Audio breakup and dropout in Sea Patrol 31 Mar 08

prl · Post by **prl** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 11:13

We watched Sea Patrol (Nine HD) last night and there were frequent episodes of audio breakup or dropout. Video during the audio problems seemed to be OK. The dropouts were longish, 2-3 seconds, so enough to disrupt the flow of the story.

The problem didn't appear to affect the program promos or the HD loop displayed during the SD ad breaks, so perhaps it's a problem with the bitrate in the Sea Patrol HD material?

Anyone else have a similar problem? We were receiving from Canberra Black Mountain.

Speaking of the lack of paid ads on the commercial HD channels, just what is their funding model there? In particular, where's the money coming from to fund the additional material in the multicasting?

Edit: forgot to mention that this was live, not a recording. No recording was running, but timeshifting was enabled.

smeg888 · Post by **smeg888** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 14:16

prl wrote:We watched Sea Patrol (Nine HD) last night and there were frequent episodes of audio breakup or dropout. Video during the audio problems seemed to be OK. The dropouts were longish, 2-3 seconds, so enough to disrupt the flow of the story.

The problem didn't appear to affect the program promos or the HD loop displayed during the SD ad breaks, so perhaps it's a problem with the bitrate in the Sea Patrol HD material?

Anyone else have a similar problem? We were receiving from Canberra Black Mountain.

Speaking of the lack of paid ads on the commercial HD channels, just what is their funding model there? In particular, where's the money coming from to fund the additional material in the multicasting?

Hi prl, In Melbourne watching playback of Seapatrol HD on the BW. Had maybe 6 very short audio breakups. I assumed it was the BW because I was chase playing SP and recording something else.

regards

MattV · Post by **MattV** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 15:58

I get audio break-ups all the time watching WIN Canberra, very annoying.

Not to mention SC10 not airing rove in HD when in the EPG it is mentioned.

I think that WIN cannot play commercials due to the cost of adding another 4 or 5 switching desks (depending on how many markets are broadcast from the Gong), ever notice how Prime does generic commercials during HD breaks (suitable for all markets that are transmitted from Canberra studios).

Hope that made sense.

Matt

sub3R · Post by **sub3R** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 17:44

prl wrote:We watched Sea Patrol (Nine HD) last night and there were frequent episodes of audio breakup or dropout. Video during the audio problems seemed to be OK. The dropouts were longish, 2-3 seconds, so enough to disrupt the flow of the story.
?.

Peter, I recorded this on NBN HD & will check some time later.
You may remember the audio loss issues with Sea Patrol are one of my pet issues with the BW (as it was with the 7000). The last couple of episodes of Sea Patrol last year had audio loss issues on the BW that didn?t occur on the 7000 except for one loss that I expect was a TV Network issue (after a couple of betas Topfield corrected these issues on the 7000).

Previous issues last year were from memory around 11sec after the end of every ad break ? this occurred two or three times for around 2 or 3 seconds at a time & the same thing around 11 seconds after the start of every ad break (the audio changes during Sea Patrol for every ad break - at least it used to in previous years).

Were you running 01.05.215 f/w? I have noticed that this version causes rare intermittent audio distortion & rare intermittent short video shake issues. I have picked this up live on both my S1s on two different shows & today I noticed it on a different recording recorded with 01.05.215 f/w. No other issues like this have been experienced with earlier f/w.

prl · Post by **prl** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 18:11

I was running 1.05.211 beta. I was away when 215 was released, and by the time I got back the posts on the forum made me decide it was Not For Me

I'll update when the next release with the anticipated timezone fixes is released.

tonymy01 · Post by **tonymy01** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 18:12

I have found that since 9 launched HD last week, they are broadcasting a permanent 5.1 signal, so there shouldn't be any issues with amplifiers or HDMI etc resynching the audio each time they switch out of stereo to 5.1 out of the advert breaks.
Dunno if Win is doing the same, probably not.
Regards

prl · Post by **prl** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 19:10

I didn't notice any correlation with ad breaks.

prl · Post by **prl** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 21:36

sub3R wrote:...
You may remember the audio loss issues with Sea Patrol are one of my pet issues with the BW (as it was with the 7000). The last couple of episodes of Sea Patrol last year had audio loss issues on the BW that didn?t occur on the 7000 except for one loss that I expect was a TV Network issue (after a couple of betas Topfield corrected these issues on the 7000).
...

I had a bit of a look around at the Topfield forum, and found a couple of threads with references to audio dropout in the first season of See Pat Roll. See here and but here there seeems agreement that the problem had been fixed.. You were one of the contributors. I thought I'd posted on that, too, but I couldn't find any of my own posts.

sub3R · Post by **sub3R** » Wed Apr 02, 2008 11:03

sub3R wrote:
prl wrote:We watched Sea Patrol (Nine HD) last night and there were frequent episodes of audio breakup or dropout. Video during the audio problems seemed to be OK. The dropouts were longish, 2-3 seconds, so enough to disrupt the flow of the story.
?.
Peter, I recorded this on NBN HD & will check some time later. ?.

Peter, I just finished watching Sea Patrol & noticed 7 audio dropouts at the following spots (all measured from the very start of the show):
39sec, 6min 43sec, 12min 31sec (just after end of 1st ad break), 12min 37sec, 24min 50sec (just after end of 2nd ad break), 45min 46sec (after end of 3rd ad break), 45min 51sec. No dropouts after the end of the 4th ad break.
Most dropouts were only minor & very short with only one or two for about 1 second duration disrupting the flow of the story. No video interruption throughout the show from what I could see. I recorded & replayed this with 01.05.195 f/w.

