Mailing List Archive

messed up audio tracks?
In a recent recording of a CBS program, The Equalizer, I noticed something
weird. When the playback started it had the last part of a commercial and
then the program started with what had happened in previous episodes. I
could hear the background noise, but there was no dialogue from the
actors. I could see their lips move, but nothing came out of their mouths
that you could hear. I skipped by 10 minutes through the recording and
found that the sound changed from messed up to normal several times. While
the audio was without dialogue, I used the Menu function and changed audio
track from 1 - English 5.1 to 2 - Spanish and what I heard was English
dialogue and background noise along with an announcer describing the scene
as if for blind views.

I've tested this on every type of Frontend I have. Linux PC mythfrontend,
Nvidia Shield Leanfront and mythfrontend, and Kodi with kodi-pvr-mythtv.
They all behaved the same way.

My assumption is there was some heavy drinking at CBS or my local affiliate
that night.

Has anyone seen this type of behavior before?

Jim A.
Re: messed up audio tracks? [ In reply to ]
I've seen a few instances where an audio description track (for the blind)
was played instead of normal audio.


Steve Greene
(301) 842-8923
historicity.co
An independent archival professional specializing in still photography,
moving images and recorded sound.


On Thu, May 5, 2022 at 3:07 PM James Abernathy <jfabernathy@gmail.com>
wrote:

> In a recent recording of a CBS program, The Equalizer, I noticed something
> weird. When the playback started it had the last part of a commercial and
> then the program started with what had happened in previous episodes. I
> could hear the background noise, but there was no dialogue from the
> actors. I could see their lips move, but nothing came out of their mouths
> that you could hear. I skipped by 10 minutes through the recording and
> found that the sound changed from messed up to normal several times. While
> the audio was without dialogue, I used the Menu function and changed audio
> track from 1 - English 5.1 to 2 - Spanish and what I heard was English
> dialogue and background noise along with an announcer describing the scene
> as if for blind views.
>
> I've tested this on every type of Frontend I have. Linux PC mythfrontend,
> Nvidia Shield Leanfront and mythfrontend, and Kodi with kodi-pvr-mythtv.
> They all behaved the same way.
>
> My assumption is there was some heavy drinking at CBS or my local
> affiliate that night.
>
> Has anyone seen this type of behavior before?
>
> Jim A.
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org
>
Re: messed up audio tracks? [ In reply to ]
On 5/5/22 15:06, James Abernathy wrote:
> In a recent recording of a CBS program, The Equalizer, I noticed
> something weird.  When the playback started it had the last part of a
> commercial and then the program started with what had happened in
> previous episodes.  I could hear the background noise, but there was
> no dialogue from the actors.  I could see their lips move, but nothing
> came out of their mouths that you could hear.  I skipped by 10 minutes
> through the recording and found that the sound changed from messed up
> to normal several times.  While the audio was without dialogue, I used
> the Menu function and changed audio track from 1 - English 5.1 to 2 -
> Spanish and what I heard was English dialogue and background noise
> along with an announcer describing the scene as if for blind views.
>
> I've tested this on every type of Frontend I have.  Linux PC
> mythfrontend, Nvidia Shield Leanfront and mythfrontend, and Kodi with
> kodi-pvr-mythtv.  They all behaved the same way.
>
> My assumption is there was some heavy drinking at CBS or my local
> affiliate that night.
>
> Has anyone seen this type of behavior before?
>
> Jim A.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> mythtv-users mailing list
> mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
> MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org
>

I have seen this before, but not recently. Only the rear speaker tracks
were playing. It has happened once or twice with recordings, although
not lately. Previously when it happened I have switched to the other
audio track. At the time there was no audio description so that worked
for me. I suspect something messed up at the broadcast station.
Sometimes it sorted itself out after a commercial break.

Peter

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Re: messed up audio tracks? [ In reply to ]
On Fri, May 6, 2022 at 8:47 AM Peter Bennett <pb.mythtv@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On 5/5/22 15:06, James Abernathy wrote:
> > In a recent recording of a CBS program, The Equalizer, I noticed
> > something weird. When the playback started it had the last part of a
> > commercial and then the program started with what had happened in
> > previous episodes. I could hear the background noise, but there was
> > no dialogue from the actors. I could see their lips move, but nothing
> > came out of their mouths that you could hear. I skipped by 10 minutes
> > through the recording and found that the sound changed from messed up
> > to normal several times. While the audio was without dialogue, I used
> > the Menu function and changed audio track from 1 - English 5.1 to 2 -
> > Spanish and what I heard was English dialogue and background noise
> > along with an announcer describing the scene as if for blind views.
> >
> > I've tested this on every type of Frontend I have. Linux PC
> > mythfrontend, Nvidia Shield Leanfront and mythfrontend, and Kodi with
> > kodi-pvr-mythtv. They all behaved the same way.
> >
> > My assumption is there was some heavy drinking at CBS or my local
> > affiliate that night.
> >
> > Has anyone seen this type of behavior before?
> >
> > Jim A.
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > mythtv-users mailing list
> > mythtv-users@mythtv.org
> > http://lists.mythtv.org/mailman/listinfo/mythtv-users
> > http://wiki.mythtv.org/Mailing_List_etiquette
> > MythTV Forums: https://forum.mythtv.org
> >
>
> I have seen this before, but not recently. Only the rear speaker tracks
> were playing. It has happened once or twice with recordings, although
> not lately. Previously when it happened I have switched to the other
> audio track. At the time there was no audio description so that worked
> for me. I suspect something messed up at the broadcast station.
> Sometimes it sorted itself out after a commercial break.
>
> Peter
>

Seems like others have seen the issue. I'm going to assume there is
nothing for me to fix or optimize. It's just a broadcast screw up and only
happens rarely.

Changing audio tracks is the workaround.

Jim A