I thought I would start a thread of blockbuster movies that were a disappointment, so some of us can avoid wasting money!
MI:3 - pretty crappy sound, nothing special sound wise.
i Robot - I was kind of disappointed with this one too, can't put my finger on it, but the audio wasn't all that.
I dont have a bad dvd movie but I do have a few bad dvd concerts:
- "An Evening with Christopher Cross" DVD
- "Sting : The Brand New Day Tour: Live From The Universal Amphitheatre (2000)"
Our absolute worst is Big Trouble in Little China.
Just awful sound. Mind you the movie is not new but it has both DTS and DD onboard and both are just horrendous. Sounds like mono but somehow in stereo.
Not in the home theatre respects, but we recently saw "Premonition" and "The Reaping" in the theatre. Both were really quite good up to the end. "Premonition" decided to go cornball in the last 60 seconds. "The Reaping" really fell apart in the last 5-10 minutes. Too bad too, they were both quite good up to that point.
The Sound of Music-40th Anniversary Edition. This thing was supposed to be remastered in 5.0 Dolby Surround. Horrible sound tracking. If a character was a fraction of an inch off center the entire vocal went to full left or full right - very not seamless.
One high point, though, the pipe organ in the wedding scene was amazing! The EP500 just absolutely rocked the house.
Still a classic worth owning IMHO.
Scott
Casino Royale!
I had some guys over last night and we all agreed that the sound wasn't great. The dialog was generally clear, which is a plus, but the volume difference from "talking" scenes to "action" scenes was pretty big. I found myself adjusting the sound volume throughout the movie. The action scenes would have this very loud soundtrack cranked through them (I like things loud too). That is fine, but the scene before it was so much quieter. Maybe it was what seemed like a lacking soundtrack throughout. I mean it seemed like no musical score, and then a blasting song playing... I liked the movie, but the varience in sound level could have been better.
I find that I am disappointed with most movies. At first I thought that it was related to my acoustically bright room and my lack of experience with a diffuse speaker design. But now I am starting to believe that the sound quality of most movie soundtracks is like most music CDs...flat and uninvolving. Just because something was recorded in DDD or 5.1 does not mean it's good.
A bunch of us watched U-571 (DTS) and The Matrix (Dolby 5.1) the other night. We were so engaged in U-571 (largely due to the soundtrack) that if the house started to burn down, I am sure we wouldn't have noticed. After a half hour of the Matrix, some of my guests were wondering if something got damaged while we were watching U-571; the difference in engagement was that great! And it wasn't the difference between DTS and Dolby 5.1 either. Or the fact that all of us had seen these shows before. The surround channels simply weren't that pronounced in the Matrix and that really took away from the entertainment experience. The audio still sounded full but it was a blah kind of full.
After everyone left, I boosted the surrounds by 7 dB and that made a huge difference to The Matrix. But I really don't believe that what I was hearing is what the sound engineer intended. The sound planes shifted so much that they didn't really mesh with the action on the screen.
What's really interesting about all of this psychologically and physiologically is that I am now drawn to music and movies that have incredible SQ even if I am not a big fan of the music or the video content itself.
I used to have this problem quite a bit more with my old Techniques avr. I figured that's just how home surround sound was supposed to be; super quiet dialogue and super loud effects. I've noticed it MUCH less with my new pre-pro. The emo also has a nice feature that allows you to set the dynamic range of the sound track, although I have not needed to make an adjustment yet.
It is just with this one movie. I even played in on my regular TV with no receiver or axioms, and the volume would go up significantly for the soundtrack there too.
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I find that I am disappointed with most movies. At first I thought that it was related to my acoustically bright room and my lack of experience with a diffuse speaker design. But now I am starting to believe that the sound quality of most movie soundtracks is like most music CDs...flat and uninvolving. Just because something was recorded in DDD or 5.1 does not mean it's good.
A bunch of us watched U-571 (DTS) and The Matrix (Dolby 5.1) the other night. We were so engaged in U-571 (largely due to the soundtrack) that if the house started to burn down, I am sure we wouldn't have noticed. After a half hour of the Matrix, some of my guests were wondering if something got damaged while we were watching U-571; the difference in engagement was that great! And it wasn't the difference between DTS and Dolby 5.1 either. Or the fact that all of us had seen these shows before. The surround channels simply weren't that pronounced in the Matrix and that really took away from the entertainment experience. The audio still sounded full but it was a blah kind of full.
