TX-NR646 HDMI audio distorts and sounds like an alien

[rvrkids offline]

Please help....we have an audio problem that has shown itself in the past 6 months or so. Our Cable DVR is connected via HDMI to our receiver and our receiver via the ARC HDMI to our TV.

Every once in a while, all of a sudden, the audio changes and the people sound like an alien talking....very high pitched and jumpy. This can happen in the middle of a program with no change in audio signal (i.e. commercial break, etc.).

We can always fix it by changing the channel and going back but it is happening several times a day and getting annoying. Firmware is up to date.

Any suggestions??

Thanks.

[ForumMod10]

Hello. Is it only happening with that one source, or is this audio issue happening with all of your connected sources?

[rvrkids offline]

Thank you.

It is only with this source, but, I have changed the connections (Cable DVR directly to tv via hdmi and optical to receiver) to see if it was the DVR but it does not appear to be as we don't have this problem when connected via hdmi directly to tv. The only other source that is connected to receiver via hdmi is our dvd player which we rarely use anymore. Only other connection(s) is via Wifi for internet audio streaming and if we use smart tv, connections come through the ARC hdmi for audio.

[ForumMod10]

Hello. So you have the HDMI cable from the cable box to the HDMI input on the display? Additionally, you have an optical cable from the "Digital Output" on the display to the "Optical Input" on the receiver. With this configuration this distortion still happens, correct?

[Setzer offline]

Hello, I was wondering if the OP resolved this issue because I'm having the exact same problem. The audio will just randomly change and voices sound distorted almost like aliens talking. And it could be when I'm watching something on Netflix using the TV app or watching a show on DirecTV. But it just randomly happens and I either have to change the channel if I'm watching DTV or close/re-open the Netflix app to fix it. On top of that I'm also having some lip sync issues which are most noticeable when watching DTV content.

Of course all of these issues just recently presented themselves since I switched my TV from a Samsung KS8000 to a LG OLED B7. I never had these issues with the TX-NR646 connected to my Samsung. So I'm trying to figure out if the TV is the culprit here or other variables. I did replace the HDMI cable that went from my receiver to the Samsung TV because it wasn't long enough so its possible that could be the issue. I also upgraded the firmware on the TX-NR646 this past weekend but I wanna say the audio distortion happened before that....I'm not 100% sure.

As far as my setup goes, I just have 1 HDMI cable going from HDMI 2(ARC) on the LG OLED to the HDMI OUT(ARC) on the TX-NR646. The listening mode I'm using is DD+. I also have ARC enabled in setup on the receiver. I guess I'll try switching out the cable to see if that is the culprit or maybe it was the firmware update.