[nabsltd]

Last year, the movie trailers during the Super Bowl on ABC had great 5.1 sound.


So far this past year, on every CBS program with 5.1 sound (sports, other live events), all the commercials have sound in only the left-front and right-front channels.


Will the Super Bowl be any different?

 

[leewcraft]

Well, I haven't seen any HD/5.1 commercials other than the Super Bowl movie trailers from last year, so I don't think CBS's history of non-5.1 commercials will have any impact on it. Think about it this way...if your client is paying you millions of dollars for a 30-second commercial spot, wouldn't you do everything you could do from a technical standpoint to make their commercials have the best impact? My guess is 5.1 for all HD commercials.


Lee

 

[BobRoss]

Hi All,


Sorry no 5.1 yet on the commercials. They like the other taped programming are left and right only.


Bob

 

[kenglish]

Just gotta get Dolby to run their own commercial during the next SB .

 

[plasmamaniac]

Bob, what is the problem? How hard would it be for a company with the resources of CBS to create commercials in 5.1? HD and surround sound is here, CBS has better get on board. Unbelievable.

 

[arxaw]

Quote:

Originally posted by BobRoss Sorry no 5.1 yet on the commercials.

What about HD commercials during SB?


Also, our local CBS affiliate recently reduced bandwidth they use for a subchannel of local radar. Their reason: "to improve HD PQ of the Super Bowl..." It has improved the quality of HD football games. If CBS is pushing affiliates to reduce multicasting during HD, I would like to say THANK YOU.

 

[CycloneGT]

Quote:

Originally posted by plasmamaniac Bob, what is the problem? How hard would it be for a company with the resources of CBS to create commercials in 5.1? HD and surround sound is here, CBS has better get on board. Unbelievable.

The network is set up for DD5.1 for live feeds (Sports and Grammys). The taped programming (Everything else including commercials) are not DD5.1 compliant. I would find it unbelievable and foolish to for them to invest $$$ to bring a few DD5.1 commericals to air during the one event. You only need to do so much to sell Pepsi, Beer, and a few Hondas.


They'll have DD5.1 in a few years for all programming, but not this year.

 

[plasmamaniac]

I can't believe that I reading this. How much are these commercials costing? How about future commercials? I would think that Coke, Budweiser, Ford, etc would want their commerials to look and sound as good as possible. They spend millions to produce these commercials and spend millions to have them displayed and they can't be presented in 5.1. I find that hard to believe. If I was a sponsor I would beg the question, how hard would it be to deliver taped commercials in 5.1. Is the problem with the recording equipment. CBS doesn't want to spend money to replace the recording equipment or transmission equipment.

 

[ShagnWagon]

I would think that the people making the commercials wouldnt want to pay more for 5.1 surround on their adds when a very small portion of the viewing audience will even be able to watch HD in the first place. To me, it seems it would not be worth doing from the advertiser's point of view.

 

[Ken H]

From Broadcasting & Cable, by Ken Kerschbaumer


Few HD Spots Slated for Super Bowl


Last year’s ABC HD Super Bowl broadcast featured a number of movie-trailer commercials in HD complete with 5.1 surround sound.


This year, CBS was hopeful that its request for spots submitted in HD would expand HD commercials beyond the cinematic realm, but it appears the ad agencies have dashed those hopes.


Three companies have submitted HD spots: Universal, Disney and Disney Pixar, but those three are movie companies. So it looks like HD viewers will have to wait for another big game to see the Coors Light Twins in HD.

 

[stoder]

Geez, I usually hit the MUTE button during commercials, so 5.1 is not very important to me !!!!!!!!!

 

[BobRoss]

Hi All


It has been reported many times here on the forum.


There is a down side for being a pioneer.


CBS has been doing HDTV for something like 5 years (someone out there will correct me if I'm wrong). When we built the portion of the plant here is NY and the edit rooms at TV City to handle program video tapes and commercial tapes the VCR's could not do 5.1 audio. There was not even any Dolby E yet. (The plant routers can handle 8 channels of audio).


Also when we rolled out our Satellite transmission system to our affiliates the encoders and decoders could not do 5.1 - only a AES pair.


We have begun to replace the encoders and some of the decoders in our satellite system with hardware that supports all meta-data and lots of audio channels.


Most of our prime time schedule is not mixed for 5.1, and because live events like the SB and the Grammys work so well in 5.1 we have worked in that direction.


We do have plans to replace the 20 or so VCR's with models that can do full 5.1 in the near future.


The good news is that it is all digital from the source tape machine until your audio amp turns it into analog.....


Bob

 

[plasmamaniac]

Are you kidding me? I watched Amercan Express film a commercial when I was in Hawaii and even though I only watched for part of one day, the part I saw took up only about 5 seconds of the total commercial and it took over a month to set it up and shoot it. It costs millions to shoot because I talked to the director of the project. How much more would it cost when they are dubbing in sound to add DD 5.1? Hello. With expensive transmission equipment I can't believe that an operation as big as CBS can't afford to transmit that in 5.1 unless it was not recorded in 5.1. I find that hard to believe. I'm missing something here, please someone enlighten this poor fool.

