[mythtv-users] Another BBC HD Audio variance.......

[Another Sillyname]

On 24 January 2011 19:16, John Pilkington <J.Pilk at tesco.net> wrote:
> On 24/01/11 17:51, Andre wrote:
>>
>> On 24 Jan 2011, at 15:23, Another Sillyname wrote:
>>
>>> I recorded Being Human on Sunday Night at 9:00pm on the BBC HD
>>> channel, recorded from Freesat and the audio is being reported as...
>>>
>>> Stream 0.14 AC3 48000 Hz 5.0 s16 384 kb/s
>>>
>>> Note the 5.0 rather then 5.1 audio,
>>>
>>> I can't remember ever seeing a 5.0 audio stream on the BBC HD before.
>>
>> I've seen it too often!
>>
>>>
>>> Anyone else notice it?  Anyone have any problems with it?
>>
>> No problem now, in the past it's caused (or at least co-incident with)
>> un-decodable ac3, comes out as motor boating or load gurgling noises!
>>
>> I had it on the final part of Torchwood Children of Earth, three separate
>> recordings, ended up listening to the audio description channel! As it was
>> identical each time it was aired I suspect a mistake when the show was
>> ingested. I reported it on Andy Quested's bbc blog but he never said
>> anything beyond noting that there had been some issues, now resolved.
>>
>> At the time neither myth or PS3 could play the recording with working
>> audio, both seem able to deal with this particular issue now, I kept an old
>> recording.
>>
>>> There's a repeat on later in the week so I'll record that to see if it
>>> reports the same.
>>
>> I've seen this on 6 or 7 shows over the last year or two and in each case
>> it's been the same on the re-runs.
>>
>> Andre
>
> On a vaguely related note, I reported last week that the first episode of
> 'Human Planet' on BBC ONE SD claimed to be in surround sound.  There were
> suggestions that it might be Dolby Pro-Logic.  I didn't set up more speakers
> to listen for a difference, but the second episode just carried the usual
> 'stereo' tag.
>
> John P
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I'm pretty certain that was just a wrong flag as I'm not even sure AC3
can be transmitted on SD due to the codecs used.

HD have been 'tinkering' with audio for a while now and this is the
first 5.0 audio I've seen, my transcode script picked it up and borked
as a result (specifically transcoding the output audio to AC3 fell
over as the scripts ffmpeg command specifies 6 channels and of course
there weren't 6 channels to handle).....result not dissimilar to when
I told my other half that the GPS woman had a sexier voice then
hers........anyhoo.

I did spot an error in a Wild China episode a while back where the AC3
audio just fell out after about 35 minutes, in the original and repeat
transmission so obviously now in the masters.

Apart from the occasional glitch I have to say I think the Beeb have
done a pretty good job, it'll be even better when C4 are on FreeSat
and Film4 is transmitted in HD.

It'll be interesting to see what happens once DSO is finished.

Regards