Starz HD - Audio Issues? Or is it MPEG-4?

[shanewalker]

I've noticed something peculiar w/ my Starz HD recording on my 622. It seems that, whenever the picture goes to black, the audio hiccups/cuts out. I noticed this while watching Brothers Grimm and a couple of other titles that do 'dip to black' and/or fades.

Anyone else experience this? I reiterate--it's only been on Starz (maybe UHD) the last week or so, so that's why I'm wondering if its something to do w/ the H.264/MPEG-4 in use on that/those channels.

I don't know if its the way the 622 records the MPEG-4 stream, or plays it back, or the transmission itself, or if its a MPEG-4 glitch or what...

But my toslink auto-switch no likey the dips to black and subsequent audio dropouts. Quite annoying.

 

[teachsac]

hey Shane,

I haven't noticed anything on Starz. I watched Boogey man yesterday and FLightplan the otherday and didn't hear a thing.

S~

 

[shanewalker]

Yeah, I've not seen it all through the past month I've had StarzHD, but on a couple of recorded movies the last week. Not sure what is awry or what the new variable is. My system setup hasn't changed...but there has been a software update of the 622, and who knows what's being tweaked on the transmission end.

Hmmm...anyone else?

 

[BobMurdoch]

The Pacifier and The Incredibles looked and sounded great on my 622.

The Incredibles in HD. Wow. Pixar movies should be demoing HD in retailers....

 

[MikeD-C05]

Sounds great on my system. I haven't noticed any audio or picture quality problems since DISH fixed the mpeg4 stutter last month.

 

[wtb955]

Still ghosting

I haven't had any audio problems but I still see sporadic "ghosting/stop action" issues during fast-moving scenes.

 

[shanewalker]

I watched another flick taped off of Starz (well, the first 20 min. of 'The Fog'), figuring it'd be good follow-up material. One initial pop during the opening logos but otherwise o.k. (except the movie stank and I had to quit watching). I'm wondering if my auto-detecting Audio Authority toslink switcher was getting a very weak audio signal from the 622 during the A/V dips to black that through it out of sorts for a second...and what would cause that?

I'm bypassing my DVDO switcher, which had some HDMI audio issues--and didn't have this issue w/ my 942. So I'm assuming it's either an MPEG-4 encoding issue (as implemented on StarzHD) or a 622 toslink output issue in conjunction w/ some sort of stream/signal parameters.

BTW, I think the other title I encountered this in w/ was "The Cave". Wait, was that on HBO? Hmmm. Curious.

Maybe my audio switcher just doesn't like mediocre/bad movies .