sound distortion on new LN22A451

I'm having the exact same "robot audio" problem with HD channels on my LN40A450. Same scenario, direct connection to Comcast cable.

We have the TV plugged into a surge protector strip that we usually power off at night. So we had been essentially "unplugging" the TV every night.

I'm now trying the factory reset solution that has worked for some. I reset it last night (holding down the Exit button on the remote), and watched hours of election coverage in HD without any problems. I'm going to leave the power strip on for a week, and see if the audio stays good. Then I'll cut off the power, and see if the problem comes back. I'll report back with the result.

So has this issue fixed the televisions?

Does the audio problem reappear after the system is reset?

--HDTech

this reset is not a "fix" for the problem, it is much like taking a pain killer to knumb the pain of a bad back. Your back is still bad, but it just doesn't hurt so much anymore.

these TV's should not require resets after they have been unplugged or after enough time has passed for the problem to reoccur.

Samsung needs to fix the problem so we can get off the meds.

I am debating between a Samsung tv and another popular brand. I ran across many posts on this message board and it has caused me concern about Samsung. I am referring to the audio distortion when the set is connected directly to cable.

I use a box and expect that I always will, but I don't know that for certain. I have Time Warner cable. Does anyone know if this audio distortion has occurred with Time Warner?

The difficulty customers have encounterd in getting a resolution has also caused me alarm. How would the company react to my problem, should one develop? Any thoughts?

I have experinced this problem in the Dallas area, which is served by Timer Warner Cable. The problem started after I accidently unplugged the TV while still powered on and was corrected by installing an old firmware then re-installing the current version

RVRichardson,

Thanks for your response. Do you have a box or direct connection to time Warner cable?

I was wondering about this "fix." It seems like all the fixes out there are only temporary. I completely agree with delineator in that this problem needs to be permanently fixed by Samsung.

I know a lot of people have Comcast without cable boxes and a lot of people will be buying new TVs this holiday season, especially with the digital transition coming up in February. If this problem isn't addressed, there will definitely be a lot of unhappy customers.

I truly hope a fix is found soon.

Actually, what I was trying to figure out is if that Exit-button factory reset shortcut that you posted fixed the issue until the television was unplugged. You noted that, and I was curious to know how long that worked for AS a band-aid.

I'm attempting to gather information to research as many scenarios as possible. If this works, it may point us in the direction of something we can do on our end to eliminte the issue. It's very hard, from an engineer's point of view, to re-create this problem in a lab. I certainly hope it didn't appear as if I was washing my hands of the problem, as that was not the spirit, nor the intent, nor my own definition of "well, that's the solution".

Keep in mind that this is not a Samsung-specific issue. This happens with other "popular" brands as well. That said, my focus is on our sets, and the what, how, when, and where is being asked to figure out "why".

Your input is valuable.

--HDTech

you can take mine and test it in your lab, I will take your lab one which is not having problems

the first time i did a reset the tv was fine for 2 weeks until i unplugged it, then the problem started up immediately.

the second time, well, i am afraid to even look at the tv sideways and say a little prayer every time i turn it on, so have not been willing to unplug it. it has been going for about 2 weeks without any problems.

I will post again, if and when the problem starts up again.
thanks

Oh, if it was that easy, Delineator, I'd have started the exchange process myself.

Now, if you want to watch your TV in our lab, we might make some room for a recliner and a mini-fridge.

Okay, good information to know. Just so I have this straight, you did what we'll call the Exit/10/Yes Rule, and it worked fine until you unplugged it. But until then, it was fine, yes?

So then you unplugged it again.

Issue returned, and Exit/10/Yes Rule, you're going strong again. Is there something that specificially makes you nervous that it wouldn't work a second time?

This is good information, and nobody has posted this yet, so if anyone else has tried this, please report on your experiences.

I'm going somewhere with this.... honest...

--HDTech

I wanted to get on your radar that I too just experienced robot audio after owning my LN32A450 since the end of June (with a June 08 manu date). I only watch it 3-4 hours/per week, usually via the QAM tuner (Cox cable), with audio output via optical to my Panasonic AVR. My cable TV signal strength is good, and I had absolutely no problems with robot audio until the last couple of days. Interestingly, I did lose power in my house a day before it started, but that was at least the third time since I've owned my 450 (including a 2-hour neighborhood-wide outage 6 weeks ago). I have never reset the TV, though based on the recommendations here, I will try it and report back. I really appreciate any help you can offer in looking into this problem on your end in the meantime.

