Saorview delays New Years Countdown?

Stinicker

Since Analogue TV was switched off the entire country would have celebrated New Years around 5 seconds late as it takes around 4 to 5 seconds to encode and transmit the signal.

People might remember this from watching analog and then switching over to Sky or Saorview only to hear the same thing a few seconds later.

As it went out live from Dublin, 2013 came to the rest of the country a few seconds later! This is not an RTE thing and happens everywhere Digital TV is used, unless it was a prerecorded show and they could sync the timing.

http://jonathan.rawle.org/2009/01/01/digital-tv-to-delay-the-new-year/

Happy New Year, TV Aficionados!

The Cush

Stinicker wrote: »

As it went out live from Dublin, 2013 came to the rest of the country a few seconds later!

Happy New Year, TV Aficionados!

Many Happy Returns.

Yes I noticed that last night, about 5-6 secs. behind (checked it against an MSF time signal watch).

coylemj

Didn't they always say that Dublin was ahead of the rest of the country? Now it's official!

Sam Russell

They must have used a satellite return path to RTE Donneybrook to get 5 or 6 seconds delay. Normally it would only be about 2 seconds. However, they could have anticipated the countdown by starting it 5 seconds early.

This will always be a problem with DVB, and depends on the reciver. With two TVs on the same channel in different rooms, I get an echo between them due to different decoding speeds. It will be worse on HD channels.

Time signals are much rarer these days, probably for this reason. They used to be on the hour every hour, with the news headlines, and then the next programme starting at 'one minute past' the hour. [They actually announced this!]

watty

There is BIG buffer delay on a Statistical Multiplexing Encoder.

Mr Keek

It's a right pain in the arse, I always watch TG4 for the Connacht rugby, and for their GAA coverage, I would use the local radio station on the FM tuner on my home cinema for English commentry, since Saorview, the delay make this option a non runner.

This is going to be a permanent thing I assume, yeah?

The Cush

Mr Keek wrote: »

This is going to be a permanent thing I assume, yeah?

Yes unless your local radio ever launches on DAB, similar delay on DAB vs. FM.

Stinicker

The Cush wrote: »

Yes unless your local radio ever launches on DAB, similar delay on DAB vs. FM.

I do this with Radio Kerry and TG4 for Kerry games and stream the radio online which is delayed more than the tv and pause the TG4 match until I get the close to synced. I think radio uses ISDN still for uplink in these situations although it is a different technology entirely.

Antenna

Stinicker wrote: »

Since Analogue TV was switched off the entire country would have celebrated New Years around 5 seconds late as it takes around 4 to 5 seconds to encode and transmit the signal.

There would also have been some delay with analogue when it was on, as the analogue transmitters had been fed by digital compressed links for a number of years. Only back when everything in the chain was analogue was it practically instantaneous.

BTW I recently did a comparison between RTE on upc MMDS (at a premises in Co. Cork) and RTE on Saorview. RTE via MMDS was about 2 seconds AHEAD of RTE via Saorview.

More Music

Stinicker wrote: »

I do this with Radio Kerry and TG4 for Kerry games and stream the radio online which is delayed more than the tv and pause the TG4 match until I get the close to synced.....

Good thinking there!