What do you mean?
I was replying to JasonsPlexās comment of āWorks on my Galaxy S 20 5g but thatās it lol. No point in watching high resolution on a small screen.ā
ATSC 3.0 broadcasts for the foreseeable future are either the same 720 and 1080i as their atsc 1 broadcasts (but encoded as HEVC) and a few are 1080p but from the same sources. That is not āhigh resolution for a small screenā.
If you are asking about why ATSC 3.0 isnāt 4k, summary is that broadcasters werenāt given additional frequencies to broadcast on and they have to continue to broadcast the ATSC 1 streams for 5 years. So they were using all or almost all of their broadcast bandwidth before and have found creative ways to work together to move some 1.0 broadcasts around and cram 3.0 signals into what they have. So aside from the fact that the news, sports and most programming isnāt being produced at 4k, even if it was, most (or all) do not have the bandwidth to carry it. If we do see any one-off, it may technically be ā4kā but at a very low bitrate and achieved by temporarily making the other channels who share the lighthouse antenna worse. Consumers would be better served by higher quality 1080p w/HDR/HLG than low bitrate ā4kā.
While it may not take the full 5 years before they can figure out how to do quality 4k broadcasts, right now there is nothing publicly known about how many years it will take before 4k is enabled for existing stations.
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Wow!! I cannot help but feel deceivedā¦ I guess I can understand the bandwidth issues and obviously simulcasting 1.0 and 3.0 until most of the market adopts 3.0 tuner tech, this is certainly not how they are marketing āNext Genā TV.
I was thinking that w HEVC, they could pump out a 4K signal and assumed Sports and local news broadcasts would move to 4K. I do agree that HDR -theoreticallyā¦ should provide a bigger PQ improvement but the truth is most consumer displays donāt have the brightness to truly display the full range of HDR leaving most HDR images seeming dark relative to non-HDR material.
Itās good that signal quality will improve with 3.0 but I was an early adopter of the Silicon Dust HDHR 4K tuner expecting higher quality OTA but it sounds like Iāll be left waiting for a noticeable difference while (short term) battling AC-4 audio incompatibilities with various STBsā¦
Thanks for the explanation.
Yes agreed. TY for summary.
Iāve seen a few reports of 4K in test markets, but I assume it will be reaaaaally limited for a long time.
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Yep. a 4K upgrade is a significant expense for a studio, considering all of the production equipment including cameras. News and local productions are typically on limited budgets. Itās going to be hard to justify those upgrade costs for the 15 people currently watching via ATSC 3.0. (Iām exaggerating. Maybe.)
I donāt even expect it to be a common option in sports for years to come, other than key high-interest games like a Super Bowl. But Iād guess even that will be streamed in 4K for now, not broadcast.
In the shorter term, possibly the best improvement in ATSC 3.0 could be hopefully getting subchannels in HD HEVC, instead of the current SD MPEG2. I donāt believe (m)any markets are doing that yet, though.
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While it is certainly possible, Iāve not seen any users in any markets report seeing any 4k tests.
The only 4k source Iām aware of is this subscription on in Boise, ID but that requires using their own receiver, you canāt use a HDHR or a TV with ATSC 3.0 tuner (so yeah, good luck with that Evocaā¦)
Agreed, I donāt think most were aware of the limitations and just assumed that 4k broadcasts would soon follow once a market had launched as that was the big thing that the atsc 3.0 marketing always pushed.
As for subchannels, you should be getting one or two in your market. But you wonāt get all of them because again, they canāt drop 1.0 broadcasts to free up the bandwidth to run higher resolution subs with the more efficient HEVC. But then again, Iām not sure of exactly how the 5 year requirement to keep broadcasting 1.0 applies to the sub channels vs just the main ABC/NBC/CBS etc.
For 4k overall, Iād guess the production capability would be ramped up only if they can (also) do it for cable and/or online streaming. The amount of 3.0 tuner users in a market are likely never going to justify the expense. And of course there isnāt going to be a big switch to 3.0 tuners for antenna users if they find out there isnāt really a big reason to switch.
Just wanted to post, same issue as everyone indicated above.
HDHomeRun CONNECT 4K, on ATSC 3.0 channels with HEVC have no audio.
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Has anyone seen any difference with the way this works recently? Iām reading about the HDHRC4K and it seems you can now choose between receiving the ATSC 1.0 or the 3.0 channel?
You will have to rescan your channels to see the ATSC 3.0 channels move to the 100 range.
