Zen BBC1 and BBC1HD last night.

On Mon, 3 Jan 2011 23:50:01 -0000, Dave Wade wrote:

"David" wrote in message
...
Were they using cheap equipment to film/record it?
Picture and colour quality was horrible.
Regards
David

The sound was dreadful as well. It felt as if it was dubbed , but as Rufus
Sewell is English I assume it was made in the UK in English.

He was on Breakfast last week, saying that the decision was for the dialogue
to be just English for the British actors and the natural accent for the
others, rather than an artificial accent.

--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On Mon, 03 Jan 2011 23:34:44 -0000, Roderick Stewart wrote:

I sometimes hope that some organisation concerned with sight disabilities,
etc, will formally complain and point out the problems such programs
inflict on some would-be viewers.

I hope they don't. To suggest that people with impaired sight and/or hearing
are the only ones who need to be considered with regard to television
"production values" is to imply that the fault is somehow with the viewers
rather than the programme makers.

Same here, but it's easy to blame/punish the victim/innocent rather than
find the 'crime' and punish the 'crim'.

The simple truth that needs pointing out, and which a "Media" course
probably doesn't teach as effectively as a few decades of experience, is
that a drama is about the characters, not the production crew, and this is
regardless of who's viewing it. The photography, sound recording and editing
should make themselves as unobtrusive as possible, because the camera is not
one of the characters.

Rod.

A mate who was a Senior Sound Engineer for the beeb and then moved to
Granada (dates this a bit - up to about 10 years ago) was telling me about
this.
Apparently, even then, it was cheap to get wazacks out of school, with no
knowledge, experience or skills, let them loose on 'reality view' (my term,
not his), get rid of fixed, steady cameras and just waggle the camera
around.
He didn't mention sound so I would guess that it was still done properly
then. Nowadays it seems that the actor, camera and mic. are all on random
paths somewhere in the same locality.

It's cheap and nasty and so the overpaid clerks are happy and we don't
matter a ****!
--
Peter.
The gods will stay away
whilst religions hold sway

On Mon, 3 Jan 2011 16:55:47 -0000, "Woody"
wrote:

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
David wrote:
Were they using cheap equipment to film/record it?
Picture and colour quality was horrible.

I'm getting used to 'HD' drama looking like soft SD. It's
apparently what
the public demand.

However, the appalling and variable dialogue quality made the
pictures
quite good by comparison. If it has to sound like it was
recorded through
old socks could they please do the same to the background
music?

But so saying, I enjoyed it. ;-)

--
*Growing old is inevitable, growing up is optional

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



Seconded.

The sound levels were so bad - especially when the two were in
the restaurant that we needed to have our sound up to 55 where 40
is the most we normally use! If my wife isn't watching (she has a
hearing deficiency) I can listen at 20 more than comfortably.

Do you find HD sound is quieter generally? That is my impression.

In article ,
PeterC wrote:
A mate who was a Senior Sound Engineer for the beeb and then moved to
Granada (dates this a bit - up to about 10 years ago) was telling me
about this. Apparently, even then, it was cheap to get wazacks out of
school, with no knowledge, experience or skills, let them loose on
'reality view' (my term, not his), get rid of fixed, steady cameras and
just waggle the camera around. He didn't mention sound so I would guess
that it was still done properly then. Nowadays it seems that the actor,
camera and mic. are all on random paths somewhere in the same locality.

It's cheap and nasty and so the overpaid clerks are happy and we don't
matter a ****!

I doubt this was done in drama (or rather not at craft level) as this sort
of prog just couldn't be made.

--
*Where there's a will, I want to be in it.

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

"Scott" wrote in message
news

Do you find HD sound is quieter generally? That is my impression.

Only BBC1HD and BBC HD, ITV1HD not noticed it.

I have raised this with BBC Complaints but doubt anything will get done.
(Also raised the Zen problem with them.)

Maybe others could too?
Regards
David

In article ,
David wrote:


"Scott" wrote in message
news

Do you find HD sound is quieter generally? That is my impression.

Only BBC1HD and BBC HD, ITV1HD not noticed it.

I have raised this with BBC Complaints but doubt anything will get done.
(Also raised the Zen problem with them.)

Maybe others could too?
Regards
David

I can sort of explain the reasons.

With analogue, it was normal to peak to somewhere approaching the maximum
possible before distortions became unacceptable.

When digital arrived and was used with analogue it was decided to only
peak to 10dB below the theoretical maximum to allow some latitude for the
odd mistake - if digital is overloaded it can get very nasty instantly,
unlike most analogue.

So in terms of digital transmissions, most broadcasters stuck to this
-10dBFS peak level.

But since there are no standards enforced these days it isn't always so.
And 10 dB effectively makes things sound twice as loud.

It's most obvious on FreeView where many radio stations (as elsewhere)
want things as loud as they possibly can be. TV in general sticks to the
-10 peaks.

--
*I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it.

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

On 03/01/2011 09:12, David wrote:
Were they using cheap equipment to film/record it?
Picture and colour quality was horrible.
Regards
David

I watched it Monday night on BBC HD (via Virgin cable) and it looked and
sounded fine...

A couple of in-car lines were a bit mumbly but all the rest was AOK.

Picture quality was very good/excellent in HD too.
It is graded with an overall 'warm' brownish note, and colour saturation
is muted; it looked fine to me and a valid 'arty/filmic' look that
suited the locations (as does CSI Miami's over saturation, but in a
totally different aethetic).

G

In article , Dave Plowman (News)
wrote:


So in terms of digital transmissions, most broadcasters stuck to this
-10dBFS peak level.

But since there are no standards enforced these days it isn't always
so. And 10 dB effectively makes things sound twice as loud.

It's most obvious on FreeView where many radio stations (as elsewhere)
want things as loud as they possibly can be. TV in general sticks to the
-10 peaks.

Although that didn't seem to apply to the BBC TV iPlayer a year or two ago
when I monitored the levels for an 'Antiques Roadshow'. That was banging up
against the endstop.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
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Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

On 03/01/2011 15:38, Martin wrote:
On Mon, 3 Jan 2011 09:12:12 -0000, wrote:

Were they using cheap equipment to film/record it?
Picture and colour quality was horrible.

All the Italian detective series that I have seen have been recorded the same.

I suspect that this hits the nail on the head, and they were copying a
genre with which we, here in the UK, are largely unaware of.

I watched with morbid fascination. The colour grading no worse than has
been done elsewhere, and the sound made worse by the actors total
failure to project, with every single 'character' apparently having had
a total personality bypass.

(I am now familiar with the genre and will happily avoid it in future.)

--
mb

On 03/01/2011 09:44, David Pitt wrote:

There was something "upside down" yesterday evening. Casualty in SD viewed
on BBC1 HD looked like it really was in HD. That was followed by Zen,
allegedly in HD, but actually looking like poor SD, with the exception of a
few wideshot panoramas.

Funny you should say that. The BBConeHD DOG was also off its lead.

--
mb