Weird 'robotic sound glitch just started..

How is the H23's audio connected to your HDTV?

Try both settings of the "Dolby Digital" selection in the H23's Audio Setup Menu. 

Same issue here. San Jose CA. HR24 and HR20. Random channels, random times. Sometimes the whole program has the issue. Other times it comes and goes. Signal Levels are strong. Both receivers current on the software. No SWM.

Both DVRs connected to the same TV via HDMI, sound comes through an AV receiver through optical connection. 5.1 and PCM sound exhibit the same problem. Both Live and Recorded have the same issue.

 DTV has no idea what the cause is. I am personally sure it is the signal coming down from the big bird in the sky. I suppose it could be caused by the multi-switch, but I doubt it because it happens when there is absolutely no weather issues. No rain, no wind, clear days and nights. In fact, the same program recorded on one of the HD DVRs and one of the SD DVRs. The HD version has the issue, the SD not. Maybe it's the encoding to MPEG4 that's causing the problem. But it's impossible to convince DTV that this is a problem at their end. They tell me to call in when the problem is happening so they can do diagnosis. well, I have DVRs so I don't watch live TV. We record everything that we want to watch.

I hope someone from DTV is reading these posts.

Try this...unplug your TV from the wall for about 15 minutes, don't just turn it off. This  worked for me...so far. Garbled sound is no more. This resets the TV. The issue had nothing to do with DTV. Sony is sending me the most recent update on a thumb drive. They have had a bunch of audio issues with these Bravias. Good luck!!!!!!

Thank you for the suggestion, but ...I don't think the "unplug the TV" trick will help my issue as I don't use the sound from the TV. My TV speakers are turned off. My sound is sent from the DVRs to my AV receiver via optical and coax digital connections.

I am one of the greatest proponents of DTV. I tell everyone how great DTV is every chance I get. So, this is not a rant against DTV.

But, I have to say that with all the chatter about this issue and other issues with audio on the DBSTalk forum, I get offended when I call in and am told something like "Gee I've never heard of that problem ... Call in when it happens again...".

Again, if, as advertised, DTV is reading this forum, I am asking "Please look into this issue and fix it!"

The problem may be originating at the source such as SyFy channel, Discovery Channel, Nat Geo, Fox News ... whatever.
It may be In the transmission from the origin to the DTV central location where it gets processed and encoded for uplink.
It may be in the uplink transmission.
It may be at the satellite end where some transponders may be acting up randomly.

I just got off the phone with DTV and agreed to call them on the spot when it happens while watching live TV, which is kind of rare for us.

One other thing I'd like to know is whether this issue presents itself on non-DVR receivers. This may give DTV an additional data point to work with.

The garbled sound issue happened again this morning on the Science Channel (284). As advised by DTV, I called in right away and got handed from one dept to another, then another and another yet. by the time I got to speak with someone supposedly in tech support, the problem had cleared up (about 10 minutes). I was hoping that if the troubleshooters at DTV could tune to channel 284 and put some monitoring tools on it, they might be able to figure out what the problem was. Unfortunately, they wanted to send a tech out for a service call (on their dime). I told them that the problem isn't likely to occur when the tech comes out, but they insisted that was the only option. So, I'm supposed to get a tech visit one of these days to check the LNBs, the multi-switch and the wiring ... I expect this isn't going to result in a resolution.

My signal levels are in the high 80s and above on all transponders, and the garbled sound comes through both the HDMI input from the TV as well as the optical digital connection into the AV receiver. Weather is not an issue at all in my area (no rain, no snow, not much wind). The multi-switch is under the eve of the roof (no way for rain to get in even if it rained heavily). I keep telling them the issue is the signal coming down from the satellite, but they seem to be unwilling, or unable to do what's necessary to solve the problem - and that is heavy duty signal monitoring at their end. I really don't care if the problem originates at SyFy, Science or Fox News. It's a technical issue in the signal and it shouldn't be rocket science. All it takes is a genuine willingness to solve it as opposed to going through the motions to give the appearance of trying to solve the problem.

How about equipping the installers with a tool that perhaps can copy a recorded program that exhibits this audio behavior bit-for-bit to a USB device when they come to do a service call, so that they can take the file back to HQ and put it through a signal analysis tool. to identify anomalies in the signal? Once the anomaly is identified, then perhaps they could follow some bread crumbs that lead to the source.

It may be a bit too soon to declare victory, but, DirecTV sent out a senior tech to our house who performed major maintenance on our installation. He replaced the LNB and the Multi-switch, the cables between the two, as well as the connections at the end of the cables that go into the antenna inputs (and the BBCs).

Since this maintenance was performed, we have not had the issue with the sound.

Thank You DirecTV.