Disappointed in Dark Knight Sound

[Jack Hammer]

I just watched The Dark Knight on BD and even though I thought the movie overall was really good, I was really disappointed in the sound. The opening credits were almost silent, just some background unintelligible whispers until the first IMAX scene. Even then the dialogue seemed muted at best until after those opening scenes.

Visually the movie was incredible, I was never bothered, even once, by the shift between aspect ratios. It was the inconsistencies in audio that really irritated me. In some scenes gunshots were realistic and lively and in other they were muted as if I was tapping them out on my floor. Dialogue was similar, in most scenes it was fine, in others I had to struggle to understand what was being said. I tried backing up and switching between the TrueHD and the regular soundtracks, they were basically the same.

I Really would have thought that with a movie of this caliber the soundmixers would have gone the "extra mile" to have made it right. What a disappointment. Most the problems were in the first half the movie, after that it seemed to level out, thankfully. Overall the sound really seemed to me like it was mixed for a crappy 2 channel tv speaker setup.

Jack

[walter duque]

I totaly agree with you. I thought I just had a bad disc or my player is going on the blink.

[CaliHwyPatrol]

Sounded great to me...

[croseiv]

I thought was on par with Iron Man, which was superb! There were several scenes in TDK that had great bass too. Possibly your set-up was misconfigured somehow? When the General Hospital blows up really shook the house too.
The IMAX effect was very well done and added to the movie.

But there's already a Dark Knight thread too....

[ParadigmDawg]

Wow, I watched it last night and the sound was awesome. I ran my sub +3 hot and it just got plain nasty in my house. Dialog seemed clear and surround got a lot of action.

[speakerman39]

It sounded superb on my set-up. In fact, the LFE was so strong that I literally thought my room was going to come apart. :D:D I had no choice but to turn my Pluses down. The picture also was fantastic to say the least. Really impressed with my 42" LG. :):)

Cheers,

Phil

[Matt34]

Yeah Jack, I have to say the sound was very well done in the DK.

[j_garcia]

I've watched a few key scenes and I have to say this thing has a lot of dynamics. High Def Digest gave it 5 stars for audio. This is among the best sounding BDs that I own.

[jostenmeat]

I just watched The Dark Knight on BD and even though I thought the movie overall was really good, I was really disappointed in the sound. The opening credits were almost silent, just some background unintelligible whispers until the first IMAX scene. Even then the dialogue seemed muted at best until after those opening scenes.

Wasn't the opening just violins playing long tones, but quietly? Whatever it was, I thought that was pretty cool. Just coming from my classical music background, sometimes to get the audience to really quiet down, listen, and pay attention, I found it works better by playing quieter, and not louder. Hey, its eerie too. :D And, different from the rest . . .

Visually the movie was incredible, I was never bothered, even once, by the shift between aspect ratios. It was the inconsistencies in audio that really irritated me. In some scenes gunshots were realistic and lively and in other they were muted as if I was tapping them out on my floor. Dialogue was similar, in most scenes it was fine, in others I had to struggle to understand what was being said. I tried backing up and switching between the TrueHD and the regular soundtracks, they were basically the same.

I disagree. The video inconsistencies GREATLY outweigh the audio ones. I mean, c'mon, with the IMAX scenes interspersed? The rest of the video does not even touch, not in the closest, the IMAX scenes. I could name many movies that look better than the rest of the movie, but I couldn't if we were talking about the IMAX shots. In any case, the video is inconsistent compared to the audio.

I Really would have thought that with a movie of this caliber the soundmixers would have gone the "extra mile" to have made it right. What a disappointment. Most the problems were in the first half the movie, after that it seemed to level out, thankfully. Overall the sound really seemed to me like it was mixed for a crappy 2 channel tv speaker setup.

Jack

Something is wrong here. Did you disable DRC that is auto-flagged by every TrueHD track? I have to do it every time with my Onkyo, and its a lesson I learned with Iron Man. The fact that you tried multiple tracks makes me wonder.

