Audio: US vs UK TV

[auld argonian]

Not wanting to hijack the thread, I'll quote the Venerable Hamish from a thread in "Kilts in the Media" regarding "Scottish Star Trek".

"As for not being able to understand all of it: we Brits often have the same problem when watching some of the American TV shows. Many leave me cold because I just cannot follow the oh-so-quickly-spoken, and frequently shouted, dialogue - and I know I am not alone in this."

Interesting....whenever a TV show of UK origin comes on, I find myself having to turn the sound up just to be able to hear what's being said. I am sort of attuned to understanding the accents for the most part but there's some kind of difference in the audio that makes it necessary for me to turn it up. Having worked in TV production a while back, I attribute this to different technical standards in the two countries...TV audio tracks from the Uk seem to be recorded in a "flatter" equalization and the music from the soundtrack seems to be at a higher level relative to the spoken word. US TV audio seems to have higher levels toward the higher frequencies. This may be because of broadcast standards....these usually set the specifications that producers must follow for their shows to be sent out over the air.

"Inspector Morse" was one of THE most difficult shows to listen to. Recently we've gotten "Distant Shores" and "New Tricks", both of which have been great to watch. "Distant Shores" has (ex-Dr. Who/All Creatures Great And Small/Campion) Peter Davidson....love to watch him act. I started watching "New Tricks" because it has Alun Armstrong...Master of the 'ouse from Les Mis...but it's full of good actors...it's about three retired coppers that get brought back in to solve unresolved cases and it's funny and has good plots...and it has Amanda Redman who has serious *schwing* factor.

But I always thought that there was some audio strangeness going on...

Best

AA

[McClef]

For us Inspector Morse contains many of the "classier" UK accents and enunciations unless you are thinking of Kevin Whately's (Sergeant Lewis) gentle (fairly posh) Geordie! John Thaw (Morse) should present no problem at all!

The quality of the Star Trek clip is somewhat poor and appear to have gone through more than one tape to tape transfer to begin with. But even listening live with an attuned ear to some Scottish accents and expressions might still be difficult. Just as there is no one American accent neither is there one Scottish accent but the clearer the audio source the easier it is to begin with.

[Erisianmonkey]

Just as there is no one American accent neither is there one Scottish accent but the clearer the audio source the easier it is to begin with.

That reminds me. I had the Clancy Brothers playing on my car stereo one day when I picked up a friend of mine. In the middle of "Rocky Road to Dublin" there's a mention of his "Connaught brogue." It took me a few minutes to explain that there are different accents in different parts of Ireland. It never occurs to most Americans that there are regional differences in different countries like there are here. Come to think of it, when I was taking French in high school, we had a substitute from France. She went on for about ten minutes about how I was speaking in a southern French accent while most of my classmates sounded Parisian. I got it right away, but I remember looking out at a sea of blank faces on my classmates.

[An t-Ileach]

How is the sound on the new Dr Who (and spin-offs - Torchwood and Primeval), and the accents (South Walean, Scots, and London), for Americans?

[Skweres]

How is the sound on the new Dr Who (and spin-offs - Torchwood and Primeval), and the accents (South Walean, Scots, and London), for Americans?

i can understand the accents of the UK perfectly fine, but my grandma had one, and im a huge fan of british comedy so ive grown up with it, and my mom and her side of the family live in montreal so im fine with it all

[McClef]

How is the sound on the new Dr Who (and spin-offs - Torchwood and Primeval), and the accents (South Walean, Scots, and London), for Americans?

And American - Captain Jack and all that! John Barrowman was born in Scotland!

[auld argonian]

How is the sound on the new Dr Who (and spin-offs - Torchwood and Primeval), and the accents (South Walean, Scots, and London), for Americans?

I really haven't seen any of the newer Dr. Who episodes on the TV...only on the computer...but I've had no trouble understanding any of them. Now that you mention it, never had any trouble with Dr. Who...and I started when they started running John Pertwee episodes in Chciago. Somehow the shows on videotape don't have the same soundtrack "problems" that the ones on film do...wonder why?

Best

AA