Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater new blu-ray titles with only compressed audio?

Just these past two weeks I rented the blu-ray versions of "Speed Racer" (from Warner Bros) and "Journey to the Center of the Earth" (from New Line). Both of these are movies for kids, but I thought that there might be some enjoyment watching these so I rented them. Come to find out both only have compressed Dolby 5.1 as the only english audio option. "Speed Racer" had several different Dolby 5.1 language options like Spanish, Portuguese, French, but no uncompressed English audio. "Journey to the Center of the earth" comes this way as part of a 3-disc version. Yet, the tv show "Weeds", for example, gets (unnecessarily) a 7.1 DTS Master audio sound track. There could have been just a lossless 2.0 or at most 5.1 soundtrack on this particular tv show. So, the studios can do this tv show right, but not the big budget action movies? Obviously, most kids don't care if they watch a blu-ray or a 4:3 version of a dvd with Dolby 2.0 audio as long as they are watching the movie. So, who are the movie studios trying to fool with these half-assed releases? How in the world do the movie studios expect us to put forth the extra money and buy some of these titles when they do things like this on big budget releases?

- Nick

Nick - totally agreed. I haven't seen any Blu-Ray's with compressed audio yet, but that seems pretty cheap on the studio's part to me.

Granted, if I had my choice between HD video and HD sound, I think I'd still take HD video as to me the differences are more immediately apparent, but for the premium they charge for BR, the consumer really should get both.

Jason

Yeah, I canceled my preorder for Get Smart because it supposedly only has Dolby Digital.

Didn't watch the BR version but the wife and I were bored yesterday and watched Journey to the Center of the Earth in HD from our satellite provider.

The movie entertained us (which was all we needed at the time) but will never be one I purchase. I myself didn't find the sound lacking. There were more surround effects than most action titles out there and lots of LFE that gave my EP500 something to do.

Maybe 'quality' wise it wasn't as good a sound as it could have been but I actually found the sheer quantity of surround and LFE effects to be refreshing great compared to some BR and HD titles I have that might use a true HD Audio format but the producer/director didn't bother to add many effects to help highlight the clarity.

Just another angle to look at it from.

I have jounrey to the centr of the earth from netflix right now... got it on regualr dvd though, didn't see it available on bluray. I got about halfway through the movie, and the audio def. SUCKS.

Hmm, suckage seems to be the general consensus except for me? I wonder if this is a case where a less compressed version was broadcast via BeV than made it onto the DVD? I can't imagine that to be the case though as broadcasters (including my own shop) must also deal with choosing compression ratios for both their audio and video levels.

Certainly possible though, I guess. BeV, like many broadcasters, has been know to 'tweak' down audio on some channels (more compression) in order to increase bandwidth for less compression another channel when they know something is going to be watched critically, en mass, like the Superbowl.

In any case, I wasn't really listening hard for quality but did at least enjoy the quantity of effects so I was happy with my entertainment value.

Nick, one thing to keep in mind is that the "only" DD 5.1 audio present on Blu-rays has the capability as a format(at an increased 640 Kbps)to sound indistinguishable from uncompressed TrueHD, etc. Note the listening results, blind and otherwise, from the Home Entertainment Magazine tests which were also previously described here.

from the article:

 Quote:

Our first stop was at Dolby Laboratories’ headquarters in San Francisco. After a short tour of their impressive facilities, our hosts ushered us into what one of their engineers called their “codec killer room.” The specially designed room adheres to the ITU-R BS.1161-1 critical listening evaluation specification and companion BS.1284-1 Annex document that together specify in great detail the precise conditions, procedures and protocols necessary to achieve repeatable and truly useful results in the on-going development of these codecs. A suitably high resolution 5.1 system resides in the room, with five Revel Ultima Studio full range loudspeakers, along with a Paradigm subwoofer and a stack of Bryston power amplifiers rounding out the gear.

I wonder if Alan, Ian or other folks at Axiom know about this critical listening evaluation specification and annex document.

Why the Revel Ultimas?
I'm curious.
reasonably good graphs

Johnk,

I just happended to pick up that particular magazine and read that article this summer as well. I was also shocked at the results. However, I think that they missed one point as to why there is a difference in the actual soundtracks that arrive on discs. Yes, on a soundtrack that is mastered very well in a lossy format and lossless of 5.1 the experts had a very difficult time discerning which soundtrack was which, even on quite expensive equipment. However, Disney is not the only studio mastering the discs that we get. Disney is about that only studio that consistently can give amazing soundtracks even in plain old Dolby 5.1. For example, "the Incredibles" still sounds amazing. I think that the lossless format makes it easier to make an amazing soundtrack than it does in a lossy format. This is why everyone keeps reporting that on lossless soundtracks we get better voice intelligibility, better low level detail and tighter bass usually. These are actually some subtle differences that have heard as well, and I don't think that it was the placebo effect. Also, if I am paying the higher premium I demand that I get the best possible soundtrack available.

- Nick