HomeCinemaBanter

HomeCinemaBanter (http://www.homecinemabanter.com/index.php)
-   UK digital tv (http://www.homecinemabanter.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5)
-   -   Problems with BBC R3 sound via DTTV (http://www.homecinemabanter.com/showthread.php?t=34870)

Jim Lesurf July 27th 05 04:28 PM

Problems with BBC R3 sound via DTTV
 
If anyone here gets a chance, have a listen to BBC R3 via your DTTV
receiver during the prom rebroadcast this afternoon. May be too late by the
time you read this, but I have been listeing and am finding the sound quite
awful. [1]Yet other BBC radio stations on the same mux seem fine, and the
UHF carrier level here seems OK...

Who does one contact at the BBC these days for reports/complaints about
technical matters like this?

Slainte,

Jim



[1] Effect something like dire levels of flutter multipath distortion on
*AM*. Makes massed strings sound more like a band of balalaikas!

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

[email protected] July 27th 05 04:43 PM

Jim Lesurf wrote:
If anyone here gets a chance, have a listen to BBC R3 via your DTTV
receiver during the prom rebroadcast this afternoon. May be too late by the
time you read this, but I have been listeing and am finding the sound quite
awful. [1]Yet other BBC radio stations on the same mux seem fine, and the
UHF carrier level here seems OK...

Who does one contact at the BBC these days for reports/complaints about
technical matters like this?


See these threads...

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt...59ffea52?tvc=1

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt...cb0378c8?tvc=1

I haven't tried R3 recently. I've been recording some Proms from BBC
Four but haven't had chance to listen yet!

As you'll see from the first thread, I tried emailing BBC reception
advice. They were aware of the problem, but could give no indication of
when it might be fixed. It didn't sound like a priority, unfortunately.

Cheers,
David.


spiney July 27th 05 05:33 PM

All sound on DTT is mp3 format, which employs psycho-acoustic "tricks"
for bit rate reduction, yes it can sound awful.

Might be better to use fm sound and DTT picture, although then they're
not syncronised.

Sometimes, technicians put limiters, noise gates, etc, into sound
channel, which can muck things up even further.


DAB sounds worse than FM July 27th 05 06:03 PM

Jim Lesurf wrote:
If anyone here gets a chance, have a listen to BBC R3 via your DTTV
receiver during the prom rebroadcast this afternoon. May be too late
by the time you read this, but I have been listeing and am finding
the sound quite awful. [1]Yet other BBC radio stations on the same
mux seem fine, and the UHF carrier level here seems OK...

Who does one contact at the BBC these days for reports/complaints
about technical matters like this?



. Be prepared for a very, very long wait before they
bother to sort it out.


--
Steve -
www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview, DAB & MP3 Player Prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...tal_radios.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...rs_1GB-5GB.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...e_capacity.htm



Geoff Pearson July 27th 05 06:20 PM

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
If anyone here gets a chance, have a listen to BBC R3 via your DTTV
receiver during the prom rebroadcast this afternoon. May be too late by
the
time you read this, but I have been listeing and am finding the sound
quite
awful. [1]Yet other BBC radio stations on the same mux seem fine, and the
UHF carrier level here seems OK...

Who does one contact at the BBC these days for reports/complaints about
technical matters like this?

Slainte,

Jim



[1] Effect something like dire levels of flutter multipath distortion on
*AM*. Makes massed strings sound more like a band of balalaikas!

--
Electronics
http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html



I heard it too - not distortion just a straightforward fault.



Jim Lesurf July 27th 05 06:30 PM

In article . com,
wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:
If anyone here gets a chance, have a listen to BBC R3 via your DTTV
receiver during the prom rebroadcast this afternoon. May be too late
by the time you read this,


[snip]

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt...59ffea52?tvc=1

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/alt...cb0378c8?tvc=1


I haven't tried R3 recently. I've been recording some Proms from BBC
Four but haven't had chance to listen yet!


Thanks for the above urls. They make interesting reading in this context.

