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Not long ago I was enjoying a replay of Ken Burns’ engaging Hemingway documentaries, using new streaming hardware on my television and a WETA-TV Passport app. Soon into the first episode I noticed the screen blink and the voice track go out of sync with the video. Desperate for a quick fix, I executed the digital equivalent of a slap on the side of the TV, like we’d do back in the day: I turned everything off, and then on again, and resumed streaming.
The DIY trick worked only briefly; another screen blip discombobulated the voice track. I struggled through these frequent interruptions for a while before giving up and waiting for reruns of the series on live TV. Same thing for Burns’ Muhammad Ali series, and other PBS shows I was unable to watch in real time.
It was frustrating. I consider myself a sufficiently techie guy: Since the pandemic started I have mostly worked from home, so in 2020 I invested in a high-speed, high-capacity Internet setup. My smart phone, where many of my streaming apps reside, has lots of storage and memory. Like millions of other television viewers, I had cut the cable cord and subscribed to services like Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu and HBO. It was all managed by an old Google Chromecast device I’d inherited from a brother-in-law.
So why the voice-track glitch? And why only on my Passport streaming venue?
No other friend or family member I queried experienced similar problems, so I thought it was just me. I thought my household would have to jury-rig something every time we’d stream PBS. The image in my mind was of my dad, long ago fiddling with the rabbit ears on our tube. Once he'd find the right configuration, he'd hold it for a spell in a Tai Chi-like pose so we could watch a baseball game.
I was prepared to go Zen and live in peace with imperfect streaming, when I saw a flutter of complaints come into the Public Editor’s mailbox from viewers, detailing familiar trouble with voice-and-video tracks while streaming PBS shows. It reignited my quest to solve the sound-sync problem.
So I contacted the system’s technology gurus and asked if there was a better way to stream that I didn’t know about. And while I had their attention, I asked them how the average viewer can try to resolve technological hiccups in their PBS experiences.
Hello Help Desk
I made two significant discoveries (at least for me) in this informational expedition:
- There is a list of devices that work best with PBS Streaming. There’s a qualitative difference in streaming facilitators and individual configurations of TVs and apps – we’ll call them “devices” because that’s how the PBS tech team refers to them. By the way, that reminds me of another rule of thumb: make sure you and the technology expert who is helping you are speaking the same “tech” language. Don’t be afraid to ask someone to define a term. Our tech experts understandably declined to rate the devices, but here are the services the techs say are compatible with our principal streaming source, the PBS Video app.
- There are teams of highly trained experts manning PBS’ Solutions and Help Desks that each day handle hundreds of cries for help from system employees, member station staff and viewers. I’m told the numbers vary, but last month the Help Desk handled 13,200 calls.
That’s volume. So all hail the Help Desk because in the daily flow of viewer communications that arrive in the Public Editor’s email box, technical questions are abundant. Sure, many folks write in with questions about PBS content, for example asking about discrepancies between published program tables and what’s actually broadcast, or if a certain broadcast show can be streamed, or is available on YouTube. But there are a good number of viewers with questions about signal problems, online replay troubles and the like.
Sync or swim
A confession is in order before I go on. The Public Editor’s office tries to read every email that comes in, but there is no way for our small staff to reply to everyone. Our in-box really serves as a barometer of the “weather,” so to speak. It helps us see and hear what is going on in the wider world of media audiences. If one person is having a streaming problem, more than likely there are others. Two or more messages of the same nature trigger us to look for a possible trend if it’s a technical problem. Suffice it to say, two or more messages delivering an opinion about any given news story is a common occurrence -- we look for slightly higher numbers in the news and public affairs opinionating category.
Here are snippets from a couple of the messages reporting streaming glitches that caught our eye. Normally, we do not print the names of viewers who contact us with a technical problem.
“The streaming often totally stops for minutes at a time especially at the beginning of programs. This is the normal occurrence and has been for weeks on all programming.”
– Plano, Texas
“The streaming of the Civil War series is poor. Due to the constant buffering, I am unable to watch this film. It was one of the major reasons that I joined PBS. I’m very disappointed.”
– Fayetteville, Pennsylvania
Brave New Streaming World
During my online search for others who’ve reported sync problems with PBS apps, I came across more evidence that video syncing might be a wider problem for our streamers. One forum, hosted by the PBS Help Desk, offered a rundown of tips for streamers, under the headline: “The Video I’m Watching Is Stalling Or Has Choppy Video Playback.”
That article, and another one found here, go on to describe a few of the steps I took to finally resolve my sync woes.
The highlights:
- I swapped out what turned out to be a first-generation Chromecast device in favor of a snazzy new one that comes with a voice-powered remote that actually works. (Apparently, it’s commonly known that older-generation Chromecast devices are a bit glitchy.)
- Consider bypassing your WiFi. I now use a low-cost ethernet adapter that connects my Internet router directly to my TV set, skipping the WiFi, which in my house is spotty from room to room. Yes, that means after cord cutting, I added back a wire.
- Other important tips include using a TV’s built-in speaker. But if you’re hell-bent on plugging in that booming sound bar or some external speakers, check the hardware settings (or device settings on a Blu-Ray unit) for “audio delay” and make sure it sits somewhere between 0 and 300 milliseconds. (Who knew?!)
OK, Boomer
To many out there who effortlessly whip around apps these days and deftly stream from one service or another, I’m probably coming off as a cranky old guy still slowly toggling the UHF dial on a black-and-white TV. Please realize, however, that I’m speaking up here for what is actually the growth market for streaming services. According to industry reports, most young viewers today already watch everything on smartphones. More and more cost-conscious Gen Zs and Gen Xers are abandoning traditional and expensive cable. (By comparison: Comcast cable has some 23 million subscribers. Netflix has hovered around 75 million in the U.S.) But there are still millions of us born before 1965 looking for user-friendly and affordable ways to watch reruns of Antiques Roadshow or Masterpiece Theater.
And boy, do we need some help figuring out this streaming thing.
Daniel Macy, PBS Senior Associate in the Office of the Public Editor, contributed to this article.