[awo1949]

This has been mentioned before by others, and in passing in other threads, but I thought I would start a thread for it in the hope of getting the attention of the BBCi Technical Team.

For the past week or so, I have had a problem with selecting streams from the Sport Multiscreen menu. What happens is that the video changes almost immediately but it takes two or three minutes for the audio to be acquired and for the "Please wait ..." to go away. In the meantime there is some clicking on the audio.

I am using a Humax Foxsat HDR and am wondering if this is a BBC problem, a Humax problem, or some incompatibility between the HDR and a recent update to the MHEG application used for the Sport Multiscreen.

I have also noticed another minor difference between now and when it worked OK. This is what made me think the MHEG application has been updated. The difference is that, in the past, the "Please wait ..." was replaced by an animation of the yellow button to go back instruction in the top right of the screen. The animation completed with just the yellow button remaining on the screen. Since the problem, the animation completes with the yellow button being removed from the screen.

[son_t]

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...d.php?t=989012

[awo1949]

Yes, aware of that but the last comment by BBCi Technical team was on 13th February when it was stated "however the causes of it should be relatively infrequency". The thread went quiet until yesterday when a few others reported that they were experiencing the same problem.

As the problem seems to be anything but infrequent, I thought it might be a worthwhile to get the attention of the BBCi Technical Team again, and I thought the best way of doing that would be with a new thread. Bad of me perhaps, but the mods can merge if they wish (hopefully not before it's got the attention of the BBCi Technical Team).

[son_t]

Fair enough, but I assume the BBCi Tech Team is working on it and hassling them, is not going to speed up any fix...

[awo1949]

Originally Posted by son_t

Fair enough, but I assume the BBCi Tech Team is working on it and hassling them, is not going to speed up any fix...

I don't want to hassle anyone, I just want to make sure that they know what's going on (they were unaware of any problem before it was reported on the thread you linked to). If they are still under the impression that the problem is an infrequent one, fixing it may have a low priority. As it is, the Sport Multiscreen is almost unusable on freesat and that may deserve a highish priority.

[GaseousClay]

Originally Posted by son_t

Fair enough, but I assume the BBCi Tech Team is working on it and hassling them, is not going to speed up any fix...

The BBCi team only confirmed they knew of the problem of missing text pages. The subject of sound dropping out was raised later in the thread and there was no subsequent response from the BBCi team that this new problem had been brought to their attention

edit must learn to type quicker

[son_t]

Fair enough, maybe they are too busy fixing problems and developing apps to read and reply to forums.

Best to email them with the 'high priority problems' you have...

[Snoods]

Send them a PM or E-Mail, i'm sure they will be very grateful of any detailed info of faults on the freesat platform and wouldn't in the least think they are being Hassled.

After all, that's why they have a DS account, to find out what's going on and let users know what they are up to.

They are very approachable. They can't fix something if they don't know it's broken.

[awo1949]

Originally Posted by Snoods

Send them a PM or E-Mail, ....

BBCi Tech Team is not set up to receive PMs or E-Mail.

[BaronFungus]

Originally Posted by Snoods

Send them a PM or E-Mail, i'm sure they will be very grateful of any detailed info of faults on the freesat platform and wouldn't in the least think they are being Hassled.

After all, that's why they have a DS account, to find out what's going on and let users know what they are up to.

They are very approachable. They can't fix something if they don't know it's broken.

i hit a nail burried deep in an oak tree and broke my chainsaw again today

shall i email them or am i taking the rise

[Snoods]

Originally Posted by awo1949

BBCi Tech Team is not set up to receive PMs or E-Mail.

Oh well. They will be back soon no doubt.

[Snoods]

Originally Posted by BaronFungus

i hit a nail burried deep in an oak tree and broke my chainsaw again today

shall i email them or am i taking the rise

Yes i think that's outwith their remit BF, but you could always ask them, you never know.

[awo1949]

Originally Posted by BaronFungus

i hit a nail burried deep in an oak tree and broke my chainsaw again today

Aren't you taking your obsession that everyone should have unobstructed access to freesat a tad too far ? You could at least leave a few trees standing, at least those with the bigger nails.

[son_t]

Originally Posted by BaronFungus

i hit a nail burried deep in an oak tree and broke my chainsaw again today

shall i email them or am i taking the rise

Maybe email them with this golf ball story instead: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...lled-tree.html

Keep The BBCi Tech Team smiling while the bosses whip them to work harder in their sweatshop...

[Lengster]

I also have this problem!

