sound distortion on new LN22A451

I just ordered an LN37A450 TV, and of course did not stumble across this problem on the internet until too late. I dont have the set yet, but I have read that switching the channel will fix the problem. Is this a temporary fix, like you have to keep changing the channel every 10 minutes, or more like just once per viewing session?

At least in my case with a ln32a450. They started up on the channel I switched to within 5-10 mins and of course on the original channel I was watching within 5-10 mins. Remember, this should only be a problem if you are running audio through your TV by using its built in QAM/ATSC tuners. Good luck! At least you are aware of the potential problem, can test it out, and hopefully have a 30-day return window to return the Samsung if the problem manifests. Unfortunately in my case, the problem didn't show up until after the first four months.

well, been monitoring this thread for a month, since I reset my TV and have not had any problems in that time.

but had to uplug the tv over the weekend to move some stuff around, put it off as long as possible, knowing that the dreaded robots would infect my TV again.

ROBOT AUDIO RETURNED IMMEDIATELY AFTER PLUGGING BACK IN.

again, i had zero problems for over a month, but after plugging back in, there it was in full fury within the first 5 minutes.

DID A RESET, PROBLEM NOW GONE, AS EXPECTED.

has been fine for 3 days, and expect it to be completely fine until it is unplugged again.

WHY? I HAVE NO IDEA, SAMSUNG, WE ARE WAITING.

All,

Just read all the posts since I found my solution - returning the TV and replacing it with Sony gear.

I am pleased to announce the problem is still gone. I've had the Sony for about a week and am loving it!! Not one single problem of any kind so far.

I unplugged the Sony set up an moved it so I could paint the wall over the weekend and after plugging it back in, viola'!!! still no problem! All I had to do was reset the clock. Oh, well.

Not trying to rub it in but for those of you who wanted what I do, a simple system in a more formal room of the house, the Samsung just had to go back.

My son and 6-8 of his friends watched a blue-ray disc over the weekend and it was just awesome. I like everything about the Sony TV and blue-ray player so far. It's software interface is much more powerful as well. It makes setting and selecting favorite channels much easier and allows labeling of ALL channels. I found the Samsung restrictive in this area in addition to sounding like a Robot every 15 minutes.

I said I would update you and I have. I am truly sorry for those of you suffering with this. It's a pain. I'm not gloating but, the Sony is great. If you are within a 30-day return policy, my recommendation is to return the Samsung. What on earth would make it worth it to put up with such a fundamental problem?

Peace out.

Any updates from Samsung on our problem ? Silence is not golden.

If this is a hardware fault then its real expensive to fix. I suspect that Samsung will elect to just whether the storm with platitudes and hope we all forget. I won't be buying another Samsung product...

The fact that a factory reset fixes it means software CAN fix it... but first you need somebody @ samsung to be allocated time to reproduce & understand (and for that we rely on our friend here, hopefully he can convince...)

However... i am with you - no more samsung TV's for me; next one is a Sony. Doesn't matter how good the picture might be on the sammy. As you said, such a fundamental problem. How on earth could this have passed their quality testing? I'll question ALL product lines now.

Wish I had known about this in the 30 days myself...

I ask this only partially tongue-in-cheek. Are there any lawyers in this thread? Perhaps a class-action would force Samsung's hand. They say that for every one person who complains, 1000 people don't. In the case of Samsung TV purchases, I would imagine that 10's of 1000's of people have this problem, but there's only a few of us technophiles who found this thread and were willing to post. This problem is a basic misrepresentation of their product, and there doesn't seem to be a remedy in sight.

Mr. Samsung, can you provide us with an escalation list of Service Directors/VP's at Samsung? I would be happy to at least start the ball rolling if everyone in this post who has a ticket open with Samsung on this issue would provide me with it.

If you have not opened a ticket with Samsung, it would be helpful if you would, and provide me with the ticket. I'll see how much squeak I can get out of my own proverbial wheel.

