Anyone else have audio issues where the voices sound "scratchy"?

[MiMeQu21]

I am not sure how to describe this one, but here goes. 

I have a home media DVR and a regular HD STB.  On occasion, out of nowhere, when we are watching a show, the TV with the Home Media DVR will start having audio issues.  The voices start sounding "scratchy."  To try to explain it better, if you have ever watched a news show or talk show where they disguise the person's voice and put the person in a dark room so you can't see who they are, that is how it sounds.  Another example is if anyone has watched this summer's Big Brother TV show.  The voices sound like the sabouteur.

It will only stop if I shut off the TV and turn it on again.  It won't stop simply by changing channels.  We have the 7216? STB on a Toshiba LCD.  It is hooked up with an HDMI cable.

Tech Support is not sure what is going on.  They have told me to unplug the power cord and plug it back in, but that has not stopped it.  As I said, this only happens occasionally but it is very annoying.  Also, this has never happened (knock on wood) with the regular HD box, and that is also hooked up to a Toshiba LCD with HDMI.

Has anyone else had this issue?  If so, how did you fix it?  I would appreciate any thoughts.  I am not sure if I need a new box, new cables, or if there is a setting I can set the STB to stop this.  Thanks. 

[spacedebris · Accepted solution]

Actually it sounds more like an issue with the TV itself rather than the STB.

It gets fixed if you power your tv on and off without touching the verizon systems so the TV would be my first guess. Although it would be easy to check. Try swapping your two boxes for a while, If the problem stays with the TV then you know its the TV. If it follows the STB then you know its the STB and would then need to swap it out.

[MiMeQu21]

I have wondered if it is the TV, but I never had this problem with it when I had satellite service before switching to Verizon.  Also, when I shut down, I also turn off the STB.  The next time it happens, I will have to remember to just shut off the STB and leave the TV and see if that does anything.

If anyone else has any more ideas, please let me know.  Thanks.

[MiMeQu21]

spacedebris 

After reading your reply and posting a response, I decided to do a search for this issue.  I had done so in the past but never found anything.  This time, however, I did find something.  You may be right.  It could be the TV.  Apparently, there are issues with some models of Toshiba TV's and HDMI hookups to a STB where the audio becomes distorted.  A firmware update was released by Toshiba (I never had heard about this).  I am going to try it to see if it does the trick.  Even though I have read that component cables will give you the same video as HDMI, I would rather have an HDMI hookup if I can.  Hopefully this will work.  Thanks for the thoughts.

If anyone else has any thoughts, please post them here.  Thanks.

[zm3]

 I have a similar problem with sound from my Panasonic HD TV.  I have FIOS for TV and other service.  The TV sound coming thru my stereo is normal.  However, the sound coming from the TV is almost intolerable.    I tried other connection alternatives instead of HDMI to fix the sound problem.  I had no luck.  Now, I listen to TV thru the stereo sound.   I would like to see this problen get fixed.   Any advice? 

[MiMeQu21]

So far (knock on wood), I have not had any sound issues lately.  I went onto the Toshiba website and saw that there was a fix for this exact issue - random distortions in sound when using an HDMI hookup.  I downloaded the fix and installed it on my TV.  For about two weeks, I have not had the issue.  So hopefully that fixes it.  It seems it may have been my TV and not the STB.

I will mark this as solved for know but if it comes back, I will let you know.

[roxydog11]

we are having the same issues and not sure how to fix it, we have a practically brand new tv...had dish network and neve had any audio problems as soon as we switched to fios all the voices sound like robots.  any suggestions

[jackson2011]

I ALSO GET AUDIO DISTORTION AFTER AN HOUR WHILE WATCHING AN HD BROADCAST, I CHANGE THE CHANNEL TO A NON HD STATION THEN GO BACK TO THE HD STATION AND THE AUDIO GOES BACK TO NORMAL