[[email protected]]

Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

Tom "whadya say" Paul

[Scott Dorsey]

Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

What are you watching it on? Are you listening to the 5.1 mix or to
an automatically-downmixed mono mix?
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Don Pearce]

On 17 Apr 2007 15:54:23 -0400, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

What are you watching it on? Are you listening to the 5.1 mix or to
an automatically-downmixed mono mix?
--scott

I'm guessing a 5.1 system with the centre speaker not working.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[Julien BH]

On Apr 17, 3:55 pm, (Don Pearce) wrote:
On 17 Apr 2007 15:54:23 -0400, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

What are you watching it on? Are you listening to the 5.1 mix or to
an automatically-downmixed mono mix?
--scott

I'm guessing a 5.1 system with the centre speaker not working.

d

--
Pearce Consultinghttp://www.pearce.uk.com

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com

Yeah Don, I'd go with that first. Voice is almost center-only.

[videochas www.locoworks.com]

On Apr 17, 1:10 pm, Julien BH wrote:
On Apr 17, 3:55 pm, (Don Pearce) wrote:



On 17 Apr 2007 15:54:23 -0400, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

What are you watching it on? Are you listening to the 5.1 mix or to
an automatically-downmixed mono mix?
--scott

I'm guessing a 5.1 system with the centre speaker not working.

d

--
Pearce Consultinghttp://www.pearce.uk.com

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com

Yeah Don, I'd go with that first. Voice is almost center-only.


My wife and I were discussing that last night. Some shows have too
great of a dynamic range in the dialouge. CSI Miami, for instance,
has segments that are inaudible unless the gain is cranked up so loud
that subsequent passages are at painful levels. OTOH, House has
universally intelligible dialouge. I blame the folks in post-
production.

[Tobiah]

wrote:
Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out??

This is because of the huge dynamic range that you find
in the theaters now. Take the lowest level audio and
adjust your sound system so that you can hear the speech.
Now, cringe as we do in the theaters when the loud parts
come. This may not be pleasant but it is what was
intended. The opening sounds on the root menu page
tend to be very loud as well, causing most people to
set the volume so that that loud part is at a comfortable
level, which renders the speech in the quiet parts
unintelligible. The real solution is to crank the
volume.

I have the sound system at home to handle the loud
parts, but I also have room mates that don't
appreciate the noise. I have to watch with my
finger on the volume button, and adjust the sound
tens of times during the movie. I guess I should
look into a cheap compressor to put between the
DVD player and the amplifier.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[Harry Lavo]

"Tobiah" wrote in message
.. .
wrote:
snip

The real solution is to crank the volume.

I have the sound system at home to handle the loud
parts, but I also have room mates that don't
appreciate the noise. I have to watch with my
finger on the volume button, and adjust the sound
tens of times during the movie. I guess I should
look into a cheap compressor to put between the
DVD player and the amplifier.

..
If you are watching DVD's or through an A/V receiver, the real solution is
to look for the means to select "Midnight Mode" or some such, which
basically provides the compression (as well as Fletcher-Munson
compensation).

[Jim Weld]

"Julien BH" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Apr 17, 3:55 pm, (Don Pearce) wrote:
On 17 Apr 2007 15:54:23 -0400, (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in
a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I
just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try
to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is
isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and
eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the
Russian video
tape was saying.

What are you watching it on? Are you listening to the 5.1
mix or to
an automatically-downmixed mono mix?
--scott

I'm guessing a 5.1 system with the centre speaker not
working.

d

--
Pearce Consultinghttp://www.pearce.uk.com

--
Posted via a free Usenet account fromhttp://www.teranews.com

Yeah Don, I'd go with that first. Voice is almost center-only.

I've heard the same thing. The 5.1 mix can be ok. The stereo
mix is hard to listen to without a compressor. Some players have
a built-in leveler, and that helps, especially when played
through a TV. Anyway, it's poorly translating to a stereo feed.
The voice would be a little louder if played in mono.

J Weld

[Tobiah]

If you are watching DVD's or through an A/V receiver, the real solution is
to look for the means to select "Midnight Mode" or some such, which
basically provides the compression (as well as Fletcher-Munson
compensation).