Jeff

I'm still getting the sound echo problem even after doing a factory reset. It only lasted through one commercial this time. Again I am simply using over the air HD antenna. I do not have cable or satellite. I'll be watching channel 10-1 which is CBS and a commercial will come on and the left and right channel on my receiver will get out of wack causing an echo. Note I have the volume on my television turned all the way down so it's not a sync between my receiver and the tv. the problem sometimes corrects itself when the show comes back on. It so annoying. Wondering if I should return to CC for a Sony Z4100

I have a feeling you're experiencing a different type of problem.
The robot-audio thing is a bit more than just a simple echo.
You might already know that, but some others on here may think
it's all the same problem since it's audio related.

Pretty sure what I am experiencing is the same. If I unplug the left or right connection into the back of my receiver the echo stops. Its basically that the left and right speakers are milliseconds apart. How is this different from the Robot audio problem? Sounds just like you are in a store with lots of TV's all next to one another and one is just not synced up with the one next to it.

Special note, while the TV was causing the echo audio to come out of my receiver speakers I turned down my receiver and turned up the TV to hear it through the internal speaker it was not echoing there. The echoing was only occurring when I used the TV's audio out ports into my receiver. Weird

At least my channels are changing on their own.... My buddy keeps telling me to keep the Sammy because it has a much better picture quality.

i have not posted in a while as the reset always sorts out my tv if for some reason i have to unplug it.

the echo problem you are having is something between the tv and your receiver, not between cable and the tv. completely different. with robot audio, the sound is heard only once, but is computerized, robotic, erratic, sounding. there is NO echo of the sound.

your problem is different. try connecting a different receiver, or plug in your DVD audio out to your current receiver and see if it does the same thing. or try a different audio out on the tv, there are quite a few ways of getting audio out of it. 50/50 chance its a problem with your receiver.

good luck, and be glad its not robot audio.

If you want to spare yourself some major headaches just return it to Circuit City and get yourself a nice Sony flat screen TV. I've got me a Z4100 and it is perfect. I had an LN46A550 (same crap as the one you bought) and after stupidly believing that Samsung will eventually fix it I waited until they told me that they will gladly exchange it - for yet another of the same exact models! This after already 2 same exact TVs plus a brand new main board. The same day some thiefs cam to my home and took a bunch of electronics along with that TV set. I think I should thank those "nice criminals" who did me a favor by stilling this worthless piece of expensive junk they call a TV.

Samsung's so called Executive Support doesn't give a damn about logic and reason, they are just bunch of bean counting bureaucrats sitting at their desks and doing absolutely nothing to really give their customers a working TV. Not only that my TV had the echo that you heard, it was also switching channels on me at random and erasing those channels from my favorites at the same time. I had Comcast cable fed straight into the back of the TV and the problems occurred only with HD DTV channels that you can tune into with the built-in QAM tuner (like 1-2 or 1-5). So, just do yourself a huge favor and get a Sony, you will get nowhere in a hurry with Samsung. The funniest thing is, they told me that they will be waiting for me to get my stolen TV back so I can exchange it at that time. They are out of their frickin' minds!

I have a similar problem but rather than L/R being out of sync everything is. For me this happens with the line out from the TV via optical OR plain old cables to the reciever results in about a 1/4 second lag on the reciever's speaker system. I see this whether it's cable boxed, direct or anything else.

So I worked this issue with Samsung support, including having them come out and swap the AV board in the TV. The TV has had several resets now with no progress.

Samsung's reps although helpful I think have thier hands tied until someone admits it's a problem. When I called technical support I was told they were "not aware of anyone else with this problem".

In general I got two standard lines from them:
1) The TV was not intended to be used with the internal speakers and an external on at the same time. I told them that wasn't acceptable as the sound is still out of sync even with the internal speaker off, and was noticable when dealing with say explosions or gun fire.

2) The delay is due to the "decode time" of having multiple digital devices, cable box, TV, reciever effectively chained together. I don't feel this is viable either as I experience the delay even when doing plain old stereo out from the TV or plugging in headphones. It's obvious to me the signal is already out of sync when it leaves the TV.

