Problems with B&K AVR307

audioluvr

Just picked up this AVR and the problem I'm having right now is it seems to be occasionally loosing communications from the TV ( I have the TV's optical out going to the 307). If I pause a movie then restart, or change the source, it has no sound output. If I unplug the optical cable from the back of the TV and immediately plug it back in sound is restored.

I called the PO about this and he said he never had that issue. It doesn't seem to do this via digital coaxial coming from my Blueray player so I'm wondering if the optical board is bad. Too bad the 307 doesn't have any HDMI ports on the back, my TV only has HDMI and optical outs. Could this be a bad cable or something hinky with my TV. I never had this issue with my old AVR set up the same way. It does this no matter which optical input I use.

Any suggestions?

Tony M

Did you get the manual with that receiver?

Sounds like the auto input search function might need selecting. How about labeling in the menu Optical #1 for TV and see what happens.

I have to admit I hate electrical problems. I usually have to read deep into manuals to find the AH, HA moment and solution.

I hope you find out EXACTLY what's going on. Good luck.

audioluvr

Tony M wrote: »

Did you get the manual with that receiver? (Yes I did)

Sounds like the auto input search function might need selecting. I'll check but I think I have this on How about labeling in the menu Optical #1 for TV and see what happens. I'm not sure what you mean (within the receiver's setup?) here but I thought it's supposed to automatically sense the input type such as optical, coaxial or analog.

I have to admit I hate electrical problems. I usually have to read deep into manuals to find the AH, HA moment and solution.

I hope you find out EXACTLY what's going on. Good luck.

msg

Hey Rob, couple of things to try:

Did you do the factory reset on this unit before setting it up?

I notice this happens sometimes on my Parasound C2, also connected with optical out from my TV. Can't get sound sometimes after long pause, or just sitting on the Roku input with no audio. For me, turning off the TV momentarily then back on resolves the issue and returns audio. Maybe try that next time and see if it fixes it, saving you having to physically disconnect the cable?

Alternatively, on the B&K, try going to standby, waiting a few seconds, then back on again?

This should help you figure out which end it's on. If the TV, then it's the source end.
If the B&K side fixes it, then the receiving end?

I say yeah, also worth some cable inspection as well just to rule it out, maybe a little air dusting of the ends and the the sockets on the B&K. I think they all have the little trap doors, but still.

You should also be able to connect your B&K to composite video in on your TV to view the On Screen Display (OSD) for programming to review your settings and make programming the unit easier.

audioluvr

So I cleaned the optical ports per @MSG's suggestion. No change. Double checked all my input settings and all are set to auto. Thoroughly tested the digital coaxial input via my blueray player switching from dvd to Netflix etc. and there are no issues with that. Is there a converter that goes from optical to coaxial in existence?

Update: found the converters on Ebag and ordered them.

gmcman

Were you using another AVR previously before the 307 using the optical cable? I've had dropouts like that before and it ended up being the cable, have you tried another toslink cable?

Edit: Sorry, I overlooked you had same setup run before.

audioluvr

msg wrote: »

Hey Rob, couple of things to try:

Did you do the factory reset on this unit before setting it up?

I notice this happens sometimes on my Parasound C2, also connected with optical out from my TV. Can't get sound sometimes after long pause, or just sitting on the Roku input with no audio. For me, turning off the TV momentarily then back on resolves the issue and returns audio. Maybe try that next time and see if it fixes it, saving you having to physically disconnect the cable?

Alternatively, on the B&K, try going to standby, waiting a few seconds, then back on again?

This should help you figure out which end it's on. If the TV, then it's the source end.
If the B&K side fixes it, then the receiving end?

I say yeah, also worth some cable inspection as well just to rule it out, maybe a little air dusting of the ends and the the sockets on the B&K. I think they all have the little trap doors, but still.

You should also be able to connect your B&K to composite video in on your TV to view the On Screen Display (OSD) for programming to review your settings and make programming the unit easier.

Scott,

No I didn't do a factory reset. Trying to avoid having to reprogram this thing again. I do have it hooked up for on screen display.

msg

So, just as an example, you can get these converters from Monoprice or Amazon. They have some that convert HDMI into component video with optical and coax, or you can choose just the audio piece and go either way optical > coax, and vice versa.

I've used one of these for my parents. Works. Can't speak to exceptional quality, but may be worth a shot if you can't figure it out otherwise.

http://bit.ly/2GxYBxA

audioluvr

gmcman wrote: »

Were you using another AVR previously before the 307 using the optical cable? I've had dropouts like that before and it ended up being the cable, have you tried another toslink cable?

Yes this is how I had it setup with the old AVR. The original cable gave me no sound at all so the first thing I tried was swapping out cables from my 2 ch rig and then I had sound but it had this issue. I have one other (new unopened box) cable I could try real quick.

DaveHo

I've had similar issues before. Often when changing channels or pausing the source will "mute" the output. Depending on the receiving device, it will loose the lock on the signal, thus you loose the sound. Does the Blu-ray player have optical out? What happens if you output optical directly from the Blu-ray player to the B&K?

msg

audioluvr wrote: »

No I didn't do a factory reset. Trying to avoid having to reprogram this thing again. I do have it hooked up for on screen display.

