Do report back if that fixes it.
If they give you any static, ask them to have Jasbir start tracking reports of audio dropouts and ALL of us need to call in on the issue.

It helps when you know the process and what it actually takes to get stuff done, since our man on the inside can't directly push buttons anymore.

Thanks ARR - Just this evening watching our local news broadcast live there were dropouts occuring. Changed over to the 500 box and there were no dropouts. Rebooted the 530 box and the droputs were gone. Also took a look at the signal strength while the dropouts were occuring and they were Input #1 = 80% and input #2 was 77.
Lester

Interesting, I also have a 500, but since the 530 and 505 are much closer, almost twins really as opposed to the 500 that is a brother, I'd be interested to see how that compares.

That would allow us to speculate better due to common hardware or common code.

The challenge to get them to take notice and begin to work out a solution is that the problem is so fleeting.
ONly cumulative reports may yield any results.

I'll try and see if I can get a couple of contacts I know of to investigate and at least confirm that they see it as well.
They are in better positions to effect changes.

Arr,

I think that you hit the nail on the head with "cumulative". The longer the receiver runs without a reset the worse the audio drops and pixelling seem to get.
That is my observation anyway.

I can confirm Audio Dropouts on both my 505s, one is a 505 one year old and a brand new 505a one week old. In my case I only notice dropouts on HD channels, Watching Jay Leno on HD is guaranteed to have at least 3 or 4. switching to the same program at the same time in SD does not suffer dropouts. This has always been the behavior.

If this is not supposed to happen, what are the alternatives to fix it? The installer that was here said I had good signal.

The Audio Dropouts are really annoying and sometimes I Must change the channel to SD (if possible) before I chuck something at the SAT Box.

This needs to be fixed, I presume this is much more widespread than some posters think.

Watching Jay Leno on HD is guaranteed to have at least 3 or 4.

NBC Detroit has always been bad for dropouts. Previous threads have documented this and Star Choice is fully aware of the problem. If anyone is trying to record a show from NBC, set the timer for the western feed.

Arr,

I think that you hit the nail on the head with "cumulative". The longer the receiver runs without a reset the worse the audio drops and pixelling seem to get.
That is my observation anyway.

Yes I completely agree with this point. One thing I was doing for a while was a reboot just prior to switching the set off for the day but this gets to be a chore. Anyways, last evening I spoke to a tech at SC and he is sending me another 530. I will keep you all posted as to the results from the new unit when it arrives
Thanks for all your inputs
Lester

Lester,

I am also having a new receiver sent to me. I am told that it is a new one, but I somehow doubt it. Is yours supposed to be new or refurbished?

Well my original pre-order 530 finally died today. After babying it for the last few years it was really hanging up a lot recently so I had *C do a factory reset on it and it never came back from the reboot. They are replacing it for free. My newer 530 is working well on the CC code.
This must have been one of the last ones left in service from the original batch?

Sounds like someone forgot to check for memory leaks.

Well my original pre-order 530 finally died today. After babying it for the last few years it was really hanging up a lot recently so I had *C do a factory reset on it and it never came back from the reboot. They are replacing it for free. My newer 530 is working well on the CC code.
This must have been one of the last ones left in service from the original batch?

Yours seems to have lasted about 1 week longer than mine. After about 50 front panel resets in 2 weeks I called *C. They did a factory reset but the problems continued. It was replaced under warranty and the replacement seems OK so far (knock on wood). The replacement seems to be a refurbished model as it was not in factory packaging but it did come with CC already installed.

Lester,

I am also having a new receiver sent to me. I am told that it is a new one, but I somehow doubt it. Is yours supposed to be new or refurbished?

I don't think it matters whether it is new or not. The one I am replacing was new just a couple of months ago. (at least it came in an original box complete with connections and remote) Let us know how you make out once you have the replacent box installed Superbry.
Lester

Quote - Greven Sounds like someone forgot to check for memory leaks.

