Child Item

Site Totals

61432 Questions Answered 270 Categories

Audio Quality Problem

Hey everyone,

I live in Tampa, FL and I've had an audio quality issue (only on certain channels) ever since I got FiOS TV installed. On Discovery (120), Comedy Central, WGN (local) and all the home shopping channels, the audio sounds like AM Radio. It's not in stereo and it sounds absolutely aweful on all three of the STBs outputs (coax, rca, optical out).. I've called tech support at least 6 times and had tickets issued to an "NT" every time. They call back (when I'm not home to answer unfortunately) and tell me nothing is wrong and that it must be something at my house.. So they send a tech out, and the tech says everything is normal, all the signal levels are great, no issues found but admitted that it did sound really bad on those channels. This happens on all 4 STBs.. So I'm thinking this has got to be a problem at either the VHO (the big main office) for my area or the CO down the road.. The reason I think this is because ONE TIME, the "NT" fixed the problem.. I was watching when he did it.. Unfortunately, it only stayed fixed for one day. He said it had something to do with the software update and that it was a problem at the VHO, yet, no matter how many times I tell tech support to specifically put into the ticket that it has been fixed once by them, they never do fix it.. I'm really at a dead end here, constantly being cycled through tech support and having the NTs throw the monkey back on me saying it's my equipment, but I really don't think it is.. Does anyone have, or has had any issue like this, and if so, how did it get fixed?

Comments

izub

I live in the Seattle area...i have a similar issue 6 sd channels are absolutely awful sound loud and boomy...this is hooked up via optical...all my other 200 channels are perfect... 3 boxes, 3 techs to the house and it's my receiver they say...this is annoying as hell

G-Pon

Well, the Tampa and Seattle areas are definitely not served by the same VHO! (Video Hub Office) If you two guys (and any others having this issue) would please e-mail me on this site and give the channels numbers along with the channels names? The internal software has only global audio settings for all channels. It is highly unlikely the set-top box could foul a selected channel’s audio.

Any cable provider can only re-play to you what is sent to them, if the Food Channel sends bad looking sushi to Verizon, we have no other choice but to send it to you, but if we are getting a poor quality feed from one of those providers we probably would be able to get the NT ticket process to resolve it.

Thank you for the extra information and letting me look into it for you!

izub

I am in Kenmore Wa 98028...This is happenning as soon as I change the channel, all the time (and recordings also) only on these sd channels; 4 (abc)

9 (pbs) ...11 KCTS)..... 13 (Fox) .....19 local news channel and... 23 some weird local station...It is so loud that it seems that my speakers will blow..

.I am hooked up via optical.. No problems playing ANY other stations , DVD, radio etc...Thanks for any help...emailed to The Sanchez also...

bull3964

Count me in. Pittsburgh, 190 Comedy Central has horrible boomy audio. Sounds like an old clock radio. I know it's not the channel iteself because I've had the issue since I got FIOS and was able to compare between FIOS and Comcast when I still had it. Audio was normal from comcast and really bad from FIOS. So, if Verizon really is passing the audio exactly how they get it from Comedy Central, they need to follow up with CC because this isn't the audio quality they are sending to other providors. This is the only station that I've noticed it on.

I posted a thread about this awile back and never got any responses on it.

izub

Same here...with Comcast no sound issues...Would not go back, picture and other HD channels are way better!

vbdallas

I am also experiencing the poor sound quality outside Dallas, TX - in Coppell specifically. FX, Comedy Central, Discovery, Disney Channel, and about 7 others have noticeably bad sound. It sounds like the audio is being transmitted at a very low bit rate. It is most comparable to a poorly streamed audio file on the internet. Sounds are garbled and "blown out." It is almost like frequencies above and below a certain level are being clipped.

This is probably a direct result of squeezing too many channels in. They reduce the bit rate on sound to an "acceptable level" and hope we don't complain.

My FIOS is less than 1 month old and I have called tech support each of the last 3 weeks. They do not have a clue what is wrong or how to fix it. They are sending a tech out tomorrow to swap the box. Sounds identical to Comcast's lame excuses. "Oh, it must be your box sir. We'll send a tech out between sunup and sundown to swap boxes."