I concur with some other posters that this is a hardware flaw in the TV. I simply have not decided whether this is an "annoyance" to me or a return worthy thing. I to am looking at returning for a 4100.

Alot of money to have the HD channels sound constantly breaking up. It self corrects in a short period but getting really aggravating! I just placed the second call to the support center and have spoken with the area service repair man who is 2 1/2 hours travel time from me. He has sent the link to this forum site to Samsung and so hopefully we will hear something soon. I have Charter cable coming straight into the house without any boxes hooked to the tv. Warranty is good through July '09 and if a solution to the problem hasn't been discovered, than i will be demanding the service tech to travel until they offer a different model. Thanks for all the great posts!

Here are the contents of my chat session with Samsung support. I hope he will deliver what he has promised....

Please wait for a Samsung Agent to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Peter'
Peter: Hello, I am a Samsung Technical Support representative. How may I assist you today?
Philip Brown: Well I have called before, but resetting back to factore settings did not fix my sound problem. This problem is very well documented on CNET's website. I have the LN46A630 The audio out is going into my receiver, the sound inside the tv is turned off and set to external. Sometimes during commercials (over air HD tv) the left and right speakers get out of sync and cause an echo sound
Peter: Okay the internal mute on the TV is enabled?
Philip Brown: Many people online have complained about the problem and replacing the units by samsung has not proven to be a good solution. I have until Jan 31 to return it and get a sony. I'm actually hoping a firmware update will come out soon that will fix this so I can keep the tv
Philip Brown: Well I have it set to external so it turns the internal speaker off.
Philip Brown: It also happens if it is set to internal and you just have the tv turned all the way down... I do understand that there would be a sync problem between what the tv is putting out and my reciever is putting out, but I am only using the receiver... the tv is always turned down when I had it set to internal speaker
Philip Brown: But like I said, I normally have it set to external speakers inside the tv menu
Philip Brown: http://forums.cnet.com/5208-13973_102-0.html?forumID=146&threadID=302399&messageID=2930127
Philip Brown: The problem goes away if you flip the channel up one and then back.
Philip Brown: the problem has also gone away on its own when the commericals ended and the show (david letterman) came back on.. seems to only be promted or started by a commercial
Peter: Yes you are correct this should not be happening.
Philip Brown: I'm not into repairing a brand new tv, but would be willing to try a firware update. I really want to keep samsung for the pic quality, but right now I use over the air only and I can't stand this sound echo at every other commerical break or so
Philip Brown: Other people are getting this problem with their cable (when using the built in QAM tuner) in other words they don't have a cable box so the tv is tuning in their cable... it is happening to them too... I'm guessing this problem is taking a long time to solve because not very many people are using the built in QAM tuner or just watching over the air hd tv.. they are probably using cable box or sattelite hooked up to a receiver bypassing the tv for sound all together
Peter: Yes you are correct a firmware upgrade should fix this issue, as if now I am not updated on the firmware releases but I will make a note of this, so that a firmware release is made soon to resolve the issue you are facing.
Philip Brown: I sure hope those R&D tech's can come up with one before Jan 31 or else this thing is going back.. THANK YOU and a lot of other people will be thanking you too if this can be expedited and a firware update be created.
Philip Brown: Did you check out the cnet posts (the url I sent you?)
Peter: Yes, I will bring this issue to the notice of my superiors so that a firmware release is made soon.
Philip Brown: thank you again
Peter: You're welcome, Is there anything else I can assist you with?
Philip Brown: Nope, other than that I love the tv
Philip Brown: good day
Peter: Thank you for chatting with us. If you have a minute, please press the "close" button and fill out a brief survey and have a wonderful day.
Chat session has been terminated by the Samsung Agent.

"Thank you, come again." That's about all I got out of the chat paste. I really WANT to believe something will be done about it but wish in one hand....

Well, so I thought I would follow the normal route of reporting the problem escalating the issue, reporting the company to "Better Business" and then hopefully some sort of class action.

