# Baltimore FOX HD audio problems



## klramp (Dec 2, 2006)

For about a week both my HR20 and H20 have been audio problems with FOX 45. About 4pm I contacted DirecTV and after talking to two reps (first line and for some reason a Service Protection Rep) and getting the run around I insisted on talking to Customer Retention Rep. They actually listened that it was not a problem with FOX or my hardware, but that the problem most likely in the feed for HD or the encorder. I just turn on FOX 45 and it is clear.

Anybody else having the same problem earlier?

Ken


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

klramp said:


> For about a week both my HR20 and H20 have been audio problems with FOX 45. About 4pm I contacted DirecTV and after talking to two reps (first line and for some reason a Service Protection Rep) and getting the run around I insisted on talking to Customer Retention Rep. They actually listened that it was not a problem with FOX or my hardware, but that the problem most likely in the feed for HD or the encorder. I just turn on FOX 45 and it is clear.
> 
> Anybody else having the same problem earlier?
> 
> Ken


If you're talking about that stuttering/buzz saw intermittent sound, it's been a problem on 45 for quite a while. It's not your unit it's the station having problems matching the data rate of the network and Directv. It is being addressed, seems to be at it's worst during American Idol perhaps because it's a live broadcast.


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## Warbird2 (Dec 29, 2006)

It was fairly bad during parts of the Daytona 500 today. At the beginning of the broadcast it was terrible, about every 10-20 seconds. Then, after a little while, it seemed to stop altogether which was quite nice. Then it came back intermittantly during the race. Not as bad as some other days, but still pretty annoying.


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## Badness (Jan 5, 2007)

I just don't understand why FOX cant fix this issue. Every other HD network can get it right, why can't fox?


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

Badness said:


> I just don't understand why FOX cant fix this issue. Every other HD network can get it right, why can't fox?


Last night was interesting, I always watch Friends at 7 and 7:30. The 7pm broadcast was actually pretty good with little or no audio stuttering, then during the 7:30 broadcast the stuttering started and even the video went black several times. I switched to off the air and that was black also, so the station was obviously having problems. Then when American Idol came on they seemed to get it together, there was actually a minimum of stuttering and we could actually watch the whole broadcast on the HD channel. That's actually a first I think, American Idol has been the worst on FOx 45 for stuttering ( I'm assuming because it's a live broadcast ) usually making it unwatchable on the HD channel.
John


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## bnglbill (Nov 29, 2006)

Badness said:


> I just don't understand why FOX cant fix this issue. Every other HD network can get it right, why can't fox?


The problem is, the local channels seem to blame Directv and Directv seems to blame the local channels. their was a thread here where an engineer from one of the local stations in Baltimore (WJZ 13) talked a little about the issue here's the link...

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=829409&highlight=wjz#post829409


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

My local channels were a little better last night. But they are not even close to being 100%. I hope they get fixed soon. I had no problems with them at all till about 1 1/2 months ago. My problem is only audio. The video is great.


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## scollins1225 (Oct 11, 2006)

Experiencing the same buzz saw/digitized buzz audio problems... only on FOX.


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## TimGoodwin (Jun 29, 2004)

Any one have any problems with ABC 2 last night? Jeopardy was awful. The picture was breaking up almost the whole time. Did not happen OTA just on the MPEG 4 feed.


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## oldschoolecw (Jan 25, 2007)

klramp said:


> For about a week both my HR20 and H20 have been audio problems with FOX 45. About 4pm I contacted DirecTV and after talking to two reps (first line and for some reason a Service Protection Rep) and getting the run around I insisted on talking to Customer Retention Rep. They actually listened that it was not a problem with FOX or my hardware, but that the problem most likely in the feed for HD or the encorder. I just turn on FOX 45 and it is clear.
> 
> Anybody else having the same problem earlier?
> 
> Ken


IM not from Baltimore, but have the same issues in the Boston area.


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## wjz-engineering (Feb 12, 2007)

The problem, as I see it, is that DirecTV's MPEG-4 compression system apparently can't handle FURTHER compressing the 19.2 mBs MPEG-2 bitstream (that they receive from our off-air signal) without compression errors that crash the audio. We use ALL 19.2 mBs bits allowed in the ATSC system in our full HD programs. When there is high detail or fast motion, it takes all those bits to properly display the video signal and handle the AC-3 audio stream, guide data and other ancilliary data that is transmitted in our signal. Thats why receiving the signal over the air looks and sounds OK vs the problems beeing seen on the bit rate reduced signal over the satellite. The DTV signal and data packet structure we put out over the air has to be compliant with the ATSC system and FCC rules. The station can't legally change the data structure or do anything that will improve compression artifacts introduced by further compressing the signal. We would have to significantly roll off the detail and soften the picture to reduce the bitrate. It really wouldn't be HDTV then. DirecTV has to allocate more bits to each HD signal path to keep it from crashing. 

Rick Seaby
Director of Engineering
WJZ-TV CBS


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## klramp (Dec 2, 2006)

wjz-engineering said:


> The problem, as I see it, is that DirecTV's MPEG-4 compression system apparently can't handle FURTHER compressing the 19.2 mBs MPEG-2 bitstream (that they receive from our off-air signal) without compression errors that crash the audio. We use ALL 19.2 mBs bits allowed in the ATSC system in our full HD programs. When there is high detail or fast motion, it takes all those bits to properly display the video signal and handle the AC-3 audio stream, guide data and other ancilliary data that is transmitted in our signal. Thats why receiving the signal over the air looks and sounds OK vs the problems beeing seen on the bit rate reduced signal over the satellite. The DTV signal and data packet structure we put out over the air has to be compliant with the ATSC system and FCC rules. The station can't legally change the data structure or do anything that will improve compression artifacts introduced by further compressing the signal. We would have to significantly roll off the detail and soften the picture to reduce the bitrate. It really wouldn't be HDTV then. DirecTV has to allocate more bits to each HD signal path to keep it from crashing.
> 
> Rick Seaby
> Director of Engineering
> WJZ-TV CBS


Rick,

I am sure that this has been discussed with DirecTV and hopefully someone is working on a solution and not just pointing the finger at the other side. As a DirecTV customer and "early" adopter of the HR20 (as with most HR20 owners) we can accept some miner issues with the newer equipment with the understanding it will get better. But the simple fact is at times programs are all but unwatchable. A couple of weeks ago an Episode of Shark was totally unwatchable because of the audio. Please give us some kind of hope that your engineering department is working with the engineers from DirecTV and not just pointing the finger.

Ken


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## wjz-engineering (Feb 12, 2007)

I'm NOT pointing a finger....I'm stating a fact. I cannot change how we transmit our over-the-air HD signal. That is "set in stone" by the FCC. If DirecTV would like a direct full-resolution HDSDI or ASI feed of our HD signal (that is totally uncompressed), I would be happy to provide it. That way they could do a "clean compression" directly to MPEG-4. They currently take our SD Analog feed that way over a leased fiber line to their NOC. Verizon takes our HD signal over fiber, so why can't DirecTV do it as well? 

