Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler The Bourne Ultimatum on HD DVD - too quiet?

Is it just me, or are several scenes in the movie kind of quiet when you'd think they'd be deafeningly loud? I can't remember how they sounded in the theater, but it just seems like things crashing and what not would be louder than the dialogue scenes.

Have you checked the Dynamic Range Control in the menu? Make sure it is set to off.

Also, check your receiver and make sure the dynamic range setting is disabled as well.

That's all I could think of right now.

I already had every Dynamic Range setting I could find turned off, but I double-checked anyway and confirmed. I don't know. I'll have to watch those scenes again. Maybe I just need to crank my system even more.

I figured you had already disabled them but wanted to make sure.

Perhaps the movie doesn't have a superb dynamic soundtrack that you and I are accustomed to?

Don't make me pay a visit to the video store and rent this...I would have to enthusiastically watch it again for a second time(first time was in the theater).

How was the movie itself?

Speaking of movies with great dynamic range (I am too lazy to go over to the movies with LFE thread)

I watched Hot Fuzz on HD DVD last night. The entire last thirty minutes was nothing but explosions and gunshots... Pretty funny movie too. I highly reccomend anyone who hasn't seen it to check it out. MY living room was shaking... somehow my girlfriend slept through it all on the couch.

I still have not seen bourne ultimatum, Maybe I will get lucky and get it from netlfix... (but it says VERY LONG WAIT)

I just watched this one last night, I thought the sound track seemed somewhat one dimensional. Almost no data for the rear speakers. The voices out of the center channel was good but it did lack dynamics.

It didn't bother me that much as I thought he film was excellent. It never slowed down, and I never had the urge to check how much time was left. Fast paced and interesting to watch the long arm of the CIA and NSA

Although I would never use this DVD to demo my system, I would highly recommend this film.

Paul

The BOurne Ultimatum was an excellent movie. The bourne Trilogy is right up there with LOTR and the Matrix (for me anyway).

I own all 3 in HD DVD, I have yet to watch Ultimatum, it will be the movie of choice this saturday night

I agree that the Bourne Ultimatum was a great movie, But I think I enjoyed the new Die Hard even more.

One problem is that the story may suffer if you try to substitute the new Die Hard as the third Bourne movie.

I will say that I wish the director for Bourne Identity was used for all 3, I can't stand the shaky cam can't see nothing fight scenes.

Yeah, that gets pretty annoying.

I agree, that gets even worse when you are watching on a 135" screen. I was getting dizzy throught those scenes.

Paul

or a 92" at 10 feet!

I saw the second one in the theather, ... it was the first time I walked-out half way thru a movie. I literally got dizzy... I must be getting old

I was just reading a review, and they said that the HD Audio track was supposed to be really good for the movie. I've found, without much tweaking anyway, that movies sound better (more dynamic) in 5.1 DD than 5.1 Dolby True HD or whatever, but then again, I don't have a HDMI receiver or any HD processing for audio on my receiver. I just picked up the 3rd Bourne movie in HD-DVD yesterday. If I get a few minutes today, maybe I'll toss it in and give it a spin.

OK. I ran down and did a test. I turned OFF "dynamic range" mumbo-jumbo, and then fired up the movie. The "downsampled" Dolby True HD didn't sound as good as the Dolby Digital Plus, at least with my non-HD & non-HDMI receiver. I thought that the sound was fine from the QS8's. In the 3rd and 4th scenes I believe there was a lot of ambient sounds in the station and in the city scene. That all came from the QS8's. Now, I didn't watch the whole movie, obviously, but it seemed fine to me.

The scenes that stand out to me are the vehicle chase scenes, with Bourne on the motorcycle and in the car. For some reason it seemed like I was missing sound, or the volume was scaled back. I don't know. Like I said, I'll have to watch them again and see what's up.

Unless you have an audio processor that will decode DD True HD, or a player that will decode it, you are better off using the PCM or DD + audio tracks. If your source or audio processor will not decode the DDTHD track, all you get is a down sampled, compressed track with less information than DD+ or PCM.

Also, I just read an article that Murph posted talking about Dialanorm that is encoded with DDTHD. It lowers overall audio playback on all disks so that dialog playback is consistent between different movies.

CV. Do you know the exact chapter or time in the movie that you've "experiencing" a less than great "experience"? The movie is supposed to be a Christmas present for myself, so if I knew exactly where to look, or rather listen, I could probably sneak another quick viewing and listen without my wife getting on my case too much. She is already a little upset that I opened it knowing it would be a gift for me for Christmas...

I'll try to find the chapters and times tomorrow, and I'll get back to you. Anything to help a guy get more out of his Christmas present pre-Christmas.