This is probably typical of what happens with some other, but not all, HD shows recorded on my S1s.

To familiarise myself with previous audio dropouts I replayed the short stream of Sea Patrol I gave Topfield Korea last year but unfortunately it plays perfectly on my PC. I now remember this is what used to happen.

I think the reason you couldn?t find any of your posts relating to the audio dropout issues is because most discussions were either in the Topfield Beta Testers forum or in PMs back & forth. Reading some of the old posts you pointed out certainly brings back memories of how thoroughly we used to beta test the 7000 f/w.

I?ll keep an eye out on the Topfield forums to see if anyone with a 7000 comments about audio dropouts with this series of Sea Patrol.

Except for my love of boats & the sea I?m not sure why I keep watching this show ? I don?t think the story line has improved much.

GB · Post by GB » Tue Apr 08, 2008 07:49

On the subject of audio dropouts, I watched last night a recording of the Kangaroos-Hawthorn match last Saturday on Ten HD. The recording was 3 hours long, and I watched perhaps 85% (skipped a lot of the waffle between quarters). I noticed 4 or so instances of audio dropout like Peter and others described - the pattern involved a very quick "blip" (ie sound, then no sound for an instant, and then sound again), followed immediately by 3 seconds or so of no audio, then another quick blip before all returned to normal. This happened randomly through the recording.

I am running 197 FW and have the Wiz connected to my Denon amp through HDMI/coax. Audio is on passthrough (and the Denon amp was registering 5.1 audio from the Wiz during the match broadcast (not the ads)).

Thinking about, I noticed the "blip" (as I described it above) each time ads finished and the match broadcast recommenced. I figured this was due to the transition from stereo to 5.1, and results from the audio delay set on my Denon. So, thinking about, I wonder whether the issue of the 3 seconds of no sound that occurred during the match broadcast itself (which was preceded and followed by the "blip" as well) has something to do with a problem in the 5.1 broadcast, rather than there being a Wiz issue? Unfortunately, I have already deleted the recording and so can't go back to test what the Denon amp says it is receiving during those 3 second dropouts.

I must say that this is the first real issue I have had with Wiz recordings. I recently was away with the family for a week and set out around 20-25 timers - all went off without a hitch. In all important respects, the Wiz to date has been working like clockwork for me (hence my reluctance to date to chance my arm on the 215 FW!).

Greg

prl · Post by **prl** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 09:27

Sea Patrol last night (WIN 20:30 7/4/08 ) was a huge improvement over last week's. One short Beyonwiz-typical frame freeze near the beginning, then everything was OK.

sub3R · Post by **sub3R** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 15:56

I believe NBN were aware of the audio problems with Sea Patrol. It appears it was/is caused when (as we always thought) the audio changes from the end of the ad break (Dolby 2.1 I think) back to Dolby 5.1. It takes a few seconds to show this up.

Peter, you may remember a well known Topfield 7000 beta tester in the early days reporting what happens to the audio indicators on his Amp when this happens.

Funny that after Topfield made changes to their f/w to cope with this, the 7000 always handled this around 99% better than the BW.

I haven?t watched the latest episode of Sea Patrol to confirm your observations. I wonder if that was Dolby 5.1 all the way through instead of changing for the ad breaks.

Regards,

Nem · Post by **Nem** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 17:59

tonymy01 wrote:I have found that since 9 launched HD last week, they are broadcasting a permanent 5.1 signal, so there shouldn't be any issues with amplifiers or HDMI etc resynching the audio each time they switch out of stereo to 5.1 out of the advert breaks.
Dunno if Win is doing the same, probably not.
Regards

9 up here displays as DD 5.1 (3/2/1) but no sound actually broadcasts out of the centre channel through my amp (still DD2.1). I am finding that Im still watching a lot of SD content because Pro Logic 5.1 is better than DD2.1 as far as I am concerned. The broadcast is missing impact with no centre channel.

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 20:43

Hi Nem,

Nem wrote:9 up here displays as DD 5.1 (3/2/1) but no sound actually broadcasts out of the centre channel through my amp (still DD2.1). I am finding that Im still watching a lot of SD content because Pro Logic 5.1 is better than DD2.1 as far as I am concerned. The broadcast is missing impact with no centre channel.

TV station often transmit inferior audio.

HD Channel 9 (LCN 90) in Melb is often dropping audio completely. There can be periods of up to 5 or so minutes when there is no audio at all!

Regards,
Ian.

Wombass · Post by **Wombass** » Thu Apr 17, 2008 12:31

The audio backup appear to in Aussie 5.1 shows I watched Harry Potter last Saturday night in HD no probs great 5.1.
The Sea Patrol Dolby 5.1 is a useless attempt at surround. If it is shot in true 5.1 the sound engineers need to listen to there own work

Sea Patrol writers need sacking the story line is rubbish. A hand held GPS working below decks never. Remember when the ABC done Patrol Boat that was good entertainment

Wombass · Post by **Wombass** » Tue May 06, 2008 11:50

Monday 6 May no problems with Sea Patrol sound dropouts last night, the 5.1 mix is still really weak and story line crap. Give it back to ABC

Cheers Doug

Fujitsu 42"
Yamaha RX V657
Beyonwiz P1
Beyonwiz H1

smeg888 · Post by **smeg888** » Tue May 06, 2008 12:35

Interesting.

I'd had minor dropouts with SP before, but last night had a couple of very short ones, and one about 5 seconds.