Rick Seaby
Director of Engineering
WJZ-TV

A computers' memory is only as long as its power cord!


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

wjz-engineering said:


> I'm NOT pointing a finger....I'm stating a fact. I cannot change how we transmit our over-the-air HD signal. That is "set in stone" by the FCC. If DirecTV would like a direct full-resolution HDSDI or ASI feed of our HD signal (that is totally uncompressed), I would be happy to provide it. That way they could do a "clean compression" directly to MPEG-4. They currently take our SD Analog feed that way over a leased fiber line to their NOC. Verizon takes our HD signal over fiber, so why can't DirecTV do it as well?
> 
> Rick Seaby
> Director of Engineering
> ...


Hi Rick, glad to see you're still following this. I hope you and the engineers at the other stations are continuing to bring this up to DirecTV so that eventually there can be a resolution. Right now the issue is an occasional thing but still annoying. And sometimes for whatever reason the problem is worse on 45 especially during their live broadcasts. Even if it's only occasional if you could hear it too you'd find it very distracting as well!! 
John


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## terryfoster (Nov 15, 2006)

wjz-engineering said:


> The problem, as I see it, is that DirecTV's MPEG-4 compression system apparently can't handle FURTHER compressing the 19.2 mBs MPEG-2 bitstream (that they receive from our off-air signal) without compression errors that crash the audio.





wjz-engineering said:


> I'm NOT pointing a finger....I'm stating a fact. I cannot change how we transmit our over-the-air HD signal. That is "set in stone" by the FCC.


In all fairness there are other markets that don't have this problem so it can't simply be MPEG-4 compression that is "crashing the audio." So, it kinda sounds like you're pointing your finger when you say things like that.

D* certainly may have some issues with their receiver or MPEG4 encoder that are causing the audio problems, but it isn't unheard of to have broadcasts encoded in a manner that isn't "consumable" by all ATSC receivers.

Since the Baltimore market is experiencing this audio problem on more than just one affiliate it does seem that the problem is on D*'s end. This issue is very suspect since the Fox affiliate (WBFF-DT) should be using Fox's splicer system and have very little control over their HD broadcast which to me is a better argument for pointing blame at D* than simply MPEG4 compression.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

terryfoster said:


> Since the Baltimore market is experiencing this audio problem on more than just one affiliate it does seem that the problem is on D*'s end. This issue is very suspect since the Fox affiliate (WBFF-DT) should be using Fox's splicer system and have very little control over their HD broadcast which to me is a better argument for pointing blame at D* than simply MPEG4 compression.


 The chief engineer at WBFF has posted here as well that he can adjust the data rate of the station to match DTV. I've been in contact with him about this and I can tell when he does that for the local broadcast, however when they go to a network broadcast-24, American Idol, etc. it changes and we sometimes get the horrible stuttering that occasionally makes these show unwatchable.
John


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## klramp (Dec 2, 2006)

I am not sure who's fault it is or how to fix it. And like 99.999% of consumers I really don't care. But I would think that both DirecTV and the local affiliate(s) would want to get this fixed pretty quick considering it is happening during primetime shows like 24 and American Idol. It would have been to here these words from the WBFF or WJZ engineers "We are not sure if the problem is on our side or not, but we are actively persuing a fix the problem so our viewing community get the best possible entertainment that we are capable of providing". Damn I should work in a PR department. My question is the Washington DC market having the same problems with FOX and CBS.

Ken


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## jakencam (Sep 2, 2006)

I too have experienced this, mostly on Fox in Baltimore. I don't notice it so much on the other channels, though. It's usually not too bad for me, but I remember one week where the audio on American Idol went out for about 10-15 minutes.


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## wjz-engineering (Feb 12, 2007)

FYI, WJZ transmits ONE stream on our DTV signal. 13-1, that's it. We use the full 19.2 mBs so we don't have artifacts in the picture or sound, macroblocking, etc. on sports events or live shows. Some stations choose to transmit sub-channels and have xx-2 and xx-3 streams. They steal bits from the primary stream to use on the secondary ones. It works pretty well unless there are "demanding" scene changes or rapid motion on everyones primary streams (like during Prime Time HD shows). Since the total available bitrate specified in the ATSC standard is finite, one of these signals will "starve" and you can have macroblocking or audio glitches until the system can "catch up" As TV stations, we all have a maximum 19.2 mBs payload that has to fit in a 6 MHz wide channel per the FCC. The data rate for the AC-3 audio is specified in the FCC rules, so I'm not sure what WBFF means by "adjusting the data rate to better match D*TV? Satellite providers, on the other hand, have 54 mhz wide transponders that they multiplex many channels into. They use a process called statistical multiplexing to cram multiple HD or SD stations into a transponder and these signals share the available bits. The goal of the satellite provider is to fit as many signals in a transponder as they can without crashing the MUX. CBS affiliates transmit in 1080i which puts the highest bit rate demand on DirecTV's re-encoding process. ABC transmits 720P, so they don't stress the system as much. Not sure what Fox is doing. Transponder space is VERY EXPENSIVE, so the motivation is to maximize the load. There is a "brick wall" that can be hit when many of the signals in a transponder "max out" their bitrate demand. So if American Idol is going crazy with their lighting effects on FOX and CBS has the Grammy's or ABC has Football and all of us who are on a single transponder need the maximum bits at the same time, there may not be enough overhead in the encoder to handle the peaks and it crashes. The problems you are seeing are happening in many markets, so it is not just a Baltimore issue. I want ALL our viewers to have a perfect picture and sound. Our over-the -air HD signal doesn't have these problems. I, unfortunately, do not have control of our signal once it leaves the transmitter. If another entity takes our pristine 19.2 mBs 1080i HD telecast and compresses it to less than 12 mBs and mixes it with many other compressed signals, I can't guarantee the quality anymore.


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## SockMonkey (Aug 14, 2006)

wjz-engineering said:


> Our over-the-air HD signal doesn't have these problems.


Gee I wish I could get that signal on my HR20. Strange thing is, it wasn't available, then it was, now it's not again. Every software update to the HR20 changes something about OTA tuning. :nono2:

And Rick, I understand this is not your issue. Just want to make that clear.

Thanks for all the information you've been providing... it's an interesting and informative read.

Bob


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## terryfoster (Nov 15, 2006)

pappasbike said:


> The chief engineer at WBFF has posted here as well that he can adjust the data rate of the station to match DTV. I've been in contact with him about this and I can tell when he does that for the local broadcast, however when they go to a network broadcast-24, American Idol, etc. it changes and we sometimes get the horrible stuttering that occasionally makes these show unwatchable.
> John


I should have been more specific to say that Fox affiliates have little to no control over the national feed due to the splicer system Fox uses for distribution. That's why, as you have seen, they are able to make the local programing feed work but cannot make "fix" the national feed.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

terryfoster said:


> I should have been more specific to say that Fox affiliates have little to no control over the national feed due to the splicer system Fox uses for distribution. That's why, as you have seen, they are able to make the local programing feed work but cannot make "fix" the national feed.


