Substandard TV Program Audio

[mikenyc]

<font color='#000000'>I was scanning the Tv last night and temporarily lighted upon the &quot;American Survivor&quot; thingy on FOX.

For a music entertainment program, with as many viewers as it's claiming are watching, I was totally dumbstruck at the LOUSY audio that was being broadcast !

I'm sure that they were broadcasting from a state-of-the-art digital, all the &quot;bells and whistles&quot; audio board setup. I'm sure it sounded great in the production truck...yeah, right...but what really went on, is that NOBODY CARED ! The moron chief audio engineer, didn't have a clue as to what was being broadcast and didn't seem to care !

The standard axiom, that a techy would reply to such charges would be &quot;well, it's coming out of here ok&quot; ! And they would probably blame it on the satellite uplink facility, I'm sure!

Granted, I only was at the accident location, two minutes *approximately*, but it sounded as if the performers were singing from the bottom of one of those empty, and very deep, steel oil barrels.

I couldn't believe it !!!! But then with the FCC concentrating on stock prices and huge, mega-multi-media mergers, what else can you expect, right ?

If it's not this, it's watching/listening to a horrible time compression job on AMC Cable...especially see the film, &quot;Batchelor Party&quot;, where Tom Hanks sounds like Secret Squirrel !

There is no need to turn out sub-standard product like all of this, but it just goes to show that no one cares at home...where they should !

And the Tv Media Giants keep shoveling it to us, 24/7 !

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[Audioholics]

<font color='#000000'>Reminds me of the days when local channel 6 only broadcast in MONO. Imagine watching Star Trek the Next Generation IN MONO!

It was almost unbearable.

Unfortunately, local affiliates are sometimes not as equipped (either in physical gear or in staff competency) as the actual broadcast source, and thus we get sub-par programming audio - quite frequently I might add.

Couple this with the inane limited, somewhat unpredictable, quantities of HBO movies broadcast in Dolby Digital and you have the next level of problems. Why on earth the main movie channels do not re-encode all of their material and broadcast everything in DD is beyond me. We certainly pay enough for the services....</font>

 

[mikenyc]

<font color='#000000'>Out here on Long Island, in the past year or so, Cablevision is
&quot;going&quot; digital for it's cable boxes and it's wiring to homes! Of course, it's not for free.

We got a new digital cable box by chance, BEFORE, the sales campaign, but only because it was faulty and the installer had one.

The &quot;campaign&quot;...which was just an excuse for a upgrade in service costs and offer high speed internet hookup...was only done to be in compliance for government mandate it, anyway...so, it was a scam from the start. When the sales person came around...or telephoned...I took the opportunity to slam them for their substandard, general service !

I'm sure this is no different than anywhere else.

As to overall program quality, I am aware that at the &quot;head end&quot;, there is a monitor wall with a zillion monitors, one &quot;a&quot; scope, and some high school kid monitoring the overall output &quot;levels&quot;. He/she has no idea what they are doing, really!

But this doesn't excuse the sound level thing on &quot;American Idol&quot;. It was atrocious !!!!!

In the long ago, &quot;olden days&quot;, the FCC was concerned with things like program technical quality and enforced regulations on networks and local stations. And there was qualified technical staff to who knew what they were doing !

Today, the FCC is a joke ! The agency has devolved into a joke, where the chairiman and his famous father, has millions of dollars in AOL-Time Warner stock before taking the job, and their general overall concerns are about &quot;protecting&quot; these Media Giants, in the name of encouraging commerce, and putting the broadcast spectrum on the selling block, as some sort of commodity and reason to &quot;sell out&quot;. Ever since cable became a &quot;legitimate business&quot;, it's become an excuse to slag off and be sloppy.

This perspective has encouraged sloppy technicians, like the moron chief audio engineer who helmed the &quot;American Idol&quot; mess.

Content is &quot;king&quot;, quality is in the dumper!</font>

 

[Guest]

Sometimes the audio problem is not the TV station, but the cable company. I have been experiencing weird audio compression problems with voices actually dropping low, and lower, although the background sound or music remains the same.
Normally all bands get squished! The processing the cable company uses was the culprit, including processing the stereo signals in more of a dual mono, to reduce bandwidth.

I worked for a major market TV station, and good audio was a priority for us.

Most of the problems are retransmission and cable casting, codecs on top of codecs and digital compression to reduce bandwith.

I rally hate most of the video these days because of motion artifacts from MPEG being transmitted, decoded, and retransmitted.

 

[mikenyc]

<font color='#000000'>Thanks Rory...and you're right about the layers of compression, AFTER, the production truck...and I forgot about that layer of...ahem, responsibility.