FWIW I stopped listening/recording a little after 3pm, and then wrote
postings to here and uk.rec.audio about the effect. I also emailed
'feedback' asking them to pass on my experience and related questions to
someone who might answer. (Always the optimist! ;- )

By the time I tried listening again at about 3:35pm the problem had abated.

I was listening on FM up until about 2:45pm, and that had sounded fine. I
switched on the DTTV RX then, and immediately noticed the problem. It was
so bad I even did a power-down cycle of my RX to ensure it was OK.

I had been intending to record the entire 'Sea Symphony' onto DVD-R as that
is connected to the DTTV RX. I'm collecting comparison recordings for doing
an analysis at a later date. With some of the previous proms I felt I'd
been hearing artefacts/problems on the DTTV R3 rebroadcasts that I wasn't
hearing on the BBCTV 'live' sic broadcasts of the same proms, so have
been 'collecting data' for closer examination in due course.

However I'd *never* heard any BBC transmissions on R3 sound as truly awful
as around 3pm today. I nearly decided to abandon recording altogether, but
after consideration I did do some recording. This means I recorded the
first section of the 'Sea Symphony' via BBC R3 DTTV, and whilst doing so I
used the RX to display the signal level and the channel number. I also
switched to recording BBC R4 for a while to show this *didn't* have the
obvious problem of R3, yet is on the same mux/channel. The advantage of the
DVD recording here is that it shows the details of the signal levels, etc,
as displayed by the DTTV RX.

After about 3:35pm I recorded the last 10 mins or so of the R3 broadcast of
the 'Sea Symphony' and the following announcer speaking. This is on the
same disc as the above - which also has the BBCTV4 version. Hence I have
all the versions on one disc. (I am now hoping the Philips doesn't ruin the
disc when/if I finalise it, so may copy it before that!!)

In due course, I plan to make copies of the sound of this disc, and some
others, onto CD-R via the DVD recorder's s/pdif output. This, alas, means
another 'common mode' 48/44.1 ksamples/sec conversion, but I doubt that
will mask the problem as it is deafeningly obvious! I can then load the
data from the CDR onto the computer I use and do some analysis...

Doing the above as I don't have an algorythm for reading the 'vob' files on
the DVD and extracting the sound in the form of LPCM. The discs are ones
recorded, domestically, with the Philips DVDR70. IIUC these aren't
encrypted with CSS. Is there an algorythm for this someone can point me to?
If I could do that I could recover the data from the DVD's in a form that
avoids another rate-conversion. Also would avoid my having to move the CD
recorder... :-)

As you'll see from the first thread, I tried emailing BBC reception
advice. They were aware of the problem, but could give no indication of
when it might be fixed. It didn't sound like a priority, unfortunately.


What I heard today did not sound like a problem that *any* listeners would
have found acceptable. It wasn't the kind of difference you might associate
with something like '192kb/s versus 256kb/s'. Seemed far more gross. Orders
of magnitude that any defects I've heard before. More like some very
serious fault. In general, I sometimes find that the DTTV R3 can sound OK,
but often shows low-level problems. This was on a completely different
scale!

My suspicion is that something is/was going wrong somewhere along the line.
Maybe the BBC are not even aware that the data they are sending for
broadcast is being trashed somewhere between the BBC and the RX. This
makes me wonder if similar problems are arising at a 'lower level' at other
times...

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

John Phillips July 27th 05 09:05 PM

On 2005-07-27, Jim Lesurf wrote:
I had been intending to record the entire 'Sea Symphony' onto DVD-R as that
is connected to the DTTV RX. I'm collecting comparison recordings for doing
an analysis at a later date. With some of the previous proms I felt I'd
been hearing artefacts/problems on the DTTV R3 rebroadcasts that I wasn't
hearing on the BBCTV 'live' sic broadcasts of the same proms, so have
been 'collecting data' for closer examination in due course.


