Bram Stoker's Dracula - Dialog

[GreenMotion]

I am watching Bram Stoker's Dracula and I find the dialog via the center channel a bit weak. I can turn up the volume to accaptable levels, but then the surround channels tend to be too loud at times. Has anyone else notices this?

[Manco]

Don't have this title yet so can't comment directly.

But in general, just increase the db on your center, not the volume. I'm always futzing with this on many films because center/dialog often seems to low for my tastes.

But I'm an old guy losing his hearing....so take it for what it's worth.

[DrinkMore]

Your not the only one. The latest BD movies I have received - the volume is either too loud, or not loud enough.

The issue is when people are talking, I have the volume cranked up so I can hear it. However, when the action starts - I get blown away - literally - so I have to turn it down. When I turn it down, I then can not hear the voices again.

So I am constantly adjusting it up and down. Please take note, this is not on a home theatre system. It's just a speaker on the monitor. Either way, it is annoying.

[gvortex7]

As Manco stated earlier, it is the individual channel's DB level that needs to be adjusted accordingly and not the master volume. In this case, increase the center level or decrease the level for the FL or FR.

[Rustmonsteru]

I haven't seen Dracula yet but I rented 28 Weeks Later last night and I had issue with the dialogue levels on portions of that and I seem to recall the same with Reservoir Dogs. I've never had that problem with a Sony title yet or with a PCM track though. Hmmmm, mysteries abound.

They need to come up with multi-settings for recievers so you could flip to your second setting with the center db turned up and then change it back for films with better balance.

[DrinkMore]

They need to make it (unless they have it and I am unaware of the feature) so that the sounds stays constant through out the movie.

[GreenMotion]

Originally Posted by DrinkMore

They need to make it (unless they have it and I am unaware of the feature) so that the sounds stays constant through out the movie.

Isnt that what the "late night listening mode" is for?

[DrinkMore]

Originally Posted by GreenMotion

Isnt that what the "late night listening mode" is for?

I dunno, I am not an audiophile. I know how it works, set it up, configure and all that. But as far as "features" and "advanced features" - clueless.

Now, ask me about a PC and IT infastructure and your golden

[Nicadian]

I thought the dialogue volume was low. I really turned up the centre channel level and i still found it low. The next day i watched underworld and jeez what a diff

[frank_t]

Originally Posted by Manco

Don't have this title yet so can't comment directly.

But in general, just increase the db on your center, not the volume. I'm always futzing with this on many films because center/dialog often seems to low for my tastes.

But I'm an old guy losing his hearing....so take it for what it's worth.

me too (futzing w/center DB, I'm not that old yet, though I'm listening to Renaissance on my PS3 right now. most would not know who they were) anyway, was watching underworld last night and the center was too low compared to the rest.

[davidPS3]

Originally Posted by gvortex7

As Manco stated earlier, it is the individual channel's DB level that needs to be adjusted accordingly and not the master volume. In this case, increase the center level or decrease the level for the FL or FR.

I have had to do the same thing on my system. It works, but a pain to have to do.

[akadkins]

Whatever anybody says, this has been a historic problem with DVD and Blu-Ray (most likely HD-DVD as well). You notice on television shows sometimes too via cable - as everything shifts to 5.1, the movies folks seem to forget that we might want to hear what people are saying rather than be dazzled with blasts and music...

This year has been the worst for me since I can't set up my surrond sound...I'm in military housing and the walls are very thin...I sometimes think I need to turn on the close-captioning to figure out what's going on.

[Ascended_Saiyan]

Originally Posted by Nicadian

I thought the dialogue volume was low. I really turned up the centre channel level and i still found it low. The next day i watched underworld and jeez what a diff

All this is just the way the sound design is for the movie. In other words, that's the way the sound was created for the movie. It has nothing to do with the transfer.

[WriteSimply]

Originally Posted by GreenMotion

Isnt that what the "late night listening mode" is for?

Indeed. Dolby calls it Dialogue Normalization.

