outside temps got close to 90, went away for two weeks after cooler weather patterns rolled in.

Yesterday, the problems stopped at about 2:30 PM after a couple days of very high temps. What was magic about 2:30? Not sure, but according to National Weather Service data the temp here was 95 at 2 PM, but at 3 PM it was 77. Big drop back to "normal" summer temps.

My guess is that when outside temps get really high there is increased noise in either the power line or in the RCN cable signal. I live in an air conditioned house, so it's not a house internal temp problem.

I've ruled out power line noise as a problem as I've got a dedicated line for my A/V equipment from the power panel and all that equipment is plugged into a Brickwall surge protector/power line conditioner. It filters power line noise.

Next thought was perhaps power line voltage had dropped too low. But I've ruled that out as I've got my computer equipment on a battery backup with very tight voltage requirements and it didn't shift during the heat. So although I'm sure power line voltage dipped during the heat with A/C demands, it didn't dip to a level that would have caused 1070 problems.

So I'm thinking this audio drop out problem is somehow related to cable line noise that gets bad during high temp conditions. Steve told me the 1070 is very sensitive to electrical noise from things like flourescent lights, dimmers, halogen light transformers, etc. So perhaps?

Again this is a posit, but there appears to be a correlation to high outside temp. I'm not sure why noise in the cable TV line would cause me to have drop outs in DVD or CD mode though. However, my TV's power is connected via a switched outlet on the cable box so the cable box is on even when I play a DVD. Not sure if just the presence of a noisy signal at a Video 2 input would cause the drop outs in the DVD mode though. Steve wasn't sure about that one either.

Where to from here? I might try to swap out my cable box as the one I've got is several years old. In the interim I think I'll run things so that I can turn off the cable box when I'm playing a DVD. In that case if the cable line noise is causing TV audio drops, hopefull I'll be able to use the DVD player.

It's interesting that I'm back to my original thoughts that perhaps the drop outs are related to RCN's cable signal interaction with the 1070.

I'll let you know if anything changes. I was kind of surprised in this day that an electronic device is so sensitive to RF noise. Oh well.

Any thoughts out there?

My first thought was that as the temperature creeps up to (and even past) the "design day" conditions, the electrical grid sees an extremely high load, which could very well yield brown-outs or slight dips in voltage. Those dips could affect the 1070's power supply, potentially causing the unit to generate more heat (draw more amperage to achieve the same power levels). Extra heat could be just enough to cause heat-related problems, and the solution then could be tracking the temperature above the unit for a few days and providing a bit more ventilation if necessary. However, I'm a little suspicious of that scenario since your PC's UPS didn't report any appreciable change in input voltage, so that avenue of investigation may not be worth your time.

Your idea of isolating the cable is a good one - if you cut your system off from the cable and the 1070 gets through a hot afternoon successfully, you might consider a new box or a filter of some sort for the cable line. You might even tell your cable provider that the noise on their system is bad enough to cause disruption in other electronics in your house - they might cough up an RF filter of some sort.

Thanks gonk,
Hadn't thought to ask the cable company about filtering, but have read other places that cable companies have done similar things. I know of companies coming in and adding a signal booster to end users' homes so the company can make sure the equipment is installed correctly and thus prevent cable system degradation or RF noise generation. I do know they're on the hook with the FCC for spurious RF noise generation in communication, radio, and TV spectrums.

Steve at Outlaw Audio was wondering if a potential voltage drop was the culprit here as well. Just checked my battery backup configuration and found it had reverted to defaults, so shifts due to voltage were not as tight as I'd set before. Current voltage is 116 volts (cooler weather today), so during the heat voltage was most likely less. If I remember correctly Steve mentioned 110 was kind of a critical floor. So your idea about unit running hotter may be applicable. Tracking the temp above the unit during hot weather might be worthwhile.

So will see what happens next time outside temps get up there.

Cheers, Jim