Occassionally Blasted with Receiver's YPAO Test Sound During FF

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@Shevegas wrote:

The changes they made to the fast forward button speeds are annoying.  Why would they have done this?  That's not the worst of it for me though.

While fast forwarding during a recorded show, and ever since this last upgrade to my U-Verse set top boxes, my Yamaha R-XV3900 will occasionally blast us with its YPAO test sound which sounds like aliens shooting laser beams at full volume.  It's an annoyance to me, but is most disconcerting to my sleeping dog who's convinced it's full on alien invasion.

I can deal with the audio drops when using surround sound but this new bug is a whole different story.  Anyone else encounter this yet?

Cheers,
Patrick.

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What do you mean by "YPAO test sound"? Are there certain events that are supposed to trigger this test sound? Because, if not,  this sounds more like a problem with the settings on your sound system than a U-verse issue.

As to the changes to FFWD, I rather like the new slower first speed FFWD since I can now still read a scroll at the bottom of the screen while still fast forwarding.  

YPAO is Yamaha's automatic surround sound speaker volume level configuration utility.

Here's their website:

http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/av/guide/technologies/etou/etou1.html

It's essentially a series of sound waves/test tones that are picked up by a microphone you attach to the receiver in order to set speaker levels.

Since there is a history of U-Verse set top boxes having audio issues when using surround sound (sound drops), I'd bet my bottom dollar that this is not an issue with my receiver but rather with the STB's surround sound implimentation.  It's also quite suspicous that it only started happening after this last U-Verse STB upgrade and durring fast forwarding which has obviously changed in the STB software.

Several posters have reported various issues with coming out of Fast Forward when Surround Sound is configured.  For some it has been a fwe seconds of silence.  For others, the TV loses the video signal.  So far all have reported that switching to Stereo audio is a work around that removes the symptoms.

For you, the reciever goes into some sort of test mode.  I would surmise that switching to Stereo would also remove the symptom (and your surround sound, unfortunately).  Worth trying just to see.

I hope that the AT&T employees that surrepticiously monitor these forums are taking notes and are getting the right people looking at this.

You are probably correct that the issue would be resolved by using the stereo/analog audio output from the set top box.  The audio drops that I also mentioned (not during or coming out of FF, just while watching) were *resolve-able* by using the analog RCA outputs, but I don't accept this as a solution since I'm paying a system that is surround sound capable. 

AT&T is aware of the audio dropout issue while watching TV/recordings and Tier2 technical support admitted to this bug (which was a suprise to the Tier1 tech support person I insisted stay on the line with me).

Unless they resolve this new issue, or I receive some compensation from their retention department, I'll probably be canceling my U-Verse TV service soon.  😞

I would curious to see if other customers who have a Yamaha receiver are experiencing this same issue after receiving the Phase 3 Update.  So far, your post is the only one that I have seen on any of the 3 U-verse forums that I visit that has reported this problem on any brand of receiver since receiving the Phase 3 Update.

We just received the update a little more than a week ago and I've only experienced the YPAO sound three times during hundreds of fast forwarding events.

I've posted in a forum for this receiver so I'll let you know if anyone else has experienced it too.  I would not rule out that it might be the receiver's fault, but since it only started after the Phase3 upgrade, and there was already a known issue with surround sound and U-Verse boxes, I'm leaning towards an AT&T set top box issue.

I'm guessing the majority of people aren't even using surround sound.  If I recall correctly, it has to be enabled in the menu and stereo is the default option chosen for audio output.

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@Shevegas wrote:

We just received the update a little more than a week ago and I've only experienced the YPAO sound three times during hundreds of fast forwarding events.

 

I've posted in a forum for this receiver so I'll let you know if anyone else has experienced it too.  I would not rule out that it might be the receiver's fault, but since it only started after the Phase3 upgrade, and there was already a known issue with surround sound and U-Verse boxes, I'm leaning towards an AT&T set top box issue.

 

I'm guessing the majority of people aren't even using surround sound.  If I recall correctly, it has to be enabled in the menu and stereo is the default option chosen for audio output.

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I am using surround sound on my main tv, but my system (Sony HTIB) only ever emits test signals if told to do so manually through the system's advanced set up menu.

I suppose what I am asking is, do you know what your receiver thinks is happening that would to cause it to emit test signals?

I don't see anything on my receiver to indicate that it has gone into test mode.  I'm usually in a major panic when it's happening since it's full volume ( ELEVEN! ) and everyone else in the room is convinced that end times have arrived.  If I hit the play button to stop the fast forwarding it stops the YPAO sound.

My Yamaha receiver also only ever emmits this sound if it's told to do so by picking it in the menu, and even when told to do so, the microphone has to be connected or it won't begin the test sound blasts.  That said, I'm at a complete loss as to why t's happening.

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@Shevegas wrote:

 

We just received the update a little more than a week ago and I've only experienced the YPAO sound three times during hundreds of fast forwarding events.

 

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If it has only occurred 3 times during hundreds of times that you have fast forwarded through events, that does not appear to be consistent with it being an issue caused by the software update.  If it were related to the software update, I would expect the event to occur all or most of the time when fast forwarding occurs.

 *Hundreds* was perhaps an exageration, more like 50 fast forwarding events would be more accurate.  It's only been just over a week too.

I wouldn't be so quick to jump to that conclusion texasguy37.  I didn't have constant audio drops either, but that's a known issue.  Problems can exist and ocurr in any manner of ways or interval frequencies, that's why they're problems.

The issue has though been consistent in its manifestation though, always durring a fast forwarding event and since they recently changed the fast forwarding code, and since others have experienced audio related isssues during FF-ing, that leads me to lean in that direction.  I've had the receiver for almost three years now and it has never exhibited this behavior using any of my myriad of other input sources.

None of us know what is causing the issue that you reported; however, there is a difference in the occurrence or the issue that you reported and the other issues that that have occurred since the Phase 3 Update.  

The sound delay issue reported for surround sound and lost of signal issues experienced on some Samsung TV's using HDMI cables both occur all the time.  The occurrence is not sporadic.

Shevegas,

I doubt what you're experiencing is the actual test sound produced by your Yamaha during sound field calibration.  Rather, the Dolby Digital audio stream reaching your receiver from the U-Verse box is not a valid stream for a few seconds after resuming from FF.  On most receivers, the fact that the stream isn't valid at this point is recognized, and the receiver simply outputs silence until valid audio is received a few seconds later.  On your receiver, the invalid stream is getting decoded into noise, which sounds similar to the YPAO test signals.

I'm glad your problem is resolved.  Thanks for posting that.