Well last night ( Thur. ) I didn't watch American Idol but happened to catch the next show on Fox, something called "Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader" or something like that; the audio stuttering and buzzing was terrible. I'm glad this wasn't a show I was interested in watching. It's very disappointing that this issue continues to be so severe that if I want to watch live I just give up and go to the ota broadcast of WBFF. The problem is that the ota tuner on the HR20 won't pull in these stations without a lot of fussing with my indoor antenna so I'm watching through the tv's tuner which has no trouble picking up the HD locals but of course I am only able to record DTV's HD signal and get a recording with horrible audio. Fox network on WBFF is by far the worst in the Baltimore area with this issue. I still don't understand why a couple of the other stations only have the problem intermittently ( which is annoying enough ). We watch a lot of Fox programming and this is a major hassle for us, and because of it I usually choose to record the SD station.
John


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## DJConan (Sep 14, 2006)

klramp said:


> It would have been to here these words from the WBFF or WJZ engineers "We are not sure if the problem is on our side or not, but we are actively persuing a fix the problem so our viewing community get the best possible entertainment that we are capable of providing". Damn I should work in a PR department. My question is the Washington DC market having the same problems with FOX and CBS.
> 
> Ken


I have to say, I prefer someone being straight with us and not providing fluff. The statement you made in quotes is nice and consumer friendly, but those kinds of statements usually mean very little.

I'm in the same boat at Pappasbike. My only option is an indoor antenna and unless I stand on my right foot, touching my computer case with my left hand, while placing my left foot on a door knob holding a banana in my right hand and balancing my antenna on my head at the same time, I don't tend to get OTA HD signals. :lol:

I did just have the single worst audio experience ever this past Monday night with The Class. The audio was so garbled, I ended up fast forwarding through most of the show because I couldn't understand anything that was being said for minutes at a time.

Like Pappasbike, I'm either going to have to settle for SD, find other programs to watch or God forbid...break out a book!


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## SockMonkey (Aug 14, 2006)

DJConan said:


> I did just have the single worst audio experience ever this past Monday night with The Class. The audio was so garbled, I ended up fast forwarding through most of the show because I couldn't understand anything that was being said for minutes at a time.


Same exact thing here. Argh... it was horrible.  One show my wife and I actually like to watch together and it was unwatchable. Frustrating... especially when you're fairly certain it is not the receiving equipment. With all the HD content coming now and in the future, I sure hope someone does something to correct this type of unacceptable performance.

Bob


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## DJConan (Sep 14, 2006)

Since there are a few people visiting these threads who have some control/input, I thought I'd cut up a few samples so the problem can be heard. 

This sample has three audio garbles that occurred in the span of about 90 seconds. I did edit/cut the full dialogue so the dialogue doesn't flow, but you can easily hear the three garbles within the sentences spoken. 

I took this from The Winner on FOX, however, it's identical to what I'm hearing with other FOX and CBS HD programs.

With Americal Idol, imagine this happening every 10-20 seconds. With The Class (from this week on CBS), imagine this happening continuously for 1-2 minutes straight throughout the entire 30 minutes, with moments of audio clarity.


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## jakencam (Sep 2, 2006)

That audio clip is exactly what mine sounds like as well. I'm in the Baltimore area and watch a lot of Fox, and it also seems like American Idol is the show that has the most problems with this.


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## BluewookieJim (Dec 27, 2006)

Just FYI, I'm having this same issue in CT, on out local Fox channel, WTIC. 

I've had it as long as I've had the HR20 (about 6 weeks) but it seemed worse this week. During this weeks episode of 24, it was happening about every 10 seconds, where it previously happened about every 40-60 seconds previously. 

It was so bad this week I had to stop watching the HD recording and fire up my SDVR40 and watch the SD version.

Just FYI, I get this issue on my other local channels CBS, and NBC, but not nearly as bad or frequently as it is on the FOX station. And of course I don't get it at all on my other HD channels. TNT, ESPN, HBO, etc..


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

Earl any word if D* is getting any where with this problem. It has been about 2 months or more now. It sucks because there are a lot of good shows on right now and we have to watch them in standard def. Watching 24 last night was killing me having to watch it in standard def.


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## HockeyKat (Jul 5, 2006)

I haven't seen 24 from this week yet, but we are actually home to catch American Idol live tonight and we had to switch to OTA in the first 5 minutes. Too much audio weirdness!

I think I'm having a harder and harder time convincing my husband that it isn't a DTV/HR20 issue since a friend of his in DC had his local HD problem fixed with a dish re-alignment. But this weirdness with Fox and sometimes CBS is recent in the grand scheme of things.


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## SockMonkey (Aug 14, 2006)

BMoreRavens said:


> Earl any word if D* is getting any where with this problem. It has been about 2 months or more now. It sucks because there are a lot of good shows on right now and we have to watch them in standard def. Watching 24 last night was killing me having to watch it in standard def.


I don't normally watch American Idol, but because I have read so many complaints here on the forums, I turned it on for like 5 minutes tonight to see what the sound was like. Sure enough, every few seconds the "Woody woodpecker" stutter sound was there.

To me, this kind of stuff is absolutely unacceptable. I want to make it very clear that this is not directed at people at the TV stations who have or have not responded to these threads. I sincerely appreciate those people posting here. However, if these types of problems are due to limited bandwidth or whatever, why isn't that upper bound being increased? This type of problem is just unnaceptable to me. And with more and more HD content every week, this problem is only going to get worse, isn't it?

Is this only happening on D*? Is it going to change when the new bird(s) go up this year? God I hope so... I got HD because I wanted clearer picture and sound.

I'm sorry and I know I'm just preaching to the choir, it just frustrates the heck out of me. Especially when the wife is getting annoyed with it and *****es at me because of it during "24."

Bob


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## mikenpamela (Oct 19, 2006)

I am so glad I found this thread! We have had the HR20 since October and this sound issue is the worst!! Tonight I had to stop recording American Idol on HD then when I thought I started recording I didn't (hubby wasn't home) so I missed a 1/2 hour Thank goodness we are the beginng of AI!

Anyway enough of the pouting...we too watch a lot of Fox and we pay for HD service. Can we please have this taken care of?? it is going to be a long season of AI & 24. It amazes me that all this technology is pushed out to consumers, we think we should have only minor problems (like we have with the HR20) but something like this sound issue is happening you would think they would have this fixed in a jiffy with so many people effected. Just think about the amount of people out there that do not know about this site or are not technology savy...talk about frustration.

