Direct TV Audio Lag

[Chocolatejas]

At times when I watch TV there is a 3 to 5 min delay in the audio. This also occurs on recorded programs. Only way to fix it is to unplug the box which is annoying and can mess with the DVR if something is recording

Has anyone else had issues with Direct TV and the audio lag?

[p!tu]

I see this issue a lot at work BESTBUY. but not 5min more like 5sec.

[Go Blue]

Originally Posted by Chocolatejas

At times when I watch TV there is a 3 to 5 min delay in the audio. This also occurs on recorded programs. Only way to fix it is to unplug the box which is annoying and can mess with the DVR if something is recording

Has anyone else had issues with Direct TV and the audio lag?

I have had Directv for years and see it from time to time. It is usually a few seconds off when it happens. It is definately annoying.

[Chocolatejas]

Yeah I meant 5 secs. If I turn off the reciever and back on the lag gets longer.

I had a standard dish for a year and a half and didn't have this issue. Must only be with the HD.

[Go Blue]

Originally Posted by Chocolatejas

Yeah I meant 5 secs. If I turn off the reciever and back on the lag gets longer.

I had a standard dish for a year and a half and didn't have this issue. Must only be with the HD.

Yeah, I think the problem is with HD channels. During Lost last night, I had the audio dropping in and out on the HD channel, but not the SD channel.

[Moefiz]

Originally Posted by Chocolatejas

At times when I watch TV there is a 3 to 5 min delay in the audio. This also occurs on recorded programs. Only way to fix it is to unplug the box which is annoying and can mess with the DVR if something is recording

Has anyone else had issues with Direct TV and the audio lag?

I found a fix to this problem sort of...use the rewind button on the remote and just go back about a min or so from where the last commercial actually finish and that usually put you back in sync.I used to have the problem where i fastword at(3) that when I got back to the show i have audio drop out.I use this method and it helps most of the time.

[ManUtd]

Originally Posted by schultz

Yeah, I think the problem is with HD channels. During Lost last night, I had the audio dropping in and out on the HD channel, but not the SD channel.

Experienced the same problem last night. I changed to another channel and back and that seemed to solve the problem.

[cyberpunk]

This problem has been annoying the crap out of me as well.

I just upgraded to a 5 LNB dish for more HD channels and put in a Pioneer receiver as well. I read on another forum that you can configure your receiver to delay the audio to accomodate for it but this has numerous inherent problems.

Also, one way to troubleshoot if it's your receiver or Directv is to take the receive out of the equation and see if the problem goes away. I notice it most on Local HD channels, not as bad on the Directv HD channels. I had none of these problems when I was using my OTA HD antenna to get the locals.

[Paden]

Originally Posted by Art Vandelay

Experienced the same problem last night. I changed to another channel and back and that seemed to solve the problem.

I've been a DirecTV guy for years and never had this issue. In the last week or two, I have. I'm not sure what the deal is. It's happened to me probably 3 times in the last 2 weeks or so.

[cyberpunk]

Art Vandelay = Awesome name. I use that as an alias on other forums and anonymous emails as well.

Viva la Seinfeld.

[ManUtd]

Originally Posted by cyberpunk

This problem has been annoying the crap out of me as well.

I just upgraded to a 5 LNB dish for more HD channels and put in a Pioneer receiver as well. I read on another forum that you can configure your receiver to delay the audio to accomodate for it but this has numerous inherent problems.

Also, one way to troubleshoot if it's your receiver or Directv is to take the receive out of the equation and see if the problem goes away. I notice it most on Local HD channels, not as bad on the Directv HD channels. I had none of these problems when I was using my OTA HD antenna to get the locals.

I only notice this problem on local HD channels and not on other HD channels so it can't be the AV receiver. Because of this, I don't have plans of messing with the audio delays in my receiver.

[larryj763]

I've had lip sync be off, on occasion. Someone else mentioned that switching channels and back worked, and that has helped me as well. It has never been more than a mere second or two off.

I have noticed dropped audio on occasion, and there could be a whole lot of reasons for that. Part of the issue could be with the particular model of DirecTV receiver. For example, the HR20 will have issues with that if you watch a program simultaneous with recording it. The solution is simple as suggested earlier; just start watching a minute or two after the recording starts. (I've also seen this occur when you rewind live TV for a moment and then fast forward to "catch up" to the currently live image during a commericial break, though this will self-correct itself after a minute or so.)

There IS a forum for DirecTV users which is accessible through DirecTV's website. You might try logging on over there to pose your issues. They have some very excellent folks that monitor the forums and can help you with issues, even though none of them are (officially anyway?) doing so in the capacity of DirecTV employees.

One other thing: It could have nothing to do with DirecTV at all. I had a two different hookups that worked perfectly well with HDMI, and then I got a new TV and started having both audio and video drops. It works fine with I don't use HDMI. This sort of sounds like compatibilty issues with HDMI, which isn't supposed to exist, but it is something to consider, so you should try different types of connections if you can to further isolate the issues.

[gearyt]

I too have the problem , but only with the HR-20
changing channels resets it, I am hoping the HR-21 will be better

[ManUtd]

Originally Posted by gearyt

I too have the problem , but only with the HR-20
changing channels resets it, I am hoping the HR-21 will be better

I have the HR-20 too. Do you think it is possible to have it exchanged to HR-21? Besides fixing this audio lag, I would love to get satellite receiver in black.

[Go Blue]

I heard that you can't get locals in HD on the HR21. I wanted that one bad since it is black, but no dice if no local HD.

[ManUtd]

Originally Posted by schultz

I heard that you can't get locals in HD on the HR21. I wanted that one bad since it is black, but no dice if no local HD.

If you mean that you can't get local HD OTA then that's correct. But this is a non-issue for me since I never use the OTA feature.

[larryj763]

The HR20 will get the local HD channels just fine. How it gets them is a matter of where you live. If you live in many a major metro area, you can get them off the satellite (check with DirecTV for availability). If not, you will need an off the air (OTA) antenna connected to it (same as with any other version of the receiver). The downside of this is that you won't be able to record one satellite program while watching another, though you could watch a local while recording a satellite program or vice versa. It takes two tuners to watch/record two things simultaeously, and one of these two will be taken up by the OTA antenna.

The upside of the OTA antenna is that you can still get the "extra" digital channels your local stations might have. For example, many of my local channels have 7-1, 7-2, and 7-3, with the main programming (same as the SD but in HD) on -1 and alternative programming on the others, such as constant weather information.

Another option, of course, is to use an OTA antenna plugged into some other input on your TV and/or VCR and keep the DirecTV receiver for only satellite programming on both tuners.