i updated with the new firmware posted, but still my 970 has issues sometimes (unit freezes, doesn't respond to remote, and of course no audio. must flip through dolby settings) anyone else still have issues after updating with the latest firmware?

also, i'm posting this post from a mac and sometimes this forum is hard to get in too? anyone else using a mac on this forum? issues with mac and forum or is it my computer?

Like you, I would be curious to hear some feedback from 970 and 1070 users who have been running the beta firmware. The unit freezing up and being unresponsive to the remote are not issues that I've seen reported as regular occurrences by other users. Have you communicated with Outlaw regarding them? It may be that there are unusual circumstances at play.

The forum has had a few hiccups for me last night and this morning, but I haven't heard of any general-purpose problems with the site and macs. It works equally well for me with Windows and either Firefox or IE.

My 2 cents:

I have used my 970 with the firmware upgrade daily for two weeks now. I have not had the "no audio" problem when I first wake the 970 from Standby, as I had in the past, but I still get two problems that I've had all along.

First is that sometimes when I change channels on my digital cable box I still lose the audio. Sometimes changing the channel to another one and then back again will get the audio back again, sometimes that doesn't work either. It always works to switch the 970 momentarily to another input source then back to "Video 2", which is where I have the cable box connected, assigning Coax 2 for the audio. The cable box is one of those ubiquitous Motorola boxes.

Second is probably not the standard "no audio" problem, since it's not random, but happens every time I listen to a CD, for which I use an optical connection assigned to the "CD" input. Whenever I start a new CD, I have no sound until the track has played for one second or so. It's annoying because I always miss that first second, so I now routinely start the CD with the volume down, hit the button to start the track over once the 970 has picked up the digital signal, then turn the volume back up.

Finally, goomz - I also once had the problem of my 970 apparently freezing and being completely unresponsive to the remote. The problem went away when gonk reminded me that you have to hit "TNR" on the remote to get it to talk to the 970, if you've hit one of the other device buttons at the top (purposely or accidentally, which was the case for me since I don't use the remote for anything else).

Hi Bruce,

I had the same issue with the first second of audio from CD's over an optical connection.

Check the CD input and make sure "Auto-Poll" is turned off. In fact, if you have digital input only for Video 2 make sure it's off there as well.

What Auto-Poll does is automatically switch from digital to analog input if the digital signal goes away. If your sources are digital only, there's no need to use it.

When I turned Auto-Poll off, no more lost first second of music and no one second dropouts when changing channels.

Hope this helps...

TP

and
are both likely instances if signal acquisition delay - something that affects all surround processors and receivers to varying degrees when identifying the input format if a digital signal. Palmer is right that turning auto polling off will certainly help with this issue, but a delay of up to a second even without auto polling in the mix is not unheard of - the 990 has around 1/2 second of delay, and the 950 had 1.5 seconds or a bit more delay. Definitely try turning off auto polling on any sources for which you don't need it (and you'd really only need it for a source where the digital input was sometimes inactive and you needed to fall back on analog, such as older digital cable boxes), but even after that you may still notice some delay from time to time.

Gonk you're correct of course.

Turning off auto polling will not eliminate signal acquisition delay; but for a simple stereo source on a digital input, it did reduce the delay in my system to much less than 1.5 seconds.

I do still notice the signal acquisition delay on HD cable programming that's broadcast in 5.1 and it is right around 1.5 seconds.

Tony.

Any chance that some of that 1.5 seconds is actually a delay in the cable box actually outputting an audio signal, or is the 1.5 seconds separate from that delay? (Yes, I've spent far too much time analyzing audio delay and signal acquisition over the years... )

Do you know of a way I could test for that with just the 970 in my rig?

At the moment the only device I have that can decode the 5.1 DD stream from RCN cable is my 970.

BTW, my HD 'cable box' is actually my HD Tivo.

I have two cable cards from RCN installed in the Series 3 Tivo which is the only ingress for HD programming with DD5.1 audio into my system.

My other two cable boxes are SDTV Motorola units with analog stereo out only.

If there's a method you have in mind that could isolate and test for signal output from the HD Tivo box I would love to give it a go... Unfortunately I don't have access to a 990 (or another processor with known signal acquisition properties) to compare to the 970.