This is the only time I have been really frustrated with an issue and was very disappointed when I checked back from a week and saw no change. :nono:


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

I am seeing posts complaining about this problem with other Fox stations also, it isn't just Baltimore. Hartford is the latest.


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## jakencam (Sep 2, 2006)

I too am growing increasingly frustrated my this audio problem. I'm in the Baltimore area and the network we watch the most is Fox, and '24' and 'American Idol' sounded terrible this week (although, the end of American Idol got a little bit better). I don't know who's to blame here, but I really hope something can be done to fix this, because it's been happening for months. As much as I like D*, FIOS TV is going to be available soon here, and I'm really tempted to jump ship if this isn't resolved.


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## EMoMoney (Dec 19, 2005)

I've been ignoring most of the comments out there about people leaving D*, but ou know when my agreement is up, I just might have to seriously consider it. This problem is just about as terrible as the audio dropouts with he 6.3 software. This is unwatchable. OTA on my tivo upstairs is fine. This is an MP4 issue and if this is the HD of the future that D* is pushing, I want none of it. If i's really a local issue, then D* is still at fault for not pressuring the locals enough to get it together. I've been hearing this for a few months now and that's plenty of time to get it fixed.


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## DJConan (Sep 14, 2006)

AI did the same thing as last week. It started out unbearable, then as it went on, it improved. That seems really odd to me. What is changing half way through the program that gets the audio almost back to normal?


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## MarkGreiner (Sep 27, 2006)

Same here--it got better during the second half. I will say that we used to get the chirping AND dropouts. But now, even during the worse parts, we are only getting the chirping--but we do get a lot of it.

I will also add that about halfway through, I thought to check whether Native was on or off. Because of the recent update, it was back on, so I turned it off--I also keep Dolby Digital off (which was still off). Since we were watching a recording of AI--which we were watching with about a 30 min delay--there was no immediate change. But about the time we got to the point of the show where I turned Native off, things got pretty good with very little chirping. Again, sigh, since it is unlikely that the settings on my HR20 affect the quality of your program, then I suppose that this is all just strange coincidence. 

Or is it?


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

texasbrit said:


> I am seeing posts complaining about this problem with other Fox stations also, it isn't just Baltimore. Hartford is the latest.


I've seen several of the Connecticut posts about Fox. If this is a problem with how DTV picks up the Fox feed then why hasn't it been corrected by now? As all of you did, we tried to watch American Idol, we gave up and switched to the ota channel. Apparently the issue improved later in the broadcast but we'd already made the switch. I'm glad we have the option of watching ota but that's not why we have this box. And at least in my viewing experience the Fox affiliate by far has the most problems which has gotten extremely tiresome. I would really like to hear if and when we could expect some resolution to this. Reading these posts indicates that this affects a very large number of viewers and one would think that DTV would have this as a priority at least I hope so!!!
John


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## TimGoodwin (Jun 29, 2004)

Man I'm glad I have an OTA. Tried watching Prison Break and 24 on the mpeg 4 channels a couple of times and it drove me nuts. It what makes it so bad is that the sound is like nails across a chalkboard. Really bad in 5.1!


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## SockMonkey (Aug 14, 2006)

DJConan said:


> AI did the same thing as last week. It started out unbearable, then as it went on, it improved. That seems really odd to me. What is changing half way through the program that gets the audio almost back to normal?


The way I understand it, from the WJZ station engineers' posts on these forums is that its related to the limited amount of bandwidth given to the channels on the satellite. Or it has something to do with the amount that is allowed by the FCC. So if you have a number of HD broadcasts with a lot of movement/lighting effects going on at once, the problems occur and cause the audio problems.

So, it's possible that a few different HD shows were being broadcast at the beginning on different stations. But towards the end, there were not as many and that frees up extra bandwidht for AI to use.

Again, I THINK this is how it works... I could be wrong... but I recall it being related to the bandwith.

Still, this is just ridiculous. Something needs to be done. I'm sure it will, but I just don't want to wait. I'm tired of trying to decypher what a character is saying and I shouldn't have to...

Bob


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## cdavis (Aug 11, 2006)

I am glad this thread exists. My wife and I tried watching American Idol last night and decided it was unwatchable about fifteen minutes in. Is this problem going to persist or has it been improving? Other times I watch FOX 45, I really don't notice it.


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## pbielski (Feb 21, 2007)

I hate to add to the pile, but this has been a real problem for some time now. The last two weeks AI has been unwatchable on D* HD. Much of the FOX 45 programming, e.g. House, has been similarly bad. For some time now I've had to switch back to OTA to watch the shows.

Perphas we can get an update from one of the engineers at WBFF or WJZ to see if any progress has been made.


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## MarkGreiner (Sep 27, 2006)

For those of you who don't know, there are several threads that deal with this specific issue, particularly dealing with 24 and American Idol out of the Baltimore stations. I just got off the phone with a very nice and helpful tech support rep at DirectTV. They are aware of the problem, and word around the tech staff is that the two new satellites being launch in late April should help--but there is no known official position of DirectTV on this. He believes that the most effective ways to be heard is to call DirectTV and lodge a complaint that goes to their corporate office. That's what I did, and that's what I think the rest of you should do too.


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## DJConan (Sep 14, 2006)

MarkGreiner said:


> Same here--it got better during the second half. I will say that we used to get the chirping AND dropouts. But now, even during the worse parts, we are only getting the chirping--but we do get a lot of it.
> 
> I will also add that about halfway through, I thought to check whether Native was on or off. Because of the recent update, it was back on, so I turned it off--I also keep Dolby Digital off (which was still off). Since we were watching a recording of AI--which we were watching with about a 30 min delay--there was no immediate change. But about the time we got to the point of the show where I turned Native off, things got pretty good with very little chirping. Again, sigh, since it is unlikely that the settings on my HR20 affect the quality of your program, then I suppose that this is all just strange coincidence.
> 
> Or is it?


I've kept native off since I've had the box and I've had DD on going through an optical cable since I've had the box. My thoughts are, you're making changes, but the show is getting better for some other reasons.

I read the original message about lights and motion and one of the worst AI broadcasts previously was during the elimination show, which isn't as flashy or full of motion. Granted, based on his original message, maybe some other channel at 8pm is creating problems for Fox for that first half hour. To me, that just seems odd (not impossible) if that were the case. That sounds more like sabotage than anything else. One network sucks up so much bandwidth that another network suffers for it? And why aren't all of the networks suffering?

Who knows. We're all just here speculating. I guess that's all we can do until the problem is corrected.

While I'm here, this is a quick place for me to ask for those in the Baltimore market...does anyone get NBC in DD 5.1? I never get more than 2-channel DD from NBC.


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## jakencam (Sep 2, 2006)

I also noticed during the elmination episode of 'AI' that the sound went completely out for about 15 minutes. I have already sent an e-mail to the local Fox affiliate about this issue (I received a response stating that they would send it up to their technical peoplem I believe). Good idea about lodging a complaint with D*.

