[McPatrickClan]

I was catching the overtime portion of the Rams/49ers contest yesterday, and I could have sworn that the commentators dialogue was mixed to the surround channels! Here I am watching a football game and Troy, Cris, and Joe Buck are sitting behind me? I tried to double-check myself by switching back and forth between FOX & CBS, and CBS was fine, dialogue in the front.


Now I am starting to see why so many people get so frustrated with FOX.

 

[Kaminari]

I had sound problems as well. I was trying to watch the Carolina Tampa game but had to turn my receiver way up to hear anything. Whats worse when I turned back to CBS to watch the PHI-NE games then of course its blasting (or any other channel for that matter). Most of the time Fox comes in fine in the sound department but for yesterday's afternoon game it was pretty much inaudible at the normal level I set my receiver at.

 

[dweebe]

I thought the same thing about the NE/PHI game. The surrounds were cranked up waaaaay loud when compared to any other programming. It was so bad I switched away from the game.

 

[caesar1]

Quote:

Originally posted by Kaminari I had sound problems as well. I was trying to watch the Carolina Tampa game but had to turn my receiver way up to hear anything. Whats worse when I turned back to CBS to watch the PHI-NE games then of course its blasting (or any other channel for that matter). Most of the time Fox comes in fine in the sound department but for yesterday's afternoon game it was pretty much inaudible at the normal level I set my receiver at.

FOX widescreen programs have been like this for the last few weeks (at least).


The national stuff provided by FOX is super low -- but then any local commercials come on at their usual volume, making it unbearably loud.

 

[HislonV]

There are some issues at D** that appear to result in their taking the correct mixes and corrupting them. Trust me that they didn't leave the truck that way. I was there last week in NY and know what was done first hand. FOX did not do any games to the public in discrete 5.1 this past weekend, yet they were delivered in the 3/2/L mode at 320 kb/s on channel 72 to my house with announcers in all of the channels. FOX sent them Lt/Rt which should have been carried as stereo audio. Levels between game and commercial should have been correct as well. I couldn't watch the SF/STL game due to local blackout rules for the widescreen coverage and my local FOX station's right to carry the game on D**. There were separate issues with the Carolina/Tampa game.

Jim Hilson

Dolby Laboratories

NFL on FOX

 

[fire407]

Thanks for the good information Jim. Now, why didn't Fox have 5.1 sound in the truck?

 

[Wakey]

I guess Hislon cleared allot of that up

 

[Ken H]

Quote:

Originally posted by fire407 Thanks for the good information Jim. Now, why didn't Fox have 5.1 sound in the truck?

I was told it was a Fox / Dolby E transmission issue, not related to the mobile production. This was relayed to Fox affiliates earlier in the week.


I can also confirm DirecTV did not handle the Fox DD feed correctly last week. The broadcast was produced for DD 2.0, and was delivered that way by local Fox affiliates.


I assume because DirecTV was laboring under the assumption they would be getting a 5.1 feed from Fox, they had the 5.1 flag set. Unfortunately, the result was announcers in all 5 main channels.


The good news is that both of this Sunday's Fox Widescreen games will both be delivered with DD 5.1; at least that's the plan for now.

 

[Ken H]

Thanks for the clarification, Mike. I didn't mean to imply the 5.1 flag caused the problem, but re-reading my post, that's what it sounds like.

 

[Darin]

Don't know if this is related or not, but I experienced a similar issue last night. Just got my dish installed to get 110 & 119, and sat down to enjoy some HD eye candy. Was on DiscoveryHD most of the night. There was one show (think it was about snakes) that had a REALLY bad mix. It seemed that all the sound was either front-center, or rear center. Nothing on the L/R rears. And the rear center had WAY to much audio.... too loud, and too much content (as in the announcer, and other things). There was almost as much in the back as the front... as if what should have been a stereo L/R signal ended up getting mapped to FC & RC. In what little bouncing around I did, it seemed that everything was coming through as 5.1, when surely not ALL the programming originated that way.


I know in the past (before I got HD), I've gotten DD signals from showtime, etc., that were provided in the proper format (i.e., if there was only a "mono" surround track, my receiver showed a 3/1.1 signal, and the mono rear track was produced by the rear L/R speakers, not the center).

 

[mbabbitt]

Hi Darin.


The features of consumer equipment vary widely, so your IRD's display of "3/1.1" may be unique to that unit. Strictly speaking, a Dolby Digital data stream that was identified as "3/1.1" would carry a total of five audio channels: Left, center, right, surround, and LFE. I don't believe that this is a common encoding format used by broadcasters, so what your IRD may in fact be displaying is the result of its own internal processing rather than the number of channels within the data stream it is receiving. While it's entirely possible that all the channels you scanned through were being broadcast in 5.1, it might still be worth a check of your user manual to see what a display of "5.1" on your IRD really indicates since this "3/1.1" sounds a bit odd to me.


Best,

Mike Babbitt

Dolby Laboratories

 

[Darin]

Actually, I was speaking of my A/V receiver, an Onkyo TX-SR700. It may have just been 3/1 (no LFE), but I know I've seen it display that there was only one rear channel. I don't find this totally surprising, as there were many movies that were shot with a matrixed four channel soundtrack (L, C, R, & rear). In fact, I think I have a couple of DVDs encoded this way (the remastered Journey to the Center of the Earth is one, I believe).


My point being, that there was DEFINITELY no stereo effect in the rears.... ALL of the rear content was going to the center rear. I know from past experience with my receiver that when there is a mono rear soundtrack (like 3/1), it does NOT put that mono track into the center rear channel (even though I keep it in EX mode). Instead, if the receiver knows it's getting a mono rear track (like 3/1), it places that mono track into both the L & R rear channels. In the case of the show I was watching last night, it was apparent that mono sound was being piped over the stereo rear channels, causing it all to end up in the center rear channel (via EX decoding). In properly mastered material, if the rear channel is mono, it is encoded as such, and the receiver KNOWS it's a mono channel (and therefore only displays "1" rear channel).

 

[SnappyLobstah]

Jim,

Thanks for the info...I've had several "occurances" where I've wondered where things were getting fouled up...i.e. within my house or "whitout"


Now...can you tell me who to talk to to make sure you guys keep all of the NASCAR coverage throughout the season, instead of splitting it? LOL


Snappy