......Yup. Kinda' sounds like what is happening with CDs.

(Disclaimer: the following are my own personal soap-box observations with very little basis in any scientific fact. I need to get it off my chest because it's been bothering me.)

A couple of nights ago I went to see that Adam Sandler film "Bedtime Stories" at the Regal on 164th. (The movie was just about what you'd expect from a Disney film nowdays--little plot, lots of loose ends in the continuity, and a weak storyline....)

The mediocre production quality wasn't what bugged me the most. Oh no. What really killed it for me was the rather poor sound quality. The loudness seemed to be extremely over-driven, especially in the loud sections where, for example, crowds of people were cheering. You could actually HEAR the clicking artefacts as it was being tremendously clipped and you don't even have to listen that hard! That, and the lack of dynamic range did make it difficult, at times, to understand the dialogue.

The Regal uses Dolby Digital and DTS for the majority of its sound. (Some films are Spectral Recording [a.k.a. "Dolby SR"] like "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" was, but unfortunately those seem to be few and far between.....) They might still use Sony's old audio system for some films but I doubt it.

And now to-night I had to take my cousin's bratty 11-year old sister to see it at the Liberty, in Camas. That was even worse yet. Aside from the fact that the Liberty has waaaaaaaaay better acoustics than the Regal has (the walls and celings are mostly bare [but painted] plasterboard) but they seem to turn the volume up quite a bit louder than the Regal. Needless to say, this made it sound even worse yet. We were sitting up in the balcony and they have rear-channel surround speakers up there. The clipping on the ambient sounds I heard (as well as the regular sounds) almost reminded me of the sound from a badly-processed ADPCM audio file on the old CD-Interactive system.

So, is this it now? Are the movies trying to compete with radio like the CDs seem to be?

Unfortunately in the commercial pre-recorded music industry loudness has a history of being abused. (If you want a couple of really good examples go to Border's Books and pick up a CD of the horrendously flat-topped "Diana Ross & The Supremes Number 1's".) Never thought Hollyweed would end up following suit.

Kinda' makes me wonder (on a marginally isolated thought) if anyone even actually follows the THX standards any more, or if the studios just use it as an excuse for bragging rights nowdays? ("Ooo look at us! *sing-songy* Ha ha ha ha ha ha, we got the THX seal and yoooou diiiiidn't......ha ha ha ha ha ha........")





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Sidebar: Just to make it worth my while, after the film got out, we went to the antique shoppe down the street and I bought an album of several assorted Bing Crosby 78's. That made it worth the trip out there, I think. ;o)

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2005_April_11/ai_n13593978

"DTS's XD10 Cinema Media Player is compatible with both traditional film playback and emerging D-cinema technologies. Engineered to deliver up to 10 channels of scalable digital surround sound (expandable to 16 channels), the XD10 is an expandable media solution for pre-show and feature film presentation. An internal hard drive is used as the film sound signal source while two DVD drives enable download of film sound information to the hard drive. Giving distributors and exhibitors the flexibility of storing either multiple languages of one title or multiple titles, the XD10 will automatically load and store up to 30 full-length film soundtracks. The XD10 is also capable of playing back enhanced video for alternate media (e-cinema) and has networking and pre-show programming features for an integrated presentation.

About DTS XD10P Cinema Audio Processor

DTS' XD10P Cinema Audio Processor is engineered to deliver precise reproduction of boy analog and digital sources. The XD10P is equipped with ample processing power to handle the most demanding cinema environments, and offers a full compliment of features including matrix decoding, equalization, noise reduction and output master gain for up to eight channels of high quality surround sound."

...deliver precise reproduction of boy analog and digital sources.

What? No girl analog and digital sources? How sexist!

I'm calling the ACLU and filing a discrimination suit!!!

KSKD, you are arguing that it is a problem at the theatre end rather than the production company's end, hmm? After all, everybody who worked on the sound for film, especially at the final mixing/mastering stage, have their names listed in the credits.

Ps: The THX people have spies. Perhaps the theatre can be reported.

how about no-treble/percieved loudness!!??
how about some bradband HD noise??

Oy.
*shakes head*

62, we're talking about FILM SOUND, not IBAC. Unless you mean somehow being able to feed the bare Dolby Digital or SDDS tracks straight into the analogue optical audio pickup, which (I imagine) might yield something that sounds similar to IBAC hash noise (read: static) upon being amplified. But we're talking about the Silver Screen. Or the Tarnished Speakers, as the case may be here. Read on......

Skep--I hadn't discounted at all the idea that it could also be Disney's fault. It very well might be and probably (likely) is, because it sounded almost as bad when we previously saw it at the Regal. (Fortunately, the acoustics at the Regal are quite a bit worse than the Liberty, as the Regal auditoriums seem to have implemented better echo absorbtion.)

(It appears however, after I analysed my last post, that I really wasn't clear about that at all. Really doesn't surprise me, as I was severely under the influence of caffeine and sugar (Pepsi & really stout coffee) last night and was typing a mile a minute.)

Ultimately tho, I told the projectionist at the Liberty last night after the film got out (he was downstairs yakking with one of the girls at the concession stand) that he needs to back down on the processing anyways. Low dynamic range can make a film sound like shit when it's being exhibited at a really high volume level, in the type of theatre that's essentially a big echo chamber. Low dynamic range can make ANYTHING sound like shit under most conditions regardless!

I was told some time ago that the Liberty mainly uses analogue Dolby SR, even though they show the Dolby Digital ad clip before many of their films. (This was about four years ago. They said they weren't using DD because the equipment and licensing wasn't in their budget at that time. Maybe they're using it by now.......) If they are using DD, and if all the clipping was a mastering issue at Disney, I'd hate to imagine what the analogue tracks must sound like.........!!

In any case, it still is kind of sad to know that films have started falling this same way.

The article said Regal upgraded it's theaters in 2005 with the new equipment, so it should be running the XD10 package described above.

what happens if you report the theatre to thx?do they dend in c.3.p.o.?

They can yank the THX certification. The theatre can't play or advertise that they have THX sound.