I get the feeling this thread is actually about two different subjects, so let's see where it goes...
The other night I was away from home and watching a repeat of the IT Crowd on E4 at about 3 in the morning and throughout the programme there was a male voice that was making what I thought were sarcastic comments in the silent bits between the characters talking. He was saying stuff like "Roy looks at Moss in an outraged manner" and "Woman whispers something to Denholm and he jumps out of an open window."
At first I thought this was perhaps part of the show, because typically the voice would be followed by laughter, but as time went on, I realised that it was describing what was happenning on the programme. I had a look on Google and it mentioned something called "Audio description" which apparently is intended to help blind people. I thought it was perhaps broadcast by the television operators in a similar manner to how they put someone doing sign language in the corner of the screen on programmes broadcast very late at night.
Fast forward to yesterday afternoon, I was sat on my sofa at home, watching Escape to the Country on BBC2. As the programme started, a very similar male voice was making comments such as "Panoramic shot of rolling countryside" and "Man and woman sat talking in a manicured garden." Thinking this was very strange, I looked up the manual for my TV and found a setting for "Audio description" which was turned to 'on.' I switched it off and haven't heard the voice since.
This lead me to wonder, has there been some kind of update downloaded to all Freeview TVs in the past week that has switched this to 'on' for everyone? But I searched on Facebook and Twitter and nobody else has made any similar observations to me. It's a bit strange that on two different TVs, at different locations, both of which I've been watching for nearly two years, suddenly I'm hearing this voice. Maybe it's available on such few programmes and it's just a massive coincidence.
So last night I mentioned to my boyfriend about this and I asked whether he had ever discovered something, say an item, a place, or just a word or "thing" and then a short while after heard it mentioned again, despite seemingly having never heard of it before. I've recently learned about a few things and then had them mentioned often a very short while later. He said that there is a name for that; I looked it up and it appears to be called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, or frequency illusion (I wonder how long before I will hear either of those things mentioned to me, given I had never heard of their existence until yesterday!)
So; as I said at the start; I'm not sure if this should really be two different threads or not, but
1. Can anyone solve my mystery about Audio description?
and
2. Has anyone had this you come across something for the first time, and then come across it again a short while later?
The other night I was away from home and watching a repeat of the IT Crowd on E4 at about 3 in the morning and throughout the programme there was a male voice that was making what I thought were sarcastic comments in the silent bits between the characters talking. He was saying stuff like "Roy looks at Moss in an outraged manner" and "Woman whispers something to Denholm and he jumps out of an open window."
At first I thought this was perhaps part of the show, because typically the voice would be followed by laughter, but as time went on, I realised that it was describing what was happenning on the programme. I had a look on Google and it mentioned something called "Audio description" which apparently is intended to help blind people. I thought it was perhaps broadcast by the television operators in a similar manner to how they put someone doing sign language in the corner of the screen on programmes broadcast very late at night.
Fast forward to yesterday afternoon, I was sat on my sofa at home, watching Escape to the Country on BBC2. As the programme started, a very similar male voice was making comments such as "Panoramic shot of rolling countryside" and "Man and woman sat talking in a manicured garden." Thinking this was very strange, I looked up the manual for my TV and found a setting for "Audio description" which was turned to 'on.' I switched it off and haven't heard the voice since.
This lead me to wonder, has there been some kind of update downloaded to all Freeview TVs in the past week that has switched this to 'on' for everyone? But I searched on Facebook and Twitter and nobody else has made any similar observations to me. It's a bit strange that on two different TVs, at different locations, both of which I've been watching for nearly two years, suddenly I'm hearing this voice. Maybe it's available on such few programmes and it's just a massive coincidence.
So last night I mentioned to my boyfriend about this and I asked whether he had ever discovered something, say an item, a place, or just a word or "thing" and then a short while after heard it mentioned again, despite seemingly having never heard of it before. I've recently learned about a few things and then had them mentioned often a very short while later. He said that there is a name for that; I looked it up and it appears to be called the Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, or frequency illusion (I wonder how long before I will hear either of those things mentioned to me, given I had never heard of their existence until yesterday!)
So; as I said at the start; I'm not sure if this should really be two different threads or not, but
1. Can anyone solve my mystery about Audio description?
and
2. Has anyone had this you come across something for the first time, and then come across it again a short while later?
pressing the button again sorts that out