A blog by Jorge Garcia.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Man What Is Up With My TV Today?

I don't know why but tonight's The Office and 30 Rock both played without sound.
No that's not accurate. Without dialogue.
The Office was pretty much just "room tone" for the entire show except the commercials.
I erased it off the DVR.
Then on 30 Rock it was just the background music. Which was good and I never paid attention to it before. But again no dialogue. So I erased it too. Oddly there was sound in the piece from the Office that overlapped into my 30 Rock recording.

This sucks. Is it an NBC thing or KHNL? I don't get it. Is it my TV?

I went online to see if anyone else had mentioned anything. I didn't find anyone, so I figured I'd start.

71 comments:

Bear said...

Hmm...I know nothing of NBC. I only watch ABC! *hint hint*

yellowdoggranny said...

it's LOST..

Matt Eason said...

Maybe a problem with surround sound?

Hoku said...

It is not your TV. Once in a while I notice the HD programs have that problem, and usually the local affiliate will switch to non-HD until the problem clears up. Not sure if it coming from the network, Oceanic or KHNL. I assume you are watching HD...

Luckily, both episodes can be seen online at NBC.com so you can catch up.

Beena said...

For the last month, every week I've had a problem with my dvr and cable. I even had to put my cable provider's number on my address list on my cell phone because I had to keep calling them. It can be so aggravating!

Hope you sort the problem out about the shows. Sounds like it may have been a local network problem.

Amanda D Allen said...

Our old stereo system would do that. We would have to turn it on and off until it started making all the right noises. It was weird.

Sonja said...

I think it's your local station broadcasting NBC. That happened to us several times last year with our local ABC affiliate. Annoying. But rest assured...I don't think it's your TV. :)

Ali said...

Sorry to tell you this....but my NBC shows came through fine last night. Didn't you just get your TV recently when the other one died? Good luck figuring out what happened. =)

joy said...

no problems here in Jersey. too bad you "missed" them. they were great episodes.

Unknown said...

Do you have surround sound? That's the only thing I can think of - maybe for some reason the speakers that would have the dialogue weren't working (unplugged?). The commercials would still have sound since they aren't 5.1..

Kimberly said...

Both The Office and 30 Rock worked for us...but I live in IN, so...

Anonymous said...

Hey Jorge, my recordings on the east coast were fine last night, but my local NBC station used to have that problem all the time. I'd assume it's just a KHNL problem.

It has something to do with converting the surround sound and somehow dropping the center channel, which is where all the dialog is.

I didn't get to see all of the Office last night, but 30 Rock was great. You'll have to check it out on Hulu!

jeff.w.mcclung said...

A few weeks ago I had an issue recording "Heroes", where the dialog was audible but faint. Maybe it *is* an NBC thing...

Julie said...

My husband and I watched both last night, they had sound. That's too bad, you missed 2 great episodes!

MsYvone said...

I work for a cable network, and have worked for network affiliates before, and it really sounds like it's more likely its an issue with your local station, rather than NBC. (they may have lost a channel of audio due to mechanical error)
It ALSO could be an issue with your cable/satellite provider if you have one. (signal lost part of the audio during transmission to satellite from local station through to your set) Just a guess, but check with your provider, and the local station.

Rebecca said...

Weird. I don't watch those shows so I'm no help but that is odd. Do you have a sound system with a receiver thing? Sometimes if the wrong button is pushed on the remote the dialogue disappears on movies, not sure if it's happened with tv shows before. I hope my technical terminology & vast knowledge has helped. ;)

Eugen Caitaz said...

Haha!!! It's preaty Amazing! Yesturday, I wanted to watching "Ocean's Thirteen"( you know this film?) but in my computer not was audio sounds!!!

Courtney said...

It recorded just fine here in Dallas...so sorry you had to miss your two shows!

Crank said...

I don't watch either so I can't say for sure. I doubt they would run them like that intentionally, although I did once watch an entire episode of Letterman's original NBC show that was overdubbed in Spanish, with English subtitles. Just odd.
It sounds more like technical difficulties at your end though. The audio is coming through as 5.1, but you're only receiving one or two of the audio tracks. Check your connections in back of your TV, DVR and stereo. Good audio is all about signal flow.
And if you find the rat back behind there, he's not gonna hurt you.

winlee said...

I just tried to playback 30 Rock from our DVR; having the same problem here. I wonder if Oceanic Cable is the problem.

Winnie

max said...

Hi Jorge,

my first guess would be that the center-channel is missing if your recording was made with Multichannel like DolbyDigital5.1.
I've had this problem several times with the same effect like you, all the music and sfx but no dialogues.
You could try to enable the Downmix-option or a different setting with your TV/AV-Receiver.

greetings from Munich, Germany
max

PS: big fan of yours and proud that you visited my hometown this spring :)

Rory said...

These are some of the best videos on the internet. Thanks for letting us into your life!

Torigurl said...

Ryan Ozawa was saying that the same thing happened to him when he tried to watch them last night.

Jen said...

That's happened to me before occasionally. I think that what happens is that the local station only broadcasts one channel of audio which is why you got the music from 30 Rock but not the diologue. It annoys me big time. Fortunately both are on itunes.