If you like I can send you a 48 ksample/s .wav on CD or DVD of today's
Prom re-broadcast, captured from R3 DAB, which may well be nominally
the same bitstream as R3 DTTV. I haven't listened to it all but the
Mendelssohn sounds fine as do a few random samples from the Bruch and
the V-W.

My suspicion is that something is/was going wrong somewhere along the line.


Probably a R3 DTTV tx chain fault since R3 DAB sounds fine.

--
John Phillips

Mark Carver July 27th 05 09:37 PM

spiney wrote:
All sound on DTT is mp3 format,


No it's not, it's mp2

--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.

Jim Lesurf July 28th 05 10:51 AM

In article , John Phillips
wrote:
On 2005-07-27, Jim Lesurf wrote:
I had been intending to record the entire 'Sea Symphony' onto DVD-R as
that is connected to the DTTV RX. I'm collecting comparison recordings
for doing an analysis at a later date. With some of the previous proms
I felt I'd been hearing artefacts/problems on the DTTV R3 rebroadcasts
that I wasn't hearing on the BBCTV 'live' sic broadcasts of the same
proms, so have been 'collecting data' for closer examination in due
course.


If you like I can send you a 48 ksample/s .wav on CD or DVD of today's
Prom re-broadcast, captured from R3 DAB, which may well be nominally
the same bitstream as R3 DTTV.


Yes please! :-) ...and many thanks for the battery. :-)

Although isn't DAB at 32 ksamples/sec?...

It will definately be useful to have a copy of the DAB version as I can
then compare that with the DTTV BBCTV4 version, as well as with the
'excerpts' I took from the faulty DTTV R3 version. Either CD or DVD would
be excellent.

I haven't listened to it all but the Mendelssohn sounds fine as do a few
random samples from the Bruch and the V-W.


If the later part of the Bruch and the start of the VW sound fine, then it
seems that it doesn't have the fault that made the DTTV R3 version unbearable.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

Dickie mint July 28th 05 12:22 PM

DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:

If anyone here gets a chance, have a listen to BBC R3 via your DTTV
receiver during the prom rebroadcast this afternoon. May be too late
by the time you read this, but I have been listeing and am finding
the sound quite awful. [1]Yet other BBC radio stations on the same
mux seem fine, and the UHF carrier level here seems OK...

Who does one contact at the BBC these days for reports/complaints
about technical matters like this?




. Be prepared for a very, very long wait before they
bother to sort it out.


There are only a handful of engineers in RA, but most of them read the
newsgroups as do the engineers looking after DTT & DSAT. Mind they are
now Siemens, so there's probably a bill gone into the BBC they want
paying first ;-)

Jim Lesurf July 28th 05 01:08 PM

In article , Dickie mint
wrote:
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:


Who does one contact at the BBC these days for reports/complaints
about technical matters like this?



. Be prepared for a very, very long wait before
they bother to sort it out.



There are only a handful of engineers in RA, but most of them read the
newsgroups as do the engineers looking after DTT & DSAT.


If any are reading this (or anyone else who can help)...

One of the things I wish to discover is the details of the 'chain' which
sends the audio data from a prom to FM R3, DTTV R3, and DTTV BBC4 (also
DAB), both 'live' and when rebroadcast a few days later. I'm trying to
determine where any 'differences' might arise for defined reasons like use
of convertors, different data rates, etc. Is there a detailed description
of this anywhere, or someone who can say?

IIUC DTTV R3 is on a different mux to BBCTV4, and I am also wondering if
the audio data for R3 is altered at some point outwith the direct control
of the BBC...

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics
http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

John Phillips July 28th 05 03:13 PM

On 2005-07-28, Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , John Phillips
wrote:
On 2005-07-27, Jim Lesurf wrote:
I had been intending to record the entire 'Sea Symphony' onto DVD-R as
that is connected to the DTTV RX. I'm collecting comparison recordings
for doing an analysis at a later date. With some of the previous proms
I felt I'd been hearing artefacts/problems on the DTTV R3 rebroadcasts
that I wasn't hearing on the BBCTV 'live' sic broadcasts of the same
proms, so have been 'collecting data' for closer examination in due
course.