I am not going through this song and dance again. I've already filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. Verizon needs to fix this or I am taking my business elsewhere.

bull3964

I would like to add that this has been partially resolved for me as of Monday. I say partially for a few reasons.

It doesn't seem to stick. While watching my recording of monday night's daily show, there was a blip in the broadcast, temporarly macro blocking, followed by no sound. If I paused, and it pay again the sound was perfect, great quality, right volume. The subsuqent Colbert Report recording was also flawless. When I watched futurama live later that night it was also flawless.

Ok, what about the next day's recording of Daily Show? The audio was reverted back to the poor quality (though, I will say the levels are matched much better so it doesn't stand out as bad from the other channels). The whole run of the Daily Show was poor quality. I then started playback of my Colbert Report recording. There was poor audio for awhile, then a similar blip that I noted the day before followed by no audio. I paused the DVR and hit play again and the audio came back and was high quality for the remainder of the episode. However, at 1am for Futurama, the audio was reverted again.

So, it does seem like it's being worked on some. It seems that something gets reset (which goofs up the transport stream to the point where the DVR loses the audio track until you pause and restart), the audio quality is good for awhile, but then it slips back to poor quality later.

Message Edited by bull3964 on 02-05-2009 07:39 AM

digitaldarknes5

I have also experienced something similar. I don't have a DVR, but there are times when I've been watching and there is a blip, and the audio goes up to high quality for a few hours, but then returns to poor quality. I agree that it might be something they're working on, but I'd really like it if someone would keep us posted as to what they're doing about it 😉

vbdallas

The audio problems occur while watching live TV. The problems of course transfer to DVR if your record those particular channels. Also, during the superbowl - the audio quality was noticeably reduced on a number of other channels that normally have no problems. All of this indicates Verizon tampering with the bit rates. Why don't they just get rid of some of the useless channels that nobody watches?

vbdallas

Update:

Verizon sent a tech out to my residence today and they tried swapping the box. It did not fix the audio issues on the affected channels. He did acknowledge the quality difference after comparing the affected channels to normal ones. He said it could very well be the result of Verizon trying to stuff too many channels and reducing the bit rate on audio to make more room. He also said Verizon probably would not do anything about it because it is considered a minimal problem without enough complaints.

I just spoke with a technical service rep and explained the issue for the fourth time. He spoke with his supervisor and had the case escalated to the Network Team. I will update this thread with the results.

Verizon - This is a service gap. You make lofty promises about the quality of your FIOS TV service and build up customer expectations. You fail to meet these expectations with substandard service. You are no better than your competitors! It's a different dog with the same fleas.

bull3964

I don't believe this has anything to do with bitrate tampering (which verizon does not particpate in).

There is simply a problem somewhere between Comedy Central and Verizon.

One of the ways you can easily poke holes in the bitrate theory is local ad inserts on these channels have high quality audio. It's the national feed that's messed up, not what Verizon ends up piping down to us. Also, of all the ways to save bandwidth, tampering with the audio is the dumbest way to go about doing it since the savings would be marginal at best.

vbdallas

The local ad inserts on these particular channels have the exact same audio problems. bull3964, you sound like you work for Verizon. If you don't, maybe you should consider a career with them - you already seem to know how to tow the party line! If it was a problem between Verizon and Comedy Central, then Verizon should have a process for identifying and dealing with that problem.

Bottom line - the sound quality is poor on a few particular channels, another person on this thread identified the same issues, and I have Verizon technical support on a recording (my answering machine) admitting they found an issue at the central office causing this.

As a customer, I could care less WHAT is causing the issue. All I care about, and all I should care about, is getting what I pay for each month.

bull3964

@vbdallas wrote:
The local ad inserts on these particular channels have the exact same audio problems. bull3964, you sound like you work for Verizon. If you don't, maybe you should consider a career with them - you already seem to know how to tow the party line!

