[Technology] Sky Q box sound drop outs

swindonseagull · May 6, 2021

Anyone else suffering sound drop outs? sound drops for about one second every so often....
Ive changed the optic and hdmi cables, Ive reset the AV settings but no difference.....

Reading on line forums Sky appear to know there is a problem and has been for quite a while, but calling Sky they say there is no known problem ( but I guess thats just a call centre operative ) so how do I get to speak to a tech expert @ Sky?

Only have a few months left in the current very discounted price but its bugging me and damned annoying..

Miximate · May 6, 2021

Had a similar issue, tried everything possible, included brief screen jumping back a couple of seconds. Got engineer coming out tomorrow . Will update if any pearls of wisdom are disclosed.

Shropshire Seagull · May 7, 2021

Could be a simple case of the HDMI cable or socket - I had this happen to me
Try a different HDMI socket on the TV - e.g. maybe switch your Sky-Q from HDMI 1 to 2
If that makes no difference, try another HDMI cable - gold tinted connectors are the most reliable and worth the extra

Quite definitely a five minute job [or less]

scoobiewhite · May 7, 2021

I had this for about 6 months and it was infuriating.

Just got it fixed last week.

Have you used an Ethernet cable to connect your sky box to the router

Or

Have you set up a mesh wireless booster

If either are true, I might have a fix

scoobiewhite · May 7, 2021

scoobiewhite said:
I had this for about 6 months and it was infuriating.

Just got it fixed last week.

Have you used an Ethernet cable to connect your sky box to the router

Or

Have you set up a mesh wireless booster

If either are true, I might have a fix

Itchy trigger finger!

Essentially I had to go into the secret engineering menu and switch off WiFi and hey presto, all was well again.

A very nice chap from Bulgaria helped me over the phone but finding the right number to call took forever.

clapham_gull · May 7, 2021

Surely the digital signal travels over exactly the same copper in the cable irrespective of what the plug is plated with ?

Whatever metal the plugs are made of, it wouldn't discriminate and remove the audio.

Sounds a software / firmware issue with the box itself or something with the transmission that affects certain boxes.

I've read their forum and it's clearly an issue their end they are struggling to fix. Sky can be a bit rubbish like that, in the past it was much to do with internal politics.

Please don't waste your money on "premium cables". Over a short distance they are a complete waste of money.

I haven't had the drop out, but have been experiencing crashes and mad video issues. They were fixed with a reboot, but disappeared after a week.

clapham_gull · May 7, 2021

What happens with these big modern media companies is there is often an internal war going on between the technical sides (the IT department) and the operational sides who do the organising and are often client facing.

When the company seemingly goes quiet, it's usually because they are focusing on internal politics.

The operational side is often asking for the impossible, whilst the technical side are busy fixing problems that never existed that result in a new problem that very much does.

It's a funny old game software development in an incremental agile world. Imagine a builder coming back round your house every few weeks with a "patch".

Easy 10 · May 7, 2021

Shropshire Seagull said:
Could be a simple case of the HDMI cable or socket - I had this happen to me
Try a different HDMI socket on the TV - e.g. maybe switch your Sky-Q from HDMI 1 to 2
If that makes no difference, try another HDMI cable - gold tinted connectors are the most reliable and worth the extra

Quite definitely a five minute job [or less]

That is complete BOBBINS, and a reason why many folk in PC World end up unnecessarily shelling out ridiculous sums for gold-cased connectors.

HDMI transfers a digital signal. Either it works 100%, or it doesn't. There is no inbetween. You will not improve your sound or audio quality one iota by investing in gold HDMI connectors. It is a total myth designed to rip people off.

clapham_gull · May 7, 2021

Easy 10 said:
That is complete BOBBINS, and a reason why many folk in PC World end up unnecessarily shelling out ridiculous sums for gold-cased connectors.

HDMI transfers a digital signal. Either it works 100%, or it doesn't. There is no inbetween. You will not improve your sound or audio quality one iota by investing in gold HDMI connectors. It is a total myth designed to rip people off.

I have perfectly workable cheap as chips HDMI cables off Amazon with cable not much thicker than a phone charger cable. They are wired in, don't move and have lasted for years.

The only exception is for my computer kit which I move around and sometimes the other half nicks a monitor. Because of my job I have to flip between casual living room browsing mode to full on air traffic control.

However those cables aren't gold plated, they are simply rugged. Not military standard , but definitely "Nick Knowles".

The only time I "invested" was to replace the network cabling under the floor at the start of the pandemic. Those are tough as ****, expensive and flat.

... but that was everything to with the tough as **** London mice.

