randyhouse wrote:My old SA 4250 HDC box died. Took it to the Xfinity store and was given an X1 non DVR box. My set up involves a Bluray Player, Apple TV , Cable Card device driving a Windows Media Center DVR and a Cable Box. All components connect to a Sony Hometheater Receiver via HDMI or Component. The Receiver handles all audio and sends the video via HDMI to a Panansonic 50in tv.
Aside from the new X1 box not having the setup capabilities of the old box like pass through it has a better picture. However after a few days , depending on the channel, the audio becomes out of sync with the video. This rarely ever happpended with the old box and never happens with my other equipment running through the same set up. Therefore the issue is an X1 problem unique to itself. Resetting it helps, hitting it from the office helps but over time it gets so annoying that I am convinced that any claims that issues is actually solved are false.
Some observations. Off Air HD channels from the networks through the x1 box DO NOT HAVE THE PROBLEM. SD Cable Networks that are not also shown in HD , do not seem to have the sysnc issue as badly. The channels with the greatest sync problem are those HD Cable Channels where local advertising is inserted often. Much of this is old low tech SD 4;3 stuff and looks awful on an hd tv. When the boxes had pass through these format changes would cause chirps and drop outs when they came on because the receiver had to rescale during the commercial.Only fix was to keep the box on 1080I and live with the obnoxious stretch look or be satisfied with half sized pictures with alll border black barred.
Hence i think this may be why they ended pass through on the new boxes. So the X1 box is now handling all of these scaling issues and it may not be robust enought to handle repetitive format changes that happen when SD or even multi format commercials are inserted and they start to develop a lag issue. Just a theory but my observations suggest something in this area is going on.
local channels (HD) will (I read on other sites) be in mpeg2 so as not to have to do transcoding, and that may be the difference. You didn't say which x1 non-DVR box you got nor if you have x1 service (with internet). If your guide is dark with white letters it is indeed x1. If multi-colored you may have an X2 that is actually in "DTA" mode. Would like to actually know what you have.
Do you have access to the https://tv.xfinity.com site to view tv in your home?