Hello All,
What is your experience understanding the dialogue of the Masterpiece shows on Sunday PBS. I am talking about Downton Abby and Sherlock Holmes. It seems to me like the soundtrack is mixed dark and moody with the speech lost in the background sounds. It seems to take a lot of cognitive effort to understand the words.
In the world of HD programing and surround sound or just plain equalization what do you think can be done to make the dialogue easier to understand? I have attached a FAQ I found on line with some explanation from PBS.
Thanks DT
FAQ found on line from PBS
“I am having a hard time understanding the dialogue of a MASTERPIECE program.
MASTERPIECE productions are recorded and mixed primarily for a UK audience with a "British ear" that is accustomed to a wide range of dialects and actors' speech mannerisms. It's true that some lines of dialogue can be challenging for US audiences, especially when mixed with background sound effects (e.g., carriage wheels on gravel).
We're keenly aware of these issues and re-mix a number of our programs from their original UK standard. We also have the actors re-voice lines we think are hard to comprehend. Nevertheless, there can still be moments that are difficult to make out. In such cases, we recommend that viewers turn on the closed captioning function on their TV/cable box.”
What is your experience understanding the dialogue of the Masterpiece shows on Sunday PBS. I am talking about Downton Abby and Sherlock Holmes. It seems to me like the soundtrack is mixed dark and moody with the speech lost in the background sounds. It seems to take a lot of cognitive effort to understand the words.
In the world of HD programing and surround sound or just plain equalization what do you think can be done to make the dialogue easier to understand? I have attached a FAQ I found on line with some explanation from PBS.
Thanks DT
FAQ found on line from PBS
“I am having a hard time understanding the dialogue of a MASTERPIECE program.
MASTERPIECE productions are recorded and mixed primarily for a UK audience with a "British ear" that is accustomed to a wide range of dialects and actors' speech mannerisms. It's true that some lines of dialogue can be challenging for US audiences, especially when mixed with background sound effects (e.g., carriage wheels on gravel).
We're keenly aware of these issues and re-mix a number of our programs from their original UK standard. We also have the actors re-voice lines we think are hard to comprehend. Nevertheless, there can still be moments that are difficult to make out. In such cases, we recommend that viewers turn on the closed captioning function on their TV/cable box.”
Maybe US english has finally evolved (or drifted) so far from UK english, that americans simply can't understand the british tongue anymore 😀
Edit: I know what you mean though, I just think it's part of the charm of these shows. It's more like real life, where people sometimes mumble and mutter, and you don't always catch the whole thing.
Edit: I know what you mean though, I just think it's part of the charm of these shows. It's more like real life, where people sometimes mumble and mutter, and you don't always catch the whole thing.
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I don't watch either of those shows, but in the UK there have been complaints that some recent TV dramas suffer from either poor sound quality or poor actor diction - in either case even Brits can't always tell what is being said.
There was a Downton Abby that got broadcast a while ago with dialogue audio that left a LOT to be desired, seems no technical review was done prior to broadcast.
Thought at the time in the UK broadcast tenchical scene was a dianorm cockup or such (It went out just after the UK switched to loundness normalised programming, but before enough training had been done) but I think it turned out to just be **** poor production in the end.
Regards, Dan.
Thought at the time in the UK broadcast tenchical scene was a dianorm cockup or such (It went out just after the UK switched to loundness normalised programming, but before enough training had been done) but I think it turned out to just be **** poor production in the end.
Regards, Dan.
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