Where does NBC hide the voices?

[guacharaca]

As of yesterday I am plum pleased to be receiving NBC HD S2 on AMC 1. However they have a show on today that I only can hear the dramatic background music. The voices must be on another frequency. The commercials are normal with full voice and audio, but this particular program hides the voice. I switched from AC3 surround sound to regular speakers and nothing changes. I change audio codecs and I get the same or nothing. This morning's tennis match had normal audio. Any ideas how to get the sound for this type of program?

 

[Jim S.]

Those NBC channels all have four audio streams. One of them has the dialog, possibly the fourth one, but you'll have to check for yourself because my view of that satellite is partly obstructed now. I have no idea why they use discrete sound channels instead of a 5.1 mux.

 

[nycrich]

What type of receiver are you using? Does your receiver support the intended audio? I have been using the AZBOX Premium Plus, and have been able to decode most of the audio (ACC, AC3, Dolby DTS, etc).

 

[Jim S.]

It's not a question of decoding. The channels in question have the dialog on one APID, the ambient sound on another APID, etc. All the APIDs are in a format you can decode, but you can only listen to one of them at a time on a consumer receiver.

 

[guacharaca]

Several Audio PIDs? Now that makes sense and would allow the broadcaster to convert the audio to another format. I noticed last night that the Tonight Show (in HD) was fine for audio, but the comedian right after Jay had no voice. I checked the same program over on 72W in SD and his voice on that signal was fine. However the SD signal on 72W is a few seconds ahead of the HD signal on 103W, therefore I could not use the SD audio for my sound. I will experiment a bit by seeking other audio PIDs to find the one for voice. To answer the other question, I am using a TBS6980-S2 card with DVBDream running on an I7 processor on steroids. It has an optical connection to a Sony surround sound system for AC3 decoding. For SD I have the dependable CS5000. I also noticed before on the hockey games in HD on NBC did not have any voice but one could hear the puck slide on the ice. I assumed that the audio just did not exist, but now I know I have to seek it out.

 

[Jim S.]

In theory, you could write a program to decode all the audio streams simultaneously on a sufficiently fast CPU. I don't know if anyone has ever done that.

 

[guacharaca]

Yes it worked. Again watching the Jimmy Fallon show, I pushed up the APID from 761 to 764 and I got voice. I did get voice on 762 but it came out different speakers and not as loud. On the other channel, I tried 751 to 754 but it did not work. My card could detect four separate sound APIDs for each channel. I am not complaining. I learned a new trick and achieved the goal. Thanks for the help.

 

[cracklincrotch]

I did get voice on 762 but it came out different speakers and not as loud.

That was most likely the rear left/right audio.

PITA on the audio. I can't complain I suppose. We're getting more than we're paying for.

 

[donaldelee]

Azbox HD Premium Plus

With the issue of voice, on 72 degrees west, has any one got the voice to play correct on service 1? This is the channel for GBN. Gospel Network Program. It takes about two minutes for the channel to 'open' up, and then, another two or three minutes for the voice to stop being garbled before playing correct. With my set up, my Coolsat 6000 premium was about the same, but better. It took a minute for the picture to pop in, usually, it would come in, and then, it would 'come in' again. As if it would have to do this to receive the best signal. And, then, it would take a second for the sound.
All assistance is appreciated!