Quality of recent PBS telecasts - anyone else experiencing these issues?

[NRaleighLiberal]

Last night we were watching the Nature show about Cats and Dogs - out of WUNC (Triangle area of NC). The sound quality was awful - the background music was way up front, and much of the dialogue was far in the background and hard to hear. We found the same thing with the special on India that ran a few weeks ago - made it impossible to enjoy.


We've also noticed that often in the PBS Newshour quite a few of the segments get interrupted, cut off, black out. I don't know if it is the feed to UNC or the feed from UNC, or how TimeWarner cable is handling it.

All of our other channels are fine when these problems are happening....I sent an email to WUNC to let them know, but am just curious if any other PBS watchers have noticed quality issues with their transmission.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. We're having that problem with most stations. I 'm guessing it has to do with the change to digital

In my case, the screen goes out, sometimes half of it goes green, etc.

[Submariner]

2. I watch PBS all the time

including the dog and cat show last night, and have not any of the problems you describe. Comcast cable in New England.

[NRaleighLiberal]

3. I may email Time Warner, then - thanks! Great show, hey? Moving story about the 3 legged dog...

[Arkansas Granny]

4. I had noticed the sound problem during The Story of India, but I did

not have a problem last night during Nature. I've also had no problems with the Newshour.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

5. The sound disappears for a second every 5 minutes.

Only on PBS.

[Zenlitened]

6. The sound-quality problem you describe...

I've encountered that on several other channels, including The History Channel and AMC. (I'm on Comcast in New England, BTW.)

[NRaleighLiberal]

7. I heard back from the local PBS carrier - there is a problem - see below

Here is what I was emailed today -

"Yes, I watched Nature last evening and was very aware of the problem. This morning I checked into what the problem was and it turns out that it was in the program production. The sound was produced in Dolby 5.1 Digital Audio. There was a partial cancellation of center channel where the narration is. With analog we had local control of the audio that was sent out, but with digital we do not. We can only complain to PBS that whoever put the program together didn't get it right. With digital we can often see and hear a big improvement in quality but when it's done wrong it can be horribly wrong."

Hope this helps for anyone else who was annoyed last night...and recently with PBS show quality issues!