Sound quality on freeview

Is it my imagination, or is the sound quality getting worse on some freeview
programmes?

Both my wife and I feel that the new ER series has sound which is more
muffled and quieter (except in the manic periods where it is turned up to
megadecibel level) than the previous series. On occasion, we have had to
replay a few seconds (using our Hummy's facilities), or even resort to
switching on subtitles. We haven't tried watching it on C4 rather than More
4 to see if this is better (may be worth trying on analogue C4, too), but
have also noticed sound problems with the new "Law & Order" on Five.

Considering that the comments which have appeared in this newsgroup and
elsewhere on the quality of DAB sound have been acknowledged by the BBC as
being true, is freeview sound starting to go the same way?

--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)

In message , Jeff Layman
writes
Is it my imagination, or is the sound quality getting worse on some freeview
programmes?

Both my wife and I feel that the new ER series has sound which is more
muffled and quieter (except in the manic periods where it is turned up to
megadecibel level) than the previous series. On occasion, we have had to
replay a few seconds (using our Hummy's facilities), or even resort to
switching on subtitles. We haven't tried watching it on C4 rather than More
4 to see if this is better (may be worth trying on analogue C4, too), but
have also noticed sound problems with the new "Law & Order" on Five.

Considering that the comments which have appeared in this newsgroup and
elsewhere on the quality of DAB sound have been acknowledged by the BBC as
being true, is freeview sound starting to go the same way?

I'm glad someone else has noticed this too.

It's made me wonder if my hearing is failing, but it's only happening
occasionally.
--
Ian

Ian wrote:

In message , Jeff Layman
writes
Is it my imagination, or is the sound quality getting worse on some freeview
programmes?

Both my wife and I feel that the new ER series has sound which is more
muffled and quieter (except in the manic periods where it is turned up to
megadecibel level) than the previous series. On occasion, we have had to
replay a few seconds (using our Hummy's facilities), or even resort to
switching on subtitles. We haven't tried watching it on C4 rather than More
4 to see if this is better (may be worth trying on analogue C4, too), but
have also noticed sound problems with the new "Law & Order" on Five.

Considering that the comments which have appeared in this newsgroup and
elsewhere on the quality of DAB sound have been acknowledged by the BBC as
being true, is freeview sound starting to go the same way?

I'm glad someone else has noticed this too.

It's made me wonder if my hearing is failing, but it's only happening
occasionally.

I can't claim my hearing is 100%, but I have had enough
difficulty in the past with ER on analogue to turn on the
subtitles. Digital is certainly no better.

No matter how I try to adjust the ratio on my Hummy & TV, it
somehow doesn't seem to get the subtitles all on screen

Chris
--
Chris J Dixon Nottingham UK


Have dancing shoes, will ceilidh.

In article ,
Jeff Layman wrote:
Is it my imagination, or is the sound quality getting worse on some
freeview programmes?

Both my wife and I feel that the new ER series has sound which is more
muffled and quieter (except in the manic periods where it is turned up
to megadecibel level) than the previous series. On occasion, we have
had to replay a few seconds (using our Hummy's facilities), or even
resort to switching on subtitles. We haven't tried watching it on C4
rather than More 4 to see if this is better (may be worth trying on
analogue C4, too), but have also noticed sound problems with the new
"Law & Order" on Five.

Considering that the comments which have appeared in this newsgroup and
elsewhere on the quality of DAB sound have been acknowledged by the BBC
as being true, is freeview sound starting to go the same way?

It's nothing to do with FreeView but all to do with the actual programme.
It - and just about every similar US prog - uses personal mics on the
actors. Concealed in some way - under clothing etc. And straight off the
mic sound pretty horrible. Muffled, basically. This is 'corrected' in post
production by using a 'graphic equaliser' to improve the intelligibility.
Basically a lot of treble lift and some bass cut. All done by ear - so the
final balance depends on the individual doing it. And on nice high quality
speakers in the quiet dubbing suite may err on the side of caution - given
this equalisation will also bring up unwanted background noise and sounds.

--
*Why is a boxing ring square?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Jeff Layman wrote:
Is it my imagination, or is the sound quality getting worse on some
freeview programmes?

