Cable TV Shows Are Sped Up to Squeeze in More Ads

If they can't figure out how to speed it up and not compensate for increased pitch, they need to find new technicians.

BTW, a lot of shows played in PAL countries used to sound a little higher in pitch because of the way they converted to the different system. People from the UK think everyone on US TV has a slightly squeakier voice than they really do.

 

Seinfeld sped up

 

It doesn't sound high-pitched to me. They sped it up correctly. Not ideal, but I think better than cutting out content. Some old shows that were 51 minutes without commercials are now cut to about 42 minutes. Some of them don't even make sense with that much cut out.

 

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It's not just cable AntennaTV is the worst with this.

 

Classic

 

Third tier cable channels like USA, FX and TBS have been doing this for years. Anytime you see a marathon on a channel those shows have most likely been accelerated to accommodate more commercials.

That is one reason I stay away from those garbage channels for the most part.

Frankly, it is so bad - I find it annoying to ff all the time!

 

Per the popup on that embedded YT, in 2015 TBS bumped the rate up from +7.5 to +9%.

I remember (years ago, but maybe they still do it) Friends on TBS looked terrible at times. Worse than what I see in that YT clip. It was like they would speed up certain scenes or camera pans within each show where they thought people wouldn't necessarily notice.

 

Why is this in the TiVo Discussion forum instead of in Happy Hour or Now Playing? What does it have to do with TiVo?

 

wow never knew they did this.

 

This is news? This has been around for many years..

I just with the Tivo iOS app would let *ME* speed things up, just like I do with podcasts, and with VLC (after downloading the show from the Tivo).

 

I didn't know they did this. Can't say I'm surprised though.

 

Given the choice, I rather they speed it up than cut stuff out. Assuming they don't go nuts and make it sound like a bunch of chipmunks.

 

And old farts like me can always just hit the pause button occasionally so our brains can catch up with the plot developments, or jokes, etc.

Oh the marvels of technology! Eventually we will have a fast serial port mounted in our skulls. The program content will be streamed at extreme multiples of real time directly into the appropriate memory sections of our brains, and then we will "remember" it just as if we watched/listened at 1X.

But that would be like remembering a good meal but missing the enjoyment of consuming it.

 

Sigh, the new version of VLC took out AC3 playback, so I can't use it to play Tivo downloads.. Thankfully I kept the old version backed up, so can hopefully go back to it... (but deal with a few bugs that were supposedly fixed in the new version).

"barely even tell" is a huuuuge exaggeration. I have to back up every once in a while since I missed something, and if I'm trying to semi-multitask (I mean even just cleaning or something, not working), I can usually only stand it at 1.5x or I basically don't follow it at all..

 

Now only if my TiVo could decelerate the shows to normal speed.