sound distortion on new LN22A451

I am experiencing this issue BUT, unlike most of you, I am using an OTA antenna. This does not occur when I use my satellite (optical audio out of sat rcvr direct to Surround Receiver, not through the TV at all).

I am using the RCA audio out jacks from my TV for my OTA audio input to my Surround Receiver. Also, this is happening on the HD stations. I don't watch the SD channels so I can't say if it's occuring on those.

It's absolutely clear in my case it is a TV-only issue.

So far, from all I've read, this problem is not resolved from a mfg standpoint. It appears many have gotten shotgunning service tech calls (swap a board and pray) and/or "maybe it fixed it, maybe it didn't fix it" resets. Frankly, neither are acceptable.

Received my LN32A450 a couple weeks ago.
I've heard the robot/echo audio "momentarily" when switching off a nearby florescent light. I can do this multiple times in a row. Also, you can hear it for a split second right before one of my weaker digital stations gets lost. Once the channel reappears, the audio is fine.
Just figured I'd add in my 2 cents to possibly provide any clues.

Hey all,

Just a quick update. I had the occasion to watch some TV last night and out of nowhere, when a commercial was on, the echo/distortion/robot or whatever you want to call it occurred. I simply changed the channel 1 up and then back and it was gone. It was the only time it happened over about 2 hours.

To clarify, Comcast directly into LN46A630 and then into a Bose CineMate system via the TV audio out.

I mentioned it to my friend (izkeh on this post) and he had it happen twice last night on his LN46A550.

I've had my new TV since Monday, 1-17. Izkeh has had his for about 3 weeks.

Both TV's are going back if Samsung doesn't come up with a root cause solution and fast. I like the TV otherwise and will wait until I'm just inside the 30-day return policy at Circuit City and then take it back and buy a Sony or Toshiba. I have a Toshiba 26" LCD in the bedroom that operates on the same exact signal (probably weaker, longer RG-6 run) that works flawlessly. It's been sitting there for over 18 months. Sorry Samsung. Fix this or lose this customer for life. I'm generally very brand loyal and the only reason I even bought the Samsung was a recommendation from a friend and troubles with a Sony DVD-R that was supposed to provide a simple way to convert analog video to DVD. It doesn't work as advertised but, I won't go into that. The point is, I would own a Sony TV right now if not for that experience. So far, I own 2 Samsung products and both have what I consider to be critical defects. The echo on the TV audio and the freeze when trying to fast-forward the blue ray player.

I oversee the development of electronic products for a living. Simply stated, this is a hardware and/or firmware problem It may be something they cannot correct in firmware but, even if that's the case, the stand up thing to do would be a recall offering expedient repair once they've corrected the hardware design. The first step is to accept that they have a problem.


Oh, by the way, not surprisingly I called Samsung CS and they've never heard of this before. Oy....

I've placed several calls to them and all they are doing amounts only to one delay after another. I will press for a solution, I will not give in. In the latest conversation a few minutes ago with one of their ECR people I asked for another model in the series 5, 6, 7 or 8, whatever will make this thing go away, I don't care. He told me that my request is valid and it's been known on occasion and at the discretion of their bosses that they would be willing to do something like that for a customer, but only if all other repair attempts fail. Let me tell you, as far as the repair attempts go they have one more strike left and they are out!

It is my sincere hope that if enough people start to complain to them about the same issues eventually they would notice the negative and image damaging trend and start to address it. Another interesting thing is that all of us who have this issue are also Comcast customers without additional HD box, but the truth still remains that other brands like Toshiba, Sony and Panasonic are not affected by these issues (maybe other issues, but not those that Samsung is yet to acknowledge). It seems that only these South Korean brands like Samsung and LG are affected according to one Samsung field engineer (a repairman) I spoke to over the phone.

There you have it, a classic case of a recall aching to happen.

All,

I had occasion to watch some football yesterday and tried to see if some settings would resolve the echo/robot audio problem in my LN4A630 (1 week old). No go. I thought I found something for a while. After turning off the volume leveler, the problem disappeared for about an hour.

I've had more time to characterize it and basically, at least in my case, it only seems to happen during commercials and then self-corrects when the broadcast program comes back on. It really is awful and sounds like a cheesy "game" or "arena" setting on an old receiver when it happens. It was really pleasant when it stopped.

