Help please. Dish network audio feed is tripping out my audio equipment!

[[email protected]]

Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is driving me NUTS.
I've reverted to just using the speaker attached to the tv so I can
have a steady audio, but I miss my surround sound. Please help if you
can. Thanks.

I don't have a super fancy setup. Dish Network, westinghouse 37"
HDTV, and an RCA 5.1 DVD player I bought at radioshack. It's worked
good enough for a college student, but since I moved into my new apt
I've started having audio problems that I have no idea how to fix.

I purchased a video input for my computer when I moved here. The
only problem was that once connected to my satellite feed and turned
on, after about 15-20 minutes the audio would just stop. I would have
to turn the unit off and let it set for 15 minutes before the audio
would come back for anything more than 10 seconds. Then another 15-20
minutes later it would do the same thing. Well, I sent the unit back
because I thought it was malfunctional. I didn't return it for a
replacement, I just got my money back.

Well... now, my 5.1 audio system is doing the same thing! When
ever I'm watching my satellite feed, the audio will start turning off
and then back on after 30-40 minutes and then continue every few
minutes with the pauses inbetween the audio clips getting shorter and
shorter. If I leave it on, it gets to the point where the audio cuts
out every 3 to 5 seconds. This has become REALLY annoying. If I
switch the 5.1 system over to say the FM or AM source, or the AUX
source, the audio continues to cut out for a minute or so, but then
stays on steady. So I believe there might be some sort of voltage
coming through my satellite feed or perhaps a static build up that
should not be there that might be causing this.

My question is how to test for this, or if there might be anything
else causing this. Should I just get a voltage meter from radioshack?
What would I look for as unacceptable on the video and audio feeds?
And if it does turn out to be unacceptable, how to I fix it? Or filter
it? Is there anything else I should check?

[[email protected]]

wrote:
> Any help would be greatly appreciated. This is driving me NUTS.
> I've reverted to just using the speaker attached to the tv so I can
> have a steady audio, but I miss my surround sound. Please help if you
> can. Thanks.
>
> I don't have a super fancy setup. Dish Network, westinghouse 37"
> HDTV, and an RCA 5.1 DVD player I bought at radioshack. It's worked
> good enough for a college student, but since I moved into my new apt
> I've started having audio problems that I have no idea how to fix.
>
> I purchased a video input for my computer when I moved here. The
> only problem was that once connected to my satellite feed and turned
> on, after about 15-20 minutes the audio would just stop. I would have
> to turn the unit off and let it set for 15 minutes before the audio
> would come back for anything more than 10 seconds. Then another 15-20
> minutes later it would do the same thing. Well, I sent the unit back
> because I thought it was malfunctional. I didn't return it for a
> replacement, I just got my money back.
>
> Well... now, my 5.1 audio system is doing the same thing! When
> ever I'm watching my satellite feed, the audio will start turning off
> and then back on after 30-40 minutes and then continue every few
> minutes with the pauses inbetween the audio clips getting shorter and
> shorter. If I leave it on, it gets to the point where the audio cuts
> out every 3 to 5 seconds. This has become REALLY annoying. If I
> switch the 5.1 system over to say the FM or AM source, or the AUX
> source, the audio continues to cut out for a minute or so, but then
> stays on steady. So I believe there might be some sort of voltage
> coming through my satellite feed or perhaps a static build up that
> should not be there that might be causing this.
>
> My question is how to test for this, or if there might be anything
> else causing this. Should I just get a voltage meter from radioshack?
> What would I look for as unacceptable on the video and audio feeds?
> And if it does turn out to be unacceptable, how to I fix it? Or filter
> it? Is there anything else I should check?

This at first glance appears to be that the amp is going into
thermal protect mode.
Does the satellite receiver have an audio level control?
What input do you feed the sat. to the 5.1?
You might try the tech forum as another posting venue.

[[email protected]]

wrote:
> I don't see any audio setting on my satellite (Disk Network 311) . The
> remote has volume buttons, but they raise the volume on my TV, even if
> I press the SAT button on the remote before using the vol. buttons.
>
> The audio feed is coming through an RCA cord to the analog SAT in on my
> 5.1.

Can you put an MP3 / CD player into the SAT in the 5.1?
That may require an 3.5 stereo mini plug to RCA pair
cable from Walmart or Rshack, but will help determine if your
overdriving the input on the 5.1.
Start with a low volume on the player and go up.
if the 5.1 starts to do the intermittant thing when player
is at high volume but is OK at low volume then you need
to get a pair of attenuators to go between the SAT receiver
and the 5.1 Radio Shack or PartsExpress can supply them.
You may have to stack a couple to reach a value that the 5.1 is
comfortable with.

[[email protected]]

Thanks for all the help. The built in dvd player won't give me any
sound now and the built-in AM/FM player gives me staticy sound or sound
that's going from on/off really quickly. It sounds like when you talk
through a fan. So I think maybe it could just be the 5.1 unit is
dying. It's about 4 years old and it's nothing special. Radioshack
$99.00 special.

We'll see if newer equipment fixes my problem. Time to step up to a
$199.00 special. What. Stop laughing. :)

[ScottW]

> wrote in message
oups.com...
> Thanks for all the help. The built in dvd player won't give me any
> sound now and the built-in AM/FM player gives me staticy sound or sound
> that's going from on/off really quickly. It sounds like when you talk
> through a fan. So I think maybe it could just be the 5.1 unit is
> dying. It's about 4 years old and it's nothing special. Radioshack
> $99.00 special.
>
> We'll see if newer equipment fixes my problem. Time to step up to a
> $199.00 special. What. Stop laughing. :)

Who's laughing...lots of perfectly good surround receivers out there
Yamaha HTR-5830SL
Sony STR-DE598
Pioneer VSX-515-K

all readily available under $200.

ScottW