HELP Clipping sound on Langley Platform ?

[Skaven]

Has anyone experienced random clicking on sound on all many channels ?, can only be desribed as someone snapping a matchstick! no distortion or sounding loud just this clicking noise. More noticable through a HiFi or headphones. Its getting exreamly annoying. It doesnt seem to be the boxes, Ive had the original 4001 boxes replaced with phase 2 4001's (4001NC) which seem alot nore reliable and stable with the picture, but both boxes in the house have the sound problem. Other than the sound problem I dont have any pricture freezing problems or blanking, appart from the known 00:10 blanking for the epg updates etc.

I only seemed to get this problem since the last software update previous to this the sound was fine.

Ive hand many engineers who alwasy say my signal levels are spot on but only have 40001NC boxes or old 4000's which I refuse as every single 4000 Ive had fails after 3 hours of use !!!!

Any ideas ?

Theres only 4001's and 4010 boxes used on the Langley platform. Theres 5 different versions of the 4001 tho! Only real difference being changes to the video outputs (composite, s video, and rgb).
I'm not aware of any sound issues on Langley boxes. Does it affect any particular channel or all of them?
Does it affect any channels video? If it was a level or feed related then it should affect the video more as theres more video data transmitted than audio in each stream.

[Skaven]

Never any video problems also very noticable on speech radio channels like BBC7, radio 4 when listening through headphones.

I'm not complaining about you, dont get me wrong but it doesnt help when I report things to CS and they deny or just say oh it sounds ok here.

I remember reporting bad picture quality early last year on E4 and Fimfour and then half a year later people suddenly realise E4 and Filmfour looks bad and a whole thread appears on the forums.

Ive been with NTL for 7 years now and getting extreamly annoyed with the lack of knowledge from CS and nearly every enginner Ive had. . Ive already cancelled broadband due to email servers going down nearly every days and the UBR's in my area being oversubscribed and their constand fiddling with re- segmentation.

And before anyone says the usuall go to SKy or Freeview I have no alternative due to local ban on Sat dishes on road facing walls and Having already tried digital terestrial is impossible due to too many trees in the area as its a Garden City causing signal refection ARGFGHGHGHG

I now wait for the flames back.

The only good thing Ive managed to be able to do is moving to ADSL last year.


Mad NTL customer

[vwman]

Originally Posted by Skaven

Never any video problems also very noticable on speech radio channels like BBC7, radio 4 when listening through headphones.

I'm not complaining about you, dont get me wrong but it doesnt help when I report things to CS and they deny or just say oh it sounds ok here.

I remember reporting bad picture quality early last year on E4 and Fimfour and then half a year later people suddenly realise E4 and Filmfour looks bad and a whole thread appears on the forums.

Ive been with NTL for 7 years now and getting extreamly annoyed with the lack of knowledge from CS and nearly every enginner Ive had. . Ive already cancelled broadband due to email servers going down nearly every days and the UBR's in my area being oversubscribed and their constand fiddling with re- segmentation.

And before anyone says the usuall go to SKy or Freeview I have no alternative due to local ban on Sat dishes on road facing walls and Having already tried digital terestrial is impossible due to too many trees in the area as its a Garden City causing signal refection ARGFGHGHGHG

I now wait for the flames back.

The only good thing Ive managed to be able to do is moving to ADSL last year.


Mad NTL customer

I've put up with this too! with changes of stb making no difference -try BBC world service if you really want to hear it bad!!

No flames from me mate. i just want to know about issues so i can look into them. I spend most of my working day listening to Radio 6 from a Langley platform STB, I haven't noticed any noises but have had a couple of complete dropouts requiring a channel up or down.
Theres a problem with E4/Film4 with picture quality which the next code download will fix.

Originally Posted by vwman

I've put up with this too! with changes of stb making no difference -try BBC world service if you really want to hear it bad!!

vwman - You are on the Bromley platform and have an acknowledged issue with the last code download. Theres a thread about it.

