BBC HD Audio droput when switching from 1080p to 1080i

[drchrissmith]

Hi

Just an enquiry on what the status is of the recently introduced problem on the BBC HD channel on the EX503 (and probably all 2010 Sony TV's that can receive Freeview HD). The new BBC HD codec now allows for dynamic switching between 1080p and 1080i content which causes a short dropout in the audio stream on Sony TV's. Is this problem going to be addressed by Sony/BBC with an update as it makes BBC HD fairly unwatchable with the continuous audio dropouts.

Other than this issue very happy with the TV (aprt from not being able to slect HD channel override so BBC1/ITV etc could be set to use the HD version by default).

Thanks

Chris

[daander75]

PROG 54 CH59 here is signal quality between 95 and 100, strength 90, pre FEC 4.7 e3 C/N 44 to 52 depending on traffic passing. The other channels lower down are Strength 100 and Quality 100.

I can see the masts at Blackhill (on a clear day) and the top of Craigkelly mast in the other direction.

Antenna is in the loft.

[gm8arv]

I also changed to a wideband antenna in the loft when I bought my first Freeview set top box.  In the belief that wideband may be better for digital (although only if the signal bandwidth was far more than it is now), and given the higher strength, I'll likely not bother to change back to my group B.  "If it works, leave it" is usally good advice, at least applied to VHF/UHF and computers!

Will check the FEC on BBC-HD tomorrow, if I remember.  Not in quite such a "good" location as yours, but good enough to have 138MHz pager transmitters nearby, which ruins 137MHz satellite reception.

[Pixelz]

Looks like the new firmware is now available for download, so USB updates are possible!  Thanks, Sony Engineering.

As far as I can tell, BBC-HD is now transmitting 1920x1080i in preparation for the Wimbledon 3D experiment, and no 1080p switching is evident.  This means there are currently no audio issues, so it's hard to be certain that the fix is effective (at least until until after Wimbledon).

[daander75]

I changed back to the Group B yagi today in an effort to combat one of my DVRs from choosing Craigkelly rather than Blackhill.

Unsuccessful - it still did this and unlike the Sony Bravia TV I was not able to manually restrict the range of the channel scan. However despite this the Craigkelly channels are perfect on this DVR box which is rather old and has no HD.  Actually it will be handy because sometimes STV News has different content on Craigkelly from Blackhill.

Good news is that the analog switch off and digital frequency reshuffle today, along with increased TX power has now given me 100% signal and Quality readings on the Bravia. Absolutely no dropouts or glitches.

OT: David, I know about those Pager transmitters, I used to listen to the WX Sats and suffered from the problem, though Pagers are much less common these days now all the kids use SMS, though I appreciate there are still commercial uses.

[gm8arv]

I seem to have had mixed success.  Some of my kit has multiple "BBC-1" and other channels, perhaps from Criagkelly pickup.  I should try and find out more - when you select the channel it may come up with "No signal".  I saw the Sonly pick up something on hh.27, with a quality of just 2, but I think the more HF signals with the same channel overrode that from ch.27.  Much better HD signals, with a BER of about 4E-3 rather than 1E-2.  Haven't looked up whether that's the expected change just from signal level, or whether the delta-F also helped! 

OT: Many folk are now receiving their weather datellite data through EUMETCast, which provides both geostationary and polar orbiter data, with over 60GB available every day....

[gm8arv]

Finally, to close my comments, on the other boxes, it was best to delete all the existing channels before scanning for new after the switch-over.

David

[daander75]

This episode of the digital switchover and the problems associated when a set is within range of more than one transmitter has made me wonder if in the future it would be possible to have a simpler method of "tuning".

In a digital age one would expect a simple menu that you would choose your preferred transmitter and the set would automatically use those channels and exclude others unless you chose to do otherwise.