It's really too bad, because I really like D* and would rather stick with them for now. I have had relatively few problems with the HR20 (I had a bad one initially, but the 2nd one has been okay, besides a few RBR). However, I don't have the ability to get OTA very well (that's why I wanted the HR20), so I'm stuck with this for now to get HD locals. Hopefully something can get resolved soon.


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## jakencam (Sep 2, 2006)

Oh, I forgot to add. As far as DD 5.1 for NBC goes, I'm not sure if I get it or not. Is ther an easy way to check (meaning, if its only DD 2.1, will I not get any sound from my rear speakers)?


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## jakencam (Sep 2, 2006)

I just thought I'd mention - I watched '24' last night and there were ZERO audio problems! I don't know if anyone else in the Baltimore area (or other areas with this problem) had the same experience. I hope they've nailed down what the problem is and this keeps up! The next test I suppose is 'American Idol' tonight!


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

FOX was great last night with 24 and Prison Break. I hope it stays that way. But I don't think it will.


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## bnglbill (Nov 29, 2006)

jakencam said:


> I just thought I'd mention - I watched '24' last night and there were ZERO audio problems! I don't know if anyone else in the Baltimore area (or other areas with this problem) had the same experience. I hope they've nailed down what the problem is and this keeps up! The next test I suppose is 'American Idol' tonight!


YUP, first big test of 13e tonight on Fox...


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

So far tonight no problems with A.I.


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## bnglbill (Nov 29, 2006)

BMoreRavens said:


> So far tonight no problems with A.I.


Flawless! Good Job D. I think.
Does this mean it was a software problem fixed by 13 E or do you think D is changing the way they're handling the signal or none of the above?


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

I don't know how it got fixed but hopefully it stays.


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## MarkGreiner (Sep 27, 2006)

Same here. Flawless AI tonight. Not one stutter or dopout.

I am curious as to how it came about (and of course whether it sticks). It is interesting, but maybe coincidental, that it came after I lodged a complaint and asked others to do the same. Did we get a big campaign of complaints direct to DirecTV?


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

bnglbill said:


> Flawless! Good Job D. I think.
> Does this mean it was a software problem fixed by 13 E or do you think D is changing the way they're handling the signal or none of the above?


I also watched AI last night and for the first time not one stutter. This has nothing to do with 13e, I'm on the national release. This has always been a problem with how DTV gets the feed from Fox. When I communicated with the station engineer he was doing what he could to adjust the data rate for the local broadcasts but could not change what was happening with the national broadcasts especially the live ones like AI. Also for the first time I was able to watch the Friends episodes at 7 and 7:30 and again the audio was perfect. So it looks like they've made whatever adjustments were needed in their equipment. I'm sending an email to Fox 45's engineer to thank him for his efforts and I also want to thank the DTV people that had a hand in correcting this.

We were also seeing a lot of posts from people in Connecticut who were having the same problem, it'll be interesting to see if their issue was corrected as well.
John


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## BluewookieJim (Dec 27, 2006)

pappasbike said:


> We were also seeing a lot of posts from people in Connecticut who were having the same problem, it'll be interesting to see if their issue was corrected as well.
> John


I haven't had a chance to watch this week 24 yet (WTIC in Hartford), but I'm planning on it tonight or tomorrow night, so I'll report back when do.


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## markbulla (Feb 2, 2007)

pappasbike said:


> I also watched AI last night and for the first time not one stutter. This has nothing to do with 13e, I'm on the national release. This has always been a problem with how DTV gets the feed from Fox. When I communicated with the station engineer he was doing what he could to adjust the data rate for the local broadcasts but could not change what was happening with the national broadcasts especially the live ones like AI. Also for the first time I was able to watch the Friends episodes at 7 and 7:30 and again the audio was perfect. So it looks like they've made whatever adjustments were needed in their equipment. I'm sending an email to Fox 45's engineer to thank him for his efforts and I also want to thank the DTV people that had a hand in correcting this.
> 
> We were also seeing a lot of posts from people in Connecticut who were having the same problem, it'll be interesting to see if their issue was corrected as well.
> John


I'd take the credit for it, if I did anything, but it looks as though DTV finally got their issue resolved with the reception of my station. Last time I spoke with them, they told me that they were going to try updating the software on the receiver with which they pull in our signal. I guess they finally did that...

Mark


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## pbielski (Feb 21, 2007)

I started to see a few audio breaks while watching AI. The first 50 minures of the show were flawless - no problems at all. At 50 minutes in I started to see audio breaks when AI went to commercials. This was all on WBFF Fox 45 MPEG4. I was recording and watching a few minutes behind real time. Strange the audio breaks seemed restricted to the commercials.

Other than that 0x13e has been working well.


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## HockeyKat (Jul 5, 2006)

I didn't notice until after AI was over that there were NO sound issues at all! :joy: I didn't realize new software was coming out. I'll have to check tonight to see if it installed yesterday or this morning. But I believe someone else said that 24 was great monday night (haven't caught up yet), so it may not be a software issue.


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## MarkGreiner (Sep 27, 2006)

pbielski said:


> I started to see a few audio breaks while watching AI. The first 50 minures of the show were flawless - no problems at all. At 50 minutes in I started to see audio breaks when AI went to commercials. This was all on WBFF Fox 45 MPEG4. I was recording and watching a few minutes behind real time. Strange the audio breaks seemed restricted to the commercials.


Actually, you are correct. There were a few dropouts with respect to the commercials only. Generally, I consider that a feature rather than a flaw. :lol:

Still, if we want to be completely accurate in our assessment, there was an issue with a few commercials. By the way...I was watching live.


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## jakencam (Sep 2, 2006)

I'll throw my two cents in as well and say that AI sounded great last night! Hopefully this problem is behind us now!


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

HockeyKat said:


> I didn't notice until after AI was over that there were NO sound issues at all! :joy: I didn't realize new software was coming out. I'll have to check tonight to see if it installed yesterday or this morning. But I believe someone else said that 24 was great monday night (haven't caught up yet), so it may not be a software issue.


As Mark stated above DTV apparently made adjustments in software to their equipment that picks up the Fox 45 feed. He stated in an email to me that he was not seeing/hearing any problems here at WBFF but DTV was hearing and seeing the issues at their Colorado facility and made adjustments there. He was not aware of the improvements until I emailed him. This did not happen because of any software update to the HR 20 because I had the national release until this morning and I've realized that all of my Fox shows this week-24, Bones, AI, Wedding Bells and the Friends repeats I watch had no audio problems except for a couple commercials.
John


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## DJConan (Sep 14, 2006)

jakencam said:


> Oh, I forgot to add. As far as DD 5.1 for NBC goes, I'm not sure if I get it or not. Is ther an easy way to check (meaning, if its only DD 2.1, will I not get any sound from my rear speakers)?


