Forum Discussion

Arbil's avatar
Arbil
New Contributor
5 years ago

Crackling audio from Cox Cable box?

When loud parts happen in certain movies I get a horrible crackling from my speakers. Same thing happened when I had a cheaper soundbar, the tv speakers, and now I have nicer Yamaha 5.1. I have tested all cables and settings. It's the Cox box squashing the audio signal. I can watch the same movies on Blu-ray and it's not a problem. I have tried all the settings in the audio settings of the box. I have the small bedroom box, just an extension of the contour one in the living room. How can I fix this? I feel like I'm being taken advantage of by just putting up with this and paying each month to listen to my movies crackling and sounding like pure garbage. Please advise.

  • Bruce's avatar
    Bruce
    Honored Contributor III
    5 years ago
    cheaper soundbar, the tv speakers, and now I have nicer Yamaha 5.1

    Have you used the same HDMI cable for these different setups?

  • Allan's avatar
    Allan
    Moderator
    5 years ago
    @Arbil. I recommend power cycling the box first to see if that helps. If not, then I recommend swapping out the box for a new one at the nearest Cox retail store. -Allan, Cox Support Forums Moderator.
  • Arbil's avatar
    Arbil
    New Contributor
    5 years ago

    Thank you for the replies. @Bruce no I made sure to test different HDMIs with the box. Even went as far as to take a HDMI and use it going from the PS4 to the receiver and test a blu-ray. Then take the same HDMI go from the cable box to the receiver and test the same movie but from the cox box, the movie happens to be on one of the movie channels and I have the blu ray. Did this with 2 different movies and the results are the same. The movies I used that have loud sound effects for this are Master and Commander and Apollo 13. When the cannons are firing in Commander and when the rocket is launching in Apollo 13 it sounds like pure garbage when watching it on the cable box, like so bad I am scared it's damaging my new speakers. Put the same movie in a blu-ray player and it sounds great. Sadly I just think this is the quality of hardware and/or software from Cox and there is nothing to be done for it, I seem to remember this happening with a different box at my last address, but I will try trading in for a different box and hope for the best.

    • Bruce's avatar
      Bruce
      Honored Contributor III
      5 years ago
      loud sound effects

      Some used to call those brief passages of loud audio dynamic bursts.  I don't think it's called that anymore but I always felt it well described those brief passages.  Dynamic bursts of audio!  aka Peak Power.

      I'd always first point to a cable-box before I'd blame my components.  However, worn pins and receptacles in cables can cause "floating grounds" and the physical thump during a dynamic burst could cause momentary disconnects.  I was just eliminating your cable.

      This problem is with the setup in your bedroom?  It's a Mini Box > HDMI > AV Receiver > 6 Speaker Cables > 6 Speakers with a Blu-ray player also connected to the AVR?  Your on-demand programming (Master and CC, Apollo) come from a Contour box?  I'm unsure how Mini Boxes and "Main" Boxes interact.

      I'll assume the Main Box has to decrypt the signal from Cox due to piracy concerns.  Does a Mini Box also decrypt or does a Mini Box just rely on the Main Box to retrieve your channels and programs?  I don't know and probably unimportant.

      However, if the problems persists after swapping the Mini Box, you may need to also swap the Main Box.  Something from somewhere in this Cox daisy-chain of audio decoding and processing is screwing up your dynamic bursts.

      If there is a Cox setting for PCM audio, I'd select it on everything because...with your setup...you don't want a cable-box processing your audio.