I am using the optical output from my DirecTV HR20-700 HD/DVR satellite receiver to go into the 1070.

I am wondering if the 1070 has a need to resync every time a signal comes online via the optical port. The reason why I ask is I am helping to debug the software for the media player that is part of the sat receiver and when I play MP3 files the first 2 - 3 seconds of every audio file is cut off. I have been making suggestions to the software developers for that unit, but of late I have been wondering if the HR20-700 is going to zero level between each track or dropping the audio carrier or something, and then when the next track starts the 1070 needs to resync before the audio comes up.

Using the stero analog outputs from the sat receiver does not exhibit this behavior - the audio starts immediately with nothing missing. I thought it might be wise to investigate from this side as well - if my theory of the need to resync is true then I need to suggest to them to find a way to not drop the level to nothing between tracks so the 1070 does not lose its sync.

I have had a few issues of "no aduio" since the new firmware that I have reported to the outlaws via E-mail, but they have all been related to this sat receiver and what happens when you switch channels from a dolby digital broadcaster to a standard audio broadcaster - the signal tends to bounce around as the receiver resyncs and this has occasionally caused the 1070 to get "confused" and require a power cycle to restore the audio.

Any suggestions about how the optical audio behaves on the 1070 and whether there is a timeout of some kind when it is presented with an audio signal, would be appreciated.

Have you disabled 'Auto Polling' on the input the Sat receiver is on? Auto Polling is typically used for older cable/satellite boxes which switch between digital and analog. I found that with sources with digital connections Auto Polling ON would exhibit the precise symptom you report.

From the 1070 manual:

When ON is selected the Auto Poll circuitry will automatically switch the audio input from the selected digital source to the analog input for
the source when the digital data stream is interrupted. This is helpful for use with digital cable boxes where the audio switches between digital and analog, depending on which channel is selected.

When OFF is selected the Model 970 will keep the digital input active even when the digital data is interrupted. This is the preferred setting for the DVD input where the digital audio stops during menu setup or when a disc is paused.

Hope this helps,
Tony.

If you are only using the digital input, definitely disable the 1070's auto-polling on that source. That will eliminate one variable from the test. Once you've done that, watch for two things: an audio delay, and a change in the front panel display to identify a signal acquisition. Any time the digital bitstream is interrupted and restarted, a receiver like the 1070 has to re-check the signal to make sure the format hasn't changed. This process takes a moment, during which time the receiver mutes itself to avoid unpleasant noise caused by mis-decoding the input. When the 1070 finishes the re-acquisition, it will display the format of the signal (DD 3/2.1 for Dolby 5.1, for example). That will indicate that the source device's digital output stopped and re-started.

Gonk, you are exactly right - sorry for the delay in responding.

I already had auto polling disabled, but I stood and looked at the front panel and the display switches back to default every time a song stops and resyncs when the next one starts.

Now I just have to figure out what to tell them to do to keep that from happening. I don't know if they have control over the "blanking" of the optical channel between songs in their software or not - if they do maybe they can tweak the threshhold up a bit...