 

[Ken H]

Quote:

Originally posted by plasmamaniac I'm missing something here, please someone enlighten this poor fool.

It was just explained, read the post directly above yours.

 

[DaveFi]

Quote:

Sorry no 5.1 yet on the commercials. They like the other taped programming are left and right only.

Bob- This causes problems during the 5.1 broadcasts because the channels don't switch back to DD 2.0 for the appropriate material. This means that Dolby Pro-Logic II equipped receivers can't process the sound properly and the sound is "stuck" in the front R+L. No center or rear channels for anything.

 

[tmdorsey]

Quote:

Originally posted by Ken H Three companies have submitted HD spots: Universal, Disney and Disney Pixar, ......

Cool. I can't wait to see a HD trailer of "The Incredibles".






All the HTPC owners need to get their capture cards ready.

 

[CKNA]

Quote:

Originally posted by DaveFi Bob- This causes problems during the 5.1 broadcasts because the channels don't switch back to DD 2.0 for the appropriate material. This means that Dolby Pro-Logic II equipped receivers can't process the sound properly and the sound is "stuck" in the front R+L. No center or rear channels for anything.

DaveFi,


This is your local affiliate problem. WCBS switches to 2.0 during commercials.

 

[dweebe]

Quote:

Hi All It has been reported many times here on the forum. There is a down side for being a pioneer. CBS has been doing HDTV for something like 5 years (someone out there will correct me if I'm wrong). When we built the portion of the plant here is NY and the edit rooms at TV City to handle program video tapes and commercial tapes the VCR's could not do 5.1 audio. There was not even any Dolby E yet. (The plant routers can handle 8 channels of audio). Also when we rolled out our Satellite transmission system to our affiliates the encoders and decoders could not do 5.1 - only a AES pair. We have begun to replace the encoders and some of the decoders in our satellite system with hardware that supports all meta-data and lots of audio channels. Most of our prime time schedule is not mixed for 5.1, and because live events like the SB and the Grammys work so well in 5.1 we have worked in that direction. We do have plans to replace the 20 or so VCR's with models that can do full 5.1 in the near future. The good news is that it is all digital from the source tape machine until your audio amp turns it into analog..... Bob

Thanks for responding Bob.

 

[seanb61]

press release issued today:


SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 27, 2004--

Dolby Laboratories is pleased to announce that during

CBS's Super Bowl XXXVIII broadcast on Sunday, February 1 at least five

commercials will be presented in rich Dolby(R) Pro Logic(R) II

technology--giving all television viewers a full surround sound

experience for the best commercials of the year.

Three out of the last four Super Bowl broadcasts have been

presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound on HDTV and DTV

services, bringing viewers right into the action of the game. Since

1990, most Super Bowls have also been broadcast in Dolby Pro Logic

surround on analog TV services. However, during commercial breaks the

sound collapses into two-dimensional stereo or mono sound. In a first

for commercial production, five of this year's Super Bowl

commercials--three from a major beer company and two from a major

American car manufacturer--will continue the surround experience and

keep the audience's attention with Dolby Pro Logic II surround sound.

"There are so many viewers out there that look forward to the

commercials that air during the Super Bowl as much or even more than

they look forward to watching the game," said Tom Daily, Director, Pro

Audio Marketing for Dolby Laboratories. "These five commercials with

Dolby Pro Logic II will keep viewers with Dolby Pro Logic II or Dolby

Pro Logic decoders immersed in the action, drawing them into the

experience, making the commercials more enjoyable and allowing the

audience to experience them like the producers intended."

"Standing out from the crowd of Super Bowl commercials is not an

easy task," said Hank Neuberger of Third Wave Productions, a

postproduction company that prepared surround audio for the Super

Bowl-bound spots. "After years of delivering Dolby Surround

soundtracks for film and DVD, we are delighted to bring the impact of

surround audio to our broadcast clients during the Super Bowl with

Dolby Pro Logic II," he continued.

Almost every modern Dolby Digital receiver also includes Dolby Pro

Logic II technology. Viewers with a Pro Logic II enabled home theater

system will be able to enjoy the game and the commercials in Dolby Pro

Logic II, regardless of the type of TV signal they are receiving.

Viewers receiving a digital TV signal with a Dolby Digital enabled

home theater system and set-top box can enjoy the game in Dolby

Digital 5.1 and the commercials in Dolby Pro Logic II. Likewise, those

viewers watching the Super Bowl on an analog television service will

also be able to enjoy both the game and the commercial breaks in Dolby

Pro Logic surround on their home theater systems.

Worldwide, over 100 million households are equipped with Dolby Pro

Logic II and Dolby Surround decoders.

 

[plasmamaniac]

Thanks Bob for your reply and that was what I was looking for. At least we will be able to hear it in Dolby Pro Logic II and hopefully it won't be long before we'll have DD 5.1. Sean thanks for that press release. Now let's just hope we have a good game and it's not a blowout one way or the other. I'm pulling for the Falcons.