digital TV dual/triple soundtracks

Wig

In France on their digital TV they broadcast some programs with dual soundtracks. Arte always has at least 2 tracks, German & French, sometimes 3 tracks on Arte - German/French/Original

I think I can only watch Arte in UK on satellite, I have found it on hotbird in French and Astra in German.

Wondering if when I watch Arte here in UK will I be able to access the dual soundtracks on my UK TV? i.e the English soundtrack.

Wondering also when watching UK digital TV in UK is there a facility to see if it is dual soundtracked?

Wig

Ok I got my answer.

When I am on Arte and I hit 'i' for info first of all it gives the epg info, press i again and it gives me some tech specs for the channel and I noitced there is a header 'layers' and a 'II' symbol I know from France that I = one audio layer II= two or more audio layers. So I exited back to the arte programm and hit the 'audio' button it gave me two choices french or german, I could change the audio from french to german, which is great because I can now watch 'Rome' on Arte on Wednesday nights in English.

They are showing Rome series 1 each Wed night 3 episodes per Wednesday, they have been on for 3 weeks i.e. this wednesday will be episodes 10, 11, & 12. I have no idea if they will continue with series 2.

(EDITED because there was actually no difference between ch 157 & 161 rthey both swapped audio into German)

DCFC79

Excuse my ignorance but whats soundtracks ?

Wig

Audio layers
One for the program in German and another for French language. Like you get on a dvd you can choose the language you want it in.

DCFC79

Wig wrote: »

Audio layers
One for the program in German and another for French language. Like you get on a dvd you can choose the language you want it in.

ah i understand, are all programmes like that abroad then

Wig

No, in France at least, most programmes are just in French, but I found usually at least 1 program each night had an English option, out of about 12 channels. And Arte is always in French and German every program.

And my other question was do they do on UK TV (broadcast in UK BBC etc), and I have just answered that one aswell, yes they do, and on my TV it comes up as "multi-audio" or something like that, hit options and you can change the audio layer. 'Matilda' on now on channel 5 is showing 'Eng' & 'AD' I assume 'AD' stands for 'Audio Descriptive' for the blind. Although selecting it did nothing to the audio..... I found that in France a lot also. It seems the TV broadcasters might be putting these tags onto their programs incorrectly, so you think it will be multilayered when infact it's not.

DCFC79

Wig wrote: »

No, in France at least, most programmes are just in French, but I found usually at least 1 program each night had an English option, out of about 12 channels. And Arte is always in French and German every program.

And my other question was do they do on UK TV (broadcast in UK BBC etc), and I have just answered that one aswell, yes they do, and on my TV it comes up as "multi-audio" or something like that, hit options and you can change the audio layer. 'Matilda' on now on channel 5 is showing 'Eng' & 'AD' I assume 'AD' stands for 'Audio Descriptive' for the blind. Although selecting it did nothing to the audio..... I found that in France a lot also. It seems the TV broadcasters might be putting these tags onto their programs incorrectly, so you think it will be multilayered when infact it's not.

nice find,

thanks

scotsbob

Depends on the model of receiver. I have a Technomate and there is an audio button.

When watching a programme I can press the audio button and all available sountracks are displayed, I then just choose the English one.

As an aside, I would like to see sports broadcats in the UK allowing an opportunity to switch to just the crowd reaction so I didn't have to listen to commentators chattering about what they had for dinner last night.

Wig

I found one for you to try, on freeview, ITV3 Pride and prejudice on now, is showing multiaudio eng or AD and the AD is working so you get descriptive audio....

There are a number of other channels also showing the same thing at the moment but the AD option makes no difference. I think it would be nice if the broadcasters got their act together on this one not to put the option if they are not broadcasting it.

Regarding sports TV it is entirely possible and easy for them to do this so they should be doing it.

On the TV in France I could set the audio to be default to English, so if the program was also in English it would automatically come on in English and i wouldn't have to do anything. The same principle should be possible in UK if you have someone blind they can have it set to default 'AD'. of course your TV needs to have the options to be saveable.