So I called Samsung today and started to discuss the issue with the representative. Well all I can say is that I am shocked at the responses that I received from him.

After explaining that the problem started after a power loss. His immediate response was that "The TV is not designed to encounter Power Loss, it is the responsibility of the consumer to ensure that power is supplied to the unit at all times, this can be achieved by purchasing an un-interuptable power source and connecting it to the TV. If the service engineer comes out and does not find a defect with the TV, you will be charged for a service call." What !! I replied. Funny the same thing does not occur with any other appliance that I have and anyone that lives in Florida knows that power irregularities are the norm.

Well, that convinced me. As from this day I will never purchase another Samsung product and my main goal is to be refunded my purchase price and promote to all my friends and family to do the same.

Thank you Samsung, obviously this bad economy has not affected you enough.

Incredible! Perhaps they can point out exactly where in the manual that statement is? Perhaps Samsung would purchase these UPS systems for us? I was thinking of doing it myself, but now that Samsung is saying it HAS to have one, and didn't supply one, and never documented the fact... hummmm. Did you get his name perhaps?

Did I get his name? His name is Samsung or whichever company a person cares to mention and he is the face of his company, the ever worsening face of Service in America.

Sorry to be somewhat philosophical. It irritates me to no extent to experience this more and more. We pay good money and purchase these products, we keep on having to answer quality questionnaires comment on how happy or sad we are with service, but nothing changes.

I remember a time when companies stood behind their products, alas that time is past.....

And I'm having the Robot Audio problem, which is different from the A630 echo issue.

Could someone please describe the robot audio? Guess I am not sure what the difference would be...

My left and right speakers on my receiver get miliseconds apart and one is slightly ahead of other causing an echo sound or tunnel sound... Not to be confused with the sound (though similar) that you hear when your reciever and tv are going at the same time. My problem goes away when you change the channel back and forth.

What does the robot audio sound like??? I am seriously thinking we are experiencing the same problem just describing it differently...

My question is, where was your tv manufactured...

Robot Audio is a kind of intermittent audio pixelation/distortion, very stuttery and electronic sounding. It makes anything you watch unwatchable as you can only catch a word here or there. It seems to mainly affect the 450 series TVs when watching broadcast HD OTA or through the TV's QAM tuner. It makes no difference whether the audio is coming out of the TV's speakers or being sent by the TV via analog or optical cables to an external AVR. Doing a factory reset (hold down Exit key on remote for 10 secs) or getting a Samsung tech to replace an inner circuit board seems to temporarily fix the problem until the TV is disconnected from a power source again.

As of this date Samsung has no firmware fix for this, and we are waiting for updates from Mr. Samsung to see if any may be forthcoming.

Ok, does this forum have only robots or are there others out there having the same sound echo during commercials problem I am? Pretty sure many of the posts on here are referring to my problem as well. I guess we have two different problems on the same thread...

Sorry,

I should tell you that when I plug in my usb wireless adapter into my PC sitting just to the right of my tv that the sound messes up and the picture pixelates. I unplugged it and plugged back in and the problem stopped started again. So I know that is what is causing the jumping around sound problem there. Maybe this could the problem (maybe not though)

This unfortunately is not the cause of my echo during commercials because I have done a reset and left the pc off and the echo's still occurs during commercials.. As soon as commercials start and the echo stops just as soon as the show comes back on...

Hello all, I purchased a Samsung LN32A330J1D on Black Saturday and never had the audio problem that everyone is writing about. But then my apartment lost power New Year's Eve morning, and since then I've been experiencing the "Robot" audio problem on all my HD channels at first but I believe it has transferred over to the normal channels. My TV is in fact hooked directly to the coaxial cable from the wall, not through a box or anything like that, and the TV was plugged into a surge protector but not a battery backup. I also noticed when I first bought the TV that it was running an older Firmware Version, when I called Samsung to ask if I should update the TV they said only do it if the TV is experiencing problems. Would this consist of a big enough problem to run that firmware update now????