ATSC 3.0 Issues

[lenlab]

I live in the NY City Market and have been using my 4k Flex sine I installed it after XMAS 2024 (and Xmas gift).

I have noticed a number of ATSC 3.0 issues that almost make it unusable for me for ATSC 3.0 and now I am going back to using the FLEX 4k for viewing the 1.0 stations instead of their 3.0 version.

Here are the key issues for me. Wondering if this is just a NY City market thing.

1. Lip sync is off. The mouth and the speech are very much not in sync. Annoyingly so.
2. Closed captions are not synced up with the speech.
3. Closed caption size is much larger and takes up too much screen space compared to ATSC 1.0 station caption size.

I have 3 ATSC 3.0 stations that are not DRM and viewable. WABC (107.1) WPIX (111.1) and PBS (113.1). All have the same issues. So I am wondering if this is isolated to the NYC market or a universal ATSC 3.0 issue. Or a Flex 4k Issue?

Thankfully I can go back to the ATSC 1.0 version of these stations with the Flex 4K.

[techpro2004]

A lot of people have been having issues with plex for quite some time they just refuse ( or are unable) to fix there software. my advice is to use channels dvr.

[nickk]

Lip sync being off...
1) What player device are you using?
2) Does the lip sync get more and more off the longer you watch or does it stay about the same?

There is a known bug in the Hisense TV I have here where their AC4 codec does this.

Closed captions - the size of the captions is determined by the broadcaster.

[lenlab]

I'm using hdhomerun software with fireTV stick 4k second gen and a Samsung smart TV. Not using Plex or Channels.

It happens with recordings and live TV that is ATSC3.0. ATSC 1.0 live TV and recordings has no issue.

No it does not get better or worse as time goes on viewing live or recordings.

[lenlab]

I won't mention the name or brand but a former DVR I owned allowed for adjustments to the CC captions such as fonts and size and a few other tweeks.

Is this a possible option that SD could consider for the future or is this very complicated and expensive to implement?

[danieljlevine]

During the Superbowl on my ATSC 3.0 Fox WBFF 145.1 (no DRM) channel, I noticed that the Atmos audio was falling further and further behind. To fox it, I could leave and return to the station, pause and then FF to present and then it would eventually fall behind.

Today, the same channel still says Atmos on my audio receiver, and Surround for other ATSC 3.0 channels as expected. However the audio on 145.1 does not appear to befalling further and further behind. I’ll let the channel run for a while to see it still happens.

During the Superbowl, I turned the diagnostics on so SD could potentially learn something. I have not heard anything from SD yet regarding the issue.

[nickk]

During the Superbowl, I turned the diagnostics on so SD could potentially learn something. I have not heard anything from SD yet regarding the issue.

What is the Device ID of your HDHomeRun?

[danieljlevine]

10A296FB

[danieljlevine]

Is there a way to see the number of audio channels for a broadcast? Channels used to do that form me, but it doesn’t work and I cant run the beta version.

I was hoping the latest HDHR config ui on Windows would reveal such information, but I have yet to find where.

[SpiceWare]

Is there a way to see the number of audio channels for a broadcast?

the Codec Details on Media Information in VLC shows this. For Channel 2.1 in Houston I see 7 streams:

0) MPEG 1/2 Video
1) AC3 English audio
2) AC3 Spanish audio
3) Closed Captions 1
4) Closed Captions 2
5) Closed Captions 3
6) Closed Captions 4

Each stream section has more info, such as 1920x1080 for stream 0 and 48000 Hz for stream 1. Detail for stream 2 doesn't show up unless I switch audio to Spanish.

There is a quirk - a long time ago I used to be able to use Local Network -> Universal Plug'n'Play -> HomeRun device -> Channel # to start watching a channel. Currently that sometimes works, but mostly I get a bunch of errors related to IP6, such as this(I replaced part of the IP6 address with ...)

Code: Select all

Your input can't be opened
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'http://[fe80:: ... ::3af]:5004/auto/v2.1'. Check the log for details
Your input can't be opened
VLC is unable to open the MRL 'http://[fe80:: ... ::3af]:5004/auto/v2.2'. Check the log for details
...
etc for each channel the tuner knows about

As a workaround I open up the channel lineup in my browser:
http://10803af0.local/lineup.html

From there I right-click on a channel and copy the Link, such as this for channel 13.1:
http://10803af0.local:5004/auto/v13.1

I then switch to VLC, use menu option File -> Open Network, and paste the link in the URL field.

[danieljlevine]

Interesting, I was hoping for something that would break down an AC4 stream and say how many audio channels there were, like 2, 5.1, 5.1.2, or 7.1.4.

It would be nice if HDHR app broke all that out, but perhaps they don't get into all those details because they just pass the AC4 audio stream along to the OS opaquely?

[jasonl]

Save a sample file using your browser (http://hdhomerun.local:5004/auto/v145.1?duration=30) then open it in MediaInfo (https://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo) and it will tell you everything you want to know and more.

[danieljlevine]

Thanks!

Media Info is really good!

For my Fox WBFF 145.1 ATSC 3.0 channel:

Audio is reported as Dolby Atmos 5.1.2
Video is 720p SL-HDR1, v1.0

[danieljlevine]

During the Superbowl, I turned the diagnostics on so SD could potentially learn something. I have not heard anything from SD yet regarding the issue.

What is the Device ID of your HDHomeRun?

Was there anything of use in my diagnostics?

[danieljlevine]

Some bugs I’ve found:

When you hit the SAP (Secondary Audio Program) it cycles through the options. One enticing option is “Spa Stereo Audio”. I believe it should be “SAP Stereo Audio”.

Also now that I have a station that broadcasts Dolby Atmos 5.1.4, shouldn’t one of the SAP options be Atmos related? The choices are: “Eng 5.1 Audio” and “Spa Stereo Audio”. I’m guessing Eng 5.1 Audio is actually Atmos in this case. But I’d assume the “righter” answer should come out.

Other options I’s seen from other channels are: “5.1 Audio (Other)”, “Stereo Audio (Other)”, “Eng Stereo Audio”, “Eng Mono Audio”, “Spa Stereo Descriptive Audio”, “Spa 5.1 Audio”, “Mul Stereo Audio”.

So guessing “ Spa Stereo Descriptive Audio” and “Spa 5.1 Audio” are also typos.


So at the least, perhaps a few typos and maybe with Atmos a coding or mapping issue. Or perhaps the station is not broadcasting the correct info.