Live delay
So just watched New Year’s Eve countdown. Problem is that Cox is 30 seconds behind the actual time.
Forum Discussion
Is it all content or just the countdown? Many broadcasters add a delay to live content so the can cut the feed incase of wardrobe malfunction or some other event that might harm the eyes of the viewers. Not to mention the delay involved in relaying the signal to the different broadcasters.
It’s all content. Happens all the time watching live sports. It’s extremely annoying.
Hi lisa123,
We apologize for the delay in the broadcast. It could be that the feed we are receiving from our provider is delayed or it is the encoding being used on our end. After the switch to MPEG-4 encoding (2021), there can be a 35-50 second delay behind live TV due to the encoding. MPEG-4 compresses the signal more than MPEG-2 while maintaining signal quality, thus freeing up bandwidth. This encoding can cause a delay between the TV broadcast and online streaming feeds. Our goal is to provide our customers with the highest quality audio and video broadcasts available, there is a tradeoff.
Again, we sincerely apologize and hope this helps explain the delay you are seeing.
Cox Support Forum Moderator
It's both live events and network programming. If a minute isn't added to scheduled recording times, the end of some programs will be cut off. I add a minute to the end time of programs. If I'm recording back-to-back programs on the same channel, I adjust start time a minute late on the later programs, to avoid possible missed recordings due to exceeding available channels. If programming happens to be on time, or the later programs are rescheduled to be first, I'd rather miss the first minute than the last. If it's a crime drama, I'll just miss that first 30 seconds of someone being chased through the woods.
