A couple of years ago, my Rogers HD (traditional digital cable, not Ignite) downgraded the audio on Global Toronto from Dolby Digital 5.1 to DD2.0. I posted at the time (a couple of pages up from this post) about the banging-head-against-brick-wall process of trying to get support from Rogers on this. Eventually they said I would have to take it up with Global because they said Global was only sending them 2.0. Apparently it's the customer's job to negotiate technical issues between Rogers and their suppliers. I never got around to it as I doubt it would be anything but a complete waste of time; heck, I'm not even sure Global's switchboard would even put some random caller through to their network operations gurus in the first place.
Well, in recent months, TSN1 HD's audio coming from my PVR has been downgraded from DD5.1 to PCM2.0 (that's what the PVR is outputting; the diagnostic screen on the PVR shows that it's receiving this one as AAC). The other TSN HD channels, along with every other channel I watch that is normally DD5.1, still work properly (and the diagnostic screen says they're coming in as DD). I first noticed this in late December, watching the World Juniors; I hadn't watched TSN much for a while before that as there hasn't been much sports due to the pandemic.
On my first try, Rogers closed the ticket, and when I asked what the resolution was, it was that it's my fault somehow that this problem happens. I had sent photos of the diagnostic screens to their Twitter
@RogersHelps account but they said they couldn't pass them along to tech support. So I had them open another ticket and asked them to transcribe the key information from the diagnostic screens. Predictably, that ticket didn't work either; after about a week and a half of silence, they reported they were unable to identify the problem.
In a live chat discussion about it, first they said customer needs to resolve on their end. Then they said they had checked and TSN is only sending them 2.0 on this channel. When I asked how they expect me to resolve that on my end when it's a problem between them and TSN, they said it's because I'm listening to the channel with my own equipment. When I pointed out that there is nothing on my end that can resolve the problem of TSN sending them the wrong audio, they said it's not a problem. Again, like banging my head against a brick wall. So I told them fine, I'll remember this when my discounts expire and I'm shopping around.
Just thought I'd post in case anyone else watches the various TSN HD channels, on the traditional (not Ignite) service, using a surround sound system that can display what audio format it's receiving. If that's you, what's your audio on these channels these days, and if you know how to navigate through the PVR's diagnostic screens, do you see any difference between TSN1 HD's audio and any of the others?