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. 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. 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. 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.

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]

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.

 

[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.