HD w/o Center Channel?????

[PeruvianSkies]

Does anyone else notice a huge issue with some of the HD channels through Comcast? It would seem that a few of the stations when they are broadcasting in 5.1 do NOT have any information being sent out through the center channel. Could they possible do something this dumb? Why would they not have information coming out of one of the most vital spots for things like dialogue????? Insane! Ok, funny story....

I was watching SNL when Dane Cook was doing his monologue and I didn't have my left, right or surrounds turned on, so only my center channel was on. I could hear everything that he was saying, but all of the laughter was missing because it was mixed into the other channels. Well, I was watching it without really paying any attention and I kept thinking....oh man....he is BOMBING! No laughter! I kept thinking something is strange and then I realized that the problem was on my end of it. It really showed me just how important the 'laugh track' can be sometimes.

[audio_dude]

great story, lmao, ya, the laugh track adds atmosphere to the recording, thats why most comedy CD's are recorded live, because you NEED that laugh track!!



(this has nothing to do with this topic, but just fer fun i looked at one of the ads on the side for "radiient calypso" speakers, among other B.S., here's a funny tidbit i found: Advanced Oblate Quasitriangular Antiresonant (OQA) cabinet design ..... now, i wonder who thought of all that, i comend them on making it so unnessesarily complicated!)

[jrhymeammo]

Have you ever seen that sitcom with Chris Elliot called "Get a Life"on DVD?

Unfortunately I have.

I cannot remember if it was the setting we chose, but we watched the entire thing without added laught-tracks. That was the worst I time I've ever...

[PeruvianSkies]

Don't worry...even WITH the laugh track that show wasn't very good.

[audio_dude]

LMAO, ya, laugh tracks don't help an already crappy show...

[nightflier]

I've noticed that what the cable cos. call HD 5.1 is far cry from the 5.1 out of my 5th Element DVD (still one of my favs). I think they expect that most people have some matrixed form of 5.1 set for regular TV, perhaps because of the high compression involved in getting it to my living room. What is really annoying is when I'm watching an intense scene from 24 and there is hardly any surround sound, but then when the #%$#@^-please-buy-this-suv-pill-toothpaste commercial comes on, it is all around me (and way louder too).