Re: FIOS TV is giving off a loud beep between programs and commercials
anneinplano
Newbie

Yes, the beep goes on, and on, and on.  It makes my two dogs tremble, as I am sure the high pitched sound is even more painful to their ears than to mine.   I believe the problem is caused by some change in Verizon's equipment or software that occurred about a year or so ago.  We've had Fios TV several years --- as soon as it became available in our Plano neighborhood --- and this problem began only a year or so ago by my recollection.  The high volume on commercials is also annoying. 

VERIZON, beep - beep --- beep!!!!!!!!!!!  Can you hear us now??????

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Re: FIOS TV is giving off a loud beep between programs and commercials
longdistanceboo

Telecom/Data Networking and Pro Audio is my area of expertise and from reading this thread and deriving some previously unanswered questions I had, here are my thoughts-

1) this is a relatively new issue that began sometime earlier this year with my motorola stb wheras I never had the issue

    before and seems to be exclusive to the optical interface since I dont hear it on my hdmi interface on my bedroom stb and tv.

    I have had FIOS TV for more than 1 year now and the beep was not present until 6 or 7 months after we subscribed

2) I also have a sony home theater system but the post from an onkyo user experiencing the same rules out a sony problem

     exclusively

3) the beep is in the audible range of freqs and any receiver will "hear" this tone, instead of the line of thought that it should be

    ignored by any home theater system, its more likely a stb should be stripping it out and getting the timing of that from the

    network

4) the beep is a timing signal between used by either the local or national affiliate that normally is stripped out of the data

    stream or that should occur as part of some automated cue to signal some sort of switchover of broadcast origination is my

     best estimation as to what this is

5) Lastly, I suspect a firmware update on my STB which at times has performed an auto shutoff and reset in the last few

     months, is the culprit. Have not tried a STB reset but that could be something anyone could try by powering down and

     then post the results.

Having several decades of experience with Telecom, Data Networking, Computing and Audio Technologies and having experienced many bad firmware software updates on a variety of equipment through the years is what I base my diagnosis on.

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Re: FIOS TV is giving off a loud beep between programs and commercials
anneinplano
Newbie

After reading the forum entries on this subject yesterday and making my post, I contacted Verizon support via the Online Chat feature.  The technical specialist that I chatted with told me that this is a "known" issue and is associated with the use of a fiber optic connection.  Sure enough, I checked our setup and found we were using an optical cable to take the sound from the STB to our Sony digital receiver.  I removed that connection.  We are now using the sound system of the TV, which comes with the video signal through the HDMI connection.  The tech support guy also told me that we can simply use a composite cable to connect the sound to the STB.  Or, we can purchase a newer receiver that has an HDMI connector. 

I have had the TV on ESPN and CNN most of the day and so far there have been no beeps.  I will not believe it for sure until we have had a chance to view a live sporting event on ESPN --- which was the worst.

I ask the tech support guy to give me the technical reason that the fiber optic cable is the problem.  I got no answer to that question.  Hope this helps someone else.

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Re: FIOS TV is giving off a loud beep between programs and commercials
longdistanceboo

"The technical specialist that I chatted with told me that this is a "known" issue and is associated with the use of a fiber optic connection"

This was a non issue. I have always used the optical interace into my Sony Home Theater Receiver and did not experience the beeping until recently, all was fine and as I said, a STB software update is probably the culprit. it does not seem to occur on all channels or occur with regularity but got slammed with it last night several times.

Using the composite cable is not accurate advice, composite refers to old school video using 1 rca cable. Using the lousy analog stereo is probably what was refered to, not an option since I lose multi channel surround on HD broadcasts.

Using he TV sound is also not a fix, they all sound like crap and once you  listen to the audio through a home theater system, anything less is worthless. 

So replacing the system I have which is working fine is what they propose?

Whomever wrote that code that caused this is the problem. Not happy with this outcome and its ridiculous to ask your customer base to spend money to fix a problem created thru no fault of their own!

"I ask the tech support guy to give me the technical reason that the fiber optic cable is the problem.  I got no answer to that question.  Hope this helps someone else."

The problem is whomever wrote the code for the STB firmware/software update should fix it, its thats simple 

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Re: FIOS TV is giving off a loud beep between programs and commericals
silver_2000
Enthusiast - Level 2

this has been going on longer than a year and Ive gone so far as to send in a DVR with the beeps recorded on it so that they could see it.  Ive also recorded the beeps and posted the recordings on the internet -

Verizon is making no progress on this - they are too busy working on revenue generating Widgets and other crap. 

Ive been a FIOS TV customer for 5 or 6 years and in the beginning the product worked well and the support was good - lately the product has developed a BUNCH of problems and the support is awful.  The phone numbers are designed to keep you from talking to a human at all costs - which is actually a good thing because the humans that answer the phone no longer speak and understand English. 

And they have NO training or ability to fix anything that cant be fixed by unplugging the DVR.   Anything that  might be helpful requires a transfer to the customer service dept which is only open 8-5 m-f. 

the only reason I havent changed providers is the internet is REALLY fast And REALLY stable and the cable TV companies ALSO SUCK.   

If I though that buying a different Stereo reciever would solve the problem I would do it but it appears that if you want 5.1 channel surround sound you will be forced to put up with the annoying beeps

Im going to take the videos that I recorded that show the annoying beeps and put them on youtube so the world can see the crappy TV service ...

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Re: FIOS TV is giving off a loud beep between programs and commericals
leojr
Newbie

First box was a 7xxx series that the sound would mute seemingy at random times for varying durations.

We are on our THIRD 6xxx series replacement box that beep.  Sometimes it seems completely random but other times it is clearly signaling wether a short or longer commercial is to play or that the program itself is resuming.

And maybe it was my imagination but I recall 720 being an option for default non-HD channels on the 7xxx and can only select 480 on the 6xxx box.  But this is much less of a concern that that wretched screeching.

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Re: FIOS TV is giving off a loud beep between programs and commericals
leojr
Newbie

Nearly 3 months and still no acknowledgment from customer or technical support.  A new box is their only solution. 

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Re: FIOS TV is giving off a loud beep between programs and commericals
ebanzuela
Enthusiast - Level 3

Not sure a new box is a solution for me.  I have 4 HD boxes (no DVR) and I have tried 2 of them to the same TV and I get the loud 2 second beeps intermittently between commercials.

Let me just add more detail to my situation.   In all cases, the issue occurs just to the large screen 1080p LCD TV.  I have smallers sets: a 720p LCD TV, a couple of SD CRT TVs, and none of them seem to have this issue.  I do not have receivers hooked up to any of them, just straight HDMI or coax.  I notice the STB adjusts the video resolution accordingly to 1080i on the large screen and 720p on the smaller LCD TV, not sure if that has anything to do with it but these are the only differences I see.

I will do some more investigating.  The issue is somewhat intermittent, sometimes rare and sometimes obnoxiously often, so it is hard to nail down if only happens during SD to HD transitions.

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Re: FIOS TV is giving off a loud beep between programs and commericals
lasagna
Community Leader
Community Leader

Sounds like the TV not properly muting the output channel while it's negotiating a change in audio formatting.   Try the same fix that I proposed (writing under the name "ravioli") in this post... 

http://forums.verizon.com/t5/FiOS-TV-Technical-Assistance/No-sound-on-HD-Channels/m-p/212632#M20815

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Re: FIOS TV is giving off a loud beep between programs and commericals
silver_2000
Enthusiast - Level 2

What a joke 

years go by and more and more people are affected and VERIZON does NOTHING 

Its apparently not limited to Sony receivers as I expected at one time - glad I didn't try to replace the receiver 

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