Freeview bitrates

Posted by: ursus262 on 14 October 2018

I've just watched Dr Who and Strictly this evening and the sound from my PVR, a Humax, sounded terrific. Normally it sounds as flat as a pancake. Do they adjust the bitrates for the audio depending on the programme?

Posted on: 15 October 2018 by Rich 1

Just watched Strictly as well via iPlayer, sound was excellent but the pictures terrible. Yes, sound and picture quality varies day by day no matter what the BBC might say. Rich

Posted on: 15 October 2018 by Rich 1

PS I have a Humax as well.

Posted on: 15 October 2018 by Felty99

Are the Freeview broadcasts encoded with 5.1 audio or 2.0? Both programmes used to have 5.1 audio via Sky, but no longer it seems.

Posted on: 17 October 2018 by Rich 1

Quick look at the web and came up with this on Now TV. Not sure if it's applicable though 'Unfortunately multi-channel HE-AAC audio is unable to be decoded by a surround sound amplifier as a native 'bitstream', it has to be transcoded to Dolby Digital. I'm not sure if the 'smart' box can perform this level of transcoding...' might be a red herring though Rich

Posted on: 17 October 2018 by Rich 1

Bit more from Wiki. 'Dolby Digital audio will be transmitted at 320Kb/s for 5.1 surround, with stereo audio at 128Kb/s; audio description takes up 64Kb/s, subtitles 200Kb/s and the data' BBC did have issues 3 or 4 years ago using 5.1 and pulled the plug while they sorted it out, I assume that they have now. Rich

Posted on: 18 October 2018 by rackkit

At least the BBC do 5.1, ITV don’t bother at all.