TMN-HD troubles

  • Thread starter Thread starter skeeter080
  • Start date Start date
I don't see transcoding 1080->720 as too much of a sin on BEV's behalf (or whoever else does it for BEV) -
as long as the bitrate is kept at the same level and deinterlacing is done using high quality equipment.

CBC on BEV used to be 1080/60i during the Winter Olympics times.
And so was ABC during Oscars last year and the year before that - yesterday night it was 720/60p around 15.5Mbps.
Good quality, though.

Diogen.
 
It is also happening on Rogers HD, exact same times although it is an audio breakup not a video one. It is not exclusive to ExpressVu.
 
TMN on EV hasn't been 720p for some time. It went to 1280x1080i and, according to recent reports, back up to 1920x1080i. But then, maybe that is the problem. :rolleyes:
 
Diogen

I concur with your analysis on the MPEG2 decoder in the receiver. Had a similar problem on the 6100 although lately it has improved due to new firmware and BEV tweaking their end. If the compression is too great then the certain types of frames called i frames (which provide a complete frame refresh and reset) are spaced too far apart between the more common b frames (which only provide the frame by frame pixel changes) and p frames (which are predictive pixel changes) causing the decoder to lose sync. The decoder then needs the next i frame to reset the picture. The time between resets is the freezing or blackout period.

John
 
Still haven't seen any proof. It may be happening but how do I (or the CRTC) know? CBC may have changed from 1080i to 720p but if the CBC is doing it with the digital feed... There's that @&#^ loophole again. :eek:
 
TMN-HD is M-HD, 840, it seems to be switching back and forth a lot.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=439937#post439937

There is this more recent one with Diogen saying 720P again, Then 1080 x 1920, then 1080 x 1280, then perhaps 720P again. Someone would need to check NOW and based on experiece, it could be different again tomorrow... :rolleyes:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=54954
 
All BEV hidef channels - 720/60p and 1080/60i - have the same GOP structure:
I-B-B-P-B-B-P-B-B-P-B-B-P-B-B-I
With 60 frames/fields per second that will put a I-frame every 1/4 sec.
Screwing one key frame can't explain blackouts of a couple seconds long.

My suspision would be the sync gets lost between audio and video streams (wrong time stamps).
This would be an encoder error and would be hard to recover from.

Diogen.
 
I just watched the latest Rome last night - I don't recall any issues. Frank43, what is your location?
 
I_Want. What more proof do you need? CBC says they feed only 1080i - see the link - and CBC on BEV is 720P. I have no idea what your last post is about, unless it's intended only to annoy.
 
Some hardware got changed out. Are people still having the problems as discussed at the start of this thread, before it got "hijacked"?
 
I watched both Rome and the Sopranos from Sunday night and both were fine. I'd say the problem is fixed.

-Mike
 
Toronto, a friend has Rogers, he is having the problem at the exact same time. TMN is aware there is a problem on Rogers as well.
 
Thanks scroolose:

Regarding the earlier posts about 720P, 1080i, I asked my contact at Astral and here's his response.
 
Interesting. I usually record the (Rome) programme that airs at around 12:30 AM Monday. I surely would have recalled 5-7 glitches. I may have encountered ONE this past week, but that doesn't usually get me upset - 5-7 surely would.

I do not watch Sopranos.
 
If low stream quality had anything to do with the problems people were having when using receivers, I don't see any changes on MPXHD: two short recordings producing errors in the hundreds. Haven't tried M-HD (that is still 1080/60i) - could be changes were implemented only to this channel.

I can't understand how this can be: HDNet downscaling (1080->720) works fine: "The Messenger" (15.2 Mbps ABR) and the first "Terminator" (12.2 Mbps ABR) had no errors at all. MCHD have mostly under 10 errors per movie.

Since there is hardly any doubt BEV does the recoding/rescaling themselves, what do they do different with TMN HD? Or is this due to low quality sources they get from Astral?

Diogen.

Just a reminder, HDNet is running "The Silence of the Lambs" tonight.
I'm not a big fan of Foster, but find Hopkins very good in this movie.
 
Just finished watching Sleeper Cell that was recorded last night at 11 I believe....much better than Rome but still one or two instances as mentioned above.
Nice to hear from people who know people :)
 
I e-mailed TMN about this issue a couple of hours ago, prior to finding this thread. To their credit I have already received a response.


"I would like to thank you for your e-mail. Here at The Movie Network, it is
always a pleasure to hear from our subscribers and to address any questions
or concerns that you may have.

If you happened to be watching "Rome" or "The Sopranos" on the HDTV channel,
I understand that Bell Express Vu have been experiencing some technical
problems that have resulted in the audio and video signal "blacking out" or
becoming pixilated.

Here at The Movie Network, we're constantly updated on a "to the minute"
basis on any issues regarding the signal we send from our broadcast centre.
Our broadcast centre contacted Bell Express Vu and they informed us that
they are definitely having hardware issues. Apparently it has something to
do with the encoder used to convert the signal. We've had a few customer
complaints regarding this issue and they are ALL Bell Express Vu customers.
Bell has assured us that they are working on this problem, and hope to have
it remedied as soon as possible.

For your own information, we send our signal to Bell Express Vu, who in turn
breaks the signal into a channel, then sends the signal to you. Usually when
there's an issue with our signal, we're informed immediately and we remedy
the problem.

Regardless, I have forwarded your email to our
Bell Express Vu affiliate representative for review.

I'm sorry I can't be more helpful on this side of things, and I hope this
issue clears itself as soon as possible.

If you have any further questions, concerns, or comments please feel free to
contact us by e-mail or toll free at 1-800-565-MOVIES (6684). A Customer
Care Representative is available to take your call Monday through Friday
from 9am to 9pm EST, and Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 5pm EST."
 
I must be missing something here (terminology?):

Does Bell ExpressVu do encoding (transcoding, transrating) of the footage sent to them by providers?

I've seen many times mentioned - they don't.

But we know that HDNet is a 1080/60i source and BEV has it at 720/60p.
Both PBS HD channels used to be 1080/60i, now one of them 720/60p.
TMN HD went through few different resolutions over the last few months.
..................

It seems something IS done to the footage AFTER it leaves the provider.
Who does it?

Or the fact that there no BEV authorized tools to measure the specs of the stream makes this issue moot?

Diogen.
 
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