I read ya.

I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble too.

I'll be adding this to my reports, and continuing the investigation.

--HDTech

Many have reported using the factory reset to remedy the audio problem
(or "issue" if you prefer). Is it possible that since the reset is returning something in the audio section to the default setting, maybe resetting only the audio settings (by themselves) without a total
reset of the TV might accomplish the same thing. I'm just guessing, but
if that's the case, it would be a lot less of a pain in the neck.
Mine hasn't been attacked by the ROBOTS yet, but maybe someone could check this out next time.

Hi, I have an LN40A450 with this problem. I had updated this to the 1013 firmware on the samsung site. I've been having the robot audio at least since then, perhaps before - I don't remember the before. The audio problem I get occurs ONLY on HD channels (I have Armstrong, just basic HD, no set top box.)

Just Monday (11/17), a Samsung field engineer came out and replaced the main board; still rev 1013.3, built June 2008. For a while (while we both waited - 15 minutes) it did seem fine. I have the TV and my electronics plugged into a surge suppressor, and I turned that off afterwards. Later that night, things still seemed fine (perhaps 6 hours off). Tonight (tuesday), after the surge strip had been turned off for about 21 hours, the problem has returned - not quite as bad, but definitely back (watched NCIS on CBS HD.)

Prior to this exchange, I believe I had tried the exit/10/yes, but I don't recall that working - but since I've recreated this on a new board, and am really tracking it now, I'll try that again wed night.

FWIW: The field engineer thought perhaps it was a temperature problem? Simply because it doesn't act up immediately - at least in my case - but only after 10-15 minutes, and then usually repeats on a 10-15 minute basis.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the info.

That's definitely something to consider. Is "robot audio" something that doesn't happen immediately with everyone else?

Last night within 4-5 minutes of having my TV on I got robot audio and it persisted from there, but usually it happens after 10-15 minutes. I did a factory reset this morning and didn't get it back during the 20-30 minutes I had it on after that. I'll be able to test it out more in the coming days. I'm currently running firmware version 1011.3. I'm not sure it's worth upgrading to the 1013, which is currently available on Samsung's site since the release notes don't specifically address robot audio and I'm not having any other problems mentioned in the notes.

you can take mine and test it in your lab, I will take your lab one which is not having problems

the first time i did a reset the tv was fine for 2 weeks until i unplugged it, then the problem started up immediately.

the second time, well, i am afraid to even look at the tv sideways and say a little prayer every time i turn it on, so have not been willing to unplug it. it has been going for about 2 weeks without any problems.

I will post again, if and when the problem starts up again.
thanks

woops, it appears i posted twice somehow there. strange. many hours after the first post.

anyway, I suppose I was being a little dramatic with my reluctance to reset the tv, but I am confident that unplugging will make the problem return and that resetting will fix it, I would rather not do so because it takes absolutely forever to rescan the channels and then takes a while to get all the settings back to my preference as well.

there are a few other people here or on the AVforum that have also tried the reset or the firmware upgrade(which involves a reset) and had that alleviate the problem. In addition, the replacing of audio boards also seems to at least temporarily fix the problem too, but i wonder if the boards are not infact identical and it is just that after replacing the board, the TV is factory reset.

many people with replaced boards or who have done firmware upgrades have later had the problem return, it is not clear whether they unplugged the tv prior to this happening, and i dont know if any of these people have since tried a factory reset. so far, every solution, temporary or otherwise, involves a factory reset in some way.

for some reason, the audio board cannot handle when power is completely disconnected from it and then re-powered. it wants continuous power right from the point of factory reset.

good luck

and yes, your correct in that it worked fine both times till it was unplugged.

I have a 37" Samsung LCD TV and until I saw this post, was ready to throw my TV in the trash. It has experienced the "audio issue" for the past 3 months (it's only 6 months old). I did a factory reset on the TV and it's working great now.

Jeff

I have solved the robot audio problem. I bought a battery back-up power supply (APC BE450G). It is also a heavy duty surge protector with 8 outlets for all of my other media gear. It will only keep the TV running for a few minutes if the power fails while we are watching it, but that's enough time to hit the off button. Then it will keep power on the TV for many hours. I hit on this solution after 3 short outages hit us during 2 days of storms. Since there will be more such storms this winter, I needed to do something short of trashing my new TV and buying a Sony. This was a lot cheaper (<$60). If Samsung ever comes up with a real cure (fat chance), I can then use it to back up my wireless network and cable modem. My laptops don't need a battery backup.