I'm not sure exactly. The surround osund receivers I use, both show how many channels are receiving audio, so that's how I know I'm not getting 5.1 on NBC.

Yeah, noticed this week that the audio problems have seemed to have disappeared on at least Fox.


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## pbielski (Feb 21, 2007)

I'm happy to report that AI was perfect for me last night. No audio drop outs or stuttering at all. We wtatch other shows on FOX WBFF as well, both live and recorded. All were perfect. This was the first time. Congratulation D* and thanks!


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## SockMonkey (Aug 14, 2006)

This is great news everyone! A big "Thank you!" to those here who took the time to contact WBFF or D*! In the end, you've helped us all!

Thanks!  
Bob


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## BluewookieJim (Dec 27, 2006)

pappasbike said:


> We were also seeing a lot of posts from people in Connecticut who were having the same problem, it'll be interesting to see if their issue was corrected as well.
> John


Well, I just watched my recording of 24 from this Monday. The audio was improved, I'll give it that. But I still had roughly a dozen instances of the buzzsaw sound during the actual show.

Rather than being every 10 to 30 seconds like it was the last few weeks, this time it was every 4 to 5 minutes, except in one area of the show where I had 3 in the span of about a minute.


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## GaryGnu (Mar 17, 2007)

Any watch The Simpsons on WBFF last night? I got lots of buzzing. Very annoying. This is my introduction to this problem, having just gotten the HR20 recently. I watched Family Guy which was on a bit later and there were no problems.


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## markbulla (Feb 2, 2007)

GaryGnu said:


> Any watch The Simpsons on WBFF last night? I got lots of buzzing. Very annoying. This is my introduction to this problem, having just gotten the HR20 recently. I watched Family Guy which was on a bit later and there were no problems.


I watched the Simpsons OTA last night, and there were no problems on my Dish 811 receiver.

On the issue of audio break-up going into and out of commercials, it's because we (WBFF and FOX don't send the audio at the same data rate. Last time I changed it to match the network, there were all kinds of problems, but that was before DirecTV did their fix thing. I'll change ours to match the network's data rate in a couple of days, and we'll see what happens.

Mark


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## GaryGnu (Mar 17, 2007)

I should have mentioned my problem was occurring with DTV locals not OTA. Does this problem occur with WBFF OTA on the HR20 also?


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

Last week FOX was great in Baltimore. Prison Break just stared about 5 minutes ago and it is bad. It is just like it was before it was fixed last week. I don't know if it has anything to do with the software or not. Last week I had 0x13e and now I have 0x141.


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## TrAvELAr (Jan 14, 2007)

Thanks for posting this. After 2 months, I finally got an installer out here yesterday with my new dish. All the channels seem fine except for Fox.

Hopefully WBFF will get their stuff together soon.


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## MarkGreiner (Sep 27, 2006)

markbulla said:


> On the issue of audio break-up going into and out of commercials, it's because we (WBFF and FOX don't send the audio at the same data rate. Last time I changed it to match the network, there were all kinds of problems, but that was before DirecTV did their fix thing. I'll change ours to match the network's data rate in a couple of days, and we'll see what happens.


I appreciate your responsiveness, Mark. I just hope we don't lose some of the great results that you and DirecTV have achieved. Can you make your changes after AI this week?


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

> On the issue of audio break-up going into and out of commercials


The problems I was having last night was not going in and out of commercials. That problem was last week. Last night was like it was before. Every 30 seconds or so it was stuttering.


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## cdavis (Aug 11, 2006)

BMoreRavens said:


> The problems I was having last night was not going in and out of commercials. That problem was last week. Last night was like it was before. Every 30 seconds or so it was stuttering.


I had the same problem with Prison Break. I am perplexed by how they (don't know who they are) can fix a problem and then return to a state of crappiness the following week. I really hope this problem is corrected for tonights American Idol. Has anyone tracked down what the exact problem is? Also, I don't believe it is a software issue as I have 0x13e (if that is the latest national release).


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## TimGoodwin (Jun 29, 2004)

This is why I need the SWM now so I can watch Fox OTA instead of the Mpeg4 channels. I only have two coax cables coming in so I need to free one up for my antenna.


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## Scott R. Scherr (Aug 19, 2006)

Last night, Prison Break had the horrible audio issues and then near the end, the picture went out and reappeared. The audio was much better thereafter. But then the recording ended with about five minutes left and the "Do you want to delete message" appeared.

We then watched 24. When I hit play, it was 15-20 minutes into the show, but I was able to rewind to the beginning. It showed the time as "-20." We watched 24 and the audio was pretty muck fine, but with five minutes left in the show, the "do you want to delete message" appeared.

So, the ends of both shows did not record and 24 required rewinding into negative territory. This has never happened before. There were also moments where the picture pixelated.

Scott


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

Having a lot of audio problems again with A.I. tonight.


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## johnner1999 (Aug 30, 2003)

i'm also in the hartford/ct market and just switched to D* (1-HR20) 

And well on Idol and House tonight in HD has the audio issue :-(


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## DJConan (Sep 14, 2006)

Just finished watching American Idol and I started having the audio problem around 37-38 minutes into the broadcast.

Nevermind that the HR-20 didn't record the last 7 minutes.


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

johnner1999 said:


> i'm also in the hartford/ct market and just switched to D* (1-HR20)
> 
> And well on Idol and House tonight in HD has the audio issue :-(


Same thing here in Brookfield, CT. MPEG4 Channel 5 out of NY. Audio problems during House and American Idol. Been having these problems for weeks now on Channel 5.


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## cdavis (Aug 11, 2006)

maybe not a fox issue. I had the same problem in my recording of the black donnelys which is on nbc. any thoughts? to be more specific, the stuttering problem occurred at the beginning of the show. the rest of the show had a bad audio/video mismatch.


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

cdavis said:


> maybe not a fox issue. I had the same problem in my recording of the black donnelys which is on nbc. any thoughts? to be more specific, the stuttering problem occurred at the beginning of the show. the rest of the show had a bad audio/video mismatch.


I had a few audio problems with NBC a few weeks ago but they stop until Monday night. I also had a lot of problems with Black Donnelys.


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## MarkGreiner (Sep 27, 2006)

I had to let A.I. record last night because I was on the phone with Microsoft tech support for several hours trying to activate Vista--guess what, if you upgrade Vista with a clean install, Microsoft may consider this to be a new install (or so the tech guy tells me) and the full version must be purchased. Yes--that is what they are telling me.

But I digress. A.I. was a complete mess last night. Completely unwatchable--video and sound. We are back to square one.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

MarkGreiner said:


> But I digress. A.I. was a complete mess last night. Completely unwatchable--video and sound. We are back to square one.


Watched Bones and AI tonight-old buzz saw is back. Even during the local broadcast of Friends there was a lot of the stuttering. Very disappointing.
John


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## Scott R. Scherr (Aug 19, 2006)

I am not sure what is going on, but just before 9:00 p.m., all MPEG4 locals were gone. I watched AI OTA. At 9:45 p.m., they all returned. I watched the rest of 'Til Death without a problem.