If you like I can send you a 48 ksample/s .wav on CD or DVD of today's
Prom re-broadcast, captured from R3 DAB, which may well be nominally
the same bitstream as R3 DTTV.


Yes please! :-) ...and many thanks for the battery. :-)


Will do.

Although isn't DAB at 32 ksamples/sec?...


Not as far as I am aware. Extract from the DAB standard: "The DAB system
uses MPEG Audio Layer II, suitably formatted for DAB transmission. For
48 kHz sampling frequency it uses the ISO/IEC 11172-3 standard [3] and
for 24 kHz sampling frequency it uses the ISO/IEC 13818-3 standard [14]."

Certainly, the optical S/PDIF output from my DAB tuner comes out at 48
kHz according to the display on the DAC.

I think DAB audio coding is the same as audio on DVB-T, and I think R3
DAB and R3 DVB-T both encode to 192 kbit/s these days. That's why I
think the R3 DAB and R3 DVB-T digital audio should be exactly the same
(if the TX chain is working well).

--
John Phillips

DAB sounds worse than FM July 28th 05 03:36 PM

Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , Dickie mint
wrote:
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:
Jim Lesurf wrote:


Who does one contact at the BBC these days for reports/complaints
about technical matters like this?



. Be prepared for a very, very long wait before
they bother to sort it out.



There are only a handful of engineers in RA, but most of them read
the newsgroups as do the engineers looking after DTT & DSAT.


If any are reading this (or anyone else who can help)...

One of the things I wish to discover is the details of the 'chain'
which sends the audio data from a prom to FM R3, DTTV R3, and DTTV
BBC4 (also DAB), both 'live' and when rebroadcast a few days later.
I'm trying to determine where any 'differences' might arise for
defined reasons like use of convertors, different data rates, etc. Is
there a detailed description of this anywhere, or someone who can say?



You won't find a description of this on the net, but Mark Carver (who
posts on here) heard that Radios 1-4 on DTT "take a rather circuitous
route", which is obviously not best practice, and probably involves one
or more transcodes en route thus degrading the audio quality from what
it could be.


IIUC DTTV R3 is on a different mux to BBCTV4,



Correct.


and I am also wondering
if the audio data for R3 is altered at some point outwith the direct
control of the BBC...



R3 is on the SDN commercial multiplex, and there's a thread about how
this is distributed he

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk....b51f5b111c720b

But I think the problem is at the BBC's end of the chain, and they don't
seem to care less about R1-4 on DTT.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview, DAB & MP3 Player Prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...tal_radios.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...rs_1GB-5GB.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...e_capacity.htm



DAB sounds worse than FM July 28th 05 04:36 PM

John Phillips wrote:
On 2005-07-28, Jim Lesurf wrote:
In article , John
Phillips wrote:
On 2005-07-27, Jim Lesurf wrote:
I had been intending to record the entire 'Sea Symphony' onto
DVD-R as that is connected to the DTTV RX. I'm collecting
comparison recordings for doing an analysis at a later date. With
some of the previous proms I felt I'd been hearing
artefacts/problems on the DTTV R3 rebroadcasts that I wasn't
hearing on the BBCTV 'live' sic broadcasts of the same proms, so
have been 'collecting data' for closer examination in due course.


If you like I can send you a 48 ksample/s .wav on CD or DVD of
today's Prom re-broadcast, captured from R3 DAB, which may well be
nominally the same bitstream as R3 DTTV.


Yes please! :-) ...and many thanks for the battery. :-)


Will do.

Although isn't DAB at 32 ksamples/sec?...


Not as far as I am aware. Extract from the DAB standard: "The DAB
system uses MPEG Audio Layer II, suitably formatted for DAB
transmission. For 48 kHz sampling frequency it uses the ISO/IEC
11172-3 standard [3] and for 24 kHz sampling frequency it uses the
ISO/IEC 13818-3 standard [14]."



Yes, R3 is 48kHz on DAB.