Since this is a SPHE title, DN on TrueHD is turned off. And you can't do DN using PCM or DTS HDMA. DN affects the dynamic range considerably and is not considered audiophile friendly.

If you can't listen to it loud (or louder), I suggest turning on the subtitles.


fuad

[Deciazulado]

Originally Posted by DrinkMore

They need to make it (unless they have it and I am unaware of the feature) so that the sounds stays constant through out the movie.

no. That's compressing the dynamics/remixing. You do that on your own stereo, not on the disc for everybody's system.

[frank_t]

i have an old sony cd player which let me store a 200+ catalog of CD titles with custom settings for various sound processing options. was really cool as I could just pop in the disc and voila!

if not in the receiver, then an option for us PS3 owners to tweak the sound to our liking on a per-title basis. would be really sweet.

anyway -- not too bad right now with how I've mapped my remote to receiver settings to tweak the center as needed. the kids tend to mess with things enough anyway that I like to re-calibrate at least once a month.

[gvortex7]

Originally Posted by davidPS3

I have had to do the same thing on my system. It works, but a pain to have to do.

Yeah, I know. And unfortunately, Dracula isn't the only movie where it seems the dialog just gets lost in the music and the sound effects.

[ClaytonMG]

I personally would rather have the movie sound more realistic than to have them edit the audio and make scenes weaker for people who don't want to mess with the volume control. If your system is set up right (using a sound meter and everything) it shouldn't matter. I know I haven't had a hard time hearing dialog since I switched to uncompressed audio. But there's reasons they make scenes louder than others. Why in the crap should a gun shot or an explosion be as loud as a whisper? That just wouldn't make any sense.

[eclipset3t4]

Yeah, midnight mode on the pioneer is almost like having the loud mode on, enhances sound but sudden loud noises are sooo loud. It's great for late night viewing.

[Sir Terrence]

Originally Posted by gvortex7

Yeah, I know. And unfortunately, Dracula isn't the only movie where it seems the dialog just gets lost in the music and the sound effects.

Whenever I read problems like this, a few things come to mind.

First, on the dubbing stage, these kinds of problems do not crop up at all. The dialog mixer, music mixer, and the effects mixer all work very hard to keep things balanced, and to keep things from being buried.

When I hear of this at home, background noise, horizontally mounted center speaker, center speakers that cannot dynamically keep up with the L/R pair, or room resonances all come to mind.

Almost everyone that has complained about this has issues with background noise covering up the dialog. When you boost the center channel to compensate, everything else goes out of balance. When you try to boost the master volume control, then the effects kick in and knock you out of your seat. The best thing to do is to try and reduce the background noise level, and this will reduce the problem considerably.

Almost everyone who has complained of this problem has their center speaker horizontally mounted in between vertically mounted L/R mains. It is usually sitting on top of the television which is seen by the speaker as a baffle, or surface, that it will interact with. Place a speaker near a wall, and the lower and mid bass is boosted. Place a speaker on top of the television, the same effect appears.

A different effect happens when you dissimularly place three speaker in the front stage. Because the center is mounted horizontally, it will have a different dispersion pattern than the left right mains. Instead of having a wide horizontal dispersion pattern like the L/R mains, it will have a wide vertical narrow horizontal pattern that is opposite of both speakers to the left and right of it. This changes the frequency response heard at the ears, and when combined with the center speaker on the television, will change the frequency response of the speaker itself. Dialog problem galore will happen.

The last reason this happens is purely acoustical. If the center speaker is placed in a room null(suckout), or your ears are placed in one as well, dialog will become hard to hear even if you took care of the other things I mentioned. Center speaker placed on televisions make them closer to the ceiling. This becomes a reflective surface that the speaker sees, just like the television below it. Cancellation and boosts in the mid to lower bass will occur effecting what you here at your seat.

You will reduce or eliminate this dialog problem if you orient all of your front speakers simularly(all vertical is best), use a speaker stand instead of your television, and keep your speaker as far from reflective surfaces as you can.