An Experiment to Track Down Pixelation and Audio Dropouts

[Milominderbinder2]

If you are having audio dropouts or pixelation on your HR20 MPEG4, do you want to try an experiment?

The next time that you are going to watch a local HD channel program, would you record it on your HR20 but first watch it live on your HD TV if you can?

See if there are any audio drop-out or pixelation in the live broadcast. Note the time if any occur.

Now watch the recording. Are there more, less, or the same problems?

Would you take the experiment a step farther and record the program on your HR20 OTA as well as the HD satellite feed.

If you want to really have some fun with this, buy something like this on sale today only at Fry's (http://shop2.outpost.com/product/5218927#detailed). It is just an inexpensive USB HD/SD Tuner adapter. At your local Fry's it is $29 today only (5/21) in store only. It is normally $80 at places like tigerdirect (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2971272&sku=O38-2014).

For example then I could record and compare PQ and Audio of:
1. OTA HD direct to the TV
2. OTA via HR20
3. HD Local via D* Satellite

Hopefully we would be able to see if our picture quality problems and sound dropouts are due to the affiliates feed, the conversion to MPEG4, or in the satellite transmission.

Anyone else interested in this experiment?

- Craig

[Spanky_Partain]

What a cool toy for the price!

[techntrek]

I get the audio drop-outs all the time on the local HD feeds. I can tell you conclusively its not any of the problems you mentioned above. At least for me. If I rewind back a few seconds (so I lag behind live TV a few seconds) the problem disappears, and the dropouts I just heard will be gone. Rewinding back and reviewing all the dropouts always gives me perfect audio.

So the signal is arriving at my HR-20 properly, and is being recorded to the hard drive correctly. It just isn't playing properly when its "live".

[Titan25]

I get the audio drop-outs all the time on the local HD feeds. I can tell you conclusively its not any of the problems you mentioned above. At least for me. If I rewind back a few seconds (so I lag behind live TV a few seconds) the problem disappears, and the dropouts I just heard will be gone. Rewinding back and reviewing all the dropouts always gives me perfect audio.

So the signal is arriving at my HR-20 properly, and is being recorded to the hard drive correctly. It just isn't playing properly when its "live".

+1

[thekochs]

I get the audio drop-outs all the time on the local HD feeds. I can tell you conclusively its not any of the problems you mentioned above. At least for me. If I rewind back a few seconds (so I lag behind live TV a few seconds) the problem disappears, and the dropouts I just heard will be gone. Rewinding back and reviewing all the dropouts always gives me perfect audio.

So the signal is arriving at my HR-20 properly, and is being recorded to the hard drive correctly. It just isn't playing properly when its "live".

I have seen the exact same.......on pixelazation too.....strange a STOP, REWIND, PLAY fixes the issue off "live" TV but it does.

[thekochs]

If you are having audio dropouts or pixelation on your HR20 MPEG4, do you want to try an experiment?

The next time that you are going to watch a local HD channel program, would you record it on your HR20 but first watch it live on your HD TV if you can?

See if there are any audio drop-out or pixelation in the live broadcast. Note the time if any occur.

Now watch the recording. Are there more, less, or the same problems?

Would you take the experiment a step farther and record the program on your HR20 OTA as well as the HD satellite feed.

If you want to really have some fun with this, buy something like this on sale today only at Fry's (http://shop2.outpost.com/product/5218927#detailed). It is just an inexpensive USB HD/SD Tuner adapter. At your local Fry's it is $29 today only (5/21) in store only. It is normally $80 at places like tigerdirect (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2971272&sku=O38-2014).

For example then I could record and compare PQ and Audio of:
1. OTA HD direct to the TV
2. OTA via HR20
3. HD Local via D* Satellite

Hopefully we would be able to see if our picture quality problems and sound dropouts are due to the affiliates feed, the conversion to MPEG4, or in the satellite transmission.

Anyone else interested in this experiment?