Certainly, the optical S/PDIF output from my DAB tuner comes out at 48
kHz according to the display on the DAC.

I think DAB audio coding is the same as audio on DVB-T,



Yes, both MPEG-1 Layer 2 (MP2).


and I think R3
DAB and R3 DVB-T both encode to 192 kbit/s these days.



Correct, apart from when Radio 5 Sports Extra is on during the day
(before 5 p.m.), in which case R3 is 160kbps on DAB but 192kbps on DTT.



--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview, DAB & MP3 Player Prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...tal_radios.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...rs_1GB-5GB.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...e_capacity.htm



Agamemnon July 28th 05 06:12 PM


"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
If anyone here gets a chance, have a listen to BBC R3 via your DTTV
receiver during the prom rebroadcast this afternoon. May be too late by
the
time you read this, but I have been listeing and am finding the sound
quite
awful. [1]Yet other BBC radio stations on the same mux seem fine, and the
UHF carrier level here seems OK...


The sound on DTT has always been awful and the Proms on the digital version
R3 is like listening through mud. In fact everything on the digital version
of R3 is like listening through mud so I listen on FM.

Further more the sound on BBC1 and is now actual WORSE than that of BBC3 and
BBC4 even though it uses a fixed bit rate.


Who does one contact at the BBC these days for reports/complaints about
technical matters like this?

Slainte,

Jim



[1] Effect something like dire levels of flutter multipath distortion on
*AM*. Makes massed strings sound more like a band of balalaikas!

--
Electronics
http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html




Agamemnon July 28th 05 06:16 PM


"spiney" wrote in message
oups.com...
All sound on DTT is mp3 format, which employs psycho-acoustic "tricks"
for bit rate reduction, yes it can sound awful.


Its in mp2 MUSICAM formant which is ****. They can't even be bothered to use
a decent codec like AT&T so they use the basic Fraunhoffer codec instead
which is useless even at very high bit rates.


Might be better to use fm sound and DTT picture, although then they're
not syncronised.


They are several minutes out of sync.


Sometimes, technicians put limiters, noise gates, etc, into sound
channel, which can muck things up even further.




tony sayer July 28th 05 08:58 PM

In article ,
Agamemnon writes

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
If anyone here gets a chance, have a listen to BBC R3 via your DTTV
receiver during the prom rebroadcast this afternoon. May be too late by
the
time you read this, but I have been listeing and am finding the sound
quite
awful. [1]Yet other BBC radio stations on the same mux seem fine, and the
UHF carrier level here seems OK...


The sound on DTT has always been awful and the Proms on the digital version
R3 is like listening through mud. In fact everything on the digital version
of R3 is like listening through mud so I listen on FM.



Further more the sound on BBC1 and is now actual WORSE than that of BBC3 and
BBC4 even though it uses a fixed bit rate.


Perhaps we're being "softened up" for things to come;(......

--
Tony Sayer


spiney July 28th 05 10:02 PM

Mark Carver is wrong, both DTT and DAB use identical MP3 sound coding
(MP3 is the audio subset standard of MPEG2!).


DB July 28th 05 10:22 PM


"spiney" wrote in message
oups.com...
Mark Carver is wrong, both DTT and DAB use identical MP3 sound coding
(MP3 is the audio subset standard of MPEG2!).


No, you're wrong. DTT and DAB use MPEG1 layer 2 (aka MP2), which is a
broadcast standard. MP3 is correctly known as MPEG1 layer 3.



Adrian July 28th 05 11:29 PM

spiney wrote:
Mark Carver is wrong, both DTT and DAB use identical MP3 sound coding
(MP3 is the audio subset standard of MPEG2!).


You are the one that's wrong! You've shown what an ignorant fool you are
on more than one occasion,



Alex Bird July 28th 05 11:34 PM



DB wrote:
"spiney" wrote in message
oups.com...
Mark Carver is wrong, both DTT and DAB use identical MP3 sound coding
(MP3 is the audio subset standard of MPEG2!).


