On 10/30/10 2:32 AM, Wesley McGee wrote: > I do not know if this is a common thing now -- or even if it has > become standard for radio -- but radio station 980AM here in > Washington DC will insert a 15 second delay to accommodate people at > home with DVRs. This came about after they did away with a 30 second > 'fuck' delay and complaints came in about the radio play-by-play guys > describing plays from the future. Of course, what happens is that DVRs > introduce an additional delay to the receiving of the signal by the TV > as the video is routed through the device and saved to the hard disk. > (The old software on my DVR -- Navigator -- was 30 seconds behind. > That software was replaced with Passport by my cable company last > weekend; I do not know how long the delay is now, but it seems shorter.) > > Is this becoming common now with radio broadcasts of sporting events? > Also, what of people who listen to the game by radio while at the > stadium watching it? Those folks are unaffected by delays introduced > by DVRs, or even the delays inherent in satellite transmission.
I think this delay is to match their HD Radio feed. When you're listening to stations on HD Radio, it takes about 10-15 seconds to encode and transmit a live feed. If your radio were to switch back to analogue because of interference (the HD signals require everything to be "perfect") and there wasn't a delay, you'd hear the audio jump forward about 15 seconds. To match the two and make it seamless, engineers add a delay to the analogue feeds as well. Many stations were (are?) turning off their HD signal during live sport events, so that if anyone is listening in the stadium, they don't experience the 10-15 delay. It can be argued that HD Radio has taken off as well as AM Stereo in the 80s. It's particularly sensitive on the AM band. I think the extra cost for a receiver still make it a niche product. But it's going away anytime soon, since stations can squeeze more advertising from two or more stations on the same channel. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