As an tech employee in the Tv business, I've seen shows I've worked on, after production, and it's a mess by the time it gets on the home screen...audio AND video.

I don't still fail to understand, how an effort to use the best Tv production equipment, is employed in the production phase, and by the time it gets on the home screen, it's NOTHING like it was shot in the studio. Fielding inquiries from irate producers who see it on their own home sets, what are you going to say ? Right ?</font>

 

[RLA]

<font color='#000000'>Hi all
This caught my eye because I cant believe the substandard
Programs on TV Period.  I am a huge SI-FI fan and tune in the SI-FI channel regularly  I cant beleive some of the shows
they have on there  have nothing to do with SI-FI
the dude that is a fortune teller really &nbsp;makes me mad
I have Direct with over 50 channels and the only reason I have it is for Nascar and Football  and SI-FI other than that
the other channels are substandard  

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[Phase 2]

What say you guys, has audio gotten better on TV channels? I agree with Gene, Syfy channel, history channel, some other's have lost their way. Have they improved or stay the same. My favorite go to channel for Syfy is heroes & icons 50.2 where I'm at. Every night except Saturday night. From 7pm till 12am plays all the Star Trek's. My favorite the last one Star Trek Enterprise. Audio broadcast is pretty good. Only thing is it's broadcast over-the-air 480i, I don't use cable or satellite, I have in the past both but no more I cut the cord.

 

[lovinthehd]

What say you guys, has audio gotten better on TV channels? I agree with Gene, Syfy channel, history channel, some other's have lost their way. Have they improved or stay the same. My favorite go to channel for Syfy is heroes & icons 50.2 where I'm at. Every night except Saturday night. From 7pm till 12am plays all the Star Trek's. My favorite the last one Star Trek Enterprise. Audio broadcast is pretty good. Only thing is it's broadcast over-the-air 480i, I don't use cable or satellite, I have in the past both but no more I cut the cord.

Wow, old thread revival! Don't know if you'll get answers from these guys...mikenyc last seen 2004, clintdeboer is banned, "guest" seems to have been just that, RLA hasn't been seen since 2007....was curious as I didn't recognize the names. As far as tv show audio, it's all over the place....altho I had heard that OTA quality was pretty good generally, but I wouldn't know as I would get almost nothing that way where I am.

 

[Phase 2]

Wow, old thread revival! Don't know if you'll get answers from these guys...mikenyc last seen 2004, clintdeboer is banned, "guest" seems to have been just that, RLA hasn't been seen since 2007....was curious as I didn't recognize the names. As far as tv show audio, it's all over the place....altho I had heard that OTA quality was pretty good generally, but I wouldn't know as I would get almost nothing that way where I am.

Yeah loveinthehd, I was going through some older threads and ran across this one. I agree, it is all over the place. The channel CW at time's is good, I have found that over the air channels do very with sound quality. Some are very low volume wise, meaning going from one channel to another have to lower or raise the volume on my AVR.

 

[lovinthehd]

Yeah loveinthehd, I was going through some older threads and ran across this one. I agree, it is all over the place. The channel CW at time's is good, I have found that over the air channels do very with sound quality. Some are very low volume wise, meaning going from one channel to another have to lower or raise the volume on my AVR.

The same channel depending on delivery can be different from my experience with cable/directv/internet. OTA in my little reading supposedly isn't subjected to the same compression during delivery....but maybe the broadcaster does it to save $....

 

[panteragstk]

The same channel depending on delivery can be different from my experience with cable/directv/internet. OTA in my little reading supposedly isn't subjected to the same compression during delivery....but maybe the broadcaster does it to save $....

It is very different. OTA (depending on channel) will be 720p for some stations and 1080i for others. Most have Dolby Digital 5.1 for the shows that support it and at least DD 2.0.

Content from cable/directv is pretty much the same, but much more compressed. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between the two.

Internet streaming is really the one that isn't consistent. Most of them don't have surround sound of any kind, and resolution is all over the place. Quality looks good most of the time, but artifacts are present no matter what service I've used. I'd say video quality is pretty much on par with directv. Only one streaming service I've used has DD sound and that the forgotten ATT Watch TV.

 

[snakeeyes]

On recent AVRs, if there’s a mix of Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1, just leave the AVR in Dolby DSU upmixer and you’re all set with similar sound for all the channels to whatever layout of speakers you own. 5.1, 7.1, 7.1.4, etc.

Older AVRs have less convincing upmixers like Dolby PLIIx for 5.1 and 7.1.

As far as volume levels, the worst is when commercials are super loud. LOL.