They DO NOT here. The local ad inserts are clean as a whistle on Comedy Central which is the only channel that has audio quality issues on my service in Pittsburgh. Regardless, there's no reason to lash out emotionally. Trying to figure out where in the chain the problem is can really help them track down the issue. Just because someone doesn't want to grab pitchforks to storm Verizon's castle doesn't automatically make them a plant or an apologist. I am annoyed that comedy central has such junk audio. I also recognize though that such a thing can be hard to track down and may not be fully their fault. Would I like more communication on the issue? Of course. However, at this point I'm still marveling that a resource like this exists since this is about 1000x more communication than I would get from Comcast.

We also may be experiencing two completely different types of issues.

Also, the suppostion that the root of the cause of this issue is compression is just plain silly. Verizon doesn't recompress the feeds. We've never seen any evidence that they do recomopress the feeds. Any gains that would be made from further compression SD digital feeds on a handful of scattered stations would be so marginal they might as well not bother. Also, the idea that any such compression, would it exist, would affect the audio in such a dramatic way is even more laughable. Audio compresses extremely well and you would have to do some really really nasty things to it to get it to sound as bad as what these channels do. The end result would be for what? A few KB of datarate reduction? No, I don't buy it. It's an equipment problem, plain and simple. It's annoying that they haven't tracked it down and fixed it (permantly) yet, but there's nothing nefarious going on here.

Honestly, at this point in time I'm more annoyed that we don't have Comedy Central HD. The hope that this channel being added in the future is really limiting any effort that I would want to expend trying to improve the SD version which is catagorically one of the worst SD stations in image quality anyways. I'm not going to spend hours hounding Verizon or expend any emotional energy ranting about somethign which hopefully will become moot in the short term.

Message Edited by bull3964 on 02-12-2009 09:00 AM

digitaldarknes5

The only reason I'm complaining so much is because this problem affects Discovery Channel.. Thing is, it HAS been fixed before.. I HAVE heard good audio on those channels from time-to-time.. So, someone within Verizon KNOWS what the problem is, I think it's a lack of communication between departments. What I'd like to know, is why don't they have someone actively monitoring broadcast quality coming in and going out?? Certainly, something that would cause audio quality to be THIS poor SHOULD set off alerts to SOMEONE in charge of the broadcast..

digitaldarknes5

Another thing that we all need to remember, is that Verizon doing television is still in its infancy.. There are a lot of things that they will learn with time, and a lot of software updates/patches that will need to be done before they're as rock-solid as their competitors.. For having JUST started in the television industry, I'd say they're doing quite well so far. I work in television operations, I know the growing pains they're probably going through. lol

Message Edited by digitaldarknes5 on 02-12-2009 02:31 PM

vbdallas

Whether Verizon's television business is in its infancy or not, they are still running a business. This is not a growing human child we are talking about here. This is a corporate entity, open for business, advertising its services, and happily cashing our checks at the bank each business cycle. That being the case, smart customers should expect nothing less than 100%.

The reason businesses get away with things is because customers let them. In a for-profit world, customer demands shape the business. There is no room for mercy on the part of customers. Verizon will become whatever its customers allow it to become.

I would like to see it pioneer the way for new standards in telecommunications service. Hopefully, others want the same and are willing to push to get it.

vbdallas

Ok, couldn't stop poking around even though it looks like Verizon won't be able to fix the issue.

The channels with audio issues are all at 429 mhz. Check your diagnostics menu by hitting "Power, Ok, Ok" ("Select" instead of "Ok" on some remotes). Choose the "Current Channel Status" option and note the frequency.

I found all of them were at 429 mhz. Here is a link to another forum where users discussed a possible reason for the sound issues. http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,17121170

The extra noise on these channels could be the result of radio frequency interference on the line. While fiber is not vulnerable to this, the coax in your residence is. I don't know if there are other places upstream where the signal is travelling through anything other than fiber.

Two possible culprits are Ham radio operators and some types of Radar. Maybe even some other types of electrical devices nearby or who knows what. Apparently the first two operate around 429 quite frequently.