Both my wife and I feel that the new ER series has sound which is
more muffled and quieter (except in the manic periods where it is
turned up to megadecibel level) than the previous series. On
occasion, we have had to replay a few seconds (using our Hummy's
facilities), or even resort to switching on subtitles. We haven't
tried watching it on C4 rather than More 4 to see if this is better
(may be worth trying on analogue C4, too), but have also noticed
sound problems with the new "Law & Order" on Five.

Considering that the comments which have appeared in this newsgroup
and elsewhere on the quality of DAB sound have been acknowledged by
the BBC as being true, is freeview sound starting to go the same way?

It's nothing to do with FreeView but all to do with the actual
programme. It - and just about every similar US prog - uses personal
mics on the actors. Concealed in some way - under clothing etc. And
straight off the mic sound pretty horrible. Muffled, basically. This
is 'corrected' in post production by using a 'graphic equaliser' to
improve the intelligibility. Basically a lot of treble lift and some
bass cut. All done by ear - so the final balance depends on the
individual doing it. And on nice high quality speakers in the quiet
dubbing suite may err on the side of caution - given this
equalisation will also bring up unwanted background noise and sounds.

Thanks for the explanation, Dave.

But something must have changed with the way the studios record the sound or
in the post-production processing, as we've not suffered this problem
previously.

It would be interesting to see who is doing the p-p processing if it was
given in the credits. Perhaps different production companies might use the
same sound processing labs. But as the idiots who transmit the programme
normally choose that time to squeeze up the credits for a superfluous "on
next" announcement, I guess I'll never know.

--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)

Jeff Layman wrote:
Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Jeff Layman wrote:
Is it my imagination, or is the sound quality getting worse on some
freeview programmes?

Both my wife and I feel that the new ER series has sound which is
more muffled and quieter (except in the manic periods where it is
turned up to megadecibel level) than the previous series. On
occasion, we have had to replay a few seconds (using our Hummy's
facilities), or even resort to switching on subtitles. We haven't
tried watching it on C4 rather than More 4 to see if this is better
(may be worth trying on analogue C4, too), but have also noticed
sound problems with the new "Law & Order" on Five.

Considering that the comments which have appeared in this newsgroup
and elsewhere on the quality of DAB sound have been acknowledged by
the BBC as being true, is freeview sound starting to go the same
way?

It's nothing to do with FreeView but all to do with the actual
programme. It - and just about every similar US prog - uses personal
mics on the actors. Concealed in some way - under clothing etc. And
straight off the mic sound pretty horrible. Muffled, basically. This
is 'corrected' in post production by using a 'graphic equaliser' to
improve the intelligibility. Basically a lot of treble lift and some
bass cut. All done by ear - so the final balance depends on the
individual doing it. And on nice high quality speakers in the quiet
dubbing suite may err on the side of caution - given this
equalisation will also bring up unwanted background noise and sounds.

Thanks for the explanation, Dave.

But something must have changed with the way the studios record the
sound or in the post-production processing, as we've not suffered
this problem previously.

It would be interesting to see who is doing the p-p processing if it
was given in the credits. Perhaps different production companies
might use the same sound processing labs. But as the idiots who
transmit the programme normally choose that time to squeeze up the
credits for a superfluous "on next" announcement, I guess I'll never
know.

Maybe you can blame Walter Newman, supervising sound editor.

http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0628306/

Adrian schrieb:

Maybe you can blame Walter Newman, supervising sound editor.

http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0628306/


Hello,

the poor sound quality can also come from a Betacam player with an
incorrect Dolby level adjustment (if the production is analogue)...

regards

Klaus

In article ,
Klaus Kramer wrote:
Adrian schrieb:

Maybe you can blame Walter Newman, supervising sound editor.

http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0628306/


Hello,

the poor sound quality can also come from a Betacam player with an
incorrect Dolby level adjustment (if the production is analogue)...

I'd hope the latest series of ER wouldn't have been near any Betacam. Or
indeed for about 10 years.

--
*You can't teach an old mouse new clicks *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.