VIP 211 and Nickolodeon Audio This Morning

[justpushplay]

I have the strangest thing going on this morning. We have our niece staying with us for a few days, and this morning she wanted to watch Sponge Bob Squarepants. Watching on the 211, I noticed that the audio level was low, and upon turning it up, I realized I was hearing only the M&E (Music and Effects) mix, without any dialogue, in the left and right speakers. This is the same whether it is the stereo analog outputs or the Dolby Toslink output. Problem is, everything is fine on the 622 on the same audio system. Further playing around revealed that this appears to only be the case on Nickolodeon, and no other channels. Software is v.523, and I've done a hard reset multiple times. I'm no stranger to signal flow, and this is not a wiring or config issue. The M&E tracks I'm hearing are without a doubt the discrete tracks used in post-production of the show, with not even a hint of dialogue. So what is going on here, and why is the 622 immune to this issue?

As I've been typing this, The Fairly Odd Parents has come on, with the exact same symptoms as SquareBob. Oh, and commercials have NO audio whaysoever. This has to be an encoding issue with Dish somewhere, but why just the 211?

Edit: Now there is a show called iCarly on, and the issue is resolved, with full dialogue as it should be. So did anyone else pick up on this today?

 

[ericha]

Just a guess--perhaps the 211 is set to an alternate language, and that language only has the M&E. This is selected by Menu-8-3, at least on my 522. Give that a try, and see what happens.

 

[justpushplay]

Just a guess--perhaps the 211 is set to an alternate language, and that language only has the M&E.

Wow! Good catch! Yes, it was set to Alternate. Not sure how it had been changed, as the Sony learning remote can't access that function, but thanks for the great suggestion. After watching the local stations completely bungle their 5.1 audio for the past year, I guess I'm just pre-disposed to assume it's an encoding issue. Thanks!

 

[ericha]

Wow! Good catch! Yes, it was set to Alternate. Not sure how it had been changed, as the Sony learning remote can't access that function, but thanks for the great suggestion. After watching the local stations completely bungle their 5.1 audio for the past year, I guess I'm just pre-disposed to assume it's an encoding issue. Thanks!

You are very welcome--glad I could be of some service.