[Jack Hammer]

Wasn't the opening just violins playing long tones, but quietly? Whatever it was, I thought that was pretty cool. Just coming from my classical music background, sometimes to get the audience to really quiet down, listen, and pay attention, I found it works better by playing quieter, and not louder. Hey, its eerie too. :D And, different from the rest . . .
I just hear some light tapping noise, similar to a muted Friday the 13th sound, no music starts until the Imax scene. I watched a few scenes over this morning and there are some inconsistencies between the regular track and the TrueHD track. When Batman fights the fake batmen and drug dealers in the beginning, the THD track has little of the noises when he punches them or bends the guys gun. When he is hit by the van - nothing. All those have sound effects on the DD track.

Before that when Gordon is on the roof speaking, he is muted as if I'm listening to him from another room.

LFE is strong throughout, even in the scenes when all else seems off to me, the LFE comes on strong.



Something is wrong here. Did you disable DRC that is auto-flagged by every TrueHD track? I have to do it every time with my Onkyo, and its a lesson I learned with Iron Man. The fact that you tried multiple tracks makes me wonder.

DRC is off on both the PS3 and my AVR. It seems to me that only the center channel is muffled. Between typing this, I tried standing in front of the center and listening, even then I'm struggling to hear speech over the other sounds. it just sounds like it's recorded much lower than the others. Oh, and yes, I did check my levels.

After reading how happy everyone else is with the sound, I think I've just got a bad disc. I'm going to try returning it for another and see if it makes any difference.

Jack

[allargon]

Everyone mentioned DRC. Another thing to mention is that Warner high def (HD DVD and Blu-Ray) discs default to DD+ or DD. They don't automatically select the TrueHD track. Please make sure you go to the menu and select the TrueHD track. I know it's a Captain Obvious/Duh thing. However, I wouldn't be surprised if at least one person reading this thread felt underwhelmed by the sound track of this disc and later realized he/she was listening to DD instead of Dolby TrueHD.

Jack, Warner uses dialnorm in their movies. One always has to turn up the sound to hear voices. C'est la vie.

[ParadigmDawg]

Crap, I completely forgot about this and I never even checked so I probably watched it with DD. I guess my system is just awesome and it had nothing to do with the movie.:DEveryone mentioned DRC. Another thing to mention is that Warner high def (HD DVD and Blu-Ray) discs default to DD+ or DD. They don't automatically select the TrueHD track. Please make sure you go to the menu and select the TrueHD track. I know it's a Captain Obvious/Duh thing. However, I wouldn't be surprised if at least one person reading this thread felt underwhelmed by the sound track of this disc and later realized he/she was listening to DD instead of Dolby TrueHD.

Jack, Warner uses dialnorm in their movies. One always has to turn up the sound to hear voices. C'est la vie.

[ParadigmDawg]

Yep, watched it DD, what a DA!

Now I have something to forward to Batman one more time!

[Jack Hammer]

Everyone mentioned DRC. Another thing to mention is that Warner high def (HD DVD and Blu-Ray) discs default to DD+ or DD. They don't automatically select the TrueHD track. Please make sure you go to the menu and select the TrueHD track. I know it's a Captain Obvious/Duh thing. However, I wouldn't be surprised if at least one person reading this thread felt underwhelmed by the sound track of this disc and later realized he/she was listening to DD instead of Dolby TrueHD.

Jack, Warner uses dialnorm in their movies. One always has to turn up the sound to hear voices. C'est la vie.

What's dialnorm? And how do I work around it. I don't recall any problems like this with any of the other WB BD's I have.

Jack

[jliedeka]

Some receivers adjust automatically. Mine tells me when a movie starts that it is adding or subtracting a decibel or two or three from the center.

Oh, yeah. I thought the movie sounded great, too.

Jim

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Yep, watched it DD, what a DA!

Now I have something to forward to Batman one more time!

That is one good thing about Bitstreaming vs MCh Direct.

It showed up on my receiver's LCD as "Dolby Digital" and I noticed it immediately.:D

[j_garcia]

I switched to the TrueHD track immediately. I didn't get a dialnorm message though, and I've watched the whole thing without feeling any dialog was difficult to hear. I watched it through one full time and what I meant to say in my previous post was, I've watched the key scenes at least 10 times over because of the issue I was having with TrueHD tracks and the PS3, and no issues on any of them with the center (only my left rear surround).

[aberkowitz]

I'll echo everybody else- sound was outstanding. I will say that I thought it got better as the movie went on... the opening scenes were weaker than the closing.

