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Disney Channel In Widescreen With Dolby Digital

During the Sunday Movie at 4.00pm (November 2003)

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AJ
AJ
Just saw a trailer on the Disney Channel announcing that their Sunday Afternoon Movie at 4.00pm will be broadcast in Widescreen and Dolby Digital from this week.

Sounds good, another step in the right direction I feel.

I wonder what this will do presentation-wise for the channel. They've only just introduced new idents and presentation this year - do you think it will be adapted for widescreen, or will we get 4:3 idents before the movie?

We'll just have to wait and see I suppose

AJ
NG
noggin Founding member
Presumably this means that Disney are now broadcasting 2 x 24/7 audio streams on their channel in the same way that the Sky Dolby equipped movie channels do. AIUI one stream carries standard MPEG audio for conventional receivers, the other either Dolby Digital 2.0 or 5.1 audio for Sky+ receivers? This avoids nasty switching glitches etc.
DE
deejay
This is good news - what's the movie?! As a Sky+ owner, the more DD broadcasts the better.

It's interesting that Sky Movies use two audio streams to transmit stereo/DD soundtracks, noggin. Are all Sky Movies channels DD capable, or just some of them? Might explain why some films which I know I've watched in DD 5.1 on Sky Movies Premier (as was) are on Dolby Surround when repeated on other Sky Movies channels ...

Interestingly, several DTT boxes are AC3 (another name for Dolby Digital) capable. Noggin - do you know if / when terrestrial broadcasters are thinking of supporting DD transmissions ?
AJ
AJ
IIRC Today's movie is Toy Story

but over the next few weeks they have got newer movies such as Monsters Inc coming to the channel. I presume other classic movies will be shown too over time.
GE
thegeek Founding member
jeez, could that DOG be any bigger? it's MASSIVE!

I think I'll just go back to the MTV awards on T4 if that's going to be on through the whole film.
:-(
A former member
I agree that DOG is ridiculous!
AJ
AJ
yes, the bug (as its more commonly known in TV land) was a bit ridiculous - maybe they'll sort it out for next time.

I noticed a few sound glitches throughout the film, and incidently, the bug on Disney Channel +1 is just the standard one which is normally used. So if you want a smaller logo, then watch it an hour later!

AJ
NG
noggin Founding member
deejay posted:
This is good news - what's the movie?! As a Sky+ owner, the more DD broadcasts the better.

It's interesting that Sky Movies use two audio streams to transmit stereo/DD soundtracks, noggin. Are all Sky Movies channels DD capable, or just some of them? Might explain why some films which I know I've watched in DD 5.1 on Sky Movies Premier (as was) are on Dolby Surround when repeated on other Sky Movies channels ...

Interestingly, several DTT boxes are AC3 (another name for Dolby Digital) capable. Noggin - do you know if / when terrestrial broadcasters are thinking of supporting DD transmissions ?


Any channel on Sky Digital that wishes to broadcast Dolby Digital also has to broadcast their audio in conventional MPEG audio. This is because non-Sky+ receivers don't have Dolby Digital decoding (in fact Sky+ receivers may not either - the analogue audio may still be fed via MPEG decoders?!) - so would not get any sound if a channel just broadcast DD audio.

To avoid Sky + receivers having to flip from MPEG audio to Dolby Audio when a DD5.1 film came on - with a nasty audio glitch or drop-out I expect - Sky channels that carry DD5.1 audio also carry DD2.0 audio for the conventional films.

For this reason quite a lot of extra kit is required in the broadcast and uplink chain - and I think only Sky Movies Prem 1-3 had this. These are now Sky Movies 1,3 and 5 I believe (with previously Movie Max services on 2, 4 etc.)

The Freeview boxes with digital audio outputs may well output Dolby Digital broadcasts if a broadcaster choses to broadcast such audio formats. I don't know of any plans for the UK yet - but other broadcasters like Pro7 in Germany broadcast DD5.1 on satellite, and now also broadcast on DTT, so they may offer the service on the German DTT system (which can use similar boxes to the UK system - albeit with VHF tuners?) Also Australia's DTT system supports Dolby Digital audio - as well as HDTV - so it could be these boxes also work in Aus (again if they support VHF as well as UHF)
TE
teenage-monkey
Yes, I was just thinking to post about the bug after I had seen that. I don't care if it's transparent, it's very difficult to watch Toy Story with it on.
FA
fanoftv
How was the dog. I couldn't view it, family were all down and all watching chelsea v newcastle.

Was it the normal one stretched? Or was it the usual on as you would have seen it on a usual 4:3 position, so that you can see the whole of the bug (well bar the bottom that goes off on most tvs.
AJ
AJ
it was a special bug for the widescreen broadcast - it was 1/3 along the screen, and it reached between 1/4 - 1/3 up the screen

you could almost see the bottom of the logo - it was raised up much more than usually
NG
noggin Founding member
AJ posted:
yes, the bug (as its more commonly known in TV land) was a bit ridiculous - maybe they'll sort it out for next time.

I noticed a few sound glitches throughout the film, and incidently, the bug on Disney Channel +1 is just the standard one which is normally used. So if you want a smaller logo, then watch it an hour later!

AJ


I think that DOG and BUG are interchangeable in TV land - and if anything DOG is now more commonly used than BUG in the UK... That said both are more common than DINGO...

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