mengm@homxa.UUCP (P.MENG) (02/19/85)
*<-------------%%%%%%%-------&&&&&&&&&&&--******---~~~~~~~~---------- I was watching a little bit of Hollywood Wives last night (no flames, please) and I happened to notice something rather annoying. It seemed like all or most of the voices were dubbed over. This in itself wouldn't have been so bad except it seemed like a rather poor job of it was done. Almost as bad as a foreign film done over with English voices. Are all films done with this voice-over technique (lip-sync in reverse)? Did anyone else notice this? Peter Meng *<-------------%%%%%%%-------&&&&&&&&&&&--******---~~~~~~~~----------
lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (02/20/85)
I managed to miss "Hollywood Wives," but what you probably saw was a poor audio "looping" job. It is common practice in films and television to re-dub (called "looping") the audio for some segments of some scenes in post-production. This is generally only done when it was not practical to get reasonable audio on the set during the original shoot. It's called "looping" since small segments of the picture are shown again and again as the actor tries to sync the dialogue to their original mouth movements. If it's done badly, it can be pretty awful. If done well, it can be difficult to detect. --Lauren--
stone@kvue.UUCP (Anthony Stone) (02/24/85)
While what you saw (and then heard) was probably a bad looping job,
I'd like to point out another source of "lip-sync" error.
If the network transmission is by terrestrial microwave relay, it may pass
through several distribution and switching points, each of which may use
a "frame synchronizer." This device serves to keep the video signal in
synchronization with other sources so that all can be freely mixed without
a sync roll or phase shift each time the source is changed (you may remember
that up until several years ago you could always tell when a station was
returning to network programming by the "glitch" caused by the different
synchronization of the local and network source).
The frame synchronizer works by converting analog video to digital, then
back to analog again. But the trick is that the writing and reading of
the video can take place at different rates: write it as it comes in, read
it at the same sync rate all your other machines are locked to.
Everytime a video signal passes through a frame synchronizer it encounters up
to a one frame (1/30 of a second) delay. As an example, consider a roving
camera on the field at a football game. For mobility purposes its signal
is microwaved back to the truck, where is must be "synchronized" to be
mixed with other cameras (if it was on a wire it could be fed a sync signal
to lock to, but I digress..). The program is then sent by satellite or
microwave to a commercial integration point, like NY or LA. There the signal
is passed through another frame synchronizer, delaying the video by another
frame. *All this time the audio is passed undelayed!* When the signal reaches
your local affiliate it encounters another frame delay so it can be mixed
with local video sources. So the original lip sync is now a tenth of a
second off (3 frames), and this is least possible delay. There could
be other delays where regional insertions of commercials take place (when
the product of a national advertisement isn't available in your area, it
is "covered up" by another one inserted regionally).
Fortunately the networks and many stations are recognizing this problem and
adding a device which produces a "one frame" audio delay for each synchro-
nizer in line. (And with more affiliates receiving their signal direct via
satellite, no one can cause additional delay on the path from network to
affiliate.) But when you see a program that you know is live, but still has
improper lip-sync, this is probably the reason.
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