[BaronFungus]

thing is, if i'd been concentrating on the task in hand ( oak tree ) and not concerning myself, thinking about problems of BBCi Sport Multiscreen sound, i might just have seen the offending nail and been able to take evasive action ( stop )

awo1949

Aren't you taking your obsession that everyone should have unobstructed access to freesat a tad too far ? You could at least leave a few trees standing, at least those with the bigger nails.

i'm on a mission, while there are still trees on satfinder, i have a job to do !!!

[StrikerKUFC]

Originally Posted by awo1949

I don't want to hassle anyone, I just want to make sure that they know what's going on (they were unaware of any problem before it was reported on the thread you linked to). If they are still under the impression that the problem is an infrequent one, fixing it may have a low priority. As it is, the Sport Multiscreen is almost unusable on freesat and that may deserve a highish priority.

I watched Final Score on BBCi as recently as Saturday on my Bush SD with no problems but then again thats the only thing i watch on BBCi
Is it some other sport you watch that causes difficulty ...Do you watch Final Score and have this problem?

[Bryan Spink]

Originally Posted by awo1949

BBCi Tech Team is not set up to receive PMs or E-Mail.

They're on Twitter (@BBCRedButton) TWITTER

eg "We're back! Just trying to get code for a Freesat project to run on a set top box. It works on the emulator, but not on the box? Hmmmm"
and
"It works! This should make future interactive TV via IP a bit easier for everyone in the team."

both posted yesterday

[awo1949]

Originally Posted by StrikerKUFC

Do you watch Final Score and have this problem?

I didn't try it with Final Score, but have had the same problem with whatever I've tried during the last week or so.

[BBCi Tech Team]

Hello everyone,thanks for posting this - new threads get our attention a bit quicker

We are aware of this problem and are working to get it resolved. Our new enhancements to the Sport Multiscreen to support a choice of audios went live last week. The system is designed so that the BBC Sport team can add and remove access to extra audio streams to allow you (for example) to change commentaries for a sporting event, like the Six Nations.

We ran tests on our internal broadcast system and then on live post launch. This issue was not apparent immediately, but now we're seeing a number of users experiencing it.

Audio Switching has not been tried on Freesat before and unfortunately we're seeing teething problems.

In reply to some of you linking the thread on disappearing sports text - tricky problem that one, and unrelated to any updates to Sports Multiscreen. It shouldn't occur very often as the exact conditions needed to create the problem are not part of the usual operation of the content engines. When this does occur, however, let us know and we'll fix it.

We'll let you know as soon as the multiscreen audio is fixed.

[GaseousClay]

Originally Posted by BBCi Tech Team

We'll let you know as soon as the multiscreen audio is fixed.

Thanks guys

[awo1949]

Thanks, BBCi Tech Team, and thanks also for the audio switching.

Now I'm going to have a dilemma - HD or Radio Ulster commentary for the Ireland/Scotland and Ireland/Wales matches.

[GaseousClay]

Originally Posted by awo1949

Now I'm going to have a dilemma - HD or Radio Ulster commentary for the Ireland/Scotland and Ireland/Wales matches.

Can't you just put your radio on whilst watching hd tv or you could buy another foxsat

[awo1949]

Originally Posted by GaseousClay

Can't you just put your radio on whilst watching hd tv

There can be several seconds between the sound and the video. It's very disconcerting to hear that the kick has missed before the boot connects with the ball .

or you could buy another foxsat

Waiting for the Panasonic BluRay to come out . But I still very much doubt whether the Radio and HD TV would be anywhere near in sync. Hopefully, the BBCi alternative audio will be adjusted so there is not too much difference. Have you every tried flipping through the various BBC regions? You can sometimes get an extraordinary déjà vu feeling.

[BBCi Tech Team]

Think we've found the issue, just working on a fix.
Step by step: the audio switcher application asks the set top to tune to the video stream you've selected. It turns off the "default" audio for the stream, which may not be correct (the BBC Sport team can override it). The application reads the config to see what BBC Sport have selected as the audio to accompany the video. It cycles through the available audio for the correct audio to play out then starts it. At the moment, the cycling is taking about a minute on some boxes because the application can't find the correct audio.
Internally on our broadcast chain(s) we're not seeing the delay on any boxes, but on live on some boxes we are.
We've inspected the code logic and it seems the cycling code could end up in this state in streams not enabled for multiple audio (which is what we're seeing on live), but we can't recreate it with the excessive delay you've seen.
We do have a possible solution and we're working with the engine experts to get it tested. If it can be confirmed as a solution then we'll put up a fix.
Thanks for your patience!