[vwman]

TRY BBC World service now ! ch 868

Originally Posted by vwman

TRY BBC World service now ! ch 868

Read my last post.

[jeffbodkin]

Originally Posted by Skaven

Has anyone experienced random clicking on sound on all many channels ?, can only be desribed as someone snapping a matchstick! no distortion or sounding loud just this clicking noise. More noticable through a HiFi or headphones. Its getting exreamly annoying. It doesnt seem to be the boxes, Ive had the original 4001 boxes replaced with phase 2 4001's (4001NC) which seem alot nore reliable and stable with the picture, but both boxes in the house have the sound problem. Other than the sound problem I dont have any pricture freezing problems or blanking, appart from the known 00:10 blanking for the epg updates etc.

I only seemed to get this problem since the last software update previous to this the sound was fine.

Ive hand many engineers who alwasy say my signal levels are spot on but only have 40001NC boxes or old 4000's which I refuse as every single 4000 Ive had fails after 3 hours of use !!!!

Any ideas ?

this is a fault on certain code versions across all platforms and is very noticeable on the Bromley cr3 platform. the 4000 box's are quieter to try and combat the problem and the other versions all suffer, to a degree, with the clipping noise. this was discussed on the old .com site and will "probably" be fixed with CR27 in 2008 !!!

[Skaven]

Although World Service is loud its not distorting but there are many random snapping matchstick noises. Also on ALL sky movies, Sky one BBC 7, Radio 4

If its any use I can make a list of all channels I can here this click on.

[Skaven]

Originally Posted by jeffbodkin

this is a fault on certain code versions across all platforms and is very noticeable on the Bromley cr3 platform. the 4000 box's are quieter to try and combat the problem and the other versions all suffer, to a degree, with the clipping noise. this was discussed on the old .com site and will "probably" be fixed with CR27 in 2008 !!!

I'm on Langley not Bromley.

[Skaven]

Originally Posted by Skaven

I'm on Langley not Bromley.

Arghhhghgg

Originally Posted by jeffbodkin

this is a fault on certain code versions across all platforms and is very noticeable on the Bromley cr3 platform. the 4000 box's are quieter to try and combat the problem and the other versions all suffer, to a degree, with the clipping noise. this was discussed on the old .com site and will "probably" be fixed with CR27 in 2008 !!!

Nope, theres a problem with the 1000 and 2000 boxes on the Bromley platform only. It only affects broadcasters going above an audio level of 6ppm (+8dB). This issue does not affect langley customers.

[Skaven]

Originally Posted by Proppinupthebar

No flames from me mate. i just want to know about issues so i can look into them. I spend most of my working day listening to Radio 6 from a Langley platform STB, I haven't noticed any noises but have had a couple of complete dropouts requiring a channel up or down.
Theres a problem with E4/Film4 with picture quality which the next code download will fix.

Radio 6 is fine here aswell. BBC7 is annoying now and again. If its any help. Ile make a list of channels and send you a PM if thats ok ?

Ive read on some technical papers for digital broadcasting the limiters and peak meters used by broadcaters havent been upgraded for digital so when the signal peaks for analogue levels its too high for digital mpeg and can cause sound distortions. Could this be possible ? I would have thought the BBC would have been the first to sort this out though, if this is anything to do with it

Originally Posted by Skaven

Radio 6 is fine here aswell. BBC7 is annoying now and again. If its any help. Ile make a list of channels and send you a PM if thats ok ?

Ive read on some technical papers for digital broadcasting the limiters and peak meters used by broadcaters havent been upgraded for digital so when the signal peaks for analogue levels its too high for digital mpeg and can cause sound distortions. Could this be possible ? I would have thought the BBC would have been the first to sort this out though, if this is anything to do with it

The radio stations are not sticking to the 6ppm peak level which TV stations do. I have personally spoken to the BBC and their response was that because the commercial stations were using a particular level then they would too!!
I have looked and so far have not found a spec which defines a legal limit for audio within either the MPEG or DVB domain. I will stick my STB on BBC7 tommorow.