Unknown said...

That happened to us one time with 30 Rock, but we were streaming it from the our xbox 360 Netflix instant queue. Some of the episodes were fine, but others had background noise and no dialog. We have a Samsung DLP. Not sure if that really helps at all. :)

Unknown said...

we've had the same thing happen to us - and everyone we talked to had no clue what we were talking about. i always just thought it was the cable company... but who knows.

Unknown said...

That's happened to me before and in lovely NJ. The "silent" show was Ghosthunters. Interesting that SyFy is part of the NBC family.

Korin

Tactless Wonder said...

No idea, as I have neither network tv nor a dvr, but I'd wager it was a dvr thing...

Or an NBC/Comcast merger thing..

Regardless, you can catch your shows either on the NBC site or on hulu.com (it's where I get all of my tv addiction fulfilled, lately...)

Brandon said...

I think the first thing is to narrow down the source of the problem (DVR, TV or possibly your local NBC affiliate).

Do any other shows you've recorded around the same time have the same problem? Does it happen on any other channels? Try recording something right now and playing it back, does it work?

Jeff said...

The sound on our TV was fine for both The Office and 30 Rock.

The way you describe that reminds me of something that happened one Thanksgiving during the Texas-Texas A&M football game-the sound of the announcers kept dropping out, but the background sound of the crowd and all the football stadium sounds where still there.

I remember asking my grandfather about it the next day, since he was watching the same game in a different city, and he said they didn't have any problems like that.

Jess Ray said...

I watched both shows with no sound/dialog problems. (i'm in Florida)
Maybe your DVR is having issues, they don't seem to last too long. I've replaced mine 3 times in the past year!

Unknown said...

It happened to me before, on ABC during an episode of FlashForward. Nothing but music and background sounds. Had to use captions as a workaround so I wouldn't miss the episode.

I think ABC pipes sound to affiliates in 7.1 channels, and then the affiliate sometimes messed up rebroadcasting them and manages to leave out the center and/or right/left channels, where the vocal tracks would be coming from.

Anonymous said...

The background music from 30 Rock is pretty fabulous. I find myself humming it from time to time. (The only other show I do that with - Lost).

It's a shame you missed the dialogue - definitely the funniest part.

Tammy said...

MIne in Oh was just fine, sorry yours was without sound. Dwight tried to get Jim fired with his Diabolical Plan and it backfired, again. Michael promised 3rd graders to pay for their tuition in college-they were graduating and he tried to give them laptop batteries (no laptops though) it was hysterical!!!! 30 Rock-the funniest part was when the characters went in front of the HDTV camera-I died!
There are the cliffnotes-Im sure you can see it on NBC.com today.

Danna said...

My NBC channel kept losing sound off and on starting during the nightly news. I thought it was just our satellite feed. Maybe it was something else.....? Alien interference? :)

PS Can't wait until Lost is back on!

oanababy said...

Sounds like your centre speaker might be out.

monogirl said...

I haven't checked my Tivo for last nights TV but I have had this happen during L&O SVU three or four times this season. No sound for 3 or 4 minutes right in the middle of an episode. The first time I thought it a fluke. The second I figured it must be NBC.

CCroom said...

Jorge,
During the digital processing, the dialog track (middle channel of a 5.1)gets dropped and all you hear is the music track or background sound. Usually the station's fault.
Ain't technology wonderful?

Anonymous said...

That is really weird. Mine were fine, and since *some* of the sound tracks played, I'd guess it was your local NBC station that screwed up the broadcast. But then again, it could have had something to do with your TV or DVR being set to a secondary audio channel (SAP) that wasn't being broadcast to. But if it was only those shows and everything else played fine, my money is on your local station. My local ABC station has been notorious for losing sound altogether lately - it'd better not happen when Lost comes back on!

RHulsey said...

The office played just fine for me, so I don't think that it was NBC. What a bummer.

FFJewbacca said...

Odd thing about that, our DVR does the same thing on occasion. Never figured out why, but somehow turning everything off and then back on made the sound come back on the recording.

I have no clue what causes it or how turning things on and off convince them to work properly, but there we are!

Kara said...

My DVR recorded both shows with sound so I think it is either your cable service or maybe your DVR. Are other shows recording ok?

jjg said...

It could be a surround-sound problem.

They could have mixed the audio so that dialogue was all in the front channels and background noise/music was all in the rear channels.

If somehow you ended up only hearing the rear channels, it would sound like what you heard. It could be the satellite feed, or the station, or your DVR, or your TV, or your surround-sound system, if you have one.

Amanda Ray said...

Hi Jorge,

I watched both of those shows last night and my sound was fine. Hope you get it figured out!

-Amanda Ray

Unknown said...

I'm going to guess that dialogue and background noises are on separate audio tracks that both stream down from the network, and the local affiliate or cable provider didn't stream the dialogue track for some reason.

Either that, or there was something corrupted about the dialogue track and your TV or DVR/cable box couldn't play it.

Chaely said...

Sorry honey, I think it was your local NBC affiliate. I'm in the midwest and it sounded fine - both were hilarious episodes! Definitely worth watching online.

