Uhhhh..Sonnys murder takes place in a tolllbooth

The scene you are referring to is where Michael kills the cop in the restuarant..maybe thats why you thought the sound was off???

Nope,it's called a simple name mistake

i agree with the mono comments but i have 2 questions:

when a dvd includes both the mono and 5.1 tracks, i often see the 5.1 labeled as "new and remastered" or something similar. i always assume the remastered pasrt means they took the sound and cleaned it up to remove pops or whatever from aging. so does the mono track get the same remastering too? or is it some half-ass job that they just throw on there?

are there any good sites that list the original sound mode for movies? if a movie was recorded in mono only and then a dvd left the mono track off i wouldn't even know it unless i could look it up. well unless the movie was really old maybe.

Well I think sometimes studios do,do half assed jobs & put all the money into restoring the 5.1 mix & just tossing on a deteriorated mono track.


MGM's dvd of The Fog & Carrie SEs are pretty good examples. I have seen the films countless times before on video & tv in mono & they always sounded great. Meanwhile when I checked out the mono mixes on the dvd. They sounded rather lifeless & hard to hear. Really garbled & in bad shape that the sound never shined though like it did before.

Meanwhile the 5.1 tracks were fully restored & alive withe sound. Yet the tracks are largely mono save for the music. Yet it makes you wonder,if the track is basically mono. Then why not just restore the original mono mix & not bother with a 5.1 track?

Again it seems all about drawing in those who care about 5.1 only. Sadly since that is all you see some people talk about dvds. "Oh this has DTS,a must buy!!!" "Mono? Screw that,didn't waste money on my HT system to use one speake!".



Meanwhile a studio like Paramount included Restored Original Mono mixes along with the remix most of the time. I always view the mono in this case

Yet alot of studios do included restored nice sounding mono mixes alone with the remix. Yet sometimes,they are cheap bastards & use a bad sounding mono mix,thus selling the 5.1 even more as 'awsome' 'loud' 'perfec' & making people think mono really is 'bad'.


So always test out & sample both tracks when included. That is what I do anyway,but thankfully mono wins most of the time

When is it coming out?

This is an interesting thread...just because I think some posters (not all of them) will complain about ANYTHING that might be left off a DVD. I'm wondering if George Lucas decided ONLY to release the original Star Wars trilogy in 2.0 Dolby if we'd see a similar reaction (YES! No remastered 5.1...Star Wars as it was inteneded to be heard!) - I kind of doubt it.

The fact is that the number of people who want the best sound possible VASTLY outnumbers those who want the original mono or 2.0 Stereo sound of older films.

Why aren't you people complaining about Paramount cleaning up the print? I guarantee you NO print in 1972 looked even as clear as the current GODFATHER DVD, let alone the one they are working on now. Don't you want to see the grain and dirt that was in the theatrical presentation?!

I'm being a smart ass here...but hopefully making a point in the process.

Of course, one the original soundtracks for Star Wars was a 6-track on the 70mm release. A 5.1 soundtrack could replicate this. Further, if Lucas chooses to use his Special Edition versions, the original soundtrack for that version was 5.1, anyway.

Quote:

The fact is that the number of people who want the best sound possible VASTLY outnumbers those who want the original mono or 2.0 Stereo sound of older films.

Are you assuming that "the best sound possible" = 5.1?

Quote:

I guarantee you NO print in 1972 looked even as clear as the current GODFATHER DVD, let alone the one they are working on now.

I guarantee you just the opposite. Do you think that brand new prints in 1972 just happened to come out automatically looking beat up and crappy for no reason?

Quote:

Don't you want to see the grain and dirt that was in the theatrical presentation?!

A brand new theatrical print of The Godfather would have had no dirt that was not on the negative and no more grain than what was inherent in the film stocks of the time. Do you think the people working in film processing labs at the time would just randomly throw prints around to get them dirty?

DJ

...what DJ said... and AMEN to that...!!!...

