Black Panther 4K UHD (2018)

[imsounoriginal]

I somehow doubt Iger knows much (if anything) about what's going on with home audio tracks. Tweet at Buena Vista Home Video or whoever actually handles the UHD. It's probably already too late for Infinity War but hopefully they can get Solo right.

[vincentric]

Originally Posted by BluRayHiDef

It's sad that this thread has become focused on solely the audio quality of this release. This demonstrates just how badly Disney has borked the audio tracks of its releases. Very sad. Maybe we should all tweet about this to Bob Iger en masse.

I enjoyed the movie itself a lot, it's probably my third favorite MCU movie behind Iron Man 1 and Guardians 1.

[CYMBOL]

So, checked this out...

Movie was fun in the theaters. The is, as others have said, a bit formulaic, but it follows its' themes well and offers a satisfying conclusion. Michael B. Jordan's performance does become a bit one note on multiple viewings, but overall, this was a great introduction to a character not many people were aware of.

The 4k/HDR, it was a bit duller than I expected. The purple energy force didnt stand out to me like it did in trailers or when watching at the movies. The disc isn't bad at all, but I did expect a bit more pop in some areas.

As many have noted, Disney continues with subdued tracks.

I honestly didn't notice until the other day. I was home alone and got to crank my system. I put on the bluray of Tron Legacy. Wow! What a powerful track. I put on Interstellar... movie after movie, just sounded great. Put in recent Disney Marvel titles, and they just lack that room filling audio. I have s hard time remembering a sonic guy punch moment in many Marvel movies (there are a few exceptions like Ant Man, which is blurry only at the moment, but looks and sounds fantastic.)

This doesn't quite live up to the demo disc I was expecting it to be, but still looks and sounds very good, just not stellar.

Looking forward to see how Infinity War turns out with its varied locations and set designs,, and some moments of tremendous bass. Hoping Disney tries a little harder on this one to make it shine.

[VonMagnum]

Some titles do more with LFE than others. My weird 4.0/.1 Carver/Klipsch add-on surround system has a rear subwoofer (only 8") but uses the Carver 10" woofers that play to 27Hz in the front. If I set the Technics unit to LFE=no, all three get the LFE channel (rear set to large). If set to yes, none get it. For most movies there's not a huge difference as the bass is present in all channels anyway.

But some movies like TRON: Legacy are very different. The LFE bass redirected with that sub sitting right behind my chair literally caused me to jump when I first played it ok that system! I saw it at the theater in XD and even though my downstairs system shakes the house, it's not the same as having a sub right behind your chair. But even without the LFE channel enabled it still has more bass "punch" than many of the movies hated here. Bass isn't everything, IMO, but it is addictive.

[johnnyknoxsvill]

This was posted in one of the Facebook groups I'm in, I tested it with Thor Ragnarok and it sounds 100x better!!

"So I know alot of us have issues with the lack of dynamic range, low end extension, and use of heights (or lack thereof) in Disney Atmos tracks.

I got this idea from a guy in this group or the SVS one (couldn't find post to give credit) but he said to run the 4k disc in dolby digital 7.1 instead of the default Atmos 7.1.4.

I tried it myself with TLJ & Ragnorok, and "Lo and behold" theres much better low end extension and overall bass output. Surrounds and heights come to life immediately and the audio just has better dynamics and more overall "punch." Has anyone else tried this?"

[FilmFreakosaurus]

Originally Posted by johnnyknoxsvill

This was posted in one of the Facebook groups I'm in, I tested it with Thor Ragnarok and it sounds 100x better!!

"So I know alot of us have issues with the lack of dynamic range, low end extension, and use of heights (or lack thereof) in Disney Atmos tracks.

I got this idea from a guy in this group or the SVS one (couldn't find post to give credit) but he said to run the 4k disc in dolby digital 7.1 instead of the default Atmos 7.1.4.

I tried it myself with TLJ & Ragnorok, and "Lo and behold" theres much better low end extension and overall bass output. Surrounds and heights come to life immediately and the audio just has better dynamics and more overall "punch." Has anyone else tried this?"

You shouldn't have to.