Official Old Man · May 7, 2021

Sky sound on the old HD+ receivers.
I've a surround sound system but Sky Sports seems to have dropped the Dolby Digital for some reason. Movies and most other channels still fine but all sports have gone back to stereo.

METALMICKY · May 7, 2021

swindonseagull said:
Anyone else suffering sound drop outs? sound drops for about one second every so often....
Ive changed the optic and hdmi cables, Ive reset the AV settings but no difference.....

Reading on line forums Sky appear to know there is a problem and has been for quite a while, but calling Sky they say there is no known problem ( but I guess thats just a call centre operative ) so how do I get to speak to a tech expert @ Sky?

Only have a few months left in the current very discounted price but its bugging me and damned annoying..

This! It's a known issue and has been all over the Sky forums for a while with no solid solution offered. Thankfully I've not suffered from it too much but when it has happened it's invariably when I've switched the live football from HD to UHD.

Dick Swiveller · May 7, 2021

Easy 10 said:
That is complete BOBBINS, and a reason why many folk in PC World end up unnecessarily shelling out ridiculous sums for gold-cased connectors.

HDMI transfers a digital signal. Either it works 100%, or it doesn't. There is no inbetween. You will not improve your sound or audio quality one iota by investing in gold HDMI connectors. It is a total myth designed to rip people off.

Yep - it is borderline fraud some of the stuff they come out with. A Poundland HDMI cable might not be as good as a £100 gold plated one if it is shoddy and packets need to be resent if they fail error correction. But it is indisputable (Although people will dispute it) that the best HDMI cable to buy is the cheapest one that does not have drop outs.

Arthur · May 7, 2021

METALMICKY said:
This! It's a known issue and has been all over the Sky forums for a while with no solid solution offered. Thankfully I've not suffered from it too much but when it has happened it's invariably when I've switched the live football from HD to UHD.

Along with the sound drop outs sometime the lag on UHD when using Dolby+ makes the program unwatchable. Also lots of threads on the sky forum around that all with little to no resolution. They tend to get to about 30 pages long then the sky message board mods close them and a new one starts up. Thankfully I don't subscribe to the movies but it must make watching them very infuriating.

Originunknown · May 7, 2021

I've noticed this recently, I use wired Ethernet and thought my WiFi was disabled as I've done this through the engineer settings menu before.

Washboard Didgets · May 7, 2021

Easy 10 said:
That is complete BOBBINS, and a reason why many folk in PC World end up unnecessarily shelling out ridiculous sums for gold-cased connectors.

HDMI transfers a digital signal. Either it works 100%, or it doesn't. There is no inbetween. You will not improve your sound or audio quality one iota by investing in gold HDMI connectors. It is a total myth designed to rip people off.

I've always thought this as well.

BUT when we got a new TV last year the Sky Q picture and sound repeatedly dropped out with screen going blank, especially when watching 4K (also happened on Apple TV).

So I ordered new HDMI cables which were specifically rated for 8K / 4K / high-bandwidth and swapped out all the old HDMI cables we had (Sky Q, Apple TV and PS4), instantly solved the problems.

So although HDMI is digital the cables do need to be the more recent versions with high bandwidth.

I got a pack of these which weren't too expensive (£16.99 for 3):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B081NXV3ZR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

trueblue · May 7, 2021

Same problem here. Used to happen on my old BT box, where the fix was simply to pause picture for a second and press play. Doesn't seem to be an obvious fix for the Sky issue and the forums suggest it's a problem their end - so, of course, we'll all be getting a refund on the vast amount they charge for a service that's not working properl ..... oh, hang on, no we won't.

Mileoakman · May 7, 2021

Reading about this problem on Digital Spy there is a mention that the next firmware, 160 I think, is due to roll.out within the next month and will include a fix for this

Sent from my SM-G781B using Tapatalk

Easy 10 · May 7, 2021

Washboard Didgets said:
I've always thought this as well.

BUT when we got a new TV last year the Sky Q picture and sound repeatedly dropped out with screen going blank, especially when watching 4K (also happened on Apple TV).

So I ordered new HDMI cables which were specifically rated for 8K / 4K / high-bandwidth and swapped out all the old HDMI cables we had (Sky Q, Apple TV and PS4), instantly solved the problems.

So although HDMI is digital the cables do need to be the more recent versions with high bandwidth.

I got a pack of these which weren't too expensive (£16.99 for 3):
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B081NXV3ZR/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o09_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I doubt they were gold though. And if they were, it wouldn't have been the 'resolving' factor.

mac04 · May 7, 2021

I also had this problem. Changing the HMDI cable fixed it.

figgis · May 7, 2021

I think the lip synch issues on sky uhd are more of a problem. Shocking

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