Audio Description on ITV2 Freeview

I guess a question directed at Brian but others may also use AD.

Here in Crystal Palace land there appears to be a problem on ITV2 and ITV3
with an STB with audio description turned on.

Some programmes and adverts have an echo caused by the AD track having a
slightly delayed copy of the main audio

Is this hyappening from other transmitters or just London? or even just
the three STBs (all different makes) I've tried in the last week?


--
Steve

I've heard it from time to time. I am on the London transmitter as well, so
do not know about other ones. One problem we have had in greater or lesser
amounts for years is that if you leave the AD enabled, the ITV channels have
sound glitching, as if the ad circuits are picking up some interference and
the audio is ducking momentarily as it normally would if real AD was
present.
I gave up emailing them as their only answer was. 'turn it off'

In my view you should be able to have AD active and it only impacts on the
content when its actually being used normally. I suspect its been left
active in much the same way stereo is on fm even when the program content is
mono.

I tend to mainly listen to bbc ad, and that seems quite good.
Ch 5 seems to have instead of a fader, a level switch which can be annoying,
and Sky tends to have the level of AD either too loud or too quiet. ITV tend
toward this variability problem as well.
I d do despair at the cavalier attitude toward such vital services and feel
these people ar just box ticking and never bother to actually check if what
they are providing is actually any good.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Steve" wrote in message
news
I guess a question directed at Brian but others may also use AD.

Here in Crystal Palace land there appears to be a problem on ITV2 and ITV3
with an STB with audio description turned on.

Some programmes and adverts have an echo caused by the AD track having a
slightly delayed copy of the main audio

Is this hyappening from other transmitters or just London? or even just
the three STBs (all different makes) I've tried in the last week?


--
Steve

Brian Gaff wrote:
I've heard it from time to time. I am on the London transmitter as well, so
do not know about other ones. One problem we have had in greater or lesser
amounts for years is that if you leave the AD enabled, the ITV channels have
sound glitching, as if the ad circuits are picking up some interference and
the audio is ducking momentarily as it normally would if real AD was
present.
I gave up emailing them as their only answer was. 'turn it off'

In my view you should be able to have AD active and it only impacts on the
content when its actually being used normally. I suspect its been left
active in much the same way stereo is on fm even when the program content is
mono.

I tend to mainly listen to bbc ad, and that seems quite good.
Ch 5 seems to have instead of a fader, a level switch which can be annoying,
and Sky tends to have the level of AD either too loud or too quiet. ITV tend
toward this variability problem as well.
I d do despair at the cavalier attitude toward such vital services and feel
these people ar just box ticking and never bother to actually check if what
they are providing is actually any good.

Brian



I've been checking AD recently and some receivers do suffer from echo.
I mostly notice Virgin1 is really bad, and seems to be transmitting a
duplicate of the normal audio on the AD stream for many programs without
AD, and then a sounds effects only on some Star Trek stuff (the
computery beeps get echoed). I had previously noticed that the sound
seems to be lacking on some Treky stuff. It varies between adverts and
different programmes aswell.

I have then further noticed that some receivers are better at
synchronising than others, but even the best suffer at least a reverb
when duplicate streams are transmitted. My new Sony TV is quite good.

Some boxes also have relative volume control for the AD.

Unfortunately this is what broadcasters do, they are good at getting the
features in the standards and even legislation, then fail to deliver
quality. The same thing happened on PDC, too many errors broadcast,
rendering it useless as a 'recording reliability improver' they just
didn't think how they would manage the broadcasts or how difficult it
would be to manage. After having problems at different transmitters, I
eventually discovered they were manually changing the time setting
between summer/winter and kept forgetting.

Manufacturers get it wrong aswell, but for software they only have to
get it right once. It takes a years to properly understand these new
complex standards. To be fair I do work on the manufacturing side.

--
Tony

Yes, at the moment I still have anetgem box, with AD, but suspect this will
fall over after the switchover as nobody is looking after the sotware
upgrades any more.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Tony" wrote in message
. ..
Brian Gaff wrote:
I've heard it from time to time. I am on the London transmitter as well,
so do not know about other ones. One problem we have had in greater or
lesser amounts for years is that if you leave the AD enabled, the ITV
channels have sound glitching, as if the ad circuits are picking up some
interference and the audio is ducking momentarily as it normally would if
real AD was present.
I gave up emailing them as their only answer was. 'turn it off'

In my view you should be able to have AD active and it only impacts on
the content when its actually being used normally. I suspect its been
left active in much the same way stereo is on fm even when the program
content is mono.

