Question about using dynamic range reduction.

[acritzer]

Does anyone use this?
Does it keep the dialogue understandable but limit the BIG booms?
Do you still get the really clear benefit from lossless?

Thanks, just trying to weight my options for tweaking my set up. Still having trouble adjusting from disc to disc on dialogue vs. big action scenes.
If it was just me, it wouldn't be an issue, but we have little ones in the house, so I can't rattle the windows.

[Blu-Dog]

Originally Posted by acritzer

Does anyone use this?
Does it keep the dialogue understandable but limit the BIG booms?
Do you still get the really clear benefit from lossless?

Thanks, just trying to weight my options for tweaking my set up. Still having trouble adjusting from disc to disc on dialogue vs. big action scenes.
If it was just me, it wouldn't be an issue, but we have little ones in the house, so I can't rattle the windows.

Depends on which unit is doing the "reduction". Some receivers clip frequencies, some clip volume at certain frequencies, some just flat-line all volume so there are no peak volumes at all above a certain level.

Which receiver are you using?

[acritzer]

Originally Posted by Blu-Dog

Depends on which unit is doing the "reduction". Some receivers clip frequencies, some clip volume at certain frequencies, some just flat-line all volume so there are no peak volumes at all above a certain level.

Which receiver are you using?

I have an older Onkyo receiver, 520 I think? But the reduction would be done by my blu-ray player, Panasonic 55, since I use multi-channel analog I can't do anything with the receiver except adjust speaker levels.

[acritzer]

Bump...anyone have experience using a players dynamic range control?

[Driver_King]

Turn it off.

[bruss01]

Originally Posted by Driver_King

Turn it off.

And how does that help you understand the dialogue better? I can't enjoy a movie if I don't know what's going on, and I can't know what's going on (the obvious aside) without getting the dialogue. Explosions, dramatic music, screeching tires, machine-gun fire, breaking glass - they all muddy up the dialogue until you can't understand it without subtitles.

Was this a serious reply? Or an attempt at humor? Maybe something I'm just not getting... For me, going without 20% extra BOOM is worth it if I can actually understand what the characters are saying.

[Driver_King]

No it was serious. You wouldn't have that problem if you turned up the center channel or simply didn't use one. Dynamic range is what makes movies interesting in my opinion. That is one of the reasons why lossless audio is better than lossless audio.

[acritzer]

Originally Posted by bruss01

And how does that help you understand the dialogue better? I can't enjoy a movie if I don't know what's going on, and I can't know what's going on (the obvious aside) without getting the dialogue. Explosions, dramatic music, screeching tires, machine-gun fire, breaking glass - they all muddy up the dialogue until you can't understand it without subtitles.

Was this a serious reply? Or an attempt at humor? Maybe something I'm just not getting... For me, going without 20% extra BOOM is worth it if I can actually understand what the characters are saying.

So, you don't think it makes the movie flat, boring, or otherwise inferior sounding?
I still haven't tried it yet, but we finished Casino Royale last night and putting the volume at a reasonable level to understand dialogue, then ending scene when the building sinks was insanely loud. This is with the center speaker already bumped some and with dialogue boost on.

[acritzer]

Originally Posted by Driver_King

No it was serious. You wouldn't have that problem if you turned up the center channel or simply didn't use one. Dynamic range is what makes movies interesting in my opinion. That is one of the reasons why lossless audio is better than lossless audio.

I feel like I've already turned up the center speaker quite a bit, but still have a problem on occasion. If my L/R is 0, my center is around +6. And I've turned on the player's dialogue enhancement.
Seemed like quite a lot of the action sound was coming out of the center speaker as well, which doesn't really help the entire issue.
Any suggestions?

[Strannix136]

I use it on my Sony STR-DB840 receiver. It compresses the loud sounds. I'm not sure of the exact specs. Since I live in an apartment, it comes in handy for late night movies where the machinegun fire and explosions are louder than the dialogue, like Rambo, and We Were Soldiers. It works very well.

[Driver_King]

What center channel do you have?

[acritzer]

Originally Posted by Driver_King

What center channel do you have?

My whole system is an Onkyo 520 http://reviews.cnet.com/surround-spe...?tag=mncol;lst Older, yes. Home theater in a box, yes. But...it did get pretty good reviews at the time. One thought I already had was upgrading my speaker wire. Not sure how much help this will be though...like I said in a previous post most of the action sequences seemed to come out of the center along with the dialogue. Specifically on Casino Royale. So...bump the center and some of the non-dialogue stuff goes with it.

Other possible small problem, the speaker is above ear level. No way around that though, my TV is an older rear projector with a huge bottom on it.