I emailed Samsung this morning and will call again today. If neither of those contacts yield some sort of meaningful direction, and that doesn't include board replacement or exchange without acknowledging the problem and stating there is a known solution, the set is going back to Circuit City. I've been looking around on their site and for a couple hundred bucks more, I can get a Sony that I'll have more confidence in. Also, the blue-ray player is going back as well if the TV does. I will be done withe Samsung, at least for a while, over this incident.

I'm fortunate to have identified the problem early and am still well within the store's return window. I'm sorry for those of you that are stuck. I'm sure there are work-arounds like bypassing the TV with the audio, or whatever, but, I'm not into that. The TV should work as advertised. As I understand things, this happens from the TV's internal speakers as well. How screwed up is that? They clearly have a problem in the audio hardware/firmware and need to address it. They will have to do it on someone else's dime if they don't get aggressive about it and quick.

Otherwise, it seems like a great TV. I love the picture and most other things about it. But, about half of a TV experience is audio. I will not listen to this crap coming out of a new $1,500 TV.

Good luck to you all. I will check this post even after returning the Samsung just to see how they handle it and how you all make out.

Thanks in part to your posts about audio problems with the 630 and the current problems I'm having with my 32" 450, I decided against getting a 46" 630 and bought a Panny plasma instead. There were other factors involved (the whole LCD vs. Plasma thing), but being on the fence as I was, this didn't help.

I'd love to have a cable box connected to my ln32a450, but my cable co. will add $11 ($22 for an HD DVR) per month to my bill for a second one, and I can't justify that for a bedroom TV, especially when I should be able to get the channels I watch most for FREE! Also, most VCRs do not have a built in QAM/ATSC tuners to decode and transmit the HD channels while processing and sending audio to an audio receiver.

I would, however, like to thank Mr. Samsung for staying on top of this to find a permanent fix.

I agree with Satnamji. Comcast will also add another $12 to our bill each month for a cable box and we just cannot afford that. The tuner should be able to work just fine without a box. It is Samsung's fault and they need to accept it and deal with it. There should be no need to go and shell out more money for a cable box each month for those of us who do not have premium channels.

Samsung HD Tech, I understand that you are trying to find a permanent fix for this problem. But could you please keep us updated on what specifically is being done? How is everyone supposed to know that something is being done to fix the problem?

This is just VERY frustrating. The person at Best Buy who told us we could take the TV back was wrong and now we're stuck with it until either we go through 2 more repair cycles with no fix or we wait for a fix to happen, if it ever does. Still no word from Samsung or the person who was supposed to "repair" it.

Thanks. I'm here pretty much every day and actively monitoring the forums.

I hear you, and I'm doing everything on my end to do what I can to expeidate a fix.

--HDTech

Hi All,

Just wanted to report that I found a solution to the audio echo/robot in my LN46A630. I also found a solution to the blue ray BPD 1500 freezing when you fast-forward while watching a DVD. I took them both back to Circuit City last night and replaced them with a Sony KDL46Z4100 and BDPS350 blue ray disc player.

Circuit City was great. I got the Sony TV for $1,649 and the BR for $249.

Brought everything home last night about 7:30 and was comfortably watching Monday Night Football. I must say, out of the box, the Samsung picture was superior. However, after making some of the detailed adjustments provided in the Sony, it got there. It's awesome. Combine that with the fact that the audio doesn't echo, convenient favorite channel access and labeling, and universal backlit remote and life in TV land at my house is good again!!

I am sorry for those of you that have this problem and are outside of the store's return policy. I am so glad I took the TV back even though I really liked it in nearly every other way. It's just goofy to accept a blatant audio problem on a $1,500 TV set!!

Good luck to you all and signing off for now. If I encounter any problems with the Sony, I'll post here about it in the interest of objectivity.

Peace.

Previously I wrote that the audio problem just suddenly appeared on my LN32A450 and that having the board changed fixed the problem. I continued to follow this forum and after people started saying that their sets malfunctioned after they unplugged them, I suddenly remembered that my problem started after I had unplugged my set in order to mount it on the wall. So, as an Electrical Engineer with 40 years of experience in circuit design, I can say with some confidence that the problem lies in the power up reset circuit. All microprocessors have a minimum operating voltage below which they lose control and do random things. One of the random things is to wiggle the write control lines to the non-volatile memory, which can corrupt said memory. A properly designed reset circuit will protect all of the peripheral circuits, and especially the memory, from harm by forcing them into a known safe state before the microprocessor goes wild. So, buried somewhere in the Samsung circuit board is a memory chip that is programmed at the factory to properly decode and process the audio portion of the incoming signal. This memory probably holds some fine tuning information, so the audio is not completely lost, but just becomes marginally stable. Somehow, the factory reset process puts the circuit back into the proper state, but the problem then reappears the next time power is disconnected.