As I said, I left my surge protector on, so the TV had constant power for a week (after I had fixed the problem with a factory reset). The robot audio problem did not come back. Since then, we've been turning off the surge protector at night, and the robot audio problem still hasn't come back.

HOWEVER...I realized there's a flaw in my experiment. When I first experienced the problem, the TV was connected directly to the cable outlet in the wall. But sometime after the problem started, I hooked up my old VCR. So the cable is passing through the VCR. This VCR has no HD tuner, it just passes the signal through to the TV, which works fine. The interesting thing is that this VCR is plugged into the wall, not the surge protector, so it has had constant power since the start of the experiment. Maybe that has somehow protected the TV from the condition that causes the robot audio problem. The next step of my experiment is to unplug this VCR and see if the robot audio problem returns. I'll report back...

All,

I just (2 days ago) bought the subject model and it has an intermittent echo in the audio when played through the audio outputs to external speakers (Bose Cinemate). A friend bought an LN46A550 about two weeks ago and has the same problem.

I was glad to find this thread but sad to see it's a universal problem. I haven't read through all 79 posts to see if there's a silver bullet solution but, I do see that someone solved their problem with a factory reset (pain).

Any shortcuts to a solution would be appreciated else, I may have to return the box. Outside of this issue, the HD picture quality is amazing (120 Hz refresh).

All, as an update to my last post, both my friend with the LN46A550 and my problem can be temporarily solved merely by changing the channel up or down and then back to the original. My friend helped me set up my TV and when I heard the echo, he said "oh, just change flip the channel and go back" and it was gone!

I don't know what causes it and I haven't watched it enough to see any patterns. He's had his for a couple weeks and claims that on occasion, commercials will cause the problem and once it's in "echo" mode, it stays. He changes the channel and back to "fix" it.

This is an unacceptable work-around for myself and I'm sure others. If Samsung doesn't come up with a cause and specific solution, I'll be returning both the TV and the blue-ray disc player. Incidentally, when watching DVDs in the blue-ray, it freezes if you fast-forward at more than 2x. I'll be searching for forums to see about this as well.

To be honest, I've always purchased Sony and Toshiba TVs, for the most part. There was a Panasonic bedroom set in there somewhere but, I've had good luck with Sony and Toshiba. I have 5 TVs in my house. The Samsung isn't going to make it unless this nuisance audio problem gets fixed.

My LN46A550, manufactured in August of this year and purchased through Circuit City is having identical echo when some commercials come on while watching HD channels. It happens through the home theater speakers while connected with RCA plugs to my TV. My home theater system is produced by Durabrand and sold through most Walmarts around the country. However, after reading all your posts I am deeply convinced that it doesn't matter what brand of the home theater system one has, it's the fault of the TV and it's audio channel separation lacking synchronization between the left and right channels, hence causing the echo effect at times.

The TV is also connected straight to the coax cable, but I'll try to connect it through my VCR as one fellow here mentioned he tried just to see what would happen. Maybe, just maybe, the VCR has some sort of an active or passive filter component or other types of spike prevention methods built in that would make it work better (if we are to assume that the source of the issue comes from the impurities in the cable signal).

That's not the only problem I have with this TV set. Other major issues I have with it are well covered in another thread in this forum, which can be found here:

http://forums.cnet.com/5208-6620_102-0.html?forumID=146&threadID=313410&tag=unsubscribeForm;tracked-disc

I have been with Samsung ECR department on the phone at least 3 times now to no avail. All they did is to send a repairman to put in a new "main board" and that's it. I'm on my second TV and one "main board" replacement later and I still don't have a functional TV.

I'll leave it at that and spare you from my anger.

I also experience an echo resulting from a delay between the TV speakers and the RCA audio outputs. I can use the either the TV speakers or the audio receiver, but not both. This happens both with The Dish satellite input and with a direct cable connection. The audio out is synchronized correctly with the video, and the TV speakers are not.

The set was delivered yesterday, and this did not occur at first. I have not done the extensive testing described by others in this forum.

I did a reset on my tv and the sound echo problem started about a day later. The problem starts sometimes just as soon as I turn on my TV. This problem needs to be addressed, come on, it can't be that hard to problem solve. Probably just a tuner problem. Might have something to do with the commercial audio standards... Talk to NBC/CBS.. please....

My factory reset from yesterday is holding as well, but when I did get the robot audio, it would happen simultaneously on both internal TV speakers as well as on my external sound system via the optical output when watching HD channels via the QAM tuner.