Be Excellent To Each Other

I've just unwrapped and plonked in the region 2 disk of The Office (US version) season 1. The sound is a bit, well, weird. It's generally fine, but sounds slightly high pitched. Just slightly. All of the cast sound about 50% more chipmunk than they should.

It's freaking me out, and I don't know how to stop it. I've fiddled with the dvd player sound options but its still scaring me. Anyone got any clues?

First of all have you tried it on a different player?

If you're comparing it to downloaded episodes then the difference is due to the fact that film has to be slightly sped up to account for PAL's frame rate (whereas NTSC broadcasts and DVDs have frames added so they can look slightly juddery but the pitch stays the same).

Hang on, this is weirder still. Episode 1 on the disk, I listen to the title music and it seems a bit high pitched. Then I hit 'next' to take me to Episode 2, and the title music is noticably lower in pitch.

Perhaps the first ep on the disk is just a bit borked? How bloody odd.

It's not a fractional difference between dvd and download, I probably wouldn't notice that this sounds really a bit freaky.

CG. I have heard of this issue before, and it's something to do with the slight difference in film speeds between here and the US. I believe we are 24, and they are 25 (or something). Therefore, watching the same version of something from different territories can lead to an almost impercebtible difference in the pitch of the sound.

You will have to research this yourself, or at least my vague memory will trigger someone else's memory or better techincal knowledge.