Well, the motorcycle chase seemed better today. I still would have liked to hear more of the motorcycle engines, but there was a lot of sound to mix in. I suppose they didn't need to have the engines overpower the rest.

As for the car chase in chapter 16, at around 1:26:00, a lot of the crashes just don't seem to have enough impact. I'm sure it's just how they chose to mix it, but for me, I kept wanting more. I don't know. I'm interested in what other people think.

Charles,

I haven't watched this on DVD and probably never will because the way the movie was edited made me nauseous. But I remember thinking in the theatre that the sound wasn't very good or impactful. I thought it was the theatre but now that you're complaining about the same thing it makes me think that it was the sound engineering.

One movie I do like for the impact of sound is Children of Men on HD DVD. I can't speak for the SD version, but yeah, I was just watching the car/motorcycle scene in chapter 6 at around 0:27:40, and it still impresses me. The sound throughout the whole movie is pretty great, really. They do a good job with the quieter effects and then the sudden loud ones. I wish more movies paid as much attention.

Watched Bourne on the weekend. There was a lot of impressive surround effects and a lot of detail in the HD track. I was impressed.

To your point, I think that they did put more emphasis on the sounds that were happening around the vehicle chase scenes verses the engine noises. I think it was more of a production decision verses a soundtrack weakness though since engine noise was about the only sound that wasn't loud.

If you like engine noise, try "Fast & Furious Tokyo Drift" in HD. Not one I would have bought myself but it came free packaged with the player. It was actually more entertaining than I thought, has brilliant color and LOTS of engine noise.

Back to Bourne. I was very entertained but if they make another, they really have to add another aspect for drama other than chase scenes. I know it's this movie series's "thing" but it's getting a bit reliant on it.

Well... If this movie is too quiet, I prefer not to listen to a loud one! Watched it Yesterday and the soundtrack is amazing.

I agree with all the comments on camera shake in Ultimatum. Paul Greengrass needs to look into a Steadicam

I second Murphs's take on the Children of Men soundtrack on HD DVD. It's "only" DD+ and it is definitely one of the better sounding discs I own. Bitrate hounds complaining about lossy audio tracks on some hi-def discs can just stop and insert foot in mouth as they hear the experience of this disc.

I have the trilogy of borne movies for me waiting for me under the christmas tree :-).

All in normal DVD's though...I don't care...I'm waiting for the format war to be over.

Just watched Bourne last night. I didn't think the audio was that bad. I see what Charles meant about wanting more impact with the chase scenes. I can't help thinking about the slippery slope of always wanting to get the most out of our HTs, though. I admit wanting room shaking explosions with every action movie I watch, but I have to remind myself that it's not always going to happen.

Yes, some movies I get to enjoy the equipment, like "War of the Worlds," and some I get to enjoy the actual movie, like "To Catch a Thief." The former offers a visceral kind of thrill in terms of my whole room shaking, and the latter offers a dramatic thrill--something that seems to be a losing commodity in a lot of modern movies. Oh well, that's a rant for it's own thread.

Yeah, the audio's not bad by any means. I just thought there was a wasted opportunity is all.

Agreed. Maybe it would have made up for the shaky camera work! Which I didn't find that bothersome. You guys had me worried. Then again, I don't have a 100' screen like some of you.

Ha ha. Yeah, bigger screens make the effect more pronounced, for sure. I can handle it on my screen at my viewing distance, but any bigger, and I probably wouldn't be able to handle it.

But besides the potential for getting sick, it's just too bad we can't really see a lot of the action. When you can make out what's going on it, it's kind of cool, but it's hard to appreciate the "energy" of the shot when it makes it impossible to discern the moves.

Yeah, it's like the stunt coordinator just says, "Guys, I'm out of ideas. Tell you what, stand real close to each other and flail your arms around a lot. Don't worry, the camera guy will do a lot of shaking and everyone'll think you're really fighting hard. And. . .go!"

On the other hand, that's exactly how I would make an action movie, so it's not like I can fault them too much.

Apparently several of my Axiom brethren didn't get a chance to watch the movie on a Toshiba A2 HD-DVD player like I did, otherwise they wouldn't have a clue as to what took place after the scooter chase scene where Jason .... oh shoot ... wait, that's right, *I* didn't see anymore after that because I myself tried to watch it on an A2.

What happened again?

Of course this movie would win for sound mixing and sound editing after I was badmouthing it.

Better make that appointment to get your ears checked tomorrow.

I'll just go straight to the source and have my brain checked.

Oh, we could have diagnosed that for you.

Ha ha ha, thanks a lot!

No problem!






(The bill's in the mail.)

I don't think my brain can process bills. That was part of the diagnosis, right?