Digital Delay

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

A couple of weeks ago, lubitul e-mailed me and commented on how he and his father were both watching the Mets game on Channel 11 - same channel, same town, same cable system - but that the broadcasts were out of sync. He opined that the digital cable transmission was behind the regular broadcast.

Last night we noticed the same thing in the DiamondKnight house (of course, MK was the first one to notice it. D-Dad and I were watching on the digital cable in the living room, while MK was in another room, and he asked us why the televisions weren't showing the same thing). It turned out to be something like a 5 second lapse on the digital broadcast.

How come this happens?

[Theoldmole]

I dunno, but I've noticed it here too.

[Guest Edgy DC]

I hate when the game is delayed by digits. But sometimes they show old highlight films.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

There is still a digital delay with the WB11. However, it doesn't happen on every channel - for example, last night my daughter was watching The Daily Show in a different room, and there was no perceptible delay.

Why would this happen during Mets games and not during other times?

[Guest martin]

i think digital cable is delayed because your digital cable box needs time to decode digital mpeg video like a computer, but analog brodcast and cable just need to be tuned in like a radio, which is virtually instant.

so the cable company is digitizing video, and sending it to you, and then it needs to be uncompressed and made viewable again.

like if you listened to a mets game radio broadcast on the internet vs the radio, the radio broadcast would be ahead. your digital cable box is like a computer dedicated to uncompressing and viewing streamed compressed video. your digital cable box even has an ip address like your computer.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

That's interesting.

How come some broadcasts are more affected by this than others?

Thanks.

[Willets Point]

Actually I noticed this in a bar last month where the TV's on one side of the bar were showing the Red Sox game about 10 seconds earlier than the TV's on the other side of the bar. Couldn't figure it out but maybe some of them are digital.

[Theoldmole]

Be good if no one else noticed it, and you could get down a really fast bet.

[Guest martin]

some broadcasts would be affected more than others because some are digital and need processing while the other tv in your house without digital cable doesnt.

this happens to me, i can hear the simpsons in my roommates room a few seconds before my tv which has digital cable.

if you mean why would some digital broadcasts delay more than others, i dunno.

[Guest ScarletKnight41]

Again, thanks for the explanation martin.