For some time now, there's been a problem with the audio on WOLF via Dish. It doesn't happen on either the HD or SD versions on Comcast in Williamsport. I don't have OTA reception so I can't check it.
The problem is most noticeable during primetime network programming. It consists of the background music being so loud that it makes it hard to hear the dialog at times. Since it's not happening on cable, it's not a case of poor production choices. It sounds almost as if the surround channels are getting downmixed to stereo at too high of a level, but I have no idea where this would be happening since Dish only carries WOLF in SD. Although, come to think of it, it may have started happening when Dish was supposed to have switched over from analog to digital for pickup of the local stations, although I have no idea if this switchover actually happened since they only added WNEP to the HD lineup.
On shows that have little or no background music, a problem is still sometimes evident in the form of the audio having a boomy quality. In addition, if I listen to it through headphones, there is an obvious low rumbling noise almost continually present that shifts from side to side, making it very annoying to listen to this channel through headphones. I wonder if this channel-shifting is actually the source of the boominess, because if I listen to a single channel the bass doesn't seem terribly out of balance, although this is subjective of course.
Neither of these problems happen on any other local channel.
I emailed Dish about it ( d i s h q u a l i t y @echostar.com) a few weeks ago. This usually gets problems fixed right up -- in fact, it's worked since then, like last week when WSWB's left channel was overpowering the right one. But this time, they sent me an email with further questions, which I answered although some of them seemed tangential to the problem at best or were already answered in my first email. I never received any reply to that one, and the problem persists. It definitely isn't my receiver, because it happens on my girlfriend's too and we have different models. (I have a 622, she has whatever the entry-level SD receiver was a few years ago.)
I ask that everyone please check this out and email Dish if you hear it too. If they're not going to give us HD locals, we need to at least get a clean version of the SD locals!
(Any input from the station engineers if they still read this board is of course welcome.)
The problem is most noticeable during primetime network programming. It consists of the background music being so loud that it makes it hard to hear the dialog at times. Since it's not happening on cable, it's not a case of poor production choices. It sounds almost as if the surround channels are getting downmixed to stereo at too high of a level, but I have no idea where this would be happening since Dish only carries WOLF in SD. Although, come to think of it, it may have started happening when Dish was supposed to have switched over from analog to digital for pickup of the local stations, although I have no idea if this switchover actually happened since they only added WNEP to the HD lineup.
On shows that have little or no background music, a problem is still sometimes evident in the form of the audio having a boomy quality. In addition, if I listen to it through headphones, there is an obvious low rumbling noise almost continually present that shifts from side to side, making it very annoying to listen to this channel through headphones. I wonder if this channel-shifting is actually the source of the boominess, because if I listen to a single channel the bass doesn't seem terribly out of balance, although this is subjective of course.
Neither of these problems happen on any other local channel.
I emailed Dish about it ( d i s h q u a l i t y @echostar.com) a few weeks ago. This usually gets problems fixed right up -- in fact, it's worked since then, like last week when WSWB's left channel was overpowering the right one. But this time, they sent me an email with further questions, which I answered although some of them seemed tangential to the problem at best or were already answered in my first email. I never received any reply to that one, and the problem persists. It definitely isn't my receiver, because it happens on my girlfriend's too and we have different models. (I have a 622, she has whatever the entry-level SD receiver was a few years ago.)
I ask that everyone please check this out and email Dish if you hear it too. If they're not going to give us HD locals, we need to at least get a clean version of the SD locals!
(Any input from the station engineers if they still read this board is of course welcome.)