I tend to mainly listen to bbc ad, and that seems quite good.
Ch 5 seems to have instead of a fader, a level switch which can be
annoying, and Sky tends to have the level of AD either too loud or too
quiet. ITV tend toward this variability problem as well.
I d do despair at the cavalier attitude toward such vital services and
feel these people ar just box ticking and never bother to actually check
if what they are providing is actually any good.

Brian



I've been checking AD recently and some receivers do suffer from echo. I
mostly notice Virgin1 is really bad, and seems to be transmitting a
duplicate of the normal audio on the AD stream for many programs without
AD, and then a sounds effects only on some Star Trek stuff (the computery
beeps get echoed). I had previously noticed that the sound seems to be
lacking on some Treky stuff. It varies between adverts and different
programmes aswell.

I have then further noticed that some receivers are better at
synchronising than others, but even the best suffer at least a reverb when
duplicate streams are transmitted. My new Sony TV is quite good.

Some boxes also have relative volume control for the AD.

Unfortunately this is what broadcasters do, they are good at getting the
features in the standards and even legislation, then fail to deliver
quality. The same thing happened on PDC, too many errors broadcast,
rendering it useless as a 'recording reliability improver' they just
didn't think how they would manage the broadcasts or how difficult it
would be to manage. After having problems at different transmitters, I
eventually discovered they were manually changing the time setting between
summer/winter and kept forgetting.

Manufacturers get it wrong aswell, but for software they only have to get
it right once. It takes a years to properly understand these new complex
standards. To be fair I do work on the manufacturing side.

--
Tony

Brian Gaff wrote:
Yes, at the moment I still have anetgem box, with AD, but suspect this will
fall over after the switchover as nobody is looking after the sotware
upgrades any more.

Brian


Won't you qualify for a help scheme box then?

--
Tony

On Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:14:29 +0100, Steve wrote:

I guess a question directed at Brian but others may also use AD.

Here in Crystal Palace land there appears to be a problem on ITV2 and
ITV3 with an STB with audio description turned on.

Some programmes and adverts have an echo caused by the AD track having
a slightly delayed copy of the main audio

On Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:36:53, Brian Replied
I've heard it from time to time. I am on the London transmitter as well,
so
do not know about other ones. One problem we have had in greater or
lesser
amounts for years is that if you leave the AD enabled, the ITV channels
have
sound glitching, as if the ad circuits are picking up some interference
and
the audio is ducking momentarily as it normally would if real AD was
present.
I gave up emailing them as their only answer was. 'turn it off'
[SNIP]

I tend to mainly listen to bbc ad, and that seems quite good.
Ch 5 seems to have instead of a fader, a level switch which can be
annoying,
and Sky tends to have the level of AD either too loud or too quiet. ITV
tend
toward this variability problem as well.
I d do despair at the cavalier attitude toward such vital services and
feel
these people ar just box ticking and never bother to actually check if
what
they are providing is actually any good.
Brian




Well, it looks like ITV have acted on my two emails and sorted the echo, I
also mentioned Brian's glitches but as I don't have equipment here I
cannot tell if they have been sorted as well - care to take a listen and
let me know brian?

Tony also replied and mentioned Virgin1 sending stuff other than AD -
following this success with ITV I'll try them next.

Maybe when they get the content right it will be time to try to get the
levels and controls right.

--
Steve

On Thu, 27 Aug 2009 14:31:14 +0100, Tony wrote:

I've been checking AD recently and some receivers do suffer from echo. I
mostly notice Virgin1 is really bad, and seems to be transmitting a
duplicate of the normal audio on the AD stream for many programs without
AD, and then a sounds effects only on some Star Trek stuff (the
computery beeps get echoed). I had previously noticed that the sound
seems to be lacking on some Treky stuff. It varies between adverts and
different programmes aswell.

I have then further noticed that some receivers are better at
synchronising than others, but even the best suffer at least a reverb
when duplicate streams are transmitted. My new Sony TV is quite good.

Some boxes also have relative volume control for the AD.

[snip]

A speedy reply from the company that playout the channels for Virgin, I
emailed them at coffee time this morning and had a full technical reply
and apology by lunchtime - much better than ITV who took nearly a week to
acknowledge their problem.

In short they say "This is an unexpected side effect of taking Virgin1
24x7 and adding the Virgin1+1 channel, new equipment is on order to sort
the problem but it is on a 4 to 8 weeks delivery schedule".

So it looks like Virgin1 (and Virgin1+1) AD should soon be muted except
for proper Audio Description.

Hopefully thats the worst offenders sorted.

--
Steve