Synch issues when the Show Airs

[GoodBoyPaul]

I have just recently completed another show for A&E that aired last night. It was out of Synch by at least 5-6 Frames. This is not the first time a Show I mixed for A&E aired with Synch issues.

In this case I triple checked Synch after Layback was completed to the Digibeta Texted Edit Master, it was perfect. Then last night when it Aired, it was out of Synch!!!!! I spoke with the A&E people with my clients blessing, they were surprised. As you know, A&E QCs the show and reported no problems. (Dont get me started on the QC people, thats another story)

A&E are now suspecting that the Synch issues could be caused by the Satelite provider, in this case Dish Network.

I notice that Bugs and Graphics are added to the Edit Master once the Edit Master has left my carefull hands, either at the Network or elsewhere. I suspect that a Video Delay is introduced and not compensated for during this proccess.

Has anyone here encountered this, and how can we prevent this from happening?? I see so many Shows Air that are out of Synch, and I know, in most cases, that it is not because of the Mixer being inattentive.

Paul

[TVPostSound]

Hey Paul,

Its now a fact of life.
Cable, Dish, DirecTV, and now ATSC broadcasts.

Speaking of ATSC, have you seen the delay on local HD broadcsats???

[JKD99]

I'd heard (unbelievably) that the audio and video are bounced off of separate satellites, which would explain why the sync will be way out for 30 seconds or so, and then all of a sudden be back in. Can anyone verify this? Is this standard practice?

[GoodBoyPaul]

What now!!! at least A&E are looking into it, but what will the out-come be???

I am curious, how many people here that Mix for Broadcast are watching their Shows Air Out-of-Sync??

[Richard Fairbanks]

It is hard to say. I've seen problems with my stuff but I don't recall anything more than about two frames, audio late. Because I know that DVR boxes from Manhattan Cable can put the audio out of sync when the non-DVR boxes don't (we have them both at home so I can prove it) I have tended to just chalk it up to infantile technology. Nothing like what you saw. I hope you get an answer about what went wrong.

[Brent Hahn]

I have Dish at home, and we regularly see some channels with the picture late (of course, even one frame of video-late is way more disconcerting than 3 or 4 frames of audio-late). A & E, CNN, Discovery and Spike are often out of sync, but the HBOs and Showtimes and Big 4 don't ever seem to be.

[TVPostSound]

I'd heard (unbelievably) that the audio and video are bounced off of separate satellites, which would explain why the sync will be way out for 30 seconds or so, and then all of a sudden be back in. Can anyone verify this? Is this standard practice?

No sure about the seperate satellites, but, yes the audio will be out of sync for a while, then you hear a "blip" in the audio, and sync is returned.
Very annoying.

[Eric L]

I've also noticed that HD broadcasts are often out of sync. Whenever this has happened to a show I am watching I do a quick test. I have Directv HD and also an antenna for OTA ATSC signals. I almost always watch the Directv broadcast. When sync goes bad, I switch to the OTA station to check there. Every time so far, both have been equally out of sync. (accounting for the delay induced by the satellite orbit of course). This tells me that the sync error is occurring at the network broadcast level, not at Directv or your local cable company. Something is happening at the master distribution upload facility that is beyond my experience. All the affiliate broadcasters are pulling down the same out of sync signal.

I will say, that so far it has only been on the HD channels that I notice this error. I suspect it has something to do with D5 insert offset or Dolby E delays not being accounted for. But that is purely speculation on my part. I will say that this always ticks me off, when I know that I am paying a $12 a month premium to get the HD channels on Directv.

[Brent Hahn]

A & E, CNN, Discovery and Spike are often out of sync, but the HBOs and Showtimes and Big 4 don't ever seem to be

Of course, as soon as I posted that, I flipped on "Pearl Harbor" on ABC and it was at least 4 out, picture late. Of course, this could actually be a good thing if you're watching baseball, 'cause the bat cracks would actually be MORE in sync. Delay the picture a whole second, and the play by play guys would become precognitive.

[CD Productions]

I have seen a few shows I mixed, air out of sync. One time I actually had a network exec. call me to tell me the show was out. I went in and checked the session and the tapes, all in sync. I checked with the head of the broadcast facility and was informed the broadcast could be out 100ms or more. Add to that Dish Networks 2 to 3 frame delay or any networks sloppy sync and it ain't pretty. At this point, I figure when the tape leaves my hands, it's "out of my hands".