Verizon swears they do not change the compression or alter the signals they receive in any way. Other providers do, but they swear they don't. While that was my first guess (and I was pretty angry from having techs "no show" for three windows in a row), the RF interference hunch seems more plausible because every one of the channels is at 429 mhz.

Do any of you live around anything that could be causing the interference? Comedy Central is definitely the worst for me, but others are bad too.

I still think Verizon should find a way to shield their wiring or something. It's great that fiber keeps things from leaking in upstream, but not so useful when the wiring inside residences remains vulnerable to interference.

P.S. - bull3964, sorry for snapping at you earlier in the thread. It seemed like you were dismissive about the matter and I had just dealt with Verizon's lovely customer service all day.

digitaldarknes5

Well, I took this awesome finding and did some more investigating.. It's not interference, I scanned the area with my radio scanner and it's dead quite all around 429 mhz.. There was a tiny bit emitting from the STBs themselves, but nothing else. Hopefully this will mean something to an engineer somewhere.

roze318

I just switched from Comcast to FIOS this month and this inconsistent sound quality is driving me crazy!!!

I need two hands to surf channels, so I can nail the volume button as the sound blasts through the building! I've taken to sticking the remote in my pocket if I'm up and about...so I don't miss those Comedy Central punchlines or the I.D. tv clues. The difference among channels is NOT subtle and now some of actors/anchors have hissing 'S's as well. I'm soooo disappointed. It's a step back in time. 😕

Haven't called it in yet, no time to organize similarities/diffs from all the STBs and sets yet. Have a feeling that I might get the ol' "interference, not our problem, GIGO" response. I'm in Central Jersey...anyone else nearby experiencing this?

digitaldarknes5

Still haven't heard anything from VZ on this audio quality problem, here or elsewhere.. Comedy Central and Discovery channel still sound awful on ALL of my STBs. New ONT, signal levels in house have been checked/are perfect.. Verizon commericals come in with great audio quality on these same channels, but the actual network sounds terrible.. Muffled, like it's at a low bit rate.. I'm very disappointed that this is still a problem. It's almost enough to make me consider giving the axe to the TV service.. These are two VERY commonly watched channels in my house. I mean, it's not even something I can deal with it sounds so bad.. NO treble, very little bass... It sounds like I'm listening to it over AM radio.

Can Verizon please fix this?? The funny thing is-- It has been fixed before!! Shortly after a ticket was created, the audio quality was great on these channels, for about a day.. never been back to normal since then.. Who is in charge of ensuring the quality of the feeds and why aren't they doing their job? lol.. I'm usually not one to complain a whole lot, but this is really piss poor service. If you can't fix it, at LEAST tell me why.. Instead, the NT calls back and leaves me a voice mail "I don't know what could be going wrong, we'll have to send out another tech."

So far there have been about 5 tech visits to my house, and all equiment (except for the STBs) has been replaced. All cables have been checked, all signal levels (both from the ONT and from the CO) are perfect. There is NO PROBLEM AT MY HOUSE!! Please stop blaming this audio quality issue on me, admit that there is a problem on your end and fix it. Please!! 🙂 I'm begging you. Friends that have been to my house have decided to hold of on ordering FiOS TV because of this issue. The immediate response from anyone that turns to the affected channel(s) is "What the hell is wrong with the sound??" "It sounds like AM radio"

Drew_from_Dover

As long as this is a problem we should keep Verizon's feet to the fire. Verizon needs to have a number we can call connecting us to a live person who can tune into WGN and Comedy Central and confirm if it's their problem. DirecTV had a center where they monitored all of their channels for quality. I'm not sure if this is still the case.

I would say it's AM quality (but not mono in my case as there was channel separation) but I'd also say it sounds like low sample rate digital audio, around 16kHz sampling rate.

I would also say it sounds like digital audio employing SBR (Spectral Band Replication)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_band_replication

but Verizon is not decoding the SBR component.

"If the player is not capable of using the side information that has been transmitted alongside the "normal" compressed audio data, it may still be able to play the "baseband" data as usual, resulting in a dull (since the high frequencies are missing), but otherwise mostly acceptable sound. This is for example the case if a mp3PRO is played back with an mp3 software incapable of utilizing the side information."

