Gotta sound problem - cable over air HD stations and 5.1 sound

Okay, here's how my audio and video are all flowing:

We have subscribed to Comcast digital cable. Cable comes to the house and is split: one connections goes to our non-HD cable box and crt tv (no problem here), and the the other connection goes directly to our 32" Sammy LN32A330. Audio then goes out from the sammy to a 5.1 receiver via optical.

So, once in a while while watching HD stations, the audio kind of breaks up, drops out completely, or sounds robotic-like (for the lack of a better word). It's intermittent. Most of the time the audio is just great, but occasionally sounds as I have described.

I'm pretty sure it isn't the optical cable (when I use it with the ps3, I have never had any audio problems with games or dvd's or blu-ray, other than an occasional loud pop noise, which is very rare).

That leaves a few things:
(1)The broadcast itself. If so, there isn't much I can do.
(2)The optic out on the tv. This worries me, but if we do upgrade to hd cable or hd fios, then it won't be as much of an issue, as we won't be using that output anyway.
(3)cable line itself. At the split, that was done by the cable guy and seems pretty good. However, the rest of the line I added in myself, runs about 200 feet, and the connector on the end I put on myself. I didn't use a professional stripper and crimper, but I did it very carefully I've stripped many a wire before, and I stripped the coax pretty much correctly. Never had any audio/video problems when it went in to a crt, just some audio issues now with the new TV.

Not sure what to do to try and isolate the issue, or if it is even worth trying to isolate. I guess the first step would to be watch a bunch of HD broadcasts w/o using the receiver, and see if I have the same audio problems simply with the built in speakers on the tv. If after a week or so I find nothing, then the problem is the optical out on the tv. If I still have the problems, then it is either the general broadcasts, or my line.

I guess I have some ideas on how to start to isolate, which I have now figured out just by typing this message, but if anyone has experienced audio issues as I have described, I'd love any additional insight you may have.

Thanks!

Okay, here's how my audio and video are all flowing:

We have subscribed to Comcast digital cable. Cable comes to the house and is split: one connections goes to our non-HD cable box and crt tv (no problem here), and the the other connection goes directly to our 32" Sammy LN32A330. Audio then goes out from the sammy to a 5.1 receiver via optical.

So, once in a while while watching HD stations, the audio kind of breaks up, drops out completely, or sounds robotic-like (for the lack of a better word). It's intermittent. Most of the time the audio is just great, but occasionally sounds as I have described.

I'm pretty sure it isn't the optical cable (when I use it with the ps3, I have never had any audio problems with games or dvd's or blu-ray, other than an occasional loud pop noise, which is very rare).

That leaves a few things:
(1)The broadcast itself. If so, there isn't much I can do.
(2)The optic out on the tv. This worries me, but if we do upgrade to hd cable or hd fios, then it won't be as much of an issue, as we won't be using that output anyway.
(3)cable line itself. At the split, that was done by the cable guy and seems pretty good. However, the rest of the line I added in myself, runs about 200 feet, and the connector on the end I put on myself. I didn't use a professional stripper and crimper, but I did it very carefully I've stripped many a wire before, and I stripped the coax pretty much correctly. Never had any audio/video problems when it went in to a crt, just some audio issues now with the new TV.

Not sure what to do to try and isolate the issue, or if it is even worth trying to isolate. I guess the first step would to be watch a bunch of HD broadcasts w/o using the receiver, and see if I have the same audio problems simply with the built in speakers on the tv. If after a week or so I find nothing, then the problem is the optical out on the tv. If I still have the problems, then it is either the general broadcasts, or my line.

I guess I have some ideas on how to start to isolate, which I have now figured out just by typing this message, but if anyone has experienced audio issues as I have described, I'd love any additional insight you may have.

Thanks!

Not certain what receiver you have, but, ideally the audio & video should first be sent to your receiver. From there the receiver would split the video to your LCD and handle the audio out. If you were to use a cable box betwixt the tv and receiver - then you would send the video to Tv and audio to your receiver. Of course HDMI changes all of this. Please elaborate on what receiver you be using.

Not certain what receiver you have, but, ideally the audio & video should first be sent to your receiver. From there the receiver would split the video to your LCD and handle the audio out. If you were to use a cable box betwixt the tv and receiver - then you would send the video to Tv and audio to your receiver. Of course HDMI changes all of this. Please elaborate on what receiver you be using.

It's a Kenwood Dolby Digital 5.1 receiver. The only video it can process is via rca cables, so I do not use it for any video at all.

Last night, I was experiencing the audio issue again, without using the receiver at all. Simply the coax tv cable direct to the tv, watching Pushing Daisies in HD and listening to the audio through the tv's built in speakers. What I figured out is that if I don't do anything, the audio problem lasts anywhere from 10 seconds to a minute, often lasing 30 seconds or so. However, quickly changing channel and changing back again resolves the issue. It happened enough during the broadcast that I am certain changing the channel solves the issue, and not just that the sound would have correct itself in the time it took me to switch. So this makes me thing that perhaps the HD channels can come out of tune slightly? Not sure if that is even possible.

So I have set the tv to auto tune all cable and air stations (about a 30 minute process). Tonight, when we watch the debate on an OTA HD station, we will be able to see if the problem persists, or if it has been corrected.

So the problem can be one of two things: the physical cable to the tv (perhaps I hadn't stripped it just right, although I think I did), the TV not having tuned each HD channel perfectly, causing audio to go all wacky once in a while, or there is something actually wrong with the tv as pertains to it's audio processing. I hope it isn't the latter...