20 Most Recent Bose Lifestyle 38 System Questions & Answers

Suggest you consult with BOSE My inference from https://worldwide.bose.com/productsupport/assets/pdf/guides/lifestyle/en/ig_en_ls18_series2_ls28_series2_ls38_series1_ls48_series1.pdf 1. You should be able to backup using the DATA Connect port. Not sure of the pin configuration and external device. 2. You should be able to connect using Optical-Out port to Optical-In of new device (if it exist)

If it's very old it may just be dirty look in the Yellow Pages for a repairman or online

Call Bose and get the latest software for your system. This will solve the problem.
Details:
I had the exact same problem with my Lifestyle 48 system connected to a Dish Networks satellite box (Vip622). The sound would continually switch between 'Dolby Digital 2.0', 'Dolby Digital' and 'Dolby Digital 5.1'.
I called Bose Tech Support and they had me reset all of the components. This helped for a short time but it was still happening. They told me that the problem was with the Satellite box, since the Bose system just output what it was receiving and didn't do anything else. We also determined that my system software was quite old. They said that the software wouldn't make any difference, but I got them to send it out anyway.
Well, when the new software update arrived, I installed it on my Bose system and have not had any audio switching problems. So the Bose system software update seemed to fix the problem.

The HDD is bad and need to be replaced.

I had same problem once,i bought a new HDMI CABLE the salesman told me that my HDMI cable has loose grounding.

It's a system fault.You may have to replace the motherboard and at times,the DVD ROM too.

If you switched speakers and it did not help, the issue is something inside. It cannot be the connection panel because it is not manipulated all the time to make it wear out. What we are looking at is a failure in the amp circuit.