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John Beresford
12-22-2003, 11:25 AM
Anyone else care to comment on what my findings were on the Pirates of the Caribbean's DTS track and/or the DVD itself? BEAUTIFUL packaging---my favorite DVD right now...that was, until the Escape From New York Collector's Edition box set came out....now THAT is a collector's edition! But Pirates has a BEAUTIFUL outer keep box and the film itself was a great pirate story----much better than 1995's Cutthroat Island with Geena Davis.

However, the DTS mix on this DVD is not aggressive; other folks have complained about this too, and I know its a Disney feature and all, but for a film with tons of cannons blasting off and a lot of bullets zinging by, the surround channels -- even in DTS mode and THX certified by Lucasfilm -- sound astonishingly quiet. Anyone else just gonna chuck this up to the whole thing being a Disney production and therefore regulating Pirates to a quieter overall playback in surround?

kelsci
12-22-2003, 12:49 PM
John; I just took a look at www.widescreenreview.com report on this film.
They seem to say otherwise and both tracks are good. I would take a look and see what they have to say.

I will have to rent this disc myself to see what is going on. At this time, I am going to say that there is something going on between D.D. and DTS along with my receiver and my two DVD players. I listened to X2 on my Pioneer 341. I felt the D.D. was better than the DTS in sound quality and imaging. Most of the time the Pioneer excells in D.D. reproduction while the Zenith excells in DTS reproduction. I did not get a chance to try X2 on the Zenith. Hopefully I can do this experiment with PIRATES.

John Beresford
12-22-2003, 01:23 PM
John; I just took a look at www.widescreenreview.com report on this film.
They seem to say otherwise and both tracks are good. I would take a look and see what they have to say.

I will have to rent this disc myself to see what is going on. At this time, I am going to say that there is something going on between D.D. and DTS along with my receiver and my two DVD players. I listened to X2 on my Pioneer 341. I felt the D.D. was better than the DTS in sound quality and imaging. Most of the time the Pioneer excells in D.D. reproduction while the Zenith excells in DTS reproduction. I did not get a chance to try X2 on the Zenith. Hopefully I can do this experiment with PIRATES.

Interesting, Kel....while Widescreen Review may claim both tracks are good, I dont disagree there on the whole----both tracks ARE "good" with mostly score music sweeping and rampaging through all speakers instead of aggressive effects, but I think this is because it was a Disney production....

John Beresford
12-22-2003, 01:38 PM
John; I just took a look at www.widescreenreview.com report on this film.
They seem to say otherwise and both tracks are good. I would take a look and see what they have to say.

I will have to rent this disc myself to see what is going on. At this time, I am going to say that there is something going on between D.D. and DTS along with my receiver and my two DVD players. I listened to X2 on my Pioneer 341. I felt the D.D. was better than the DTS in sound quality and imaging. Most of the time the Pioneer excells in D.D. reproduction while the Zenith excells in DTS reproduction. I did not get a chance to try X2 on the Zenith. Hopefully I can do this experiment with PIRATES.

Wow, Kel, they really had great things to say about the audio (well, the review was from Perry Sun) and I would go as far to say that I don't really agree with a lot of what was described there; the LFE from the subwoofer channel running the DVD in DTS mode didn't shake my apartment apart, and the cannon explosions weren't that unnerving. The surround channels for the most part were used for score and occasional bullets during the ship-to-ship war scenes.

joel2762
12-22-2003, 05:04 PM
I saw that in theatres....I thought I was watching it in stereo or something :S Hardly heard any rear sound :mad:

John Beresford
12-23-2003, 07:50 AM
I saw that in theatres....I thought I was watching it in stereo or something :S Hardly heard any rear sound :mad:

You get a similar experience with the DVD, Joel....most of the stuff stays in the front soundstage.

recoveryone
12-28-2003, 10:26 AM
Anyone else care to comment on what my findings were on the Pirates of the Caribbean's DTS track and/or the DVD itself? BEAUTIFUL packaging---my favorite DVD right now...that was, until the Escape From New York Collector's Edition box set came out....now THAT is a collector's edition! But Pirates has a BEAUTIFUL outer keep box and the film itself was a great pirate story----much better than 1995's Cutthroat Island with Geena Davis.

However, the DTS mix on this DVD is not aggressive; other folks have complained about this too, and I know its a Disney feature and all, but for a film with tons of cannons blasting off and a lot of bullets zinging by, the surround channels -- even in DTS mode and THX certified by Lucasfilm -- sound astonishingly quiet. Anyone else just gonna chuck this up to the whole thing being a Disney production and thereforeregulating Pirates to a quieter overall playback in surround?

Watched it a few nights ago and it was ok to me (nothing to write home about) It was nice to see some of the scenes in the movie directly from the Disney park ride (jail scene). Johnny Depp was a bit over the top in his role. I like the Princess Bride Story line better.

Woochifer
12-31-2003, 02:30 PM
Not one of the more active 5.1 soundtracks out there, but I thought the overall surround effect was pretty good and had pretty good imaging. If your only evaluation criteria is the sound effects activity and volume on the explosions, then I would say it does fall a bit short of other action pics. At one point in the movie, the cannon battle sounded light on the bass, and I did recheck the LFE level and my subwoofer output level to make sure it was the soundtrack and not my system setup.

