Hello all,

Recently got a DGTEC 2000A plus, connected to a Marantz amp via coaxial audio cable. Great picture, great sound. Only problem is the occasional sound dropouts which last for about 2 seconds before the sound restores to excellent quality. This is very annoying.

I've read all other posts on the issue and people seem to be saying different things. Some say that a better aerial is needed. Some say the DGTEC box might be faulty. Some say there might be interference from other electronic equipment. Some say DGTEC isn't very good, and requires a very high signal strength, so a solution would be to buy a new STB.

Before I spend lots of money on one of these solutions, I would appreciate some more feedback, with all of these possibilities in mind.

Thanks for your responses.

Benjo

I had sound dropout when I had the Footy on AC-3 broadcasts there definately is aproblem between Sony Amps & the Footy, no such problems with the Toshiba S23A & the Sony amp.

Does it occur on Dolby Audio only?.

I'm working through the different possible problems and I'll get back to you.

Firstly I'm going to try plugging the STB into the amp via the normal white and red plugs, and see if the problem is a result of the coaxial/optical (i've tried both, both give sound dropouts) output.

I will then try with the audio set to MPEG.

Once I've done all this diagnosing I'll get post my findings, but any other thoughts in the mean time would be greatly appreciated.

Benjo,

I've got a Dogytec myself. Have recently hooked it up through a Denon amp via optical and am having a similar problem. Before this it was running direct to the TV via composite and had no problems. The audio dropout's are few and far between, however still annoying lasting about 1 to half a second. It seems like interference from some other equipment being switched on or off. I am trying to figure out what the cause is too. At the moment I'm blaming the dogytec (IMO all the bad press on this STB is true!), but it used to work ok via composite so cannot be sure. Am still testing and will see how it goes...
Cheers.

I don't think it is necessarily a Dogytec problem only, I've had a YESS STB & now a Topfield, and I've had similar problems with both (although the YESS used to screech / pop, while the Topfield just drops audio for 1-2 secs). From reading other posts I gather this is caused by some sort of interference, electrical or impulse noise from cars. I think I have discounted the noise from cars last night.

It seems to be worse on channels with lower signal strength, but maybe it just seems that way because I have been watching them more lately.

Anyway, I have put in a new antennae, quad shield cable, F connectors etc, but still the drop outs, especially when I select the Dolby soundtrack - for some reason Dolby seems more susceptible to interference than the mpeg track.

How you track down the source of electrical interference I have no idea - from what I've read it could be light switches (no big deal, leave them alone while watching tv), your fridge, next doors' pool pump, etc etc. I guess turn them off one by one and see if one makes a difference (a bit hard with your neighbour's appliances!).

The last thing I am going to do is to make sure the cable is as far away from any power cable as possible, after that it's probably a case of putting up with them...

I was hoping it would be a DGTEC problem as then I could return it and get something else, anyway...
Played/monitored this a bit over the weekend. ie changing dolby output on the amp, running different HD and SD channels... I get good signal strength on most channels. Still inconclusive... It is too intermittent (and annoying).. I agree that it seems to be power interference from somewhere, light switches etc...

I am still to test connecting the audio via composite to the AMP (instead of optical) as this used to work fine when direct to the TV. Good idea to move the cable as far away as possible from the power too. I'll try that in step too.
Cheers.

I've done some testing on my Topfield, there is a light switch that I know causes problems. It only seems to affect the lower strength channels (I get 70% for 7 & 10), while the 100% signal strength channels don't seem to be affected. This seems to tie up with some other threads I've read that suggest lower strength signals are more susceptible to interference. If signal strength is your problem then your options include a new antennae and/or some sort of amplifier.

The other thing I should have brought up is the state of your cabling - quad shield RG6 with F connectors should minimise the effects of interference - this includes splitters which should be the new F type rather than the old saddle & screw type. Note that any splitter will degrade signal to your STB. Also, the simplest & biggest improvement I made to my setup was to get (I made my own) proper quad shield fly leads - the cheap & nasty ones you get from DSE etc are , well, cheap & very nasty. Fixing your cabling is probably the first (& cheapest?) step.

If you haven't done so already, there are a heap of posts in this forum about this matter from people who know a lot more than someone who has found out the hard way...


Cheers,


Bruiser

Yes, there are heaps of posts on this topic, but none that give definitive answers. Here is my best attempt at it. Bearing in mind I'm no where near a professional on all this, and got my HD STB a bit over a month ago.

The sound dropouts firstly only seem to happen via digital sound. Composite connections do not cause them. My reasoning for this would be that digital sound needs to be decoded, while analog doesn't (again, not professional, just a guess).

I also believe that the dropouts are more severe in Dolby sound than they are in MPEG. I believe this is because Dolby requires more decoding???

It also seems to be effected by signal strength. If you have a good signal strength they will be less frequent, or even non existent. This is where the STB comes in. DGTEC for some reason don't get as good signal strengths as other STBs. This is shy the problem is more common in the DGTEC.

Now here is the real reason for them dropouts, some sort of interference, probably electrical, which causes the amp to loose the digital sound coming from the STB, and takes it a second or two to find it again.

So basically, if you can fix signal strength you may be able to stop them (as some other people seem to have been able to). This may involve buying a new STB, getting better cabling, better aerial or something. Next, you could settle for a lesser quality sound, but we spent all this money for digital and I want it to be digital.

Third, and probably the best but most dificult solution, you can find the cause of the interference and stop it from happening while the tv is on. This is practically impossible because the dropouts only happen occasionally, sometimes never. This means that if you turn something electrical off you really have to wait until either you get a sound dropout or its been a long period of time (about a week), but even then you also have light switches and other stuff. Maybe its being caused by two things.

Who knows. All I know is its damn annoying, mainly because it's so hard to fix.

That's all from me. Anyone with any responses to that please go ahead. I really would like to be proven wrong because I don't like my answer.

I have a Strong 5300 and get the dropouts when using Dolby and not with MPEG. All my stations are at about 60-70% signal strength. I tend to find that the dropouts are more often for the first minute or two after I change the station but then become a lot more infrequent as I continue to watch the station. I just assumed it was a decoding issue and that my stb just couldn't hand the pace when I first change stations, but I really have no idea.