Pre-broadcast 'Lost' suffers sound hitch

Sky suffered a technical hitch with one of its first attempts at pre-broadcast video on demand.

Episode one of Lost's fourth series, broadcast on Sky One on Sunday, was made available to Sky Anytime users 24 hours earlier.

However, the episode downloaded via Anytime to Sky+ boxes had a sound synchronisation problem. The show was later removed from the boxes. A high definition version of the episode downloaded to Sky HD boxes was not affected.

Several fans expressed their frustration on the DS forums.

Spoctor Dooner, who tried to download it about midday on Saturday, complained that "on my box at least, it is virtually unwatchable as the sound and picture are completely out of synch".

Hugon, from Morecambe in Lancashire, noted: "It sounds like a cock-up rather than a conspiracy."

A Sky spokesman has confirmed the suspicion was correct.

"Unforeseen technical issues with the Dolby soundtrack unfortunately affected the programme's audio," he said. "As soon as we realised there was a problem with the audio sync, we removed the episode from the Anytime on TV service.

"We have since identified and resolved the problem and intend to 'push' the Lost episode back onto the Anytime on TV service tomorrow (Tuesday) morning, so that customers can once again enjoy Lost on-demand.

"Next weekend's episode is unaffected and will be available on Saturday, as planned."

> Join in the discussion on the Sky Anytime forum