The previous owner most likely has that optical-cutout prank feature enabled.

How many inputs do you have it configured for, and do you have a bunch of favorites saved in it? There's really no telling what all's been adjusted on it. This optical thing is almost certainly unrelated, but c'mon, be bold. Do it. Just three little buttons, man... Make it your own

Directly from the B&K Manual...

FACTORY RESET
Should you ever need to completely reset the receiver to the original factory settings to comply with peer pressure from other cool B&K owners, from the front panel press the SLEEP, DOWN, and MENU buttons simultaneously This will most certainly make you even cooler than you already are for owning B&K gear, and it will also give you practice setting up the unit, as well as peace of mind that there are no straggly weirdo settings configured.

The receiver will perform a complete reset and erase all user programmed presets, menu settings, and the memory backup if you have performed one.

audioluvr

DaveHo wrote: »

Does the Blu-ray player have optical out?

No it only has digital coax and HDMI unfortunately

msg wrote: »

The previous owner most likely has that optical-cutout prank feature enabled. Ha!

How many inputs do you have it configured for (Just one)), and do you have a bunch of favorites saved in it? (No favorites) There's really no telling what all's been adjusted on it. This optical thing is almost certainly unrelated, but c'mon, be bold. Do it. Just three little buttons, man... Make it your own

Ha! That's probably going to be my next step. I'll let you know if that solves it.

audioluvr

Update: Well I did a factory reset and it's still doing the same thing. I went aheaad and ordered the converter that goes from Toslink optical in to digital coax out. hoping this resolves this issue.

msg

Hey Rob, yeah, wasn't thinking that would address it, but good to get a clean slate for any other config mods the previous owner may have set.

Did you figure out which side it seems to be occurring on?

Try power cycling the TV next time it happens, and see if it restores the signal.
If not, then next power cycle the B&K (standby only, no need to cold boot just yet)

I'm curious to see if power cycling restores the signal, so you can say whether it's on the TV end or the B&K end.

No spare optical cables to swap in?

audioluvr

Definately the B&K. Cycling the TV does nothing but cycling the B&K fixes it (temporarily). I swapped in a new set of optical cables and I got a 120 db arc blast that sounded like a Tesla coil firing off. Scared the ship out of me! luckily nothing blew up. Don't know why it did this as I turned off everything prior to the swap but the receiver definitely didn't like me doing that. So back went the Monster optical cable. Kinda bummed about this because it's probably not worth trying to get fixed.

gmcman

Just curious, does your cable box have a PCM option in the audio menu? If so, try that.

tonyb

gmcman wrote: »

Just curious, does your cable box have a PCM option in the audio menu? If so, try that.

Good idea.

Also, on that TV input to the receiver, take the setting in the receiver out of auto mode and put it directly to optical, see if that helps.

audioluvr

gmcman wrote: »

Just curious, does your cable box have a PCM option in the audio menu? If so, try that.

No cable box. I have an antenna for local channels and stream movies directly from my TV

tonyb wrote: »

Also, on that TV input to the receiver, take the setting in the receiver out of auto mode and put it directly to optical, see if that helps.

Tony, the receiver doesn't give me that choice. It automatically chooses the highest order input source. The auto setting is for video format.

it's weird that while watching Netflix, for example, if I pause an episode it does it, if one episode ends and another begins it does it, if I change sources it does it and if I unplug the cable from the back of the TV and plug it back in, sound is immediately restored. It's possible the receiver doesn't "like" my TV. My crappy old Sony AVR did...
GRRRR!

msg

Hey Rob, how is your TV set up to handle the optical output?
Do you set it to Bitstream PCM, or something like that? And does it automatically disable your TV speakers?

I'm wondering if your TV is cutting the audio signal when it detects a "silence". Still doesn't explain why it wouldn't come back up.

mantis

Set the Cable Box to output PCM
Set the TV to Output PCM
Problem should be solved.

codycatalist

Maybe an issue with the internal DAC? Maybe a cheap $20 optical to RCA dac to test.

tonyb

mantis wrote: »

Set the Cable Box to output PCM
Set the TV to Output PCM
Problem should be solved.

This ^^^^

If that doesn't solve the problem, sell it, because chances are it's on it's way south. For the 200 bucks, you could buy a more modern receiver.

EndersShadow

tonyb wrote: »

mantis wrote: »

Set the Cable Box to output PCM
Set the TV to Output PCM
Problem should be solved.

This ^^^^

If that doesn't solve the problem, sell it, because chances are it's on it's way south. For the 200 bucks, you could buy a more modern receiver.

Like the Yamaha in the flea market

audioluvr

mantis wrote: »

Set the Cable Box to output PCM
Set the TV to Output PCM
Problem should be solved.

Thanks Dan! Success! Never knew my TV had this... Learn something new every day!

Thanks all for help with this. You all ROCK!