That would be cool, but I'm using that little 10 inch stereo
amplifier from Radio Shack, found at a thrift store about
20 years ago. It's driving a pair of huge Kenwood speakers
that I happened to have. It sounds great.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[Scott Dorsey]

Tobiah wrote:
This is because of the huge dynamic range that you find
in the theaters now. Take the lowest level audio and
adjust your sound system so that you can hear the speech.
Now, cringe as we do in the theaters when the loud parts
come. This may not be pleasant but it is what was
intended. The opening sounds on the root menu page
tend to be very loud as well, causing most people to
set the volume so that that loud part is at a comfortable
level, which renders the speech in the quiet parts
unintelligible. The real solution is to crank the
volume.

The real solution is to use "night mode" if you have a Dolby Digital
decoder. This will effectively compress the dynamics in a predictable
way.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Richard Crowley]

"Don Pearce" wrote ...
(Scott Dorsey) wrote:

Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

What are you watching it on? Are you listening to the 5.1 mix or to
an automatically-downmixed mono mix?
--scott

I'm guessing a 5.1 system with the centre speaker not working.

I've heard the same effect from stuff that was never even mixed
for 5.1 It sounded to me like they were making significant cost-
cutting compromises in where they proclaimed the original sound
to be "OK" vs. looping it.

Suggest asking the question in the film sound production newsgroup:
news:rec.arts.movies.production.sound Those are mostly production
guys (not post-production ADR or mixers, etc.) They might have some
interesting opinions on how their stuff is mixed and released. :-)

[[email protected]]

On Apr 17, 3:54 pm, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

What are you watching it on? Are you listening to the 5.1 mix or to
an automatically-downmixed mono mix?
--scott
--
no, just on a big screens built in speakers.

Tom

[William Sommerwerck]

Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in
a lot of blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?

I've noticed this for years -- and I'm not going deaf. The sound seems to be
about 6dB too low in most theaters. And it's not just the blockbusters.

[[email protected]]

"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

Just saw it last night and i have to agree. Had to turn the center
speaker up all the way and the others down.

Anything Larry King gives rave reviews to is worth avoiding in my
opinion. He never saw a movie he didn't like.
It could have been a decent 2 Hr movie but dragged on for 3 hrs.
rather convoluted along the way too.

Boring

[Scott Dorsey]

wrote:
On Apr 17, 3:54 pm, (Scott Dorsey) wrote:
Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

What are you watching it on? Are you listening to the 5.1 mix or to
an automatically-downmixed mono mix?

no, just on a big screens built in speakers.

What are they? Is there one speaker or two? What mode is it set in?
This is being driven by a DVD player with right and left cables plugged into
the TV?

If the original video is in 5.1 and you are listening to a stereo downmix,
this sort of thing can happen very easily.

Also if you have any "enhancement" crap like SRS enabled, shut it off,
because the stereo widening gadgets will cause this too.

If you can't hear the dialogue, but then you unplug one channel from the
DVD player and the dialogue comes back, then you KNOW it's some goofy
stuff inside the TV set and not the downmixing algorithm inside the DVD
player.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Deputy Dumbya Dawg[_2_]]

wrote in message
oups.com...
Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a
lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I
just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try
to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is
isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone
whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the
Russian video
tape was saying.

Tom "whadya say" Paul


My standard answer to this question is," If ya can't hear the
commercials or the coming attractions, then maybe yer a goin
deaf!" It is **** poor production probably because someone
took to long and a management type left out any quality
control steps to catch up. Thanks for the heads up. I will
avoid that movie.


peace
dawg

[Michael Wozniak]

"Deputy Dumbya Dawg" wrote in
message ink.net...

wrote in message
oups.com...
Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

Tom "whadya say" Paul


My standard answer to this question is," If ya can't hear the commercials
or the coming attractions, then maybe yer a goin deaf!" It is **** poor
production probably because someone took to long and a management type
left out any quality control steps to catch up. Thanks for the heads up. I
will avoid that movie.


peace
dawg

I think this is all a universal law of Physics. In order to conserve
dynamics, when CDs become overcompressed, movies must become too dynamic in
order to compensate and maintain universal balance.....

