In-episode visual effects transitions

[marzie]

I don't know if it's my TV, or Charter cable, but on a lot of episodes I'm seeing what I would describe as digital static as the transition between scenes. I don't remember this being there before this season and it's not there all the time, but one of the recent episodes had it so bad I almost had to turn it off. It happens when they play the "woosh" sound effect between camera angles, and I think it used to be like a page turning or something, but now it just shows up as black lines and static. I will re-watch a few episodes today and see what it looks like, but it makes it really tough to watch, especially when there are a lot of them.

Anybody else?

[marzie]

So on the ballistics episode, it didn't start happening until the last few minutes, but it happened several times during that period. Anybody else see it? The rest of the episode, (and I'm sure on other episodes) it is like an orb of light that goes from one corner of the screen to the other.

[alfsauve]

Do you mean something that looks like this?



If so, this is a transition.  Typically when changing camera shots within a scene the editor will "cut" directly from one frame to the next. When just changing angles on a subject the editor might "disolve" from one angle to the next using only say 7-8 frames.   Sometimes however, especially, when going from once scene to another, to denote a change in time or place the editor will put in special transitions.  It might be a "page turn", a "cube spin", a "fade-thru-black", a "fade-thru-white" or in this case an "out-of-sync" transition.  Sort of a sci-fi, look.  They may even put a static sound effect behind it.   The next time you watch an episode, watch how the editor uses different transitions to denote different changes.


Now if it's something like this:



Then that's loss of digital signal, typically through your video provider.

[marzie]

Alf, thanks for the screenshot! It is definitely the former. I am aware of effects transitions (hence the description of the topic), but these are not the transitions I am used to seeing in earlier seasons.  The typical transition has been a white "orb" traveling from one corner of the screen to the opposite, "folding" away the page as it goes.  I know because some of the transitions during a recent episode did not display the static.  They are always (from my recollection) accompanied by the same sound effect, a "wooshing" sound. However, in this season, I am hearing the wooshing sound accompanied by a static display, just like the screenshot you showed.  I don't think this is an intentional transition. I doubt they would randomly switch to a "static" transition for half the episode, plus this is really, really ugly in my opinion.  I think there is an issue caused by one or more of the following:

1. My TV is unable to display the transitions properly. I bought a new TV recently so maybe it chokes on the display rate/resolution of that effect. But it's only happening on some of the transitions, not every one on every episode.

2. My cable box is not capable of displaying it for the same reasons above.

3. My cable company is having problems transmitting the signal for similar reasons, losing some of the resolution as it reformats the signal for transmission across the cable network.

4. The digital effects processing studio that is handling the transitions for this season is making some type of mistake.

After seeing your screenshot, which looks exactly like what I am seeing, I'm thinking it's number 4.

I'm glad you know what I'm talking about and you are seeing it too, I just want to know if it's intentional or accidental, and if I just need to get used to seeing it or if it is going to be fixed.  Like I said, I got a massive headache on the episode it was happening on a lot, and I'm 90% sure it was your episode with Gabe. I almost had to turn it off at the end, because the transitions were happening about every 30 seconds.

[alfsauve]

I believe it is intentional, especially since we're both seeing it and I don't have your TV or your cable company.  I don't mind it.  It's just different.

This is the only show I "ripped" from my DVR, for, duh, obvious reasons.  It was a pain since the cable and sat companies go to some effort to not make it easy.  I am getting through work an HDMI capture box, which is gonna make it so much easier to get copy stuff off the DVR.

I haven't really paid attention to what the other episodes use, especially since I do a lot, A LOT, of fast forwarding.  So much time is spent on flashbacks and setups that many of these shows boil down to only about 30 minutes of real content. 

[Sponsor]

[marzie]

I believe it is intentional, especially since we're both seeing it and I don't have your TV or your cable company.

I hear ya, but I would really like to hear MB or Marshall weigh in...

*crickets*

If I'm the only one who cares, then so be it, I just want to know that one of the "powers that be" are aware of it and intended for it to be that way, were or were not aware of it and want to fix it, or just don't care.  I know there are more important things they are working on but my nerd side is really curious about the actual production process. Plus, it drives me nuts. What is that they say about the squeaky wheel?