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Thanks! helpful.
For those in this thread saying that this is ffmpegās problem and not Plexās, Iād like to point out that ffmpeg is open source software that Plex leverages. I have a difficult time blaming a free program that is integrated into a commercial product rather than the makers of that commercial product.
When a company leverages open source software in their products and there is a missing feature that is needed (or a bug, or an unpatched security vulnerability, etc) they should be willing to fix it themselves and contribute the support back to the original project - or at least work with the upstream devs rather than waiting around for free updates so they can benefit from them.
Alternatively, they can choose to formally not support AC-4 audio, but as that would effectively make them incompatible with ATSC 3.0 broadcast TV, I doubt they want to do that.
Letās not make excuses for Plex; if they want to support AC4 audio, they can add it to ffmpeg themselves.
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@bblood1003 - I understand where youāre point of view, but pointing the finger at Plex on this accomplishes nothing. Plex isnāt going to write low-level AC-4 audio device drivers for all their currently supported Windows/Linux/Andoid/iOS operating systems - that is far outside of their expertise wheelhouse.
Everyone needs to be patient as ffmpeg developers work on the decoding and bring it into the main release branch. At least AC-4 audio is being worked on now.
Now, if I was going to point a finger at anybody, I would point it squarely at SiliconDust for not being forthcoming to potential supporters about the need for AC-4 decoding when they opened up the campaign. I was very disappointed in them on this point. SD obviously knew it was a deficiency, since SD needed to incorporate an AC-4 decoder into their own DVR software. But, if they pointed the AC-4 requirement out when starting the campaign, I bet the amount of backers would have dropped significantly - possibly enough that we wouldnāt have ATSC 3.0 decoders right now. I certainly wouldnāt have backed the development if I knew.
Maybe SD should provide AC-4 decoders to Plex and the ffmpeg developers?
My HDHR 4K sat uselessly on the shelf for months. Now with the update it is at least in service and working in Plex for ATSC 1.0. I am able to use the Channels App on my Fire TV Cube to get the ATSC 3.0 channels to work (on the 100 labeled channels) with sound. Not ideal, but at least this accommodation has been made by Silicon Dust, marking some progress. I believe that Silicon dust is taking chances with their business by selling the unit post Kickstarter without a clear customer disclosure of this issue. I also think Plex could step up to the plate and modernize. I am already annoyed that they are dropping the Photo Upload feature and sold me some lame retro gaming subscription (which was impossible to cancel without replacing my debit card by the way). Pluck two feathers from their impressive cap. I could easily turn from a Plex promoter to a Plex detractor. Plex needs to focus itās attention on what sells the Plex Pass: OTA and DVR! Both companies need to forget about fixing the blame, and work together to fix the problem!!!
That would be in the true spirit of open source!
ATSC 3.0 is bleeding edge, and when you live on the bleeding edge, sometimes you get cut.
Windows 10 does support AC4 decode on HDHR. At least I know that HEVC works on my Quatro. Hope Plex will eventually get it working.
As for lack of 4K content, I am more impressed with the multipath capabilities of ATSC 3.0 making 1080 much more watchable where I am at in a marginal signal location.
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I wish that I saw benefits from the transmit/reception enhancements of ATSC 3.0. That was one of the main reasons I purchased the HDHR 4K.
From what I have seen so far on my TV, my reception of the ATSC 3.0 channels has been noticeably worse than the ATSC 1.0 main channels.
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I have HDHR4K and running Plex on Ubuntu. Same issue- no audio on ATSC 3.0 channels with AC-4 audio.
Same issue. HDHR4k, Plex 4.62.1 on Ubuntu for the server - any client - web, Roku, or iPhone. One channel (WUVC-NG) also showed a bad aspect ratio - too short vertically when watching on the web desktop client, but the aspect ratios were good on the Roku. When I watch the channels on the HDHR iPhone app, they work fine.
I am in the Raleigh-Durham area (Apex), and on RF 14, I get great reception of simulcasts of the .1 channels for WRDC, WUVC, WNCN, WLFL, and WTVD, all in 720p. RF 23 has WRAL and WRAZ. These stations are part of the antenna farm alongside most other channels I receive, where 70 Business forks off from I-40 near Garner and Clayton, so reception is good.
I could record some snippets if that would be helpful.
Is the audio fixed yet? Iām tempted to replace my current tuner with the ATSC 3.0, but not if there isnāt a fix or a timeline to fix the current issues.