- Craig

Oppps..............back to $80. Also, what exactly do they mean by..........

Kworld HD Hybrid TV Tuner 330

Watch live high quality digital 1080i format HD TV without service fees from anywhere on your laptop, the options are unlimited with full support for both analog (NTSC) and digital (ATSC) reception.

[Milominderbinder2]

Oppps..............back to $80. Also, what exactly do they mean by..........

Kworld HD Hybrid TV Tuner 330

Watch live high quality digital 1080i format HD TV without service fees from anywhere on your laptop, the options are unlimited with full support for both analog (NTSC) and digital (ATSC) reception.
It displays and records the 29 Chicago HD OTA channels.

I bought one at Fry's tonight for $59 with $30 mail in rebate=$29. They had at least a dozen others to pick form but only this model at $29 net.

It is so cool. My laptop is now a DVR. Record, Pause, Playback, Schedule, Guide, etc.

Here is the amazing part. Channel 56-1 & -2 are partially obstructed and neither my new Mitsubishi or HR20 can get them. This tiny little USB plug in gets them!

What fun for $29!

I am just now testing. I set it up to record the same OTA channel and then watch it on the HR20 satellite signal. When I get an audio dropout followed by a pixelation, I can compare real time.

The audio drop-outs and pixelation so far have all been a problem just with the HR20.

For some time there had been conjecture that the problem was not in the HR20.

I will go through all 5 of the HD OTA with matching tonight but so far it is the HR20, not the source.

Next step it to look at each HR20 OTA and compare to real OTA. That way we can see if it is the raw D* MPG2 or a problem with D* transcoded MPEG4.

Can some of the rest of you compare MPG2 (OTA HD) to MPEG4 (Satellite) in your markets with your HR20's?

At least in Chicago the problems are now know to not be a problem with the source OTA signals.

This is all in the name of science...not an excuse to get a great little toy for sitting in airports and traveling plus home! We all need to stick to our story...

- Craig

[bonscott87]

I can say that most (say 95%) of any audio dropout I get on MPEG4 locals is also present OTA (on a non HR20 as well). Audio dropouts just happen on locals, nothing you can do about it (with my locals anyway). I've seen 'em for 5 years without an HR20 and now with an HR20 the audio dropouts aren't any worse, MPEG4 or OTA.

It was really bad on one of our ABC stations recently (which isn't available on MPEG4). The complaining was high on our AVS thread. Turned out to be a bad audio processor at the station. They replaced it and now all is well.

[BillyBob_jcv]

I get the audio drop-outs all the time on the local HD feeds. I can tell you conclusively its not any of the problems you mentioned above. At least for me. If I rewind back a few seconds (so I lag behind live TV a few seconds) the problem disappears, and the dropouts I just heard will be gone. Rewinding back and reviewing all the dropouts always gives me perfect audio.

So the signal is arriving at my HR-20 properly, and is being recorded to the hard drive correctly. It just isn't playing properly when its "live".

This happens to me all the time. The issue is definitely with live, not recorded.

I also had a similar issue on my hacked DTivos and I always suspected it was when the buffer was full. It was as if it didn't have enough horsepower to rotate the buffer, write the new data to both the buffer and the disk, and display it live. Since it needed to drop something, it chose to drop the live. Although I don't like it, it makes sense that would be the priority. I can understand how that could happen on my hacked units - but it shouldn't happen on the HR20.

[AlbertZeroK]

And why are we doing this? If we find the reason, it's not like anyone cares to fix it.

[Bobby42]

Just to add some data:

During Lost last night, I started watching before it finished recording. When I caught up to live TV, I got several audio drop outs (15+) that each lasted less than a second. If I went back and replayed the part, I got the full audio, so it was not a broadcast issue. During the first hour or so while watching the recorded portion, I did not get any audio drop outs.

This was HD local over the satellite in the MN/Twin Cities market on an HR20-700 with the latest version of software.