[walter duque]

I totaly agree with you. I thought I just had a bad disc or my player is going on the blink.

I have to take back what I said, changed processor and movie sounds great. Old Rotel 1066 just did'nt get it. Watched it four times so far.

[GlocksRock]

Watched the SD version on my bedroom system and was impressed by the video and sound, then watched the blu ray version on my main system last night as was completely blown away by both the audio and picture quality. I did check the setup menu right away to make sure I was getting TrueHD, and good thing I checked otherwise it would have been the standard DD track. I wish all blu ray discs would default their audio tracks to the highest quality track.

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Watched the SD version on my bedroom system and was impressed by the video and sound, then watched the blu ray version on my main system last night as was completely blown away by both the audio and picture quality. I did check the setup menu right away to make sure I was getting TrueHD, and good thing I checked otherwise it would have been the standard DD track. I wish all blu ray discs would default their audio tracks to the highest quality track.

I'm pretty sure Warner Bros is retarded.:D

I mean if the default is TrueHD and you don't have TrueHD, then your processor will just play DD anyway, right?:eek:

I mean TrueHD is backward-compatible, right?

I guess Warner assumes that most of us who spend all this money on blu-ray and home theater w/ TrueHD/DTS-HD processors would just prefer DD.:eek:

[jostenmeat]

I'm pretty sure Warner Bros is retarded.:D

I'm not arguing with you here.

I mean if the default is TrueHD and you don't have TrueHD, then your processor will just play DD anyway, right?:eek:

As long as its accompanied by the legacy track. I don't know how it all works though, as far as the player & receiver communicating with each other so that they know the DD should be sent. I believe I remember allargon saying that not all T-HD tracks are accompanied by the legacy track, however. :eek:

I mean TrueHD is backward-compatible, right?

So, with the above mind, I guess I have to say no? I would guess its less backward compatible than DTS-MA where the core stream still works fine.

I guess Warner assumes that most of us who spend all this money on blu-ray and home theater w/ TrueHD/DTS-HD processors would just prefer DD.:eek:

Seriously. But, when you see how difficult all this newfangled stuff is for many consumers who are not obsessed the way we are . . . I can see why they might think the way they do . . .

[AcuDefTechGuy]

But, when you see how difficult all this newfangled stuff is for many consumers who are not obsessed the way we are . . . I can see why they might think the way they do . . .

**hee**hee

Yeah, sometimes I totally forget how obsessed we are with this stuff.:D

The other day my mother-in-law said, "I want to buy one of those older square TVs.":D

I said, "What? I don't think they even make them anymore".:D

[gus6464]

I'm pretty sure Warner Bros is retarded.:D

I mean if the default is TrueHD and you don't have TrueHD, then your processor will just play DD anyway, right?:eek:

I mean TrueHD is backward-compatible, right?

I guess Warner assumes that most of us who spend all this money on blu-ray and home theater w/ TrueHD/DTS-HD processors would just prefer DD.:eek:

Back in the old days with HD DVD if the movie had a TrueHD track and you didn't have HDMI or analog you would get no sound by selecting that track. You had to specifically choose the DD+ track in order to get sound through optical. As of right now only DTS-HD/MA is the only one that has the core DTS track within the encoding. If you don't have a TrueHD compatible receiver you have to select the DD track in order to get sound.

[gus6464]

I just watched The Dark Knight on BD and even though I thought the movie overall was really good, I was really disappointed in the sound. The opening credits were almost silent, just some background unintelligible whispers until the first IMAX scene. Even then the dialogue seemed muted at best until after those opening scenes.

Visually the movie was incredible, I was never bothered, even once, by the shift between aspect ratios. It was the inconsistencies in audio that really irritated me. In some scenes gunshots were realistic and lively and in other they were muted as if I was tapping them out on my floor. Dialogue was similar, in most scenes it was fine, in others I had to struggle to understand what was being said. I tried backing up and switching between the TrueHD and the regular soundtracks, they were basically the same.

I Really would have thought that with a movie of this caliber the soundmixers would have gone the "extra mile" to have made it right. What a disappointment. Most the problems were in the first half the movie, after that it seemed to level out, thankfully. Overall the sound really seemed to me like it was mixed for a crappy 2 channel tv speaker setup.