Either the reset circuit was not designed properly or the microprocessor has changed and loses control at a higher voltage than the reset circuit was designed for. On a traditional circuit board the fix would be simple, but on today's highly integrated boards it may not be so cheap to do. Either way, Samsung better get a grip on this before they lose their hard won reputation for quality products.

I appreciate your insight on this.

It's analysis like this that helps me suggest looking into the problem that could be causing the symptom. I'll send this up this weekend.

--HDTech

Ironically, shortly after I posted my analysis, we had a power failure in our neighborhood, and sure enough, the robot audio reappeared after months of perfect operation. I tried someone's suggestion of resetting the audio settings by turning each one off then back on, but that had no effect, so I am now in the painful process of resetting up my TV. Fortunately I took pictures of all of the setup screens before the repair tech replaced my board.

What surprises me, is that with all the experts at Samsung and the fact that they monitor this forum, the fact that we have all but given a solution to this problem, I still am faced with the aggravation of having to go through this whole reset scenario every time I encounter a power issue.

Come on Mr. Samsung.... give us a solution....

Hey SLR42,
Yeah, that was my suggestion about resetting the audio section only.
So you reset all of them back to the default positions and no luck?
I was also wondering whether having the "jingle" (that's heard when the TV is turned on or off) eliminated would
have any affect on the situation. Luckily, I haven't run into the robots yet, so I can't check these nutty theories out for myself.
Your memory chip hypothesis seems the most logical cause as of now.

A couple weeks ago I successfully reset my TV to factory defaults, thus "fixing" the robot audio. Well today I foolishly made toast while my washer and dryer was running, tripped a circuit breaker (TV was off at the time), and sure enough robot audio is back!

I too have this audio problem. It's disturbing that the original post was 7/25/08 and you have responded 13 times over the last 4 months and you still have not come up with anything of substance. On 10/29 you indicated that you summarized all the problems to bypass regular service and escalate it. That was a month and a half ago! That's not escalation that's just talk. Numerous people have detailed how to reproduce the problem and how to temporarily fix it yet nothing of a permanent remedy has been brought here. Please try to help us enjoy your products without feeling like we want to put a brick through it.

08/17/08
09/09/08
09/24/08 - first indication that you were going to look into it
10/07/08 x 2
10/10/08
10/28/08
10/29/08 - summarized the issue and bypassed regular service to "escalate it"
11/09/08
11/10/08 x 2
11/18/08
11/19/08
11/24/08
11/29/08 - in response to SLR42's detailed EE analysis that you were going to pass it along

jeeter_nh wrote:
"Numerous people have detailed how to reproduce the problem and how to temporarily fix it yet nothing of a permanent remedy has been brought here."
That's not exactly correct. People can reproduce the audio problem with their particular TV....but a hundred others might not be affected by this. So, to just reproduce this in a lab isn't all that easy. They'd have to get ahold of a KNOWN defective set to work with before making any headway. Maybe someone should voluteer to ship theirs to the main service center at Samsung. I would, but so far mine is OK.

I think the main issue here is that Samsung_Dude has gone quiet.

There is way more than enough info on this thread to be able to attempt to reproduce the issue. Moreover, Samsung KNOWS what their failed TV's came back for. There would be, one could safely assume, a database of all serial numbers and where they are in the service queue as well as what the failure is on them. I refuse to believe that there aren't several in there that exhibit this issue of which they can pick from. Plus, we aren't even talking about all the shotgunned PCB's that the "service techs" in the field have sent back for warranty replacement.

Again, from my standpoint, the issue isn't so much that there's a issue, it's that NO ONE from Samsung is actively participating in this thread. What little participation there is lacks substance. Tell us where things are at wrt this audio issue. Telling us that you are going to "move it up the chain" or whatever is all fine and well but there needs to be updates, man. UPDATES!!!

