# Is it plausible for someone to confuse a voice on TV for someone in that room?



## Miss Bad Wolf (Oct 11, 2012)

I was wondering if It is possible for someone to confuse a voice on TV for an actual person in a nearby room.  I was thinking of this scenario.   Woman called home.  Her husband answered the phone.  While talking to him, she heard a woman's voice in the background.   She assumed that husband was with another woman.   After she hangs up, she goes straight home, when she enters their home, she hears a woman's voice.   She was now angry.  She storms into the room with the woman's voice.   Only her husband was in the room, but he was watching some family videos.  The woman's voice she heard was actually one of her husband's relatives in the home video.  Is that scenario plausible?  Or should she have noticed that the voice was a recording?


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## shadowwalker (Oct 11, 2012)

A voice in another room is just a voice. Unless there's something about the quality of the recording or background noise, it's hard to know if it's real or memorex :wink:


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## Sam (Oct 11, 2012)

If the room has good acoustics and the speaker system is halfway decent, it's hard to tell the difference between an embodied voice and one from a TV; especially so if the door is closed.


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## Nickleby (Oct 11, 2012)

It's easy enough to test the idea yourself. I'd guess it's possible.


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## The Backward OX (Oct 12, 2012)

Regardless of anything else, if I were the wife I'd have biffed the husband when I got home for his lack of manners in not muting the video when the phone rang.


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## Cornelius Crowe (Oct 20, 2012)

My wife has mistaken sounds on the television, such as a ringing doorbell or telephone as 'real.'  I'm sure that voices could likewise be mistaken.


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## writerman (Nov 28, 2012)

I'm sure it's possible, especially if the caller is calling from somewhere like a train station where it might be hard to differentiate between the recording an the real thing.


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## arkayye (Dec 31, 2012)

Utterly possible in the right conditions. But a poem need not elaborate on these conditions.


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## Potty (Dec 31, 2012)

This happened to me once... apparently it doesn't stand up in court as an excuse.


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## Burlesk (Dec 31, 2012)

This idea seems problematic to me. The problem as I see it isn't the quality of the recording or the sound of the voice: it's the tone and content of what the voice says. Whatever this woman says on the video soundtrack would have to sound plausibly like a 'live' woman who is in a room with a man who's on the phone. You need to think about that more than the sound quality.

For instance, if your character hears the woman's voice in close-up say "Who is it?" or more distantly "D'you want a drink?" or something like that, she might plausibly mistake it for a person who's actually present. But you then have the problem of making it seem plausible that a voice on a video recording would say such a thing at the right moment.

In short, to be convincing, this needs careful thought. It can certainly be done, though, and if you come up with something good, it would add an extra bit of 'bite' to the reveal when your character realises her mistake.


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## Bloggsworth (Dec 31, 2012)

This device has been used in several films and television shows.

John Bowers, the founder of B & W, the loudspeaker people, used to introduce his new loudspeakers by giving a talk about them and, part way through, he would begin miming as the lecture was transferred to tape through the speakers - The Hi-Fi press used to take bets on at what moment it happened. My sister-in-law came into our flat while I was playing "Jealous Guy", as I walked out of the sitting-room she asked if it was I who was whistling; at a range of 8' she couldn't tell the difference between sound from the speakers and someone whistling in the next room. Quality of reproduction is the key, the dynamic and frequency range of a telephone is very restricted thereby increasing the chances of a recorded voice being mistaken for a real one.


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## Dannabis (Jan 11, 2013)

Brings back memories of the scene in Home Alone


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## Jagunco (Jan 12, 2013)

sure but I would suspect that they would have to not be able to make out the actual words as dialog may give the game away


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## OWenDavis (Jan 20, 2013)

I think that's definitely plausible - especially if it's muffled and in a different room.


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## Ricardo Ribeiro (Jan 22, 2013)

Allow me to express my opinion: I believe it's possible but not probable. It's far easier with sounds lie a bell. Don't as me why. Perhaps human voices are not so easily reproducible  or our brain is more trained to identify what is real human voice and what is human voice sounding funny. I would say it can happen, for a fraction of second and in specific conditions: imagine there is a quiet movie on the TV. No sound at all for long seconds. Suddenly a short word said by a human. Meanwhile, you are in a different part of the house and you are absorbed in your thoughts. So your brain is caught distracted when it gets the input; as the input is short, your brain can't be sure. Now, imagine for some reason you are inclined to believe it's a real human voice. Let's say you have a phobia of burglars and all the time you thin there is someone in the house. Voilá! Probably under these circumstances a voice on TV could trick a person.

Back to your practical problem. I would go for it. I consider it's not probable but still, it's plausible.


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## AtlanshiaSpirit (Jun 10, 2013)

It could totally work. But I would remove dialog from the TV voice, maybe have a girlish giggle!


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