On my 990, I can tell when the digital input goes live again by watching the front panel display, but I don't know if that's true with the 970's front panel. You could potentially use analog audio connections and see how long it takes for the analog audio to start up and subtract the difference to find out how much delay the 970 is adding. That's only an accurate measure of the behavior if the analog output is muted for just as long as the digital output, but I would expect that to be the case since the cable box has to start decoding the Dolby Digital before it can start providing an analog signal itself.

Is "Auto-Poll" on/off feature available on 1070?

Yes, you can disable auto polling for each individual input on the 1070 and 970.

We have experienced the no audio problem with hte new beta. Listening to a Squeezebox on Coax Digital Audio.

Turning it off and then on worked . The 2nd time we went to FM and then back worked as well.

No probelm so far using an optical audio connection.

Joel

So what is the status of an update for the update for the firmware for the 970.

Joel

I would be very interested as well. Aside from not having any sound 3 out of 10 times when I turn on my 970, I am pretty happy with it. I hate to say it, but unless this problem is resovled in the near future I will be searching for another pre/pro :rolleyes:

Me too.

Based on this announcement , there is a new fix available on the support page that 970 and 1070 owners may want to check out.

I have installed the newest firmware, ot9700608.hex, and so far, my regular and frequent "no audio" issues are gone! Thanks, Scott!

I just did the newest firmware myself, I think?
10700705241215 is the number that comes up when I check, is this the newest firmware?

I put my 970 back into place this am and watched Over the Hedge with no problems. When I turned my 970 on tonight to watch something I was unable to get anything out of it. The volume control would not function on the remote or the unit itself. Switching inputs and even turning the 970 off and on several times did NOTHING! On the unit itself it wouldn't let me change inputs either. Any Ideas?? It will be this weekend before I can try the upgrade again, so for now I guess factory defaults will have to work. At least I got that to work.

Hello gooch,

Please contact us at your earliest convenience (866-OUTLAWS). We would like to assist you further with regards to possible causes for what you experienced but can not locate you in our records.

Thanks,

Scott

I updated the new firmware and the "No audio" issue is almost gone.It just happened 3, or 4 time last week compare to almost everytime that the unit has beed turned on before.

Last night, the no audio happened again when we watching the movie ( not during turn on), the unit still responds to the remote control as normal but just "No audio". I have to recycle the power of the unit to fix the problem. Anybody else has the same problem with the last firmware?.

Yes, I do. However, the new software has now limited the issue to only when I power up. It used to happen every now and then when I changed sources. Additionally, the no audio problem used to happen about every other time on power up. It only occurs about 20% of the time now.

I still have the problem as well. Less often,but still there!

I think Outlaw was in hurry to make the beta software become official before the 970/1070 will be no longer in production.

Any chance you boys think Outlaw would/will offer any kind of trade-in credit for us 970 owners? A 990 I think, would make the world right, and I wouldn't have to deal with the "No Audio" problem any more!
Just a thought.

The trade-in credit idea would not be realistic, even for a company with a boat load of cash reserves. Reading this thread hasn't garnered much hope for a fix, so I haven't decided if I'm going to bother to unpack mine & try. I guess I'm quite happy where it is.

Hello Arthur,

We spent many months on this software working both internally here in an alpha test mode and with a much wider beta test team of your peers. Universally, this update has been reported to entirely resolve or at minimum vastly reduce the occurrences of "no audio" for everyone involved.

If you are not even willing to load the new software, than there is really nothing else we can do for you. In the event you change your mind, be sure to perform a front panel system reset after installing the update, but before using your unit again for the first time. While the reset procedure is often overlooked, it is a critical step to ensure correct functionality. The steps for the reset are as follows:

1. Turn the rear panel MAIN POWER switch on. The Standby-On indicator on the front panel will glow amber.

2. Turn on the Model 970 by pressing any of the input source buttons.

3. Press the MENU and MUTE buttons on the front panel at the same time. "PRESS (1) TO LOAD DEFAULT" appears in the front-panel display

4. Release the MENU and MUTE buttons.

5. Within five seconds, press the 1 button on the remote control. "OUTLAW AUDIO/MODEL 970" appears briefly to indicate that the unit has been reset. The unit will then return to normal operation.

Best Regards,

Scott