When I listen to TV and it is an analog signal, my surrounds sound terrible. I mean if I put my head up to one, the noise is barely diecernable, with this crakling/whistling sound. Has anyone else noticed this? I do have cheap surrounds, but this does not happen when a digital signal is processed (i.e. Dolby D) on one of my HD channels. Is it my receiver, signal, or speakers? I have an Onkyo TX-NR801 that processes analog signals in Dolby Pro Logic II with Dish Network as the signal input and some cheap surrounds. Any advice or comments?
Erik: I've noticed this from time to time with my receiver as well. I have a Harmon Kardon AVR-525. As you have, I've heard this only on analogue television programs. I haven't heard it on any of my digital stations on my HDTV Digital Cable DVR.
What I will tell you is this. The reason you don't hear this with digital signals (like Dolby Digital, Dolby Ex, DTS, etc) is that those signals are discrete.
When you're not in the digital domain, your processing is Dolby Prologic which is an analogue downmix. How the system determines what goes to the "rear" speakers is a simple algorithm.
I think this analogue processing is where it introduces all sorts of artifacts. Artifacts of the Prologic processing as well as other white noise because it's in the analogue domain.
It could also be, simply, your speaker connections. I've checked mine and on some channels, I get the same crackling. It's the analogue stations only on my HDTV digital cable box. So I chalk it up to the processing and the station.
I've checked mine and on some channels, I get the same crackling. It's the analogue stations only on my HDTV digital cable box. So I chalk it up to the processing and the station.