Was the Academy Awards out of Sync?

[DCMIX]

Tuned into the Academy Awards last night for about 30 minutes. Trying to find out if this was Comcast's problem..or if it came from the Awards show like this.

We tuned in right as Wolverine was singing some broadway nonsense...then beyonce came on. She looked like she was doing the worst lip sync ever. So naturally i had to stay tuned to see more. Well, the wife noticed that when the actors were talking and reading the nominations.. the lips were rubbery too.

What gives?

Did anyone else see this?

I could also hear the occassional pop and click.. which sounded like an unresolved word clock.

Dennis

[everybody's x]

Originally Posted by DCMIX

Tuned into the Academy Awards last night for about 30 minutes. Trying to find out if this was Comcast's problem..or if it came from the Awards show like this.

We tuned in right as Wolverine was singing some broadway nonsense...then beyonce came on. She looked like she was doing the worst lip sync ever. So naturally i had to stay tuned to see more. Well, the wife noticed that when the actors were talking and reading the nominations.. the lips were rubbery too.

What gives?

Did anyone else see this?

I could also hear the occassional pop and click.. which sounded like an unresolved word clock.

Dennis

I dunno, but whoever was murdering the autotune on Queen Latifah needs to be shot

[huub]

Was watching it live in the netherlands, audio and synch was fine... Surely a distribution thing somewhere..

[adatxt20]

Everything was fine for our DIRECTV. Anyone know some behind-the-scenes details?

[soundeziner]

The Academy Awards were certainly out of sync at my house. I didn't agree with a single one.

[seansolo]

Originally Posted by everybody's x

I dunno, but whoever was murdering the autotune on Queen Latifah needs to be shot

That's funny - In the song I heard her sing, there wasn't any. It needed some, that's for sure, but I thought it was kind of nice with her standing there in front of all those famous people not hitting some of her notes. I thought it sounded, well, good. Human.


There were no sync issues here - which is rare considering what I'm used to seeing on regular stuff being totally out of whack (Cox).

Did anyone else notice how crisp everything was?

I only caught one boo-boo (but didn't watch till the end) - when they went to announce one of the specific artists with the backdrop screen moving-with-images action and the curtain didn't open on time, you could hear some kind of control room voice shouting 'open it now! open it!' You could see what was going on thru the curtain, but it was delayed a good 20 seconds.

I'm always amazed by how they can have 100 channels of stuff going on and it all sounds... good.

The opening with Hugh and Anne and all the back-and-forths? Amazing.

The slumdog/WALL-E soundtrack performances? Amazing.

I'd be looking for the eject handle back there at FOH. Those guys make it look easy.

Kudos!

[everybody's x]

Originally Posted by seansolo

That's funny - In the song I heard her sing, there wasn't any. It needed some, that's for sure, but I thought it was kind of nice with her standing there in front of all those famous people not hitting some of her notes. I thought it sounded, well, good. Human.

*cough*
YouTube - In Memoriam - Performed by Queen Latifah (81st Academy Awards)



at 2:22 it's particularly heinous

[DCMIX]

Hmmm.. then it may be the Local feed from our Comcast.

Things were way out of whack.

It seemed MOST obvious with Beyonce. She looked like Milli Vanilli lip synch botching.

But then we noticed it during regular speeches too.

Wonder how a cable company can take a perfectly good audio/video signal and muck it up?

It like you'd have to try to mess it up.

D

[huub]

Welllllll.... The original live broadcast is in 16:9 HD with dolby E audio...
Downconversion to SD takes time, apect ratio conversion to 4:3 delays the video a frame , dolby E decoding delays the audio a frame...
And that's for starters... The feed to your home via cable providers is some kind of complex multipexed compressed signal, I'm sure there's room for losing synch too..