I wouldn't say Verizon is incapable, just inable to at times. Sorry this got long, but this problem has been going on too long as well.

digitaldarknes5

This got fixed for two days, now it's right back to AM-quality. Can we have some follow through or maybe a permanent solution?? This is really poor service, guys.... I'm still willing to renew my contract, but not if this isn't resolved.. I've been more than patient with this problem... If i called my local cable company with this complaint, I can almost guarantee that it would be fixed within a couple weeks... I don't think i'm asking for too much. Just fix the audio on Discovery and Comedy Central in Tampa.

Drew_from_Dover

The answer to the audio problem may not be what is heard, but what is seen. Seen via a spectral analysis. I've had someone from http://www.dslreports.com/forum/vzfiostv post links for two WGN sound clips, one each from Verizon and Comcast. I opened both mp3s with my Adobe Audition and viewed them with spectral view to see ..

The Comcast clip had a naturally varying top end extending between 15,000 and 17,000 hertz depending on the original audio.

The Verizon clip had everything above 7,000 hertz chopped. It looked like a trimmed hedge.

This visually shows Verizon is putting out substandard audio without ambiguity. I also opened an mp3pro file (mp3 with SBR, HE-AAC is similar to mp3pro) and found the same top end chop as this mp3pro did not decode properly with my AA (this software can decode and encode SBR clips, just not this one). I'm not saying this is why, just that it is a similar situation.

Verizon needs to both look into the situation and look at the audio (through spectral analysis) to see the problem. Ears may deceive but eyes rarely lie. 😉

Drew_from_Dover

Once again I have AM sound on WGN, Comedy Central and Discovery in VH08. Here's the photo that shows the issue.

http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r21983249-AM-quality-sound-on-Comedy-Central-WGN-and-others~start=20

The top image is Comcast while the bottom is Verizon SD, both are Comedy Central. I hope this can be monitored at Verizon by someone who cares about these kinds of things.

qwerty1234

What is this, I thought Fiber could carrry more bandwidth than cable...BTW am I the only one to notice that video quality on CC SD is a little compressed too?

Drew_from_Dover

qwerty1234, I noticed that too, the picture is softer than normal. This has to be a problem in the way Verizon distributes the channel that they don't have in the HD version. It's odd how it's the usual suspects (WGN, Comedy Central, FX & Discovery) all SD without treble but HD sounds normal. And the local ads on the SD sound normal until they return to programming.

Yea, FiOS is supposed to have enough bandwidth for lots of channels. This may be the bandwidth they choose to use to run the channels from the satellite dishes to the local VHOs.

I still say if all boxes were HD compatible they wouldn't have to waste bandwidth on redundant SD compatible channels. But that's another rant.

Thanks again qwerty1234, you're another person fighting the good fight for good sound and your efforts are appreciated by many. Smiley Wink

ner

Hey guys,

I got Fios and have been pretty happy with the internet. TV has been ok except for these sound quality issues we're experiencing. I am blind and notice sound quality issues since that is the only thing I pay attention to, not picture quality. I have a HD box but will be getting an SD box for a TV up stairs even though it is an HD set. I have noticed sound quality differences on cc and discovery, but also (yes I am a nerd) on all CSOAN channels. I can switch to hd channels on all channels that are effected because they have hd counterparts, but cspan channels obviously are not hd. Hearing cspan as if it were an AM station isn't a huge deal, but when I get my SD stb for upstairs, I'll get to hear it on many more channels. Yay! I don't understand why some sd channels, many actually (includinglocal) sound fine. Why chop the audio on some channeks and not all SD? I've had problems this week with some SD channels becoming unavailable, and/or coming in and out, but this was fixed by either moving the stb box a few inches or retightening the coax connection. This audio problem makes no absolyte sense. Perhaps I'll sit down and write down all effected channels, then file a trouble ticket?

This is very irritating but not enough for me to want to not use the service.
ner

digitaldarknes5

Just to let everyone know, I'm still experiencing this issue. Also, this problem exists in all areas of Tampa served by the VHO in Temple Terrace.. I've been able to reproduce this problem at anybodies house in the Tampa area that has FiOS.. Same audio quality issue.