On that topic, let me warn you all about the DirectTV Now app. I had it most of last year on Apple TV 4K and the commercials volume was crazy loud. Not sure if they have fixed that since Dec 2018 but that was my experience. It’s a shame because the picture is beautiful.

 

[Phase 2]

@snakeeyes , thanks for the tip bro!! Just set my AVR! It works!! Oh I had my AVR set to auto, no wonder it was driving me!!

 

[panteragstk]

On recent AVRs, if there’s a mix of Dolby Digital 2.0 and 5.1, just leave the AVR in Dolby DSU upmixer and you’re all set with similar sound for all the channels to whatever layout of speakers you own. 5.1, 7.1, 7.1.4, etc.

Older AVRs have less convincing upmixers like Dolby PLIIx for 5.1 and 7.1.

As far as volume levels, the worst is when commercials are super loud. LOL.

On that topic, let me warn you all about the DirectTV Now app. I had it most of last year on Apple TV 4K and the commercials volume was crazy loud. Not sure if they have fixed that since Dec 2018 but that was my experience. It’s a shame because the picture is beautiful.

That's pretty much what I do since moving over to streaming TV (Philo). Doesn't really bother me.

 

[lovinthehd]

It is very different. OTA (depending on channel) will be 720p for some stations and 1080i for others. Most have Dolby Digital 5.1 for the shows that support it and at least DD 2.0.

Content from cable/directv is pretty much the same, but much more compressed. It's pretty easy to tell the difference between the two.

Internet streaming is really the one that isn't consistent. Most of them don't have surround sound of any kind, and resolution is all over the place. Quality looks good most of the time, but artifacts are present no matter what service I've used. I'd say video quality is pretty much on par with directv. Only one streaming service I've used has DD sound and that the forgotten ATT Watch TV.

Not sure what you mean about streaming services not providing DD audio? Never heard of ATT Watch myself. I just cut D* off, the video quality nor the sound quality was particularly an issue, even with my crappy internet (low speed dsl)....just their price!

 

[Trell]

As far as volume levels, the worst is when commercials are super loud. LOL.

This where Audyssey Dynamic Volume shines and for the Harmony activity "Watch cable" it is enabled

Nowadays we watch very little cable TV channels that have commercials as Netflix and HBO is satisfying without the commercial breaks and the obnoxious loudness. Last time I watched something one of those channels with commercials must be a year or two, though my wife watches a little more often.

 

[panteragstk]

Not sure what you mean about streaming services not providing DD audio? Never heard of ATT Watch myself. I just cut D* off, the video quality nor the sound quality was particularly an issue, even with my crappy internet (low speed dsl)....just their price!

What service had DD audio for live tv. I've used Hulu, Sling, Philo, YouTubeTV, PSvue, and none of them had Dolby Digital audio. ATT WatchTV is pretty much a very slimmed down version of Directv NOW. I get it free with my wireless plan and almost never use it.

 

[lovinthehd]

What service had DD audio for live tv. I've used Hulu, Sling, Philo, YouTubeTV, PSvue, and none of them had Dolby Digital audio. ATT WatchTV is pretty much a very slimmed down version of Directv NOW. I get it free with my wireless plan and almost never use it.

I use Netflix and Amazon Prime, both have multich audio but wasn't "live" except I guess my HBO feed via Amazon (best thing about streaming is not to have to deal with "live" times). Hulu I didn't like because it had shows with 5.1 soundtracks reduced to 2.0. Good to know about Sling audio, never expected much in the way of youtube audio, altho there have been some noises about improvement but none I can detect the little I use it.

 

[panteragstk]

I use Netflix and Amazon Prime, both have multich audio but wasn't "live" except I guess my HBO feed via Amazon (best thing about streaming is not to have to deal with "live" times). Hulu I didn't like because it had shows with 5.1 soundtracks reduced to 2.0. Good to know about Sling audio, never expected much in the way of youtube audio, altho there have been some noises about improvement but none I can detect the little I use it.

Hulu is weird. Depending on the client, the shows will have 5.1 audio like on my FireTV stick, but my Android TV client doesn't have anything but stereo (an update is coming to fix that.)

YouTube TV is actually fantastic. One of the best services IMHO, but channel selection is lacking for my kids and it's expensive.

 

[lovinthehd]

Hulu is weird. Depending on the client, the shows will have 5.1 audio like on my FireTV stick, but my Android TV client doesn't have anything but stereo (an update is coming to fix that.)

YouTube TV is actually fantastic. One of the best services IMHO, but channel selection is lacking for my kids and it's expensive.

Hulu on my firestick was only 2.0....been a while since I trialed it, tho. Didn't realize Youtube TV is a separate subscription thing....never noticed