Would like to hear more about memory leaks Grevin

Lester

I guess mine is the old grandad of the lot....In service since May of 05. I still have a recording on there from May 23, 2005. I'm wondering if I should delete those pre cc code recordings.

I guess I'm another one with a unit from May, still working fine. The unit I got in September died and was replaced, it was fine with BC code but had issues with CC.

In computer science, a memory leak is a particular kind of unintentional memory consumption by a computer program where the program fails to release memory when no longer needed. The term is meant as a humorous misnomer, since memory is not physically lost from the computer. Rather, memory is allocated to a program, and that program subsequently loses the ability to access it due to program logic flaws.
Check here for more (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_leak)

My fourth 530 worked fine for a while, then went into a death spiral right around US Thanksgiving (recorded the Lions Dolphins game, but with the constant freeze-ups, could not finish watching the recording). It froze for the last time around then. I was able to re-boot it, but I had lost all my recordings. Amazingly, it has been working fine ever since, except that no recording is possible at all. No timed recording. No re-wind. Live record to disk is enabled, but it does not record. Hard Drive may be fried.

My dilemma is --- should I complain to Starchoice ? It's never been so stable. What do you think, should I call Starchoice and complain that I can't record ?

Steve

... should I call Starchoice and complain that I can't record ?

Steve
Tell them you turned your $800 DSR530 into a $199 DSR505 and would like $600 back.

I got my new DSR 530 hooked up (by a buddy - tired of waiting for the *C installer) and activated last night. Unfortunately the PPV would not work, so after calling *C and waiting half an hour to talk to someone, I got it fixed in time to catch the 3rd period of the Oilers-Preds game.

I knew enough from reading these boards to not record anything last night, and to turn the unit off last night. Sure enough, it had the cc code this morning. Problem is, I was getting no signal on tuner 2. I turned the receiver off and then on again with the same result.

Guess I'm calling *C again when I get home.

I got my new DSR 530 hooked up (by a buddy - tired of waiting for the *C installer) and activated last night. Unfortunately the PPV would not work, so after calling *C and waiting half an hour to talk to someone, I got it fixed in time to catch the 3rd period of the Oilers-Preds game.

I knew enough from reading these boards to not record anything last night, and to turn the unit off last night. Sure enough, it had the cc code this morning. Problem is, I was getting no signal on tuner 2. I turned the receiver off and then on again with the same result.

Guess I'm calling *C again when I get home.

I had this same issue when I got mine hooked up. All you need to do is start recording something. Apparently, the signal level from Tuner 2 is not displayed until something is recorded for the first time. Then, you will see the Tuner 2 signal displayed. If this does not happen, then a call to *C may be in order.

Tuner 2 is not for viewing purposes; only for recording. It's not like the cable dual tuner receivers where you can "swap" between channels.

I have been curiously watching the reports on the 530 for almost a year now. Mine is just over a year old and has been fairly good since CC firmware came out. But the machine now shows 31 reboots (I believe that is since CC was loaded) and yesterday after I turned the power to it off for about 1/2 hour, it did not start. The blue lights scrolled up about three times and it froze with the bottom light on. I unplugged it for 10 seconds and tried again with a slightly better result. The lights scrolled up about four times, then all came on and froze. After leaving it for 15 minutes, i tried unplugging again but for 10 minutes this time. It then ran through the light sequence, I could hear the hard drive spinning up and the clock came on in the normal manner. Everything has worked since.

I have it connected to a UPS and hopefully I will keep it powered until after Christmas because I expect that it is close to failure. i do not want to be without at this time of year. I also want to make DVD copies of some of the unwatched movies before it is gone.

Too bad because I certainly like the 530 and cannot really complain about its service to me. It has been annoying occasionally but I will tolerate some of that because of it attributes (it is the very easy to program and operate). Too bad that there is no way to correct tis problem oneself.

Rick