Bad Movie Audio

[bratch]

Just got done watching HEAT again and that movie has to have the worst audio of all times.  To hear a conversation you have to have the volume all the way up but if you aren't paying attention and it goes into an action scene pop there goes your speakers.

Another pet peeve is when the dubbing and motion get off and the words are not being mouthed at the right time.

[Winston Smith]

I find that's what makes that movie good... the gunshots are LOUD. You know. Like in real life?

[TarpleyG]

I have noticed a trend in the past 7 or 8 years where the editors really play to the sound effects and music rather than the dialog.  It realy pisses me off.  Maybe I am just losing that range of my hearing but my wife, who deos not shoot that much, has the same gripe.

Greg

[DigMe]

Bratch,

Do you have surround sound?  If not it could be that your DVD player or TV aren't properly set up to play through two channel sound.  I was watching a DVD at my father-in-law's house once and could just barely hear dialog and realized he had his DVD player set up for surround sound while we were actually listening through 2 channel TV speaker.  If you do have surround sound you also might need to properly calibrate your receiver.  Maybe the center channel level needs to come up or the equalizing needs changing.  I haven't watched my copy of Heat in a while but I don't recall it having a poor mix.  Maybe if I get time today or tomorrow I'll pop it in and see how it sounds on my system.

brad cook

[The Rabbi]

I love Heat and could watch it every week.

I have a theory as to why films today are so geared to action.
In the old days a movie made most of its money here in the US in the theatres.  There could be TV rights as well but that wasnt where the money came from.
Today theatre receipts just about pay for the production.  Most of the revenue comes from overseas.  Therefore you need films that have universal appeal and do not depend on language or sublety of culture.  Violence and sex are pretty universal and so that is what plays and that is what gets made.

[DigMe]

I just popped in Heat and watched about 30 minutes this afternoon playing through my surround system.  Actually the sound mix is very good even compared to some DVDs that are being released today.  The ambient noises in scenes were excellent.  Off screen sounds such as phones ringing, CB radios going off, hospital and restaurant noises etc... all sound very realistic in the side and rear channels and I had no problems understanding the dialogue coming through my JBL EC135 center channel.  It's possible you have a some kind of DVD with remixed sound but I'd guess it's more likely a result of one of the things I mentioned in my previous post.  Could just be your TV, DVD player or sound system setup.

brad cook

[bratch]

Hmm maybe I've got a bad disc.  At home I'm playing it through a Sony 5.1 system with an Optical audio hookup.  It was also happening on my little TV and cheapo DVD player in Denver over the summer.  Most other movies work fine on both setups some are quiet on the the smaller TV but they don't have the drastic jumps that Heat seems to have.