Mikey Wozniak
Nova Music Productions
this sig is haiku

[Brian]

On Wed, 18 Apr 2007 18:37:10 GMT, "Michael Wozniak"
wrote:


"Deputy Dumbya Dawg" wrote in
message ink.net...

wrote in message
oups.com...
Has anyone else noticed that the levels of conversation in a lot of
blockbuster type movies is so quiet you can't it out?? I just rented
"the good shepard" and I was constantly rewinding it to try to hear
what was being said. Is the conversation so lame that is isn't worth
hearing? It didn't help that it was a spy movie and eveyone whispered
constantly. I never did make out what the girl in the Russian video
tape was saying.

Tom "whadya say" Paul

I watched this movie last week and had the same problem. I had to
crank the TV volume up to a ridiculous level to make out any of the
dialog.

[Ron Capik]

Brian wrote:

...snip...

I watched this movie last week and had the same problem. I had to
crank the TV volume up to a ridiculous level to make out any of the
dialog.

Interesting! I thought it was just me. Lately I've found myself
turning closed captions on to find missed dialog.
Seems like a quality control problem that's getting exponentially
worse.


Later...

Ron Capik
--

[Ian Bell]

Ron Capik wrote:

Brian wrote:

...snip...

I watched this movie last week and had the same problem. I had to
crank the TV volume up to a ridiculous level to make out any of the
dialog.

Interesting! I thought it was just me. Lately I've found myself
turning closed captions on to find missed dialog.
Seems like a quality control problem that's getting exponentially
worse.


Seems to me and the missus to be an ever more common occurrence, not only on
films but on new TV dramas too. The level of background music and sound
effects is high enough to constantly drown the dialog. We have turned the
rear surround speakers right down in an attempt to improve matters but it
does not help much.

ian

[DC]

Even before DVD's, I remember this happening in one of my favorite
movies - "One Trick Pony". If you set the level for the dialogue, some
of the music scenes would blast you out of your chair.

[Robert Orban]

In article ,
says...


Brian wrote:

...snip...

I watched this movie last week and had the same problem. I had to
crank the TV volume up to a ridiculous level to make out any of the
dialog.

Interesting! I thought it was just me. Lately I've found myself
turning closed captions on to find missed dialog.
Seems like a quality control problem that's getting exponentially
worse.

I have had identical experiences and so have a number of my friends and
associates. I don't think I'm going deaf because I find almost all older
material to be perfectly intelligible (for example, almost anything
produced before about 1985). I believe that something has gone
seriously wrong with the dialog intelligibility in a significant number
of sound-for-picture mixes recently.

One guess at the cause is over-use of single-ended dynamic noise filters
on production dialog. They can suck out consonants without creating the
overt noise breathing effects of older technologies. Another cause may
be mixing in rooms that are more acoustically ideal than the average
home listening environment.

[Giftsupply]

I've been using a Roland VS-890 I bought used on ebay for $300. It has a
Roland copy of a TC Electronic Finalizer called the Mastering Tool Kit, a
multiband compressor. It works great for watching DVD movies with it in the
audio path before the power amp. Not to mention it's a complete virtual
studio multitracker with tons of other effects and uses. A real bargain on
the used market, although it only sync's to sample rates under 50KHz (44.1
and 48KHz), and had a little backlit creditcard display with many nested
menus.

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...890&category0=

Of course, if you want a simple analog only option with "good old-fashioned
knobs", the FMR Audio RNC should do nicely, but I really wonder how a RNLA
would sound...

http://search.ebay.com/search/search...=fmr+audio+rnc

Cheers,

Rick

That would be cool, but I'm using that little 10 inch stereo
amplifier from Radio Shack, found at a thrift store about
20 years ago. It's driving a pair of huge Kenwood speakers
that I happened to have. It sounds great.

--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

[Scott Dorsey]

Giftsupply wrote:
I've been using a Roland VS-890 I bought used on ebay for $300. It has a
Roland copy of a TC Electronic Finalizer called the Mastering Tool Kit, a
multiband compressor.

How is the equalizer on it? Does it have a real parametric? I have been
using the DBX DDP for quick and dirty stuff in the field, but the problem
is that the filters, although they have adjustable Q, can only be put on
third-octave centers. This means if you want a 60 Hz notch filter, you
get a 63 Hz one and have to broaden it until it is severely audible.

If the filters on the Roland are more usable, it would be a big help
for remote broadcast stuff.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."