Strange audio problem with my 520H...

[cocopugg]

Hi everyone. I have a weird problem with my Pioneer 520H. For sometime now the digital audio seems to breakup at times. At first I thought maybe it was a sign that my hard drive might be going...however, when I rewind the picture and play the same scenes again, the audio will sound fine again, whenever it feels like acting fine. To confirm that the problem isn't the hard drive, I stopped playing the recorder and went into tuner mode, and sure enough, the digital audio still breaks up. To make sure the problem wasn't with my TOSLINK cable, I bought another one and hooked it up to my amp, and it also plays sound that breaks up. I have never been a fan of TOSLINK digital connectors, fearing they may be more susceptible to problems that a good old RCA connector won't have. Can the problem be with my 520H's digital TOSLINK terminal? I always expected the hard drive to be the first thing to go on my machine, but never expected an audio problem to develop first. For the time being I am using the machine's L/R RCA connectors to hear the sound, but I miss my amp...Does anyone know of a way to fix this problem? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Frobozz]

It also could be that the amp has a problem with its TOSLINK input. Or maybe some dust got in one or the other sockets.

[cocopugg]

I've tried everything, but the problem is definitely with the 520H's optical output. After the unit heats up (usually 20 minutes or so) the optical sound just keeps clicking on and off. Oh well, since it's no longer under warranty, I'll just live with the regular L/R outputs, and if I really need to watch something with the digital output, I'll just copy it from the unit's HD onto DVD-R and play it on my regular unit. A good lesson was learned though. Don't let people convince you that there's no difference between optical sound and coax digital. Optical sound is more delicate because that light it emits will eventually fade or wear out, while a coax connector is as reliable as the good old RCA L/R connectors have always been.