The Flash plays too fast (chipmunk voices)

[Anonymous User]

Trying out the free trial I noticed that The Flash is playing too quickly.

Every other show I've looked at so far is normal but at least the last couple of most recent episodes of The Flash are playing noticeably too fast and everyone's voice is higher pitched than normal. Sure enough when I checked I saw that S02 E17 is only 40 minutes long on Now TV when the actual running time should be over 42 minutes. It's playing 5-6% faster than it should!

It's the same for me on PC and PS4, so it's not a device problem. Makes it unwatchable.

Has anyone else noticed this?

[Anonymous User]

Maybe I'm unusually sensitive to the speed difference. It's only a few seconds too fast per minute, but it's definitely there and it seems very noticeable to me.

[Anonymous User]

Hey @Anonymous User

It definitely sounds like some of the Velocity 9 has seeped into the video as it is a bit like Alvin and The Chipmunks vs The Flash.

I shall get our content guy's to have a look at it.

Cheers

Andy

[Anonymous User]

Thanks Andy! File this one under irony.

🙂

[Anonymous User]

The new episode has the same issue and runs a couple minutes faster than the official running time again.

"Chipmunk" is overstating it, but it is like everyone has had a little helium still. I hope it can be fixed.

[schnapps]

@Anonymous User

Seen that the play time is 2 minutes short compared to the info on IMDb, but haven't noticed any issues personally myself with any sound speed up of the actors voices.

Also, noticed Season 4 of the "Arrow" are also 2 minutes short compared to the info on IMDb, but again haven't heard any speed up of the characters voices.

Out of curiosity, could you watch a small clip of Season 4 of the Arrow to see if this show (to your ears) is also effected ?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Actually all of the US content runs faster because their 'frames-per-second' speed has to be changed from their original 23.976/24.000 fps to 25.000 fps so it can be displayed correctly on our UK televisions at 50Hz.

Ideally the 'pitch' of the audio should be slightly shifted too to help prevent the 'chipmunk' effect. But when there's a lot of fast dialogue going on (such as in Flash) our brains can't compensate 😉

Cheers

[Anonymous User]

Is that speed difference really a necessary side effect of US shows even though content is digital now? Modern UK televisions can play 60fps content just fine.

Well, compare the regular speed Flash titles on youtube : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irxulSWL_qg

To a the titles on a NowTV episode : http://watch.nowtv.com/watch-entertainment/flash/4ba0675e75d3f410VgnVCM1000000b43150a____/seasons/1/...

Definitely needs some pitch shifting if the conversion is the cause.

schnapps, Game of Thrones and Arrow both sound more normal to me - although Arrow doesn't sound quite right.

[SeeMoreDigital]

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@Anonymous User wrote:

Modern UK televisions can play 60fps content just fine.

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It's not as simple as this... All content broadcast within the UK (and EU) runs at 25 frames/50 interlaced fields per second. It's a mandatory requirement which wont be changing anytime soon.

I convert video (along with its audio) for a living. So I have to know about these things 😉

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@Anonymous User wrote:

schnapps, Game of Thrones and Arrow both sound more normal to me - although Arrow doesn't sound quite right.

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As I mentioned previously, the chipmunk effect is less noticable when the dialogue is slower...