Skull

I just watched Top Gun and I Robot and noticed that the dialogue was very low, but the surround sound was loud on DTS compared to other DTS movies like LOTR or Spiderman 2 SB which the dialogue was very clear and loud enough to hear (Note: all movies were played at the same volume). Is there something wrong with my receiver or do some movie companies have better DTS encoding for their movies? (Have a Harmon Kardon AVR-325 receiver) Thanks.

DVD Polizei

Unfortunately, you're at the mercy of the idiot who mixed the soundtrack.

Skull

When I read the review for the Top Gun DVD, the reviewer stated that the dialogue was crisp and clear. If I turn up my volume louder, the dialogue will be much louder and clearer, but the surround sound will be way too loud or was that what the audio mixer meant to do?

DVD Polizei

Well, here's the problem. When you buy a movie, you have several intervening issues which can make the movie seem less than what other comments about it are.

Let me get specific and then address your problem more basic.

1a) The reviewer of the movie--for all we know he's partially deaf and blind (refer to a Matrix Ultimate Set review on a website of a previous post I made--which everyone disagreed with me of course because hey, you just forked out what, another $80 for something you already had?).

1b) The reviewer has much different equipment than you do. I'm sure he thought the movie was crisp and clear on his system. But I bet it was totally different than yours. And I bet it was totally different than mine.

Hell, I could review movies on a 19" CRT 4:3, driven by a Daewoo Receiver with Wang Chung speakers, and say every movie I watched looked absolutely amazing and delivered stellar image quality, along with heart-stopping sound. Well, of course everything looked great because the damn image is so small! And the audio sounded just dee-lish because I'm partially deaf and wouldn't know mono from stereo. This is why I'm for some kind of standard review technique for all websites, so reviewers can get a better feel for the REAL quality of the movie.

2) Your receiver. Certainly double-check what's going on. You could have your surround levels accidentally adjusted for another movie.

3) Your DVD Player. Same here. Be sure nothing has changed.

4) Your own hearing. And I'm quite serious. Since I've mastered a ton of different recordings for people in my previous days (and used a variety of programs to do it ranging from big and heavy analog stuff to the more convenient software-based), I know that hearing tends to vary throughout the day. This has to do with our brain compensating for environmental noises as those noises increase or decrease throughout the day.

Now to the more likely culprit, the actual soundtrack of the movie. I think it's probably this. In owning over 1000 movies (not that this is a large number because many have so much more), I've noticed a very wide variance on the audio quality, even though the movie had a DTS or DD 5.1 spec. In fact, what I may end up doing in the future, is just remixing my own audio track for difficult DVDs and "normalizing" it so the dialogue tracks are more easily heard and the sound effects tracks are lowered so there isn't such a drastic change. Some movies are just utterly ridiculous (I will say the latest ROTK EE is up there with dialogue and sound effects being mastered to a level that is indeed professional). I'm not sure how these idiots get into the position of recording engineer or even have authority to release a final master track, but over the years, I've noticed the industry has declined in quality. And of course, with independent film studios, the variances are even worse. And that's a totally different discussion just on that.

But anyway, I'm getting rather verbose.

What I would do is insert a DVD you have personally believed to be the best in audio quality. Then, insert the Top Gun DVD and see what happens. If your ears are telling you there's something a miss, then there probably is.

Btw, having an audio spectrum analyzer is a great way to "see" the levels of audio as they perform throughout a movie or soundtrack, and you can get a better idea of what's going on.

Skull

Thanks again! I'll try to look more into this when I get the chance.

chipmac

I'm guessing that you've checked the speaker level settings as well as any night mode switch or dynamic range compression that you receiver or player might have. Any of these can alter the sound field. Make sure your speaker levels are calibrated equally and then it will be easier to see if it's the sound mix.

Skull

Did all of that, but still have that problem. I'm pretty sure it's the sound mix. Thanks anyways.

hoyalawya

Get this sound meter ($39.99) from Radio Shack.



Linky here

Measure the sound level at the exact place you normally watch movie from, run the test pattern from your receiver (in case you don't have DVE or Avia), adjust the volume of one channel up to reference (cannot remember how many db) or at a level that you are comfortable with, and then calibrate the other channels to the same level on the meter. If the dialogue (center channel) is still low then there is something wrong with the mix.

kayak99

I'm going to jump in here with what may just be a coincidence but I also have been using a HK AVR 325 this year and have noticed the same thing as Skull but not so much on DVDs as TV broadcasts when I run the sound through the receiver.

Some DVD's react as Skull describes but the differences on broadcasts are far more perceptible.

FYI, I have digital HD cable and I often channel the sound through the receiver when the sound is broadcast in 5.1,

I think West Wing is one of the worst. The center channel dialog is not as loud or as clear as it should be. I can watch CSI in the next hour and the sound is fine without any adjustments.

Could it be that our receivers are reacting differently to the source material? If so, why? & how does one deal with this, short of having to raise the center channel volume for each event?

.

DVD Polizei

I believe when you have a signal being sent via airwave or cable, it is subject to environmental conditions, which can result in dips in sound quality and yet a few minutes later, it's just fine. The technology of delivering the signal, is still much less-than perfect.

kayak99

Could be but mine is consistant. West Wing is muffled, the next show on another station works fine, week after week.

Skull

I adjusted my sound levels using DVE and still have the same problem. Seems like Superbits are the only DTS movies with clear dialogue for me.

Brian Shannon

What are you using for a center channel speaker?

Skull

I have the Bose Acoustimass 6 Series II speakers. Hopefully, this isn't the problem.

drmoze

must. not. threadcrap.

Brian Shannon

If you have properly calibrated your system with either the internal test tones or a seperate test disc and you are still not happy with dialog, I am going to suggest that it is not the receiver. The center speaker is the most important speaker in a surround system.

If you are able, I would get another speaker and substitute it into your system as the center and see what you think.

My gut feeling is that either the center speaker is poor or it is damaged somehow. If there is output from the speaker it is not the receiver. One last thing to check would be the connection. Make sure the polarity of the cable is correct and not opposite to the front speakers. If this is the case the center will sound lower than the fronts.