Superman: The Movie 4K UHD (1978)

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by bailey1987

I could say the same for all these FPS's

FPS games require you to aim and (in the old school ones I played) find your way, figuring out mild puzzles and whatnot. Games like Streets of Rage are literally mindless button mashers where you hold right and press the bunch button. I don't get the comparison at all.

That said this isn't really a hill I want to fight for since all I've played the last 15 years has been RPGs and the occasional stealth game.

[PeterTHX]

FYI: LaLaLand Records has just announced a 3-CD set of the soundtrack coming early next year.

[bailey1987]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

FPS games require you to aim and (in the old school ones I played) find your way, figuring out mild puzzles and whatnot. Games like Streets of Rage are literally mindless button mashers where you hold right and press the bunch button. I don't get the comparison at all.

That said this isn't really a hill I want to fight for since all I've played the last 15 years has been RPGs and the occasional stealth game.

Yeah, actually I agree I don't want to fight it either. I love a good stealth game.

[ToEhrIsHuman]

Originally Posted by Torgon

Since we are on video games and in a Superman thread: What was the best Superman video game? (any console)

I always liked the Atari 2600 Superman.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

FYI: LaLaLand Records has just announced a 3-CD set of the soundtrack coming early next year.

Noice. I had that mega blue boxset thingie but I sold it because I didn't listen to anything else other than the STM score, still got the 2-disc Rhino CD so this will be a most welcome upgrade.

[eddievanhalen]

Originally Posted by PeterTHX

FYI: LaLaLand Records has just announced a 3-CD set of the soundtrack coming early next year.

Another La La Land CD set for my collection. The last one,but not a CD, was the E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial 35th Anniversary soundtrack on a 2-LP set (I also own the 2 CD set) which sounds fine but RTI presses dreadful records with plenty of surface noise, pops and the vinyl composition don't know what kind of additive it has but it's like a power station at creating static electricity which turns their records into dust magnets. The same happens with the 2-LP set of Star Trek TMP, also pressed at RTI. On this case the 3 CD set sounds outstanding, the E.T. 2 CD set, not so much, I think Bruce Botnick who did the digital remixing (also mixed the original 1982 album) used digital noise reduction, these CD's sound clean but also lack treble and low level detail, unlike the 20th Anniversary CD/SACD which has a fair amount of tape hiss but sounds great.
Another great La La Land releases or at least favourite of mine are the 2 CD set for Independence Day and the 2 CD set for Star Trek V.

[Jay Mammoth]

Originally Posted by Torgon

Since we are on video games and in a Superman thread: What was the best Superman video game? (any console)

The Superman arcade game
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-dpDGhbapW4
Hoping Rocksteady take a stab at a Superman game, their Batman games are the best comic based games I’ve ever played.

[VonMagnum]

So is the Atmos soundtrack as bad as the reviews say it is? In other words, it appears as if the 2000 5.1 soundtrack has far more immersion than the new Atmos soundtrack. It sounds as if I'd be better off taking the 5.1 soundtrack from the 2000 version and remuxing it with the 4K video and then using Neural:X to upgrade the soundtrack to full immersion....

Frankly, I don't get the point of doing half-arse revisionism. IF you're not going to just use the original mixes from when it first aired and you're going to include a 5.1 or Atmos mix regardless of respect to history, WTF wouldn't you do the best possible immersion job you could do with the tools available?

Labyrinth in 4K is like this. It's hardly different from the original soundtrack and yet it IS different and does add things in key places. But compare that to the original Jumanji movie in its 4K retrofit and its Atmos soundtrack is absolutely AMAZING sounding! It gets my vote for the best Atmos soundtrack I've heard thus far and that's saying something! Labyrinth is like meh.... Reverb/echo space added most of the movie with a few key moments here and there. I don't even see the point.

[nick4Knight]

Originally Posted by VonMagnum

Frankly, I don't get the point of doing half-arse revisionism. IF you're not going to just use the original mixes from when it first aired and you're going to include a 5.1 or Atmos mix regardless of respect to history, WTF wouldn't you do the best possible immersion job you could do with the tools available?

Maybe on that title the SOURCE availability wasn't as encompassing as your other example, Jumanji? Maybe they decided a title like that was worth more human resources in terms of artists necessary to invest time into creating a home run remix? Market forces, etc.

... Don't worry. As I always postulate, one day AI computers will be remixing audio and remastering and restoring films autonomously to utter perfection current standards could never dream of producing, including delivering original audio in every permutation -- In your lifetime your expectations will be realized.