Amy B said...

It was fine on my TV here in St. Louis, so I am guessing the problem was either your TV or your local station.

Sarah - Kala said...

We had the exact same problem here. It pissed us off. We love those shows! (we're on O'ahu, too). I wondered where the broadcast issue was: local, national, or what the hell.

Anonymous said...

It sounds like just the rear speakers were working.

b ill said...

I had the same problem starting in the middle of Parks and Recreation and watched the rest in closed caption. My TV is over the air. Its gotta be KHNL. Or NBC is really going down hill... The commercials seemed to be fine.

Stacey B said...

Nope, they both worked fine for me...must be your local network.

Unknown said...

Jorge. That happens when the surround sound mixdown doesn't include the right audio channels. In the past, I ran into that same problem streaming 30 Rock via Netflix (now fixed). The stream included surround sound, but I was listening through a stereo configuration. In that case, they had picked the wrong channels (like stereo rear) instead of stereo front + center for the two channel mix.

JDH272 said...

Jorge,

It's most likely your actual Cable box. You know, the system that actually does the DVRing. Contact Comcast or whomever provides your service. There have been known bugs with NBC, however. But since I DVR'd both of those shows last night, and nothing went wrong, could be a specific box problem.


Good luck,
-Jon

Steve C. said...

Something was up with Oceanic last night, with the storm. After we lost power a couple of times, we lost cable (including internet). Then later, one more power outage, and cable came back.

I think technology-wise, this whole island is a house of cards.

Michelle said...

It must have been KHNL because the same thing happened at my house and we are here on Oahu. My husband looks forward to Thursday night all week and was seriously bummed. Thank goodness Community was fine!

Michael Strangeways said...

You didn't miss much...The Office was HORRIBLE last night, or at least half of it. Why they've decided to make Jim stupid and Dwight Really Evil is beyond me...not good writing.

30 Rock was ok.

mmc said...

I've also had that happen a number of times (in Seattle area, Comcast subscriber), if you switch to the non-HD channel (yeah, like you can do that when you're DVRing something) the sound will be just fine. Something to do with the audio file upload. I've even had it do it right in the middle of something I really, really wanted to hear (LOST!). Gotta be quick on the clicker.

Clay B. said...

You should know to be wary of a company named Oceanic.

I was wondering if you had your TV or cable box or whatever set to an alternate audio channel.

Ari said...

We had the same problem last night. I was upset but then we discovered the show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and laughed our okoles off.

Amy said...

The same thing happened to me. I was watching Parks and Recreation and then all of a sudden the dialogue had no sound. :-( I then fast forwarded to the Office and had the same problem. :-( Must be Oceanic Cable.

Michelle said...

I have Direct TV and we lost the voices at the same time, so it must have been the local station.

Barry Traylor said...

When I still had cable (Dish now) only on NBC and only on certain programs I would get subtitles in Spanish which I had never asked for so I think it was the cable company.

Capcom said...

Well I'm glad that you posted this, thank you! Sometimes when I watch Heroes, there is the ambient sound of the scene, but no dialogue, as you say. This is on a regular cable-supplied analogue TV, no DVR, HD, etc. But I didn't know if it was the TV show or what, because Heroes is a freaky show to begin with anyway. How could I tell if Sylar or Matt are supposed to be moving their mouths with no sound coming out sometimes, because they can read and influence people's minds like The Force??? Now I know, haha. Tx. :-)

Unknown said...

Yes we watch from Oceanic HD and those two shows both had no dialog. At first we thought it was a joke, but then I fast forward and found it was for the whole show. Looked at Hulu and they had sound. So we knew it was some technical issue somewhere down the line. Not your TV :)

.. Brad in Waikik

Unknown said...

Happened to us once watching Lost - the sound went out right when you were describing your rewritten version of Star Wars in the Dharma van with Miles. Needless to say we were not amused; it only lasted a couple minutes though and we never found out what happened.

Ashlie Hawkins said...

That's happened to me before with Modern Family, all we could hear was the background noise, no dialogue for several minutes, then it fixed itself. Very strange.

Anonymous said...

That happened once when we recorded Modern Family. There was the room noises but no speaking. I think it is the dvr when it records?

Amy said...

I haven't read all of the comments, so sorry if someone mentioned this, but my guess is that it's your DVR. Mine acts up like that about once a year and I have to call the cable company (that's who I got it from) and they remotely reset the system. It clears the problems up & doesn't mess up any recordings or settings on my DVR.

dana said...

happened on Kauai too

Heather said...

That happens to us sometimes, too. We've found that if we hit "pause" and then "play" again really quickly, it fixes. STrange, though.

Oh! The 30 Music is composed by Tina Fey's husband. Isn't it great?

dcantrell said...

The same thing is happening to us on Oahu. I blame Oceanic cable. It doesn't seem to be limited to just DVR playback. We also have a tube TV where the cable plugs directly in and the problem is there too.

What's *really* odd to me is that (at least on 30 Rock), the audio that's present is everything _but_ the voices and music. It's just foley.

At any rate, it's incredibly irritating. I would call Oceanic, but I have better things to do and hulu.com fills in the missing shows for us.