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  1. Member brassplyer's Avatar
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    I've noticed on the local MeTV channel (shows old tv programming) on many episodes of Daniel Boone the audio has a tubby quality that I swear sounds like the audio was recorded with a mic held up to a speaker. Particularly obvious on the opening and closing credits. Is anyone familiar with the delivery pipeline of these retro tv channels? Is it possible this is being done somewhere in the chain? For what possible reason would they employ such a hack method?
    Last edited by brassplyer; 16th Apr 2014 at 00:20.
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  2. I have also noticed that those videos are dark. Much darker than the originals that I watched as a kid.
    Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence -Carl Sagan
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  3. Banned
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    RetroTV is carried as a secondary channel off a major network feed in most markets. For example, where I live Comcast provided the channel but AT&T does not because AT&T is very clear that they do not provide secondary channels from any major network. As a secondary channel, they are subject to bit rate manipulations by not only the local channel that broadcasts them but by the providers that may re-broadcast them like Comcast. I've noticed that some old black and white shows in RetroTV were too bright in the past when I used to get it. It's possible that someone in the broadcast chain is using a low bit rate for the audio and that's causing the issues. There's only so much bandwidth in the case of tv providers like Comcast, so sacrifices have to be made where possible to keep bit rate lows so they can fit everything through the pipes they have.

    We've got a few members who are familiar with broadcast issues so perhaps one of them will respond with specific info on RetroTV.
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  4. Also remember when those shows were originally syndicated they were distributed as 16mm prints with optical soundtracks which had very limited range. In many cases, no one has recovered the somewhat better 35mm versions.
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  5. Member brassplyer's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by jman98 View Post
    We've got a few members who are familiar with broadcast issues so perhaps one of them will respond with specific info on RetroTV.
    To clarify retro tv is a description I was using, not the name of a particular channel, or at least not the name of the one I've been hearing this on.
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  6. Member godai's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by jman98 View Post
    RetroTV is carried as a secondary channel off a major network feed in most markets. For example, where I live Comcast provided the channel but AT&T does not because AT&T is very clear that they do not provide secondary channels from any major network. As a secondary channel, they are subject to bit rate manipulations by not only the local channel that broadcasts them but by the providers that may re-broadcast them like Comcast. I've noticed that some old black and white shows in RetroTV were too bright in the past when I used to get it. It's possible that someone in the broadcast chain is using a low bit rate for the audio and that's causing the issues. There's only so much bandwidth in the case of tv providers like Comcast, so sacrifices have to be made where possible to keep bit rate lows so they can fit everything through the pipes they have.

    We've got a few members who are familiar with broadcast issues so perhaps one of them will respond with specific info on RetroTV.
    i agreed with you , here in florida this tv have a low quality video signal.
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