[Deleted User]

As a compromise, all posts in this thread that were edited for including trouble ticket numbers have been removed so the original discussion of the issue can continue.

However, please bear in mind that any personally identifiable information -- including trouble ticket numbers -- will be removed as being against the TOS to post such information on the forums.

Posts that contained such information have been forwarded to the Verizon forum administrators to get an official statement from them on the issue. If you need assistance with your particular trouble ticket, please send it to one of the FiOS Tech employees on the forum via PM.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Message Edited by KaLin on 08-10-2009 09:29 PM

Drew_from_Dover

I've got the AM sound back in Kent county Delaware. It seemed to clear up for "Shark Week" and then go back to AM.

I hope a permanent fix is in the making. Smiley Indifferent There are many of us with "Home Theatres" who would like FM quality sound back on WGN, FX, Discovery, Comedy Central and Disney.

Oh, in my area QVC, HSN and ShopNBC are now stricken with AM sound. QVC-HD and HSN-HD still have good sound.

Drew_from_Dover

Yea, the AM sound is still there. I can't believe Verizon would keep this up. All I know is digitaldarknes5, izub, bull3964, vbdallas, sneskid, myself and others have had it with low definition audio from a company promoting high definition service.

BTW have any of the engineers looked at the sample rates of the digital audio in the chain? 44.1kHz or 48kHz is normal while 22.050kHz or 24kHz means something needs fixing. SBR, just saying.

Drew_from_Dover

@Drew_from_Dover wrote:
Yea, the AM sound is still there. I can't believe Verizon would keep this up. All I know is digitaldarknes5, izub, bull3964, vbdallas, sneskid, myself and others have had it with low definition audio from a company promoting high definition service.

So, are we giving up on this? I still have muffled & clipped AM quality sound on Comedy Central & will have to deal with it while watching Futurama tonight. If I'm alone in this I may as well get an HD box to get proper audio.

P.S..: How do I follow up on a trouble ticket number? Would calling get someone to open the ticket and see what has been done up to this point? Can I go online and read the progress of the situation? The last I heard it was a system wide problem. I'd hate to call and have to go through the troubleshooting steps again only to have nothing work (because it's a system wide problem and not my box or stereo). 😞

sneskid

Just watched Obama's speech on C-SPAN. The audio is still bad. The 8khz high cutoff is extremely ear fatiguing.

What is going on, Verizon????? Why is it taking so many months to fix this?

digitaldarknes5

Yep, terrible service, they obviously don't care...

Not enough people complain so who cares?

It's really awful though, DirecTV and Brighthouse look more enticing every day.

Drew_from_Dover

This problem may have no where to go but fixed. Today I called the Verizon retail location in Dover Delaware and they said they were the FiOS location and would be opening next week. They will have Verizon FiOS TV on display with WGN, Comedy Central, Discovery and Disney in AM sound. The guy said he knew about the muddy audio and that it was a signal problem caused by the providers (Comedy Central wasn't giving them enough signal).

I know they're wrong but I DON'T CARE. Yes, I don't care what they think the cause is as long as they know about the problem and are more than willing to FIX IT! If Verizon is opening a storefront where I can go and have them turn on 190 to reveal crap audio I know they can't hide from it and they are going to have to fix it. Believe me when I say this long nightmare must end!

I believe Verizon is opening a boatload of these "Verizon retail stores" coast to coast so there may be a store near you.

You know, besides this bug their VOD is quite good. And their audio (when they do it right) blows DirecTV away along with the picture quality. Just fix this. 😛

Drew_from_Dover

It seems as though the problems with WGN, FX, Discovery and Comedy Central are fixed! 🙂 First C-Span 2 had its audio fixed which was followed up by WGN, FX, Discovery & CC. C-Span 1, QVC, HSN, SNBC & Disney seem to have been left out, but it's a start rather than everything being fixed temporarily. IMHO it's a per-channel fix that is permanent.

Child Item