SunDirect HD: NO AUDIO on DD HD channel.

[sanjay0864]

With only two days left for the Opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games, SunDirect HD has still not enabled the audio on DD HD. I have already registered a complaint with customer service but to no avail, maybe if more people complain they might do something about it. It is a shame that due to the incompetence of the idiots at SunDirect HD we won't be able to make use of the DD HD channel.

 

[sanjay0864]

I have found the solution to this problem and this is with no thanks to the inept SunDirect HD who have not even bothered to inform their technicians, let alone their customers, on how to resolve the issue. This is on top of the fact, that this issue has only risen due to their not using basic logic (common sense) in presenting the audio options in the DD HD channel.

1. Turn to the 'DD HD' channel (Channel # 970)
2. Press the 'ALT' button on the remote. This will bring up an "Audio" menu with 'TWO' options '1 English' & '2 English'.
3. Select the 2nd option '2. English'.
You should now have audio.

When there is only one audio feed available, why in the world would you have two seperate options? Even if you do have the options, then why would you make the only available audio track as the alternate track instead of setting it as the 'primary' track, which would be the 1st option '1 English'?

 

[Jigneshg]

gr8 that u have find out the solution. Why cant they send an info in info channel ? Or may be they are waiting for CWG to start

 

[sanjay0864]

gr8 that u have find out the solution. Why cant they send an info in info channel ? Or may be they are waiting for CWG to start

The irony is, that both their website and their info page state in big letters "Watch Commonwealth Games on SUN DIRECT HD on Channel 970", but state no instructions on how to get the audio.

 

[Cybersurfer]

The problem may be that the Sun Direct HD STBs can't decode the 5.1 ch HE-AAC track.

Reposting what I have said at another forum:
The original Insat 4b Ku feed has 2 audio tracks, the default/first track [DD HD - pid:610] is HE-AAC 5.1 and the secondary track [DD HD (eng) - pid:710] is MPEG Stereo.

2 audio tracks:

Selecting the 2nd track reports MPEG Stereo:

Three different softwares reporting the default HE-AAC 5.1 ch audio track in the original DD HD Ku band feed from Insat 4b

DVB Viewer

ProgDVB

TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress

 

[hemantwaghe]

Cybersurfer are you in brodcast/cable business?
Which software is that..

BTW thanks for all your updates....being a non sports enthu I would have missed the action ,but you kept my basic knowledge up to date.
Thanks

 

[Cybersurfer]

Cybersurfer are you in brodcast/cable business?
Which software is that..

BTW thanks for all your updates....being a non sports enthu I would have missed the action ,but you kept my basic knowledge up to date.
Thanks

No,:lol: I'm not in any kind of broadcast business just an enthusiast. DVB Viewer & ProgDVB are as the name implies, 2 different softwares to view channels broadcasted using the Digital Video Broadcasting standard with the help of a supported DVB-S/S2 PCI or USB tv tuner. TMPGEnc Xpress is a video transcoding software.

 

[sanjay0864]

The problem may be that the Sun Direct HD STBs can't decode the 5.1 ch HE-AAC track.

Reposting what I have said at another forum:
The original Insat 4b Ku feed has 2 audio tracks, the default/first track [DD HD - pid:610] is HE-AAC 5.1 and the secondary track [DD HD (eng) - pid:710] is MPEG Stereo.

Selecting the 2nd track reports MPEG Stereo:

Three different softwares reporting the default HE-AAC 5.1 ch audio track in the original DD HD Ku band feed from Insat 4b

Thank for the technical information. It helps put the issue in perspective, although it still raises a few questions.
1. Why would SunDirect not be able to decode the '5.1 ch HE-AAC track'?
2. If TataSky was able to use the same audio feed and encode it to Dolby Digital, why couldn't SunDirect be able to do the same?
3. Why, even though the original audio feed is 'HE-AAC 5.1 ch', the Dolby Digital track on Tata Sky seemed to be only 3.1 ch audio.

 

[Cybersurfer]

Thank for the technical information. It helps put the issue in perspective, although it still raises a few questions.
1. Why would SunDirect not be able to decode the '5.1 ch HE-AAC track'?
2. If TataSky was able to use the same audio feed and encode it to Dolby Digital, why couldn't SunDirect be able to do the same?
3. Why, even though the original audio feed is 'HE-AAC 5.1 ch', the Dolby Digital track on Tata Sky seemed to be only 3.1 ch audio.

1. Maybe their STBs don't have required hardware to do that. Check the user manual or device manufacturers website for the spec sheet. Thus it can be made sure whether its a hardware or software limitation.
2. May be they don't have the resources to carry the channel on their own atm, I don't know ask their CC.
3. I'm not talking about the relative quality of the feed but merely pointing out that the original feed has a track encoded in 5.1ch in addition to another stereo track. The problem you speak of may be in the original feed or it could even be that TS messed up the conversion to DD 5.1. I didn't experience any major issues (with the Insat 4b feed) other than the 1 sec breakup a few times then again I'm not using any high-end 5.1 gear just a Edifier M3350 5.1 for my PC.

 

[sanjay0864]

1. Maybe their STBs don't have required hardware to do that. Check the user manual or device manufacturers website for the spec sheet. Thus it can be made sure whether its a hardware or software limitation.

I think your confusing the abilities of the set-top box at the consumer level with the 'receiver/equipment' used by SunDirect HD to receive the original feed from DD. HE-AAC is not a consumer level codec and thus the consumer's set-top box cannot be expected to decode it. The consumer level standard is Dolby Digital, which is what SunDirect HD has to provide after recieving, decoding and then re-encoding to Dolby Digital before sending it to the consumer.

 

[Cybersurfer]

I think your confusing the abilities of the set-top box at the consumer level with the 'receiver/equipment' used by SunDirect HD to receive the original feed from DD. HE-AAC is not a consumer level codec and thus the consumer's set-top box cannot be expected to decode it. The consumer level standard is Dolby Digital, which is what SunDirect HD has to provide after recieving, decoding and then re-encoding to Dolby Digital before sending it to the consumer.

No, I'm not confusing anything. I'm talking about the feed from Insat 4b which is meant for end user consumption and not about any feeds provided by DD to any broadcasters. HE-AAC is very well a consumer level codec and is used in many DVB h264 channels.

DVB

The ETSI, the standards governing body for the DVB suite, supports AAC, HE-AAC and HE-AAC v2 audio coding in DVB applications since at least 2004.[39] DVB broadcasts which use the h.264 codec for video normally use the HE-AAC codec for audio.[citation needed]

Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding#HDTV_Standards

Many broadcasters including the DTH companies in India use Dolby Digital because of the wide range of devices that support it compared to the newer HE-AAC.

In many ways DD HD is a lot like BBC HD than any other channels. Both use high bitrate AVC video in a MPEG 2 Transport Stream broadcasted using DVB-S standard rather than DVB-S2. In the case of both these channels, DVB-S is used because both of them share transponder with other SD channels and it would be a waste of transponder space if they had a whole DVB-S2 transponder for the HD channel. But BBC HD on Freesat(DVB-S) has DD5.1 audio whereas on Freeview HD(DVB-T2) it uses HE-AAC just like DD HD using it on DD Direct+.

Interesting read : Questions around surround sound on Freeview HD This post explains why BBC is forced to use HE-AAC instead of Dolby on Freeview when they have DD 5.1 track on Freesat.