Bad Audio Quality on Homecast HT3000

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tsamb

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#33824 12-May-2009 19:28

I recently picked up a Homecast HT3000 from Bond and Bond when they had the cost + 10% sale.

It's okay for the price, but my big concern, which is almost prompting me to take it back is the audio quality on the TVNZ mux. Every TVNZ channel has horrible audio quality (it sounds as if it's about 64kbps!)

The Mediaworks channels are nice and clear.

I have tried outputting audio over optical and RCA, but the TVNZ channels are painful to listen to. Is this the case of a bad AAC decoder, or a bad box, or what?

richms

28168 posts

Uber Geek

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Lifetime subscriber

#215092 15-May-2009 16:41

Friend got one and its the same. But we can only get the tvnz mux at his place at the moment so no tv3 to compare it with. This is just HDMI to a reciever at the moment. I will call the homecase people to ask whats up I guess - was the cheapest at JB but perhaps thats for a reason.

Richard rich.ms

tsamb

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#215100 15-May-2009 16:51

I've tried the audio over HDMI, over RCA and over optical and I have the same problem with all three outputs.

I've been using Mediaportal on Vista and XP and also the Mediacenter on Windows 7 and they are all miles ahead of the HT3000 in terms of the sound quality on the TVNZ mux.

Hopefully this can be fixed through firmware and it's not a hardware problem. If the latter, I'm inclined to take the box back. Do the Zinwell's have a similar difference in audio quality between the Mediaworks and TVNZ muxes?

MrDuck

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#218369 27-May-2009 16:32

Got a Homecast HT 3000 a month or so back, to replace the DSE box I "lent" to my impoverished brother... cheaper than fixing his suspect VHF/UHF aerial, in a poor reception area, and I hate roofs. But this is about the Homecast... I have good UHF reception and pretty good signal strength. It seems to me that about half the time the audio is out of sync (audio lags video by 3 or 4 frames?) but not all the time. Is this a known problem?

tsamb

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#218381 27-May-2009 17:12

Hi MrDuck,

I haven't noticed any lag in my audio on the HT3000. Which channels/muxes are you getting lag on? And what outputs/inputs are you using?

MrDuck

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#218872 28-May-2009 18:01

Hi.

I think it mostly happens on TV1 and TV2... possibly TV3 as well. Using HDMI into a Panasonic 42 Plasma. I think it is a PV500A. The problem is not constantly there. But very annoying when it is.

I also had (until this morning) My Sky, with no similar problem (fed component), but have just upgraded to My Sky HDi. So when TVNZ (and TV3?) gets their HD feeds onto Sky, the freeview box becomes a bit redundant in the lounge. I'll try the Homecast box feeding a different TV and see if the problem is still there.

I would have thought that any sync problem due to video processing would make the picture lag the audio, but this is definitely audio lagging video.

Slightly off subject, but I also notice TV3 audio is much quieter via the Homecast box. I know I can change it from one audio type to the other, (can't remember the tech terms) and the audio is then back to a "normal" level, but whenever I select TV3, it seems to default to the quiter mode (is it Dolby 5.1?). Is there a way to keep TV3 audio the same as the others? Perhaps I'll have another look in the owner's manual tonight!

jasonc

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#219197 29-May-2009 10:47

Hi MrDuck

I have the homecast HT3000 too. You can get the box to use the 'non-DD' (whatever the other one is called) by default by switching the Dolby option off in Menu/TV Output.