Sky+ HD Box Suddenly lost sound/audio

[SkyOxfordshire]

Hi All,

Yesterday 14th April while watching a recorded programme suddenly I lost all audio from Sky channels (not just Sky's own channels but all channels.). Pictures are fine but no sound at all. I am very frustrated as I looked up online and none of the issues reported in all forums is similar to mine. Just to make you aware I tried the following:

• TV sound is fine, no issues with the TV. I can watch DVD, iPlayer etc through the TV directly (without using Sky+ HD box). No mute issue with Sky remote or TV remote
• I have checked all the Sky+ HD audio settings in terms of Optical/HDMI, Dolby/Normal etc. These should not needed to be changed anyway as nothing was touched.
• I have put the box on standby and then unplugged and left it for few minutes and even over night (6-7 hours), restarted. So tried all restart/unplug from mains etc.
• I have moved the HDMI cable to a different port (in case port was faulty suddenly but does not make sense).

What I did not try (and will not try unless I get some logical explanation):

• I did not factory reset the Sky+ HD box as I have recordings. Also the issue started while watching a programme so I do not understand how a factory reset will help.
• I did not replace the HDMI cable (which connects Sky+ HD box to TV), I am not sure why suddenly while watching a progarmme sound will be lost but picture will be fine because of an HDMI cable.

I had the same issue before (4 months or so ago) while rewinding a recorded programme (and I lost sound for everything recorded/live TV), at that time I just unplugged the box from mains, left it for 3-4 fours and then was fine.

I also had a situation when suddenly the entire Sky+ Box froze (picture + sound), remote was not working either (nor the physical buttons on the box) so I unplugged the box from the mains and left it for an hour or so and then plugged in again and it was fine.

Can someone please suggest somthing as I see this is a unique situation and with the lockdown in place Sky is not allowing customer service by phone and I can't imagine an engineer visit will be possible in near future. Also Sky will charge for engineer visit as well.

Can someone please help me?

Thanks.

[Mark39]

Simple thing first: put the box in standby and unplug the HDMI cable at both ends. Swap the ends over and reconnect and check again.

[SkyOxfordshire]

Thanks.

Just tried that still the same. Also tried a different HDMI cable as well. No progress.

[Mark39]

Your Sky box's HDMI's audio output may have failed. Are you able to try an alternative audio connection between your box and tv? Optical or scart for example? Thay aside, looks like your Sky box will need replacing.

[SkyOxfordshire]

Thanks. I had an audio cable at home which I treid to output to a speaker but no progress. I do not have SCART or Optical cable. So  I am not sure I can do anything else.

Very frustrating that an engineer is needed and in this lockdown probably impossible. I am not going to try and phone them either as it will just cost me more money to stay on the expensive line. They do not have any web/email help either where I can log an issue (every link is just pointing to Sky Community Forum) for a future visit. I understand that it is difficult time for everybody but at least they could have had web/email logging platform open so people can log them for future, so Sky can deal with urgent issues and deal with others later.

[mandy121]

Hello, I wondered what the outcome was of your sound issue as it has just happened to us.

Thank you.

[Forkbender]

Had the exact same thing happen this morning.  Eventually I went into Services, option 6 Sound and changed one of the options from Dolby to Normal. Pressed save and all was working again. What I don't know is how the setting got changed!

[mandy121]

Well after a week , I had given up on changing all the settings and I had by then ordered Sky Q, It magically appeared again!

Getting used to Sky Q now, but not as happy with it as I thought I would be. Keep getting connectivity issues, yet nothing wrong with the broadband @Forkbender thanks for your reply though.

[Laura+1981]

Mines is the same. No talking but get music? Have to keep changing to normal and listening at volume 70.

[thomas1965]

Had this problem this morning. Done the checks on the Sky help pages, still not working. My Husband checked all the connections on our system and again still nothing. We always have the TV on standby, so he turned it at the mains. He waited a few minutes and turned it all on, it's now working......... 

[Tone20002]

I had this problem yesterday and after going through all the previous suggestions with no luck I tried the one immediately above about disconnecting and reconnecting the TV. I wasn't expecting a result but it did the trick. I don't know why that should be but many thanks to thomas 1965 for ending my frustration and saving me having to call out an engineer.

[alun+f]

I had the same problem today, no sound on any channel and no sound on recorded playback, picture was fine.Had been working fine checked all settings which were good , I leave the tv in standby so tried switching the tv off at the mains socket, left it off for 5 minutes switch set back on sound came up with no problems. I left the Sky box on during the process. I guess it must have been a HDMI handskake problem with the tv set.

So many thanks to those that reported the problem and the fix.

[pamscam]

Same problem on new tv.  Pulled out plug of tv waited a minute or two and bingo we have sound.  Why does it happen.

[Mark39]

---

@pamscam wrote:

Same problem on new tv.  Pulled out plug of tv waited a minute or two and bingo we have sound.  Why does it happen.

---

Probably something to do with HDMI 'handshaking' - the initial communication between your Sky box and TV which determines that your TV is authorised. Turning off your TV resets the HDMI connection.

[pamscam]

So will this be a permanent thing?  Surely not!