But, IMO a lot of movie soundtracks mix the bass way too high (LOTR:FOTR is the most glaring example) to the point that they detract from everything else going on in the soundtrack. To me, a movie soundtrack should help pull the viewer into the movie and engage them. But, going overboard with the bass and surround activity just makes me want to tune out, and that makes me less involved in the movie and I wind up paying more attention to the sound than the movie itself. Personally, I would rather have the soundtrack a little bit lean on the bass if they did everything else right, rather than a soundtrack that cooks the bass so high that it takes away from the enjoyment of the movie itself (the original DD soundtrack for LOTR:FOTR had the levels so high that I can detect distortion in some channels).

kelsci
01-02-2004, 12:53 PM
Hi John; You may still be in VEGAS when I write this so hopefully you will get a notice on your E-Mail board.

I felt this movie was sooooo interesting that I fell asleep every time I tried to watch it. How this film made money at the box office I do not know. Nothing storywise stood out for me in this movie. I felt this film fell into the category of many films that I have turned off for the simple reason that there were nothing of interest to see and the story line acted as a lullaby.

Now to the technical aspects. I just readjusted three of my speakers since I occasionally conduct testing to see if they are aligned to my satisfaction. Three needed realignment. I first tried the D.D. track. While there was not too much surround sound in this film ,when it was there it felt satisfactory relative to the story in the era it was taking place. This film though not stated is supposed to have EX and I did hear quite a few EX subtleties throughout the film and occasionally a good piece of sound effect(like the mast falling down). I did hear some bullets whistling by my head and ears as well. The overall tone quality of the audio was very good with good dialogue representation.

After the alignment, I found that the DTS sound seem to align properly in imaging. To be sure, howeve, I will try some other discs that have DTS to see if I did something good in that maintenence procedure. I did not find the DTS to specifically sound better in tone and bass against the D.D. track. A few more sound effects were emphasized but other than that, I preferred the D.D. track on my system and in general usually do. I did not try my Zenith DVD player to see how it handled DTS which in the past seems to do a better job on that sound format while the Pioneer does better with the D.D. format so thus I want to be fair to DTS that some of the processors either in the Players or Receivers MIGHT favor one sound format over the other.

I think BAD BOYS 2 was the most balanced sound track that I have heard so far. One movie that may give you some impact is THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAOARDINARY GENTLEMEN. On occassion there is some great gunfire in this film as well as pretty darn well recorded sound effects. I had to watch this film 2X to really figure out what was going on. IMO it is worth a rental. KELSCI

Sir Terrence the Terrible
01-16-2004, 03:05 PM
Wow, Kel, they really had great things to say about the audio (well, the review was from Perry Sun) and I would go as far to say that I don't really agree with a lot of what was described there; the LFE from the subwoofer channel running the DVD in DTS mode didn't shake my apartment apart, and the cannon explosions weren't that unnerving. The surround channels for the most part were used for score and occasional bullets during the ship-to-ship war scenes.

Jeeze, were we watching the same movie? I have to agree with Perry Sun on this one. The cannon shots DID rattle my windows and shake the air. I thought the sound design was very balanced with no over-emphasis on the bass like LOTR as Wooch mentions. The surrounds were mostly ambience(which IMO does bring you into the film a bit). The mix has a very open top end, good lateral and front to back panning.

I liked Cutthroat Island and I equally liked this film. If is fun, and doesn't take itself too seriously. Johnny Depp was hilarious and the stunt work excellent.

While both soundtracks sounded excellent to these ears, I have to give the edge to the Dts soundtrack. Strings sound smoother, cymbals have a more natural decay, the bass sounds tighter and more defined, and the soundfield is more cohesive.

Crunchyriff
01-16-2004, 04:32 PM
"While both soundtracks sounded excellent to these ears, I have to give the edge to the Dts soundtrack. Strings sound smoother, cymbals have a more natural decay, the bass sounds tighter and more defined, and the soundfield is more cohesive."

Oooh, wait 'til the all-knowing, all seeing, all hearing naysayers get ahold of THAT statement!
(HAR!) yer gonna get tarred!

"Sound is sound" yeah yeah yeah...

PRo-ceed!<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

Sir Terrence the Terrible
01-20-2004, 04:30 PM
"While both soundtracks sounded excellent to these ears, I have to give the edge to the Dts soundtrack. Strings sound smoother, cymbals have a more natural decay, the bass sounds tighter and more defined, and the soundfield is more cohesive."

Oooh, wait 'til the all-knowing, all seeing, all hearing naysayers get ahold of THAT statement!
(HAR!) yer gonna get tarred!

"Sound is sound" yeah yeah yeah...

PRo-ceed!<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

Ole crunchy one, why would I get tarred? It's just my opinion. Bring on those dang naysayers!!!!!

Worf101
01-21-2004, 08:13 AM
I'd seen it in the movies. It was fine. I didn't wrangle or wonder too much about the sound tracks. I prefer DTS myself and like any movie that makes "coherent" use of the rear's and surrounds to give you a true sensory experience. This soundtrack did this. I also love Johnny Depp. I think he's the best American male actor around today. And although he's no Basil Ratchbone, his swordwork has definately improved.

Da Worfster