[KC-Technerd]

Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I'm still a believer in having sounds primarily coming from the same directions as the images, which is why I haven't become a huge fan of so-called "immersive audio" for motion pictures. Constantly having sound coming from speakers placed at the rear of the house and along the ceiling, drawing attention away from the screen, is both distracting from the visual action and tends to dilute the effect of occasional off-screen audio effects. I think "Superman" illustrates this extremely well. The "Thau" audio mix from 2000 is an early example of an extremely immersive sound design (although lacking the ceiling speakers/channels of an Atmos mix). It usually sounds like we are sitting in the middle of the orchestra rather than listening to it from the audience. Most sound effects are somewhat mixed into the surround channels. However I don't find this having anywhere near the impact that the original 6-track audio mix does in scenes like the echoing "Guilty!" of the council inside the dome, or the tail of the helicopter passing overhead as it loses control. I find they have more impact because they are considerably more contrasting to the rest of the audio in the original 6-track than they are in the 2000 "Thau" mix. Getting a cup of water thrown on you from behind isn't so attention getting when you've already been immersed in a tank of water for an hour or two first.

I do think that "object based audio" is a great tool for the audio designers, but I'm not sold on having 60 or more speakers to either precisely locate sounds well away from the image, or to constantly immerse the audience in surround sound.

[VonMagnum]

Sounds should come from wherever they are relative to the camera and that INCLUDES on-screen. In other words, if a helicopter flies over the top of the screen behind the camera, it should be coming from the mid-to-back ceiling area as it flies over off-screen. It shouldn't come from the front at that point. If there's crickets all around the camera, they should come from everywhere (rain, etc. too). When something is on-screen, it should come from the screen area (from the lower edge to the top edge and that can include the front heights or even center height if included). If something moves off-screen, it should pass through the front wides to the side surrounds and then to the back if needed.

In other words, I just want the sounds to represent what the camera guy would hear if he were really standing there in the movie and filming it. Anything less is NOT immersive, IMO. It's not anymore distracting than real life is with two eyes on the front of your face with your ability to hear sounds outside your visual range..... If you feel the need to look at every sound that comes from to your sides or behind you or over your head when standing in any location, you must look around one hell of a lot all the time.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by VonMagnum

In other words, I just want the sounds to represent what the camera guy would hear if he were really standing there in the movie and filming it. Anything less is NOT immersive, IMO. It's not anymore distracting than real life is with two eyes on the front of your face with your ability to hear sounds outside your visual range..... If you feel the need to look at every sound that comes from to your sides or behind you or over your head when standing in any location, you must look around one hell of a lot all the time.

I find all surround sound extremely distracting, and know many others in real life who agree. Won't find too much support for that on a home theater forum like this one though, granted.

[VonMagnum]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I find all surround sound extremely distracting, and know many others in real life who agree. Won't find too much support for that on a home theater forum like this one though, granted.

Maybe a 2.1.2 setup would work well for you?

I've just added matrixed rear wides for 11.1.6. I like that distraction.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by vonmagnum

maybe a 2.1.2 setup would work well for you?

2.1.... 2?

[MechaGodzilla]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

2.1.... 2?

Left and right primary speakers, a subwoofer and two Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers.

There are several receivers that support this kind of configuration now. You can also do 3.1.2, which is obviously the same except it adds a center channel.

[KC-Technerd]

Originally Posted by VonMagnum

In other words, I just want the sounds to represent what the camera guy would hear if he were really standing there in the movie and filming it.

I don't think we're so much in disagreement. I do like some level of surround sound, but I do think it can be overused to the point where it no longer offers a contrast, which I think it borders on doing in the Thau mix. I also think having 60-some channels to reproduce sounds off the screen is beyond overkill. I don't need the sound behind me of the helicopter from the mid-to-back ceiling area as it flies over off-screen to be that precisely located. I can't look back there to see it anyway, so I'm perfectly ok with the more diffuse results of pre-Atmos. I'd rather the attention be on the precise localization of sounds on the screen, though that window I'm looking through. If you give me 360 degrees of picture, then I'll be interested in precise 360 degrees of sound localization to match. I just don't care about super precise localization of sound outside of the image area.

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

Left and right primary speakers, a subwoofer and two Dolby Atmos-enabled speakers.

There are several receivers that support this kind of configuration now. You can also do 3.1.2, which is obviously the same except it adds a center channel.

Interesting. I guess you'd get some minor "high up" sounds in the 2 bonus speakers? I might look into that. My old 2.1 system actually failed a year or so ago and I've been using studio headphones lately. I have been kind of wanting a sound system back though, mostly for music.

[VonMagnum]

I wouldn't call them minor, although it depends on the movie. Since they're normally related to on-screen in the front, they wouldn't be distracting from the picture. Most people put only two heights in the middle, but in your case I'd say the front height is more appropriate.

[HeavyHitter]

I have three surrounds and enjoy them. I don't find them too much or too little, but just depends on the movie as my set-up was Audyssey Pro calibrated (massive improvement over the standard Audyssey that most run). In my case, I have no choice due to the room but to have them mounted high on the wall angled downward a bit, but I do like that effect a lot.

[VonMagnum]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I have three surrounds and enjoy them. I don't find them too much or too little, but just depends on the movie as my set-up was Audyssey Pro calibrated (massive improvement over the standard Audyssey that most run).

Yeah, I don't even run Audyssey (and I even bought the app!).

My speakers are all +/- 1dB rated (all 17 of them) and the room has been treated. Everything else is just screwing with audible perfection.