Scott


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## markbulla (Feb 2, 2007)

MarkGreiner said:


> I appreciate your responsiveness, Mark. I just hope we don't lose some of the great results that you and DirecTV have achieved. Can you make your changes after AI this week?


Yeah, actually, that was what I was waiting for. Then I came in this AM, and found out that there are problemds on DTV again... I'm glad that I didn't change anything - that would just complicate things. Someone must have changed something some place, but it wasn't me...

Mark


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## meadoel (Feb 9, 2007)

johnner1999 said:


> i'm also in the hartford/ct market and just switched to D* (1-HR20)
> 
> And well on Idol and House tonight in HD has the audio issue :-(


I watch AI on FOX 61- WTIC in CT. It's been bad for months.. with buzzsawing every few minutes. Last weeks was indeed better. This weeks (3/27) had buzz-sawing every 15 seconds for the first half of the show. It didn't get much better for the second half.

I don't see why I'm paying this much to record shows that look pretty in HD but have to be watched with the MUTE on.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

I have been hearing it all day, for the first time. Watching NASCAR on Fox out of NY is almost unbearable. Thank God for channel 88.


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

I had no problems tonight with 24 or Prison Break. Hopefully it is fixed this time and not just a week like the last time.


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

I had lots of audio problems with Prison Break. Not as many with 24. Fox 5 out of NY. MPEG4.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

BMoreRavens said:


> I had no problems tonight with 24 or Prison Break. Hopefully it is fixed this time and not just a week like the last time.


I've noticed for the past several days the lack of the audio stuttering on WBFF. I haven't wanted to jinx it by saying anything and I'm going to wait till I see some of my other big programs before declaring victory!!!! But it is looking hopeful. I did notice during one program that the screen froze at the same time as a loud buzz and then when the video resumed there was the stuttering through that broadcast which dismayed me but a little later they made some kind of correction and since it's been fine. It looks like they at least know how to deal with the problem now.

It seems that our Connecticut Fox brothers are still suffering though!
John


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

bret4 said:


> I had lots of audio problems with Prison Break. Not as many with 24. Fox 5 out of NY. MPEG4.


I emailed Fox 5 about the audio problems, and this was their reply:

Dear Mr. Hill, Thanks for your interest in WNYW FOX-5 HD. Our Team has reviewed your comments and were unable to find any issue with the WNYW HD feed to DirecTV. We do closely monitor our SD and HD feeds to our Local Off-Air as well as Cable/Satellite viewers so we reviewed our trouble logs as well as a recorded log of the audio and video over the past few days of Network time (8pm-10pm ET) and did not detect an audio issue. We will contact DirecTV to pass this information along and suggest that they need to pursue this issue. I would also suggest that you contact them directly and report what you have communicated to us. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have continued issues.

Al Shjarback

VP Engineering and Operations WNYW / WWOR TV


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## RMSko (Aug 23, 2006)

bret4 said:


> I had lots of audio problems with Prison Break. Not as many with 24. Fox 5 out of NY. MPEG4.


I assume that the problems are only on the MPEG-4 feed, is that right?


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

RMSko said:


> I assume that the problems are only on the MPEG-4 feed, is that right?


I believe everyone's problems have been with the MPEG4 channel. At least that is the way it has been in Baltimore Market.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

hilmar2k said:


> I emailed Fox 5 about the audio problems, and this was their reply:
> 
> Dear Mr. Hill, Thanks for your interest in WNYW FOX-5 HD. Our Team has reviewed your comments and were unable to find any issue with the WNYW HD feed to DirecTV. We do closely monitor our SD and HD feeds to our Local Off-Air as well as Cable/Satellite viewers so we reviewed our trouble logs as well as a recorded log of the audio and video over the past few days of Network time (8pm-10pm ET) and did not detect an audio issue. We will contact DirecTV to pass this information along and suggest that they need to pursue this issue. I would also suggest that you contact them directly and report what you have communicated to us. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have continued issues.
> 
> ...


Mark Bulla the chief engineer at our Fox station has said that he could find no problem with his feed to DTV but they would see/hear it at their Colorado facility and finally replaced some equipment and updated the software which seems to have worked for us. Keep emailing the station engineer and include a link back to this thread because it seems that only the local station can get DTV's attention to this. I haven't figured out another way to get DTV to focus on this. When the local engineers get frequent complaints they will push the issue.
John


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

hilmar2k said:


> I emailed Fox 5 about the audio problems, and this was their reply:
> 
> Dear Mr. Hill, Thanks for your interest in WNYW FOX-5 HD. Our Team has reviewed your comments and were unable to find any issue with the WNYW HD feed to DirecTV. We do closely monitor our SD and HD feeds to our Local Off-Air as well as Cable/Satellite viewers so we reviewed our trouble logs as well as a recorded log of the audio and video over the past few days of Network time (8pm-10pm ET) and did not detect an audio issue. We will contact DirecTV to pass this information along and suggest that they need to pursue this issue. I would also suggest that you contact them directly and report what you have communicated to us. Please feel free to contact me directly if you have continued issues.
> 
> ...


Maybe you can post the email address so we can hit them with more complaints.


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

RMSko said:


> I assume that the problems are only on the MPEG-4 feed, is that right?


That's right for me.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

bret4 said:


> Maybe you can post the email address so we can hit them with more complaints.


[email protected]


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## CHDinCT (Dec 23, 2006)

RMSko said:


> I assume that the problems are only on the MPEG-4 feed, is that right?


I can vouch for CT FOX. Never have the stuttering issue watching via OTA, only MPEG4. I'll have to check the MPEG4 feed out tonight - I've gotten to the point that I don't even check it the audio issues are so bad. Hopefully they have it fixed as I'd prefer to record the MPEG4 feed to save DVR space.

Chris


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

hilmar2k said:


> [email protected]


Thanks hilmar2k!

I just emailed the network. Will see what they say.


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## redrocker (Jan 3, 2007)

The Buzzsaw is back again on mpeg4 FOX, it started yesterday and continues this evening. 0x145


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## MarkGreiner (Sep 27, 2006)

A.I. out of Baltimore was absolutely perfect for us last night (Tuesday). 0x145


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## pbielski (Feb 21, 2007)

MarkGreiner said:


> A.I. out of Baltimore was absolutely perfect for us last night (Tuesday). 0x145


I agree - it was perfect fo us as well.

We did have problems with Dancing on WMAR 2 Baltimore, MPEG 4. There were an entire range of audio problems including a complete audio drop out for about 5 seconds, stuttering, and crackling in the DD rear speakers. This is the first time I've had audio problems that weren't on Fox.


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## bnglbill (Nov 29, 2006)

MarkGreiner said:


> A.I. out of Baltimore was absolutely perfect for us last night (Tuesday). 0x145


Yup, not even one little buzz, definitely the best yet, lets keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way.