Jack

BTW the beginning part where it has the DC comics logo and Legendary films with the Batman fire logo thing are supposed to be silent. The sound doesn't start until the beginning of the IMAX scene.

[j_garcia]

Back in the old days with HD DVD if the movie had a TrueHD track and you didn't have HDMI or analog you would get no sound by selecting that track. You had to specifically choose the DD+ track in order to get sound through optical. As of right now only DTS-HD/MA is the only one that has the core DTS track within the encoding. If you don't have a TrueHD compatible receiver you have to select the DD track in order to get sound.

As mentioned, not all discs that have TrueHD have an optional DD+ track. I am certain that TDK does however.

BTW the beginning part where it has the DC comics logo and Legendary films with the Batman fire logo thing are supposed to be silent. The sound doesn't start until the beginning of the IMAX scene.

It isn't entirely silent. There is a little background sound that starts to build up slowly just before the opening scene starts. It starts as a little "clicking" that slowly gets louder, and a bit of sound in the background.

[gus6464]

As mentioned, not all discs that have TrueHD have an optional DD+ track. I am certain that TDK does however.




DD+ was an HD DVD thing and you will not find that on BDs. All of the TrueHD BDs that exist today have a DD 5.1 track as well in english unlike the DTS-HD tracks that will only have that although some BDs out there have a DD track alongside the DTS-HD/MA track.

It was mandated by the HD DVD forum that all HD DVDs have to contain at least a DD+ track unless there was a DTS-HD/MA track. That is why you will never find a TrueHD HD DVD without a DD+ track.

[j_garcia]

There is a secondary English track on TDK in addition to the TrueHD track, though it doesn't say what it is, I presume it is some form of DD. It defaults to this track.

[gus6464]

There is a secondary English track on TDK in addition to the TrueHD track, though it doesn't say what it is, I presume it is some form of DD. It defaults to this track.

It's a standard DD 640kbps track and not DD+.

[Bluesmoke]

**hee**hee

Yeah, sometimes I totally forget how obsessed we are with this stuff.:D

The other day my mother-in-law said, "I want to buy one of those older square TVs.":D

I said, "What? I don't think they even make them anymore".:D

That's reason enough to never speak to the Mother in law ever again! :mad:

[Halon451]

I thought TDK on Blu-ray was one of the best sounding movies I've ever played on my system - and here's the kicker: My receiver isn't even capable of decoding the lossless formats, so I was stuck with standard DD! :D I can imagine it will only get better once I upgrade of course, but having slowly progressed upwards in upgrades over the past year, it's still better than many previous movies, even Iron Man, which I thought was kicka$$.

I paid attention to the shifting aspect ratios at first only because I knew it was coming, having already seen the thread where folks were talking about it - after the first couple of switches though, I was totally immersed in the story and it didn't even register that it kept switching. :)

[MinusTheBear]

I decided to rent the Dark Night tonight, it was the 3rd blu-ray I have watched on my new BD-55. Half-way through the movie approx chapter 21 the video froze and the sound cut out and the video scrambled a bit. I used the pop up menu and tried chapter 22 and it played for a few seconds then froze. I tried chapter 23 with no luck and decided to call it quits. I looked at the disk and it looked pretty good, a few blemishes but nothing really bad. I tried my other blu-rays that came with the player and they all worked fine without any issues. I am thinking I have a bad disk? Has anyone else experienced this?

BTW up to that point in the movie I thought the video quality was incredible. I emmeditely changed the audio from the standard DD5.1 to the HD equivalnet from the pop up menu when the movie started. I have to say the audio was great but I was more impressed with the audio from I, Robot up to the point where the movie froze.

If anyone has experienced this with a blu-ray disk before, any help is apprecieated?

[jostenmeat]

I would try to get your FW current, and put the disc on again to see. I've only had one problem disc ever, out of many many many many many many viewings, and it was Sunshine on probably the most ancient version of FW as I never updated for a while. Using a BD-30. I've watched Dark Knight twice already without a single hitch.

Regarding TrueHd tracks, I always turn off auto flagged DRC, just because I do not ever, ever want to experience terrible DRC implementation as I did with the first viewing of Iron Man.

