Quote:
Originally Posted by Geoff D
But you do realise that these 2.0 mixes on the Supes UHDs are 2.0 LtRt original audio tracks which have not been "professionally supervised" to play back on a soundbar, right? And that Warners haven't yet put "soundbar friendly" 2.0 backups on any disc of theirs that didn't have an OG mono or stereo mix?
Speaking of, how many other major studio movies out there on UHD with Atmos have a 2.0 track as a backup that *isn't* a specific OG 2.0 mix included for those darned purists? I can think of two: Lionsgate's Apocalypse Now and Disnee's edition of WALL-E. That's not a lot my dude. Heck, Lionsgate used to include 2.0 "late night" mixes on their Blu-rays but they stopped bovvering with UHD, AN aside.
The funniest thing about this line of reasoning is that most 2.0/2.1 soundbars that the average Joe/Jane is using are so bad sonically that it doesn't matter what's being pumped into them. I tried out a Sony soundbar a while back that retailed for like £300 and it was appalling, regardless of sound format or channel count of the incoming signal.
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The 2.0 mixes don't have to be designed for a soundbar, the point is that a pro 2.0 mix was designed for 2 channels and does not have the downsides of a 5.1 > 2.0 dynamic downmix which was not designed for 2 channels. A pro 2.0 downmix will have the appropriate amount of bass and the appropriate dialogue level for each and every scene, while that may not be the case for a dynamic downmix with the LFE discarded and center channel reduced by 3db (pretty much guaranteed it will be bass-neutered at the minimum).
It may seem counterintuitive to prioritize 2.0 quality, but the majority of WB's customers are using soundbars or HTIB, not a high end 5.1 separates setup; that is simply the makeup of the market these days. Since both the level of bass and dialogue are affected by 5.1 dynamic downmixes and those are pretty important things, the ideal is to create a professional supervised 2.0 mix for 2.1 or lower channel configs. If you drill down on data for those soundbar setups, I would bet most of them just have the bar+sub (2.1) and not the surround speakers - people just dont want the clutter the extra speakers bring.
Regarding this release, the idea being, to satisfy "purists" if you are going to throw on a track for "original theatrical audio," which being Warner you actually couldn't care less about since Atmos is the moneymaker and considered the primary track, why not make that original theatrical audio track *also* a 2.0 track (which is technically original audio) which will have the added effect of improving the experience for stereo systems/soundbars? It does actually make quite a bit of sense.