Homeward Bound...glitchy??

[iomegaman]

So I rarely watch local TV but tonite wanted to watch the Paul Simon Tribute "Homeward Bound" on local CBS...for local stuff I have one of those digital antennas...and normally there is no issue...but tonite I decided I would chill with some soup and watch this special, but for some reason the audio is incredibly glitchy...I thought at first it was just me...but it is not at all glitchy when the commercials are on...and as I watch it gets worse with volume...like whenever a singer hits a power note or there is a dynamic increase the glitch is more pronounced...


So I move the station up one click on my remote and it shows solid green bars..."Full signal strength" and its worse...the picture never glitches...

And it is just enough to set my engineering ear completely over the edge...

I suppose we. might be asking a bit much to expect 100% glitchless audio/etc over the air via OTA

 

[Brian Roth]

Question.....what transmitter site is providing your OTA source? In my small city (Pop approx 50K) ABC, NBC and Fox have nearby low-ish power (odd in my mind to think 15 to 50 KW is low power...lol) translators for Wichita stations. CBS has no translator, but sometimes I have solid reception from their 100000000000000000 Watt ERP signal from their 1000000000000000 foot tower approx 80 miles away.

I cut the "Cox Cable teat" years ago and rely on OTA for things like regional/local TV news.

I have seen and heard some really odd artifacts over the years.

OTA is a fascinating topic. I'll maybe add my multi-year observations from Fly-Over land!

Bri

 

[iomegaman]

I'm not sure Bri, there are two transmitters here both on mountaintops the main transmitter is on Mt Bigelow and is the second oldest transmitter in the state and the first transmitter for Tucson...the other one is in the Tucson mountains and is supposed to cover dead spots...they are very sketchy about providing broadcast strength/info...

Its really strange watching the tail end right now and Paul is singing "Sound of Silence" and its glitching audio like crazy...video is 1080i and clear as a bell...I wonder if these stations traded off bandwidth in audio for better video...I have never watched anything on TV like this before where the audio glitched and popped like you hd set your audio device to the smallest buffer setting and it caused glitches and pops throughout...

Now that the special is over, absolutely no glitching...I wonder if it was something related to a national feed via local channels...?

 

[Brian Roth]

LOL...I HAD to look!!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KOLD-TV
CBS there in Tuscon. I ASSume you were getting OTA via their primary on UHF 32 and not the fill-in via VHF 13. No idea what you were hearing with those glitches.

In Ye Olde Daze, network feeds came to affiliates via AT&T microwave Long Lines. Nowadays, the feed may be coming in via the station owner's Android phone! jk.....

Being a life-long student of all-things RF, with the clues you provided, I suspect the CBS network feed was corrupted. A bad CAT5 cable somewhere in Albuquerque? <g>



Bri

 

[Brian Roth]

Another question....during local ad inserts within the show ("Fast Freddy's Ford/Nissan/Chrysler/GMC/Yugo Used Cars and Bait and Tackle Shop") sound OK?

Bri

 

[iomegaman]

I don't recall any local ads specifically but I did notice that none of the commercials seemed to have the audio glitches...

I'm wondering if it wasn't perhaps the audio feed from the event itself...as if they sent it too hot and it digitally clipped from the feed to Tucson...what was strange was during songs with harmonies/not necessarily "loud" it would clip and cut most of all..."Al and Under African Skies" with Dave Matthews and the band and Ladysmith Black Mambazo was the worst... it felt like whoever was mixing it live (I assume) was letting everything clip...and when it clipped it would glitch on TV...

 

[Brian Roth]

Hmmmmmm....a review dated 12/21/22

"Everything else about the telecast — which was filmed before a live audience at Hollywood’s Pantages back in April —"

https://variety.com/2022/music/tv-r...lute-homeward-bound-cbs-tv-review-1235467720/
shrug......maybe a CBS net feed problem.

Bri

 

[AnalogPackrat]

I recall some 20 years ago trying to watch a similar broadcast on PBS in San Jose. The audio was ruined. It sounded to me like there was a noise gate or something in the chain that glitched and cut out anything that was below a certain threshold. Unlistenable.