I Want My DTV
Let me tell you about this guy I know. His trade is infotech, moving bits across the Interwebs. He knows a thing or two about being digital. But when it comes to DTV, this guy is a dinosaur. His last TV was purchased in 1991. Before that, he actually remembers his parents bringing home their first color TV, it was 1976, and what he first watched on it, the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. He never subscribed to cable or satellite. In fact, just last year he bought a new set of rabbit ears for his 1991 Sony. This guy has been living in the TV dark ages, and happily.
This guy is me.
But times have changed. So, I was thinking one day not too long ago, “Let’s buy a new TV for the 2008 Summer Olympics! Let’s get a big, but not too big, high-definition set! Happy family memories will be forged by this high-definition Olympic bonding experience!” And so I did my research. It was not easy or enjoyable and in the end I picked a set that looked better than the others next to it at a local Best Buy.
Now I must say that the picture quality of my new LG HDTV is spectacular. I’m using my almost-new bunny ears to receive the local high-definition broadcasts and the signal is strong. The experience would be absolutely stunning were it were not for one niggling problem: the sound is out of sync with the picture. At first I thought I was crazy. “How could the sound not be in sync? Didn’t they solve that problem back in, say, 1930? Hasn’t TV always had synchronized sound? Here, let me twiddle this thing. I’m sure I can get it back in sync if I just click a few buttons a few hundred times. There must be a setting somewhere…” No amount of twiddling could get the local broadcast stations to present their programming with perfectly synchronized sound. But wait, there’s more! The sound synchronization fluctuates! That’s right, it goes from just a little out-of-sync to way-out-sync all by itself. And some stations are more out-of-sync than others. It’s truly amazing.
So I wrote to our local affiliates. Here’s what one local broadcast engineer, who was kind enough to reply, had to say about the situation:
Digital audio-video synchronization has proven to be an industry-wide problem. We have been successful in syncing our house video and audio, but are still having problems with the ABC network, where some programs have lip sync issues and some don’t. Occasionally we receive from the agencies commercials that have lip sync issues. These outside sources of the problem our not under our control, except to advise them of the issue.
One aspect of this problem of which many folks are not aware is that lip sync problems can be caused by the digital decoder/receiver and its associated video display audio amplifier. Plasma screens and LCD displays have a built-in latency between audio and video because it takes more computer processing power to process the video than the audio; and it appears different with different brands of TVs and converter boxes.
We can control the amount of video-audio delay and have set audio to be within two frames of video (this is 21 msec of delay), and is good for the majority of our programming.
So it’s an “industry-wide problem” that, according to my non-exhaustive research (i.e. Googling), has existed for five years or more. And on February 19, 2009, this “industry-wide problem,” should it not be solved, will be plaguing every dinosaur TV viewer who, quite foolishly, assumed digital TV would come with synchronized sound, just like the old talkies Grandfather watched for a nickel on Saturdays during the Depression.
It’s a “get what you pay for” society and TV is no different. Want synchronized sound with your high-definition programming? I know a guy named Comcast who’s willing to help.
Epilogue
My primary motivation for getting an HDTV was, as I mentioned, for watching the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, which are being broadcast in high-definition by the local NBC affiliate. Luckily, the sound sync issues are not such a big deal when watching sports. HD and a big TV really do make for an Olympian viewing experience.
However, what is up with NBC’s prime time Olympic coverage? What I mean is, the schedule stinks. I work 9 to 5, have a family, and can only watch a couple hours of commercial TV before going bonkers, so that means I’m good in front of the TV from about 8:30 to 10:30 PM. And what has NBC been showing in that time slot all week? Beach volleyball. Oh, there’s been a smattering of gymnastics and a heat or two of swimming, all over faster than the commercial breaks, but the majority of the programming has been beach volleyball. And is there anything more lame and less Olympian than beach volleyball? Are we supposed to believe that beach volleyball is on par with the 400M butterfly or the decathlon? It’s ridiculous. The men’s beach volleyball competition is especially bad. These guys barely move. Most of them look like they’ll be pounding a few cold frosty ones as soon as the match is over. There just isn’t much skill or athleticism on display.
I feel sorry for all the other atheletes who are unrepresented by NBC’s prime time coverage. NBC, give us more of what’s going on in soccer, fencing, track and field, and all the other sports we may not know about instead of this horrible beach volleyball dreck.