Audio Problems

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
1

I am having audio problems and am at my wits end.  Hoping someone might be able to help.

I have the WD SMP connected to my HDTV via an HDMI cable.

The SMP is accessing shared folders on an external 2TB My Passport drive connected to a computer in another room.

The SMP and the computer are both hard wired to the network – no wireless anywhere.

The TV is not connected to an external amp or speakers – just using the tv speakers.

The TV is a 52 inch Sharp LED.

The TV audio has always worked perfectly (3+years) both for regular TV and for bluray/dvd playing. 

I have done away with the bluray player in favour of the WD SMP.  So I am using the same HDMI cable that used to connect the bluray player to the TV, and am now using it to connect the WD SMP to the TV instead (essentially just unplugged the bluray and plugged that same end into the WD SMP instead).

I have primarily ISO and MKV files. 

The SMP audio sometimes works fine.  But sometimes I get no sound.  This seems to happen either when I start a movie, or coming out of a pause/fast forward, etc.  It doesn’t just randomly stop mid-movie, it only has problems when starting or after I have done something like this.  When I start a movie and the audio isn’t working, there is sometimes a message in the upper right hand corner saying “No audio channel”.  Right now I can’t get the audio working for anything, including for movies that I have watched on the SMP before with full audio, and movies that have perfectly fine audio if watching on my computer right now (so the audio is there, it’s not the file). 

I have tried various audio settings on the SMP.  The one I think is correct is the following:

Audio output, digital pass through via HDMI only, auto detect

When I do this, the screen shows me that it is auto detecting “PCM, Channel: 2, Sample: 32 44 48”

HDMI CEC is set to “on”.

Dolby Dynamic Range control is set to “off”.

Just to test, I also tried the HDMI pass through “manual setup”, trying a couple of the various options (AAC capable receiver, DTS capable receiver, etc.) but I don’t actually use any such receivers, just the TV speakers, so I did not expect this to work/help, and it did not work/help.

I also tried setting the audio to “stereo” instead of HDMI pass through.  Again, no difference.

I have also tried monkeying around with the audio options on the TV, but haven’t see anything that looks relevant/helpful (I don’t think adjusting base/treble levels has anything to do with this and haven’t seen anything else that seems relevant). 

I am hoping that I am missing something obvious (which may not be obvious to me, as I have limited knowledge in this area).  The fact that it works intermittently is maddening.  The audio works fine 100% of the time watching television, and has always worked fine 100% of the time watching blurays/dvds via the same HDMI cable.  The issue only arose with the introduction of the WD SMP. 

Does this make any sense to anyone?  Help/Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

2

Shouldn’t you be outputing Audio to Stereo - as it is feeding to a TV?  The digital pass through via HDMI only is for an HDMI receiver.  Just a thought.

Also have you determined if it works for a certain type of file - eg MKVs only and not the ISOs?

3

Your setup is very simple:  video and audio out of SMP to TV via HDMI cable.  Therefore, as mentioned, your audio out should be set to Stereo – nothing else.

Intermittent signal can often indicate a bad connection.  So, since you were moving the HDMI wire around, double check both ends at the SMP and TV for a solid and secure connection. 

Things should work now, unless:

1)  You have a bad HDMI cable (a wire may have broke during the moving around)  Try a different HDMI cable.

2)  Your SMP is intermittently transmitting audio from the videos; try another audio source, like music, Netflix – anything other that what’s giving you trouble.  See if audio is OK from those sources.

3)  Your TV is on the fritz, but since the blu-ray was working on this connection all before, that’s not so likely.

Hopefully, this procedure will help you narrow down the SOURCE of the problem to a particular unit or cable.

Regarding this comment of yours >>>  there is sometimes a message in the upper right hand corner saying “No audio channel”. 

You need to check the Option button on your remote once the movie begins.  Pressing it brings up a menu.  One of the choices is the audio tracks.  If this is not on the right choice you may get no audio or wrong audio .  One time, I was not hearing the movie soundtrack, but the Naration along with the soundtrack.  I found the problem was the wrong audio track was being played by using this menu.  You can cycle through the tracks.  You may have to select the correct track, stop the movie and begin again.  This can be an issue with MKV files sometimes.

Good luck.

Suggestion: put the blu-ray back in the system, too – the SMP is not the end-all gadget.  Sometimes you can only watch the DVD if there is no digital file available.  All my gizmos are still attached – if you don’t have enough HDMI inputs on the TV, then get an HDMI switcher box.  I have four inputs built-in the TV, and I still need and use a switchbox!