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

MarkGreiner said:


> A.I. out of Baltimore was absolutely perfect for us last night (Tuesday). 0x145


Same here and I also watch THE UNIT on CBS which I have had a few problems with CBS before but that was also perfect.


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## CHDinCT (Dec 23, 2006)

Not so in CT. First 30 seconds of AI had multiple audio stuttering issues. After that I switched to OTA and didn't check back on the MPEG4 feed after that. Disappointing.


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## hilmar2k (Mar 18, 2007)

CHDinCT said:


> Not so in CT. First 30 seconds of AI had multiple audio stuttering issues. After that I switched to OTA and didn't check back on the MPEG4 feed after that. Disappointing.


CT or NY feed?


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## CHDinCT (Dec 23, 2006)

hilmar2k said:


> CT or NY feed?


CT (WTIC-DT, Hartford) - I don't get NY Locals in HD, only SD.


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## bret4 (Nov 22, 2006)

I am going to start a new thread to report audio problems from Fox 5 out of NY. WNYW. I have have emailed Al Shjarback VP Engineering and Operations WNYW / WWOR TV. He and D* do not see any problem with the audio on this channel.


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## BluewookieJim (Dec 27, 2006)

bret4 said:


> I am going to start a new thread to report audio problems from Fox 5 out of NY. WNYW. I have have emailed Al Shjarback VP Engineering and Operations WNYW / WWOR TV. He and D* do not see any problem with the audio on this channel.


Hmm... maybe we should have a specific thread for Fox WTIC Hartford too then.


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## MarkGreiner (Sep 27, 2006)

Another perfect A.I. out of Baltimore last night (Wednesday). That's two shows in a row folks. To me this means that the problem is solvable and has nothing to do with getting more satellites in the sky. Now, as long as DTV and/or the local stations know what they did, we should be well out of the woods.


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

MarkGreiner said:


> Another perfect A.I. out of Baltimore last night (Wednesday). That's two shows in a row folks. To me this means that the problem is solvable and has nothing to do with getting more satellites in the sky. Now, as long as DTV and/or the local stations know what they did, we should be well out of the woods.


This happened a few weeks ago in Baltimore. One complete week was perfect and then it started up again. So until it goes at least 2 or 3 weeks I will not say it is fixed yet.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

MarkGreiner said:


> Another perfect A.I. out of Baltimore last night (Wednesday). That's two shows in a row folks. To me this means that the problem is solvable and has nothing to do with getting more satellites in the sky. Now, as long as DTV and/or the local stations know what they did, we should be well out of the woods.


I got in touch with Mark Bulla at WBFF 45 to let him know of the improvements. He said he had been talking to the DTV guys last week to let them know that problems had reappeared temporarily. They told him they would fix it but didn't tell him what it was that they actually did. He's trying to find out so if those guys leave he can tell the new ones what to do!!! Any way for now it seems like they've figured something out-I've had one or two stuttering incidents on WBAL 11 but none on Fox this week, for me that's a huge improvement. Now I'll have to find something else to complain about-trick plays?:lol:


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## GaryGnu (Mar 17, 2007)

I noticed some buzzing on NBC WBAL today at around 1:30pm. First time I've herd the problem on a station other than WBFF.


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## SockMonkey (Aug 14, 2006)

GaryGnu said:


> I noticed some buzzing on NBC WBAL today at around 1:30pm. First time I've herd the problem on a station other than WBFF.


WBAL was also having problems yesterday around 3pm (at least that's when I turned on the TV). I've also had the buzzing problem on WJZ a few times; mostly during prime time though.

Fox has been great for the past few weeks for me... although I must admit, I don't watch a ton of fox programming... pretty much just 24 and NFL football.


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## GaryGnu (Mar 17, 2007)

This problem will not go away. There was a buzzing sound during the Family Guy season premiere right at the time Luke Skywalker (Chris) rescued Princess Lea (Lois). Did anyone else hear it?

I've also had the problem on other Baltimore local channels.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

GaryGnu said:


> This problem will not go away. There was a buzzing sound during the Family Guy season premiere right at the time Luke Skywalker (Chris) rescued Princess Lea (Lois). Did anyone else hear it?
> 
> I've also had the problem on other Baltimore local channels.


The buzz sawing has reoccurred a few times recently but very infrequently fortunately. I assume the equipment sometimes has a glitch.
John


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

It looks like the audio stuttering and audio/video sync problem is back in Baltimore on FOX HD (WBFF 45) at least for me.

Anyone else having problems? It started today for me. 

I am having the problems on all of my receivers and it is only via DIRECTV MPEG4. The OTA feed is fine.


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

Michael D'Angelo;1580668 said:


> ...I am having the problems on all of my receivers and it is only via DIRECTV MPEG4. The OTA feed is fine.


What does that tell you?

Here's something else to consider: FOX provides virtually the same identical signal to all affiliates, who can't change the compression, can't change the audio bit rate, and basically can't change anything about it or even touch the signal. It is demodulated from QPSK to ASI locally by identical Wegener Unity 500 receivers at each station, which can not modify the content or audio quality or PQ because it is still in the digital domain, where it stays compliments of MPEG splicer technology until it gets either to your ATSC tuner or to the ATSC tuner that DTV uses prior to backhauling it to their uplink site. It goes through the splicer and pretty much directly to the exciter at the local transmitter and reaches both DTV and every receive antenna OTA in every market in virtually the same condition as it leaves the FOX NOC. IOW, every FOX viewer in the country gets virtually the same signal without any intermediate processing; in fact it is impossible for there to even be any intermediate processing, at least until DTV gets hold of it.

That means that every FOX viewer OTA gets virtually the same signal, same bit rate, same audio rate, same PQ, same everything that DTV gets. The signal remains in the digital domain from FOX all the way to the OTA tuner. But DTV processes the local signals separately and spot beams them separately. If there is something unique about FOX 45 from DTV, the difference can only be in the processing that DTV does to that particular channel, as no one else has an opportunity to mess with that signal (they each have an iron-clad alibi), and most every other FOX OTA signal and DTV MPEG-4 signal doesn't have this problem.

To me that is incontrivertible evidence, a smoking gun found in the hands of DTV.

I have also seen this problem, which is the audio equivalent of video pixellation, IOW, not enough bits to recreate the audio signal properly on occasion, on other MPEG-4 channels, such as StarzHD.


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## jgraves (Jun 19, 2007)

Same problem here with audio only on FOX called dtv and they said we dont see anything wrong but will send it to corporate


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

The audio stuttering with terrible audio syncing is back on Fox 45 HD in Baltimore on their broadcasts. It's been going on for 4 or 5 days now. Makes the broadcast virtually unwatchable.
John


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

Please report all future problems in this thread....http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=137755&highlight=Baltimore

Thanks,
Mike


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