No, you're wrong. DTT and DAB use MPEG1 layer 2 (aka MP2), which is a
broadcast standard. MP3 is correctly known as MPEG1 layer 3.


or MPEG2 layer3, or I suppose MPEG4 layer3...


DAB sounds worse than FM July 28th 05 11:53 PM

Alex Bird wrote:
DB wrote:
"spiney" wrote in message
oups.com...
Mark Carver is wrong, both DTT and DAB use identical MP3 sound
coding (MP3 is the audio subset standard of MPEG2!).


No, you're wrong. DTT and DAB use MPEG1 layer 2 (aka MP2), which is a
broadcast standard. MP3 is correctly known as MPEG1 layer 3.


or MPEG2 layer3, or I suppose MPEG4 layer3...



MPEG-1 defined the most used sampling frequencies such as 44.1, 48, 32
kHz. MPEG-2 added lower sampling frequencies.

MPEG-4 Layer 3 doesn't exist. MPEG-4 audio consists of AAC and HE AAC
and a few ultra-low bit rate speech codecs and such like.

This site has a lot of good info on audio codecs:

http://www.audiocoding.com/modules/wiki/


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview, DAB & MP3 Player Prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...tal_radios.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...rs_1GB-5GB.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...e_capacity.htm



Alex Bird July 29th 05 02:34 AM

DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:

MPEG-4 Layer 3 doesn't exist. MPEG-4 audio consists of AAC and HE AAC
and a few ultra-low bit rate speech codecs and such like.


Maybe in a strict MPEG4 program stream, but almost all MPEG4 use -
perhaps being overtaken by mobile phones - is in avi files which have
layer 3 audio. I tend to call that MPEG4Layer3..

Alex


DAB sounds worse than FM July 29th 05 03:14 AM

Alex Bird wrote:
DAB sounds worse than FM wrote:

MPEG-4 Layer 3 doesn't exist. MPEG-4 audio consists of AAC and HE AAC
and a few ultra-low bit rate speech codecs and such like.


Maybe in a strict MPEG4 program stream, but almost all MPEG4 use -
perhaps being overtaken by mobile phones - is in avi files which have
layer 3 audio.



They don't have to use MP3.


I tend to call that MPEG4Layer3..



Look at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MP3

The name is derived from "MPEG-1 Audio Layer 3," more formally known as
"MPEG-1 Part 3 Layer 3" or "ISO/IEC 11172-3 Layer 3". Reportedly, the
".mp3" filename extension is also sometimes used on audio files encoded
using the newer "MPEG-2 Audio Layer 3" standard (a.k.a. "MPEG-2 Part 3
Layer 3" or "ISO/IEC 13818-3 Layer 3").

MPEG-4 Layer 3 is just mixing up different standards and it's incorect.

A lot of people refer to MP3 as MPEG-3, but here's what MPEG-3 is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-3

You might think it's pedantic, but there is no such thing as MPEG-4
Layer 3. MPEG-4 uses 'Parts':

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4

e.g. MPEG-4 Part 10 is the new H.264 video codec.

Here's the audio part of MPEG-4:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPEG-4_Part_3



--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview, DAB & MP3 Player Prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...tal_radios.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...rs_1GB-5GB.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...e_capacity.htm



spiney July 29th 05 11:51 AM

depends what u like. mpeg has variable bitrate coding, and other
"artifacts", whereas fm broadcasting uses heavy compression instead
(Optimod, last I heard). There's no such thing as "neutral sound
quality".


spiney July 29th 05 11:51 AM

depends what u like. mpeg has variable bitrate coding, and other
"artifacts", whereas fm broadcasting uses heavy compression instead
(Optimod, last I heard). There's no such thing as "neutral sound
quality".


spiney July 29th 05 12:29 PM

apology, a typo by me!

mpeg2 audio is used identically in DAB and DTT , at level 2.

MPEG 3 usually means "mpeg level 3 audio", ie the surround format.

mp3 is the consumer (ipod) sound format.


tony sayer July 29th 05 12:30 PM

In article .com,
spiney writes
Mark Carver is wrong, both DTT and DAB use identical MP3 sound coding
(MP3 is the audio subset standard of MPEG2!).