[x melio x]

Usually I see a lot of complaints about audio in these releases and I never really notice. This one though I watched last night and could def tell it sounded very weak. I’m very disappointed 😞

[BluRayHiDef]

Originally Posted by imsounoriginal

I somehow doubt Iger knows much (if anything) about what's going on with home audio tracks. Tweet at Buena Vista Home Video or whoever actually handles the UHD. It's probably already too late for Infinity War but hopefully they can get Solo right.

Very depressing likelihood.

[VonMagnum]

Originally Posted by johnnyknoxsvill

This was posted in one of the Facebook groups I'm in, I tested it with Thor Ragnarok and it sounds 100x better!!

"So I know alot of us have issues with the lack of dynamic range, low end extension, and use of heights (or lack thereof) in Disney Atmos tracks.

I got this idea from a guy in this group or the SVS one (couldn't find post to give credit) but he said to run the 4k disc in dolby digital 7.1 instead of the default Atmos 7.1.4.

I tried it myself with TLJ & Ragnorok, and "Lo and behold" theres much better low end extension and overall bass output. Surrounds and heights come to life immediately and the audio just has better dynamics and more overall "punch." Has anyone else tried this?"

Well, I'm running it in DTS 7.1 on the 3D discs (that's what it has) and yeah, it sound pretty darn good with the volume up (which I have been saying for pages). Maybe I'm not the deaf moron everyone seems to think I am, after all....

I also seem to recall telling people several pages ago to try converting it to Dolby Digital and notice the huge volume boost, etc. I didn't read where even one person tried it. They were too busy flinging their crap at me.

Originally Posted by FilmFreakosaurus

You shouldn't have to.

Yes, it's much better to keep having poor sound and sit in silent protest than just do what needs to be done to get it to sound better. Or you can return it.

[DJJez]

Originally Posted by VonMagnum

Some titles do more with LFE than others. My weird 4.0/.1 Carver/Klipsch add-on surround system has a rear subwoofer (only 8") but uses the Carver 10" woofers that play to 27Hz in the front. If I set the Technics unit to LFE=no, all three get the LFE channel (rear set to large). If set to yes, none get it. For most movies there's not a huge difference as the bass is present in all channels anyway.

But some movies like TRON: Legacy are very different. The LFE bass redirected with that sub sitting right behind my chair literally caused me to jump when I first played it ok that system! I saw it at the theater in XD and even though my downstairs system shakes the house, it's not the same as having a sub right behind your chair. But even without the LFE channel enabled it still has more bass "punch" than many of the movies hated here. Bass isn't everything, IMO, but it is addictive.

Tron legacy is my go to disc for audio and bass. Easily some of the best audio of any movie ever

[Hardback247]

Originally Posted by johnnyknoxsvill

I got this idea from a guy in this group or the SVS one (couldn't find post to give credit) but he said to run the 4k disc in dolby digital 7.1 instead of the default Atmos 7.1.4.

How do I do that?

[RockyIII]

So we set receiver to DD 7.1 and get rid of Atmos?

[VonMagnum]

Could this even possibly be a chipset decoding issue if it disappears by switching out of Atmos? That would explain a lot including disparities between systems and comments. My receiver and outboard decoder are older and don't have Atmos decoding so if that is where the issue lies, I would never hear it as it switches here automatically to standard 6.1 or 5.1 Dolby decoding instead. Plus the 3D versions all have 7.1 DTS instead of Atmos.

[r9800pro]

I can confirm that the DTS-HD MA 7.1 of Black Panther from Blu-ray is more dynamic than the Atmos track on the UHD but not by much.

I can also confirm that the Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 track and the core Dolby Digital 5.1 are near perfect.

Conclusion: The best way to fully enjoy audio on Disney releases now is to select the "lossy" old audio formats. Way to go Disney!

I think VonMagnum mentioned that The Matrix UHD also has audio mixed with low volume and it seems to be true.

Funnily enough though, I didn't even have to turn volume up from my usual 50% to fully enjoy it because it is so dynamic and powerful.

This proves once again that Disney audio mixes issues are way more than just low volume.