[DCMIX]

Originally Posted by huub

Welllllll.... The original live broadcast is in 16:9 HD with dolby E audio...
Downconversion to SD takes time, apect ratio conversion to 4:3 delays the video a frame , dolby E decoding delays the audio a frame...
And that's for starters... The feed to your home via cable providers is some kind of complex multipexed compressed signal, I'm sure there's room for losing synch too..

Wow, all that fancy technology so it could look like a bad Kung Fu movie.

I'd have taken a cruddier audio to have decent sync. It was so bad, we had to turn it off. Just unwatchable. No one likes rubber lips.

D

[hummer]

It was totally out of sync here in NYC on DirecTV. By at least 3 frames or so.

Not everyone notices these things, OP... ;-)
(even audio people)

[mixedupsteve]

My Direct TV in Maryland was off too. There were a few spots where I think there was some lip sync going on aside from the delay.

[mdrfue24]

In the Denver area, the analog broadcast was way off, the digital was OK. Over the air with rabbit ears.

[DCMIX]

Originally Posted by mdrfue24

In the Denver area, the analog broadcast was way off, the digital was OK. Over the air with rabbit ears.

My sister in law who is not an Audio Geek at all stated that the regular cable feed had rubber lips, but the HD broadcast was fine.

I never thought to switch over to HD. Silly me.

Sounds like someone at quality control was sleeping at his post. (My Dire Straits Quote for the day)

Dennis

[opegas]

I got over the air free digital with my rabbit ears and there was no sync issue at all here in LA.

paul

[Bob Olhsson]

Picture here in Nashville on Comcast was at least 8 frames behind sound except for the commercials.

I understand they are feeding Dolby E to the cable companies and in some cases different decoders are used in different localities of the same cable system.

A friend of mine quipped that at the rate this technology is going, we may well be headed back to mono!

[videoteque]

was at least 8 frames behind sound

One or two is bearable, but 8 it's a lot of delay!!!!

[DCMIX]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

Picture here in Nashville on Comcast was at least 8 frames behind sound except for the commercials.

I understand they are feeding Dolby E to the cable companies and in some cases different decoders are used in different localities of the same cable system.

A friend of mine quipped that at the rate this technology is going, we may well be headed back to mono!

Bob, thank you so very much for your explination and insight.

At one point i thought i was simply loosing my mind.

Yet another example of One step forward, 3 steps back... or 8 Frames back in this case.

Dennis

[Bob Olhsson]

I couldn't decide who to scream at, channel 2 or Comcast. They really screwed up the Grammys too, nothing but surround and center in the stereo fold-down. Some viewers only got LR, no center and no surround.

Between the introduction of digital TV and promoting piracy, I really wonder if the consumer electronics industry doesn't have a death wish.

[HughH]

Hello,

We shipped DolbyE on the fiber to ABC, and Linear Acoustics' E2 on the satellite. ABC then broke it out into our LtRt for the SD feed and 5.1 for HD. It was in sync leaving ABC in NY. Beyond that is anyone's guess - it's broken apart for local affiliates and can be really messed up. That's the big problem on live shows now - the potential for sync issues to creep in is almost limitless and varies in every market.

The Grammys were a bit different - CBS does 5.1 distribution only, so the affiliates do the downmix when they do the downconversion to SD. Even more chance to mess it up.

Hugh

[Splinter]

They did a great job. Also, if there aren't any non disclosure agreements, who actually was lip syncing and who wasn't?

For example, to me, John Legend wasn't but almost all of the other people on his number were.

Beyonce and Wolverine? Dance number. IMHO a lot of that HAD to be.

Thanks either way.

Splinter

[lerone]

Originally Posted by everybody's x

*cough*
YouTube - In Memoriam - Performed by Queen Latifah (81st Academy Awards)



at 2:22 it's particularly heinous

Yeah honestly....actually mortifying. Its pretty ridiculous really, back in the day people got paid because they COULD sing spot on without the use of 'assistance'? Motown?!

[HughH]

Hello,

Ed Greene was the production mixer and Dan Wallin (sp) was the music mixer.

Hugh