It seems, according to the post above, the last time we heard from Mr. Samsung was less than two weeks ago, Thanksgiving weekend (11/29)to be exact. He says he regularly monitors this thread, so how often do you expect him to post to just say, "Still no news from Samsung laboratories"? I know this problem has been festering for months, but I don't think hounding him for updates will help matters. The most we can do is continue to update the state of our own sets, especially if it got serviced by Samsung and the problem came back, and encourage others to report the problem.

In the meantime, those of you who gave 5 star reviews for their A450 on various Web sites before the problem surfaced, go back and revise them (if you haven't already) and jump in on discussions on AVS forums and others when someone posts a thread asking advice on whether they should buy Samsung or Sony or whatever brand of TV.

I expect a forum monitored by a Samsung employee (or contractor) to be given regular updates on existing issues. Regular means at least once a week. My expectations are not out of line. If my customers didn't hear from me in 2 weeks on a forum I monitored (which I DO) I would deserve any bashing I got.

Not only is there an issue that has been reproduced ad nauseum there is minimal response to the issue. I take exception to your comment about what is he supposed to do come back and tell us that nothing is happening? YES!! Yes, he should come back and at least let us know where it's at in the system. Is it being reviewed by Engineering? Is it being reviewed by Lab techs? Is nothing happening? And, if so, why is nothing happening. These are ALL perfectly reasonable expectations from a forum sponsored by and monitored by Samsung and paid for by us who purchased their products in good faith. Get it???

You forget that this problem only occurs on sets that are directly connected to the cable outlet. According to Comcast, over 70% of their customers have cable boxes. These people, and those on satellite services, would never see this problem. Also, I suspect that most people who buy HDTV sets also have cable boxes, because they have been led to believe that they can't get HD programs without one. So we may be a relative minority of Samsung's customers. This does not absolve Samsung of responsibility to fix the problem. Also, we are a noisy group, and if Samsung gets a bad reputation for quality, it will take them a long time to get it back. Having Best Buy and Circuit City sales people steer customers away from Samsung products can't be good for their business.

SLR42 wrote:
"You forget that this problem only occurs on sets that are directly connected to the cable outlet. According to Comcast, over 70% of their customers have cable boxes. These people, and those on satellite services, would never see this problem."
Absolutely right! Besides that, even if they weren't using a cable box,
they still have to UNPLUG their TV for some reason.
Then (& only then) will they even realize they have a defective set. So, we're really getting down to a ultra small percentage of owners. That's the basic problem with this whole situation!

You forget that this problem only occurs on sets that are directly connected to the cable outlet. According to Comcast, over 70% of their customers have cable boxes. These people, and those on satellite services, would not see this problem. Also, I suspect that most people who buy HDTV sets also have cable boxes, because they have been led to believe that they can't get HD programs without one. So, we may be a relative minority of Samsung's customers. Of course, this does not absolve them of the responsibility to fix the problem. Also, we are a noisy group, and if Samsung loses their reputation for quality, it will take them a long time to get it back. Having Best Buy and Circuit City sales people steering customers away from Samsung products can't be good for business.

I have a Samsung LN32A330, and I was also experiencing the reverb distortion on HD channels. I did the factory reset and so far it seems to be fixed.

But I'd certainly like to know if and when a more permanent and official fix is released. Mr. Samsung, can my account be added to a mailing list to notify customers when that fix is found? Thanks.

Aside from the former reverb problem, this TV is sexy, and I'll definitely be keeping mine.

We also have the Samsung LN32A330 with the robotic audio problem and did the factory reset as suggested on this forum and others. It works perfectly now with no audio problems. Hopefully we won't have any power outages or glitches, although it worries us because our house has poor electrical wiring and is prone to random power outages. I just hope this lasts...

I agree that it would be nice to know what is being done about this problem and if a permanent solution will be found. I agree that this is a sexy TV and I don't want to replace it. Samsung tried to pull a fast one on us by sending us an e-mail wanting to replace our TV with a cheaper, inferior model. We declined the offer and will just wait and see what happens. If the sound issue stays gone with the factory reset, we will be very happy, but I guess that isn't a given.

If this is the case, then just doing a channel rescan should work but it doesn't. I still think you're on the right track.

To any Samsung Tech out there:

Did any of you find a fix yet? When I unplugged my TV to move it, I experienced this robot audio issue. At first, I thought it was just me, but after researching I came across this site. I did the reset and it works. Since a reset fixes it and unplugging the set causes it, I think this problem can be fixed with just a simple firmware upgrade.