No Sound on one sub channel

cjake · 27-Jan-2011, 11:43 PM

I'm trying to help a friend who just bought new LCD TV. She is in San Jose and gets great reception on 75 digital channels. She has her old roof mounted antenna about 20 ft above her roof.

Here if the funny part -- she gets no sound on KTEH 54.5 (VME) but does on all other channels. We thought it was the tv so we returned a Vizio and got a Panasonic. Same problem. The signal meter on the Pan TV shows a signal strength of 60%.

Any help appreciated.

Cjake, San Jose, CA

GroundUrMast · 28-Jan-2011, 12:17 AM

If the video is stable, I would inquire with the broadcast engineer at the station. This sounds like 'Technical Difficulties" at the station.

cjake · 28-Jan-2011, 1:31 AM

Thanks for your response. My friend has another 'old' tv with converter that allows her to get sound on 54.4. I also can get sound on this sub channel.

How ever, I'll check with the engineers, if I can connect with them.

Cjake

mtownsend · 28-Jan-2011, 10:20 PM

Can you tell what format the detected audio format is in? If the sound is being sent as 5.1 channel audio or something else other than stereo, your TV might be sending it to an optical audio out port without actually playing the sound through the built-in speakers.

You might also want to double check to see if you're tuned into the alternate language sound tracks (a.k.a. SAP).

cjake · 28-Jan-2011, 10:37 PM

Thanks for your response. This is a PBS station and ota. Also the sound is present on 54.5 on another tv hooked up to a converter box. Also, I receive sound on this same sub channel at my house on 3 seperate TVs. I doubt it is other than stereo. But a good idea.

Cjake

cjake · 28-Jan-2011, 10:40 PM

We haven't checked for an alternate sound channel (SAP). This is a Spanish language sub channel

mtownsend · 28-Jan-2011, 10:59 PM

OK. Just thought I'd throw out a few ideas.

The cool thing about digital OTA TV is that every sub-channel can have multiple audio tracks associated with it. For analog TV, there was only one optional alternative audio channel (hence the term "second audio program"). With digital TV, you can have many audio tracks (more like a DVD) with all kinds of possibilities (e.g., 5.1 channel surround sound, alternate languages, director's commentaries, music-only tracks, etc.).

I just thought it would be worth checking to see if one of the TVs has accidentally defaulted to an alternate audio track that happens to be empty (perhaps an encoding mistake at the studio) or in a format that the TV doesn't know how to decode (e.g., DTS).

cjake · 29-Jan-2011, 6:04 PM

Thanks for the suggestion Mtownsend. Will give it try when I next visit my friend.
cjake

savance · 19-Jan-2012, 3:03 AM

I have scanned and rescanned thinking it would help but it did not. All other channels and sub-channels have sound. And the TV is a recently purchased VIZIO. I believe this problem is recent. I don't recall a problem with this channel when I first used the set in December 2011.

MisterMe · 19-Jan-2012, 4:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by savance

I have scanned and rescanned thinking it would help but it did not. All other channels and sub-channels have sound. And the TV is a recently purchased VIZIO. I believe this problem is recent. I don't recall a problem with this channel when I first used the set in December 2011.

It has been fairly well established that the station has issues. The advance given to the OP a year ago holds for you.