Poor old Mark, after all what does he know after working more years than
I can remember in professional broadcast engineering;?.......
--
Tony Sayer


tony sayer July 29th 05 12:37 PM

In article . com,
spiney writes
depends what u like. mpeg has variable bitrate coding, and other
"artifacts", whereas fm broadcasting uses heavy compression instead
(Optimod, last I heard). There's no such thing as "neutral sound
quality".


FM can and does use "Optimods" or more correctly multiband compression
but how that unit is set up and applied is another matter.

FM can sound as \\good\\ as CD if you want it too. I've been able to
demonstrate this with a Harris digital exciter and Audiolab tuner in a
direct off air comparison and only One person out of a group of Six
noticed any differences and these were on very long sustained low level
piano pieces.

Very few people get to hear what FM can be capable of....
--
Tony Sayer


DAB sounds worse than FM July 29th 05 12:59 PM

spiney wrote:
apology, a typo by me!

mpeg2 audio is used identically in DAB and DTT , at level 2.



Layer 2, not level 2.


MPEG 3 usually means "mpeg level 3 audio", ie the surround format.



MPEG-3 doesn't exist. They did mean to move from MPEG-2 to MPEG-3 for
HDTV but then decided that MPEG-2 had all the necessary tools, so they
dropped the idea of MPEG-3. So they went straight from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4.

MPEG Level [sic] 3 audio does not exist either, in surround sound or
2-channel.

You're just getting everything wrong.


mp3 is the consumer (ipod) sound format.



I suggest that when you're in a hole, stop digging. You'll be in
Australia soon the way you're going.


--
Steve - www.digitalradiotech.co.uk - Digital Radio News & Info

Find the cheapest Freeview, DAB & MP3 Player Prices:
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/fr..._receivers.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/da...tal_radios.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...rs_1GB-5GB.htm
http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/mp...e_capacity.htm



Agamemnon July 29th 05 04:46 PM


"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article . com,
spiney writes
depends what u like. mpeg has variable bitrate coding, and other
"artifacts", whereas fm broadcasting uses heavy compression instead
(Optimod, last I heard). There's no such thing as "neutral sound
quality".


FM can and does use "Optimods" or more correctly multiband compression
but how that unit is set up and applied is another matter.

FM can sound as \\good\\ as CD if you want it too. I've been able to
demonstrate this with a Harris digital exciter and Audiolab tuner in a
direct off air comparison and only One person out of a group of Six
noticed any differences and these were on very long sustained low level
piano pieces.


And a piano is the easiest instrument to duplicate on an FM synthesiser so
its not that difficult to fool people even with recordings made in the 50's.
Why don't you try a violin, a harpsichord or human speech instead.


Very few people get to hear what FM can be capable of....
--
Tony Sayer




tony sayer July 29th 05 10:44 PM

In article ,
Agamemnon writes

"tony sayer" wrote in message
...
In article . com,
spiney writes
depends what u like. mpeg has variable bitrate coding, and other
"artifacts", whereas fm broadcasting uses heavy compression instead
(Optimod, last I heard). There's no such thing as "neutral sound
quality".


FM can and does use "Optimods" or more correctly multiband compression
but how that unit is set up and applied is another matter.

FM can sound as \\good\\ as CD if you want it too. I've been able to
demonstrate this with a Harris digital exciter and Audiolab tuner in a
direct off air comparison and only One person out of a group of Six
noticed any differences and these were on very long sustained low level
piano pieces.


And a piano is the easiest instrument to duplicate on an FM synthesiser so
its not that difficult to fool people even with recordings made in the 50's.
Why don't you try a violin, a harpsichord or human speech instead.



We did!, in fact we tried most everything in Two CD collections:)

And as I've said only one of the Six thought he noticed any difference
the others didn't !.

He was a pianist though.....
--
Tony Sayer



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 05:48 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
HomeCinemaBanter.com