[jh901]

Originally Posted by r9800pro

I can confirm that the DTS-HD MA 7.1 of Black Panther from Blu-ray is more dynamic than the Atmos track on the UHD but not by much.

I can also confirm that the Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 track and the core Dolby Digital 5.1 are near perfect.

The 7.1 TrueHD and related Atmos are all that matters for the 4K. Disney has gone off the farm. It's a single team likely with a single excecutive who've deliberately muted the dynamics.

[VonMagnum]

I still think it's possible there's some kind of format related chipset function affecting things even on DTS. As I said way back, if you convert the DTS Master HD 7.1 Thor Ragnarok to Dolby Digital with Handbrake, the levels go way up. That shouldn't happen and never happened on older titles I made AppleTV compatible M4V files that have both KODI compatible MasterHD in them and a Dolby Digital track that can be used with AppleTV (which ignores the DTS track). That may mean the actual levels on the disc are higher but some flag or something is causing at least some decoders (maybe all) to lower it for some reason before output (like a flag driven night mode???). Other DTS tracks converted to nearly indistinguishable volume levels. But MasterHD converted to regular DTS core still has lower levels here, but not necessarily borked dynamic range.

The question is whether it's all Atmos decoders or not and whether it's the disc plants Disney is using or it contains the problem in the tracks they're sending them. It might possibly be something a firmware update could fix or at least improve in some cases, even if just Atmos. It depends on what the cause actually is. Getting someone with the right equipment to both acknowledge it and look into the exact cause would be a good first step. If the Dolby Plus tracks sound correct, it's far less likely to be at the mixing stage. Something is happening after that point and/or they have a bug in their encoder somewhere. I highly doubt it's on purpose at this point given the DD+ levels being reported as sounding great.

[Hardback247]

Personally, I barely notice ANY differences between the Atmos track and the Dolby Digital Plus track.

[VonMagnum]

Originally Posted by Hardback247

Personally, I barely notice ANY differences between the Atmos track and the Dolby Digital Plus track.

If results vary between processors, it's only more proof there's an inconsistency between chips or firmware out there in how it handles these formats and thus we may not be hearing the same results. It does seem strange some newer soundtracks seem more susceptible than others IF that is what's happening.

It is at least possible something changed on newer encoders that's somehow producing inconsistent results. But then this is just speculation. We'd have to compare hardware between those that notice little or no difference and those that do, see if certain chips are in common, etc. to even hope to get some idea why some are apparently getting very different results.

This is something that would be easier for equipment reviewers to do as they tend to get a lot of equipment to compare as a matter of course.

[r9800pro]

Originally Posted by Hardback247

Personally, I barely notice ANY differences between the Atmos track and the Dolby Digital Plus track.

Check the Core Dolby Digital 5.1 track.

[Geoff D]

Just settled in to watch this...and I had to turn it off after 10 minutes because the black levels are completely ****ed. Disney have done EXACTLY what they did with Guardians 2 on UHD, they've pulled down the black levels considerably and it crushes the shadows to shit. Right from the opening scene in the Oakland apartment it just looked wrong, with blacks that pervade the image and consume everything around them and make the bright spots stand out far too much on a backlit LCD display (all the power windows on people's faces are horribly obvious) and it leaves behind the exact same rusty tint that I saw on JPs 2 and 3. I can imagine this looking better on an OLED because this grade doesn't do a subtle gradation from light to dark, it just nukes anything that's even close to black and without the backlighting artefacts it will look tidier for sure. But as it is, on my ZD9, this is a crushing disappointment for me.

Popping in the Blu to compare it shows an SDR grade that already has beautifully deep darks but which doesn't crush anything like as badly what this HDR grade does, instantly the apartment scene look so much better balanced with a far more natural roll off into black, and the less said about the forest ambush in HDR the better. The problem is that the HDR is pulling down a black level that is ALREADY reaching absolute black throughout the movie and so it can only crush what's there even further. I was SO looking forward to this but...ugh.

When Infinity War comes out then I don't care what ratio the UHD is in or whether the sound has been Atmoused, if they pull this shit again with the black levels then I'm out.