Audio Sync problem with new 360 box

[MrUnhappy2]

I have had the new V6 /360 box for 10 days and have problems with the audio synchronisation.

My TV is a 4 year old 50" Sony Bravia with Sony sound bar. When I had the Tivo and the model before it I never had any problems.

The audio is okay with the soundbar off but when using the soundbar the audio drifts after about 5 mins. I have tried Dolby On/Off settings , audio delay set to 20m/sec and follow audio On/Off. All work for 5 mins then drift. 

I have telephoned Virgin on 2 occasions the 2nd time getting through to their 2nd tier support. Went through all the power down re-boot etc  but still the same issues.

Anyone else have this problem and any suggestions?

Thnks

[Castelerizzon]

Can I just check my understanding CJT Cam are you saying a work around that works for you is to disable Dolby in the settings menu and the problem will be resolved when using a HDMI cable ? I have unplugged my HDMI and am using an optical cable but by doing this I lose a lot of functions.

I fully appreciate that this workaround or any workaround should not be the end of the story but I would like life to be a little less complicated while we fight for a resolution.

My next plan is to write to Computer active a bimonthly computer magazine with a very big reach, they have a column called consumeractive. where items just like this are published they also have named and shamed. Im my experience companies sit up and listen when CA start investigating.

Watch this space. 

[CJTCam]

Thank you for this.

Yes, my TV is connected to the Virgin 360 Box by HDMI and my Soundbar is connected via the TV using an eARC (HDMI?) cable which is designed to provide the high quality Dolby Audio. The sound when using my smart TV apps directly (through a conventional aerial: e.g. Freeview, BBC iPlayer, Amazon Prime etc) is awesome. However, when using the Virgin 360 Box the loss of audio synchronization is intolerable and makes viewing impossible. The only way to overcome this is set the Virgin 360 Box 'Dolby Audio' setting to 'Disabled' which of course completely negates having a high quality Dolby Audio sound system.

The Virgin Complaints Team refuse to accept this and refer you to the Virgin Technical Team who in turn cannot rectify the audio functionality and state they have entered it onto my complaint. This is a 'catch 22' where Virgin insist you go round in a never ending circle and refuse to acknowledge Deadlock required for arbitration by the Ombudsman service.

[dedge10]

Have to agree it seems a step back I have to turn 360 of an one again to re sync 

[fwilson84]

I got invited by Virgin Media to complete a Trustpilot review today. So I gave one star and explained the situation with this issue. I got a response really quickly - “We cannot guarantee that 3rd party equipment will work” 

[roy247]

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@fwilson84 wrote:

I got invited by Virgin Media to complete a Trustpilot review today. So I gave one star and explained the situation with this issue. I got a response really quickly - “We cannot guarantee that 3rd party equipment will work” 

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Unfortunately that seems to be a quick and convenient answer for some. If every electronics manufacturer took that stance you wouldn't be able to connect 2 different manufacturers devices and expect them to work. So much for HDMI specifications and standards.

Will this prompt Virgin to offer a try before you buy policy so you can see if the 360 will work with your TV and sound equipment, that way they wouldn't have customers complaining.

[asim18]

Wow has this issue really been going on for almost a year!??

Amazing.

Since there is absolutely no explanation from VM regarding this issue, my personal idea is that this happens because VM commission a bulk load of devices from the cheapest possible designers and aim to be locked with the devices for 10 years minimum. When I say the "cheapest" designers I really do mean the cheapest ones with absolutely no experience whatsoever.

For example; the HUB3 has been designed by someone who has no idea about ICMP filtering, Based on the fact that such a basic industry standard thing is missing from a router, you can assume that the firmware has been designed by someone who has never designed a router firmware in their life!.... (you should see the VM router firmware, it's like a school IT coding project)

... If you apply the same logic to the TV software, it all makes sense. It's been designed by the cheapest possible designer who has never designed a TV box software before, they tried hard to copy TiVo, but simple things like audio sync, which work correctly on every other TV box on the planet, are not implemented properly based on industry standards.They are also bound to keep the devices for 10 years.

This issue should really take 2-3 days to solve for any competent CEO, 3 days tops from initial report to fix deployment. I honestly cannot believe this has been completely ignored for almost a year. I bet the CEO has no clue about cable TV unfortunately. And this is the case with all modern CEOs.

When Ford started selling cars he knew about building great cars, When Bill Gates started selling software, he had a passion for software. Nowadays anyone in charge of a company has absolutely no idea about the product it sells, they only know the price to sell it at, nothing else. Liberty global is a disease of European Cable TV, with a tactic of locking people into cheap internally commissioned hardware.

At the end of the day, Cable TV should be receivable by any DVB-C tuner with nagravision encryption. I don't understand why VM insist on forcing viewers to use horrendously cheap £5 TV boxes, when customers should be able to go out and buy their own professionally designed cable set top box and push a smart card into the back of it.

[Robert969]

The issue isn't even Hardware unless the hardware isn't compatible with the new software. Many of us including me had no issues until we upgraded the software to 360. All hardware including virgin box stayed the same. 

[ROBCALLY]

Virgin just dont give a s**t they just want our money they know we have to pay to get out our contracts so we have to make sure everybody knows about the problems before they sign up and we that are on a contract with them will have to wait and then leave them at the end and in my case that means signing up for Skys new super fibre as it will be in my area by then so just check if you can get Skys new service in your area.
Good Luck

[NickDon89]

We haven’t had an update from Virgin team on this engineers ticket for some time? 

anyone from Virgin want to provide and update?

[CJTCam]

Thanks for everyone's input which is really helpful. The Virgin Complaints Team refuse to acknowledge the fault and also refuse to agree to 'Deadlock' and referral to independent arbitration (Communication & Internet Services Adjudication Scheme) to which Virgin are signed up. We have all paid and entered a contract with Virgin for setup costs and equipment that Virgin claim to include Dolby Audio functionality (even though Virgin have known for a year that this does not work with a Dolby enabled soundbar). In the absence of Virgin agreeing to deadlock the CISAS require eight weeks from opening a complaint before they will accept the case (another 5 weeks).

In the meantime, please keep the supporting evidence rolling in.

Best wishes to all