Audio dropouts via Optical Options

[valve90210]

Hi all

Got my self a WDTV Live last week and have been having a bit of a play with it. So far it seems like a great device, though I have noticed a bit of an issue with it.

I have it hooked up to my rather aged Marantz SR5000 amp, using an optical lead. Most of the time it is fine but from time to time it losses the audio completely and the optical light on the amp flashes to indicate no signal. If I give the lead a bit of a wiggle it comes back and ok.

I have got another optical lead (which I discovered over the weekend , and didn't know I had), so I shall give that a try this evening in case it is a problem with the optical lead. But I have seen a few other reports of the WD units losing audio over optical, is this a common problem, and if so is there a fix for it?

[ottawa]

I have it hooked up to my rather aged Marantz SR5000 amp, using an optical lead. Most of the time it is fine but from time to time it losses the audio completely and the optical light on the amp flashes to indicate no signal. If I give the lead a bit of a wiggle it comes back and ok.

I havn't had this problem yet. oplink's need good contact at both ends of course.

[valve90210]

I havn't had this problem yet. oplink's need good contact at both ends of course.

Hmm, might be that my amp is rather a few years old and the optical hasn't been used, will give it a look and see it's all nice and clean.

Will also give the other optical lead a try just incase.

[ToJa92]

I have a surround system which is around 5 years old, and works excellent(even with the "new" DTS format), I would bet more on the cable. I once had trouble with the sound and somehow I had managed to pull out the plug just a little bit but after really pushing it in it works as expected.

[bkitt]

I too have a 5 year old Onkyo surround sound system. I was having a lot of problems with audio cutting out and, in my case, I found it only happened when the TOSLINK cable was properly seated! I don't know if the connector is a little too long or something, but I just inserted it into my receiver so that it sits about half way in to the socket and it has worked like a charm ever since!

I have a surround system which is around 5 years old, and works excellent(even with the "new" DTS format), I would bet more on the cable. I once had trouble with the sound and somehow I had managed to pull out the plug just a little bit but after really pushing it in it works as expected.

[valve90210]

Hmm, i shall have to give the optical lead a bit of a fiddle and see if seating it slightly differently helps the problem.

[Opticron]

Agree 100% with bkitt - had stuttering sound, noise, and total loss of sound.

When you plug the toslink in all the way there is a click and the cable is firmly held, -but there is always eventually a sound breakdown.
However if you push the cable in without the click, it may be loose, but the sound is perfect and stays that way.
Seems to me that the socket is simply too short and the plug end is up against the back of it preventing light entering freely.
The variability is presumably due to the temperature (expansion) of components behind the socket.
Always found with other units toslink should be pushed fully in.
Yes, did try several cables - same result.

This socket choice is going to see a lot of perfectly sound units being returned as faulty. Oops, WD!!