After everyone left, I boosted the surrounds by 7 dB and that made a huge difference to The Matrix. But I really don't believe that what I was hearing is what the sound engineer intended. The sound planes shifted so much that they didn't really mesh with the action on the screen.
What's really interesting about all of this psychologically and physiologically is that I am now drawn to music and movies that have incredible SQ even if I am not a big fan of the music or the video content itself.
I'm always playing with the surrounds during a movie.
Lots of movies are just different. I, for one, really enjoyed the matrix sound...the lobby scene sounded amazing.
I would highly recommend running a DSP program when you show a movie. Yamaha's programs add so much to the dynamics, it really is amazing.
You mean, like 'concert hall' or 'stadium'? If I wanted reverb, I'd set up my system in a locker room.
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I'm always playing with the surrounds during a movie.
Lots of movies are just different. I, for one, really enjoyed the matrix sound...the lobby scene sounded amazing.
I would highly recommend running a DSP program when you show a movie. Yamaha's programs add so much to the dynamics, it really is amazing.
I've read from many on these posts that the lobby scene sounds amazing but I certainly don't hear what's so amazing about it. It definitely sounds full but I don't hear sounds *around* me. They are all localized to the front unless, like I said, if I turn up the surrounds by 7 dB, it sounds unnatural. I'll watch other movies like The Incredibles, U-571, etc and they sound amazing!
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Just awful sound. Mind you the movie is not new but it has both DTS and DD onboard and both are just horrendous. Sounds like mono but somehow in stereo
The Princess Bride sounds just as you described.
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Casino Royale!
I had some guys over last night and we all agreed that the sound wasn't great. The dialog was generally clear, which is a plus, but the volume difference from "talking" scenes to "action" scenes was pretty big. I found myself adjusting the sound volume throughout the movie. The action scenes would have this very loud soundtrack cranked through them (I like things loud too). That is fine, but the scene before it was so much quieter. Maybe it was what seemed like a lacking soundtrack throughout. I mean it seemed like no musical score, and then a blasting song playing... I liked the movie, but the varience in sound level could have been better.
I'm surprised to hear that. The Lossless track on BR was pretty impressive. Although there is a big difference in SQ with Lossless and DD/DTS, if one is good, the other usually is too. (I like to toggle back and forth for the hell of it to remind myself the expense was worth it).
One movie that sucked is Waterworld. Even the Lossless track was horrible.
We watched Dejavu last night and that movie friggin rocked. The opening scene has a background LFE tone that just kept the 600 thumping in a way where everyone was holding their chests. A new LFE demo disk for sure.
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One movie that sucked is Waterworld. Even the Lossless track was horrible.
Um...
You kinda did go crazy with those movie purchases, didn't you?
Not that this movie should be stellar or anything...
But I just watched Enemy of the State last night on DVD, rented from blockbuster. And the strangest thing happened. It was like the widescreen mode was fitted to a 4:3 display. So when I went to play the 2.35:1 (which it was) it was squished vertically. I had to use the zoom setting on the projector (16:9 native) to display the proper 2.35:1.
Wasn't impressed with the PQ at all...I just calibrated the display a bit, and I think I need to redeem the projector tonite with a vivid movie. Perhaps one of the new starwars movies will do...Sound wise, not really much to brag about...but I really like that movie, probably one of the best endings to a movie like that I can recall in recent memory.
Sounds like a letterbox transfer instead of anamorphic widescreen.
I watched Dream Girls in BR last night, stunning PQ, great sound, I was a little disappointed that it didn't have HD audio, it would have really made the movie that much better.
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One movie that sucked is Waterworld. Even the Lossless track was horrible.
Um...
You kinda did go crazy with those movie purchases, didn't you?
OH it gets worse... 
What, The Postman? The Rich Man's Wife? Catwoman?
......I'll never tell and will live with my embarasment in a selfish state of humility.
You all know too much already.
Good thing those aren't out on HD/BR yet though.
Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants?
That just came via Netflix. I try to mix in wife-friendly movies occasionally. Maybe I can make that her Mother's Day gift and stop looking for something else... ?
Mm... and all that big screen 19" goodness in your house.
19" at 4' is equivalent to 48" at 10', so nyaaaaaahh!