On my Onkyo 805, I have to disable it every time. Takes a sec, since I programmed that into my URC, but the audio cuts for a split sec, which is annoying. If I doing a big movie night, it will be all set to go. This all being said, Minus, I never had any BAD experiences with T-HD tracks before when I had no clue drc was being autoflagged. Just being paranoid.

[MinusTheBear]

I was thinking it could be a firmware issue as well. I have already returned the rental disk so I can't test it. It was the first time watching the movie too. I was not blown away with the actual movie but it was starting to get good...then freeze:mad:.

[MinusTheBear]

I was thinking it could be a firmware issue as well. I have already returned the rental disk so I can't test it. It was the first time watching the movie too. I was not blown away with the actual movie but it was starting to get good...then freeze:mad:.


I picked up a retail copy today of The Dark Night and had no freezing issues :D. The rental disk must have been defective. I watched the entire movie this time and the Blu-ray version is of great quality in both sound and video. Its annoying audio is set to DD5.1, I had to press the audio button on my remote twice to change it to Dolby truehd:rolleyes:. The video quality is superb but I found the directors decision to constantly change the aspect ratios throughout the movie annoying but the quality is very very good which more than makes up for that.

It is one of the better Batman movies and the different take on the Joker was a good idea but I do not think it is necessarily better than Jacks take on the character, just different.

SPOILER

I was dissapointed they killed off Aaron Eckhart's character (Two-Face). I am a fan of his work and I would have liked to see that character developed more in future movies.
Overall a good movie, a little over-hyped IMO but still a worthy addition to a Blu-ray collection.

[j_garcia]

The video quality is superb but I found the directors decision to constantly change the aspect ratios throughout the movie annoying but the quality is very very good which more than makes up for that.

It wasn't a "decision" it was because some of the scenes were shot on IMAX film, thus the different aspect ratio.

SPOILER

All you need to do is put the comment in spoiler tags [ / spoiler]

[spoiler]I was dissapointed they killed off Aaron Eckhart's character (Two-Face). I am a fan of his work and I would have liked to see that character developed more in future movies. Overall a good movie, a little over-hyped IMO but still a worthy addition to a Blu-ray collection.

[MrPorterhouse]

I thought TDK audio was extremely dynamic, which was great for loud explosions and booms, but the dialouge was very soft. This meant that the volume has to be kept fairly close to reference to hear the dialouge. This was a problem for quieter movie watching when the family is sleeping. However, if you can let this movie rip, then its a very aggressive sound design and its awesome.

[Rogozhin]

I wasn't that impressed with TDK. The movie itself was okay, pq was very good, but the audio is not as good as I thought it was going to be. :shrug:

Rogo

[Rogozhin]

I just started to re-watch TDK and I was wrong-I had to run my subs a 4db hot.

:D

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I thought the SQ of Dark Knight BD was great, but not among the best - like Wanted or Kill Bill and some others like Bangkok Dangerous BD. Every time they were in the night club, which was frequent:D, I thought my roof was going to come down!:eek:

[ParadigmDawg]

I don't know what you guys are doing, my clip lights actually came on a couple of times during the movie and the bass was about to knock my walls down.

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I don't know what you guys are doing, my clip lights actually came on a couple of times during the movie and the bass was about to knock my walls down.

Yeah, there were some scenes that have been mentioned (hospital explosion), but maybe not enough of them - like every 10 minutes.:D

Clip lights on the subwoofer amp or Denon receiver (is there one?)?

Doesn't that worry you - about the amp?

The club scenes in Bangkok Dangerous will make all your furnitures move! Definitely overkill!

[MinusTheBear]

I don't know what you guys are doing, my clip lights actually came on a couple of times during the movie and the bass was about to knock my walls down.

The bass was very intense. Some of the gunshots were uber powerful sounding let alone the explosions :). Lots of dynamic range too :). The only knock on the sound quality is I thought the dialogue sounded weak in some parts where there was nothing but dialogue going on (not all).

[ParadigmDawg]

Worry me, nothing worries me:D

Clip lights on my sub amp. They just blink red if you are getting close to clipping, if they stay red for greater than a few seconds you maybe getting into trouble.

Clip lights on the subwoofer amp or Denon receiver (is there one?)?

Doesn't that worry you - about the amp?

The club scenes in Bangkok Dangerous will make all your furnitures move! Definitely overkill!