(...thinks...: some of these young whippersnappers seem to think that movies were invented yesterday...)

. . . . . .

apparently, the best way to watch "The Godfather" is in you 1978 in-furniture TV set with the mono carton speaker from the TV!???

Since no one minded to answer my question, wich was mistaken for a complain about my 4K system playing just in the center channel...

Once again, why is DD1.0 tracks plays only in the center channel and not the same info in the L and R speakers???

...and is there a way to tell the processor to "redirect" the sound to the L&R speakers since the center channels are not as suited as the main towers to carry a full range mono signals!!!

Because they are single-channel.

Before stereophonic sound was in the mainstream, mono was just one channel from one speaker or a group of speakers BEHIND the screen. Changing the mono to going to the left and right speakers is incorrect... it's downright awkward, too.

Warner, Criterion, and Image thankfully maintain the single-channel format for mono sound.

That's the way Dolby Digital works. 1.0 means 1 speaker, no subwoofer.

In DD, mono can be encoded as 1.0 (front center channel only) or 2.0 (Left & Right mains in equal amplitude, which most receivers will decode into ProLogic and steer entirely towards the center channel anyway). Some studios do it one way, some do it the other. In my experience, generally a 1.0 mix yields better results.

If you prefer that a mono track be moved to your other front speakers, you'll have to play around with your receiver's DSP modes to see if it has a "Stereo" setting that works. If not, try disabling your center speaker, which should force your receiver to split that audio channel to the other front mains (just remember to turn that speaker back on when you're done).

Wow!!...finally some good answers!...thanks!

And it is then normal that it plays only from the center channel!

At least some people pays attention to the misscalled J6P

Spooky I do want the best sound possible & that means mono can beat out 5.1 anyday on older mono films that were never meant for 5.1 in the first place

You have to disable the digital connection and go to analog only.
That depends on you reicever/processor settings.
There you should be able to direct the sound to stereo/all speakers /whatever.

Cheers
Maggi

The best possible sound would be the mono track in this case.

In the case of Star Wars the 5.1 soundtrack is the best possible sound.

Remastering a single mono track into six channels is very tricky. It comes down to the skills of an engineer stripping the track into six pieces with Pro Tools or other software. Many times I have noticed its nothing more than a quick hatchet job. They simply put the music on the surrounds and leave the dialog on the fronts. Sometimes ackwardly putting random sounds into the rear channels. In the case of Vertigo they used the original dialog, but replaced every single sound effect in the film.

The simple fact is it would be no real effort to put the original mono track on any DVD release of older movies along with the new DD 5.1 track. If proper aspect ratio is important then why wouldn't getting the original sound track be important?

Hear hear ! ! !

...what darkside said...

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The above would work, sort of. But I'm not sure how this solution hasn't been posted:
You could try the Mono setting. This typically puts the sound in the main speakers and the center to give a nice wide, accurate mono sound. There is often a Mono Movie setting that gives some ambience from the surrounds, too.

I try both with mono signals and have preferred either one or the other depending on the source. I seldom choose to use Stereo or Pro Logic for mono sources anymore.

EDIT: Oh, nobody fully answered the original question, either. Including me. Well, Josh answered most of it.

The answer is that you probably have your receiver in auto mode, and it only picks between DTS, DD, and DPL. With a mono signal, regardless of whether it is encoded as 1.0 or 2.0, the receiver will go to DPL/DPLII. And the DPL decoding algorithm will always put a true mono signal into the center channel only.

What receiver is this, anyway?

No, he shouldn't have to go that far. If you tell your receiver that you don't have a center channel, it will create a phantom center using the other two front mains.

Different brands of receivers have totally different DSP modes from one other. On my receiver, the "Mono Movie" setting splits the audio to all 5 speakers equally and sounds like crap (you never want all of your dialogue coming from every direction at once).

Rotel RSX-1055

thanks for the feedback and details...I will try it at home!