Best of Show & "Looney Tunes" DVD 5.1 Questions

[hershon]

I just rented these 2 DVDs and is this common on a Dolby Surround Sound 5.1 home theater system- I hardly heard anything on the back (surround speakers). Best of Show I gave up on after 15 minutes- I was bored but hardly heard anything at all on my back speakers- was this because there wasn't any background music. Looney unes with Brendon Fraiser only had occassional sound effects come from the back and I wasn't impressed. Is this because I have a cheap home theater system or are a bunch of DVD's recorded so that there isn't constant sound coming from the back speakers. Any input would be welcome on this.

[paul_pci]

I've seen Best of Show (via cable tv) but haven't seen Looney Toons, but I remember that there's not much in the way of razzle/dazzle audio in that satire, so there's not going to be much coming out of the rears in such a case. Now, if you pop in Saving Private Ryan or Minority Report, for instance, and you get the same absence then it's definitely the system. But your system could be a contributing problem to a lacluster dvd. For instance I went from a 75watt Yamaha to a 130watt Yamaha and the first thing I noticed was a stronger sound out of the rear speakers. But there are still plenty of instances where there won't be much coming from the rears just based on how the movie is encoded. So one question is, just how cheap is your system. A 100watts for a home theater in a box system is not comparable to a 100watts in a higher end receiver like Marantz, Denon, Yamaha, etc. Hope this helps.

[hershon]

Thanks for fast reply. My system, which I asked a question on yesterday is a Koss C-220 200 watts system. When I put on a music DVD (Eric Burdon of the Animals live) I had decent sound coming out from the back albeit it was only the keyboards on a 5 piece group, so I assumed it was recorded that way. I thought on 5.1 surround sound systems DVD's with dialogue and not much music/sound effects would have voices coming from all speakers but apparently in movies like Best of the Show, this might not be true. I'm interested if other people found the same thing true on "Dialogue" type movies. Also curious about Looney Tunes as I would have thought the surround sound would be great for the special effects but they weren't. The one thing I still do not understand is, if my system is in a normal not huge size living room, 10 feet from my sofa, will 500 watts of power instead of 200 watts of power make any difference in the sound, if the overall volume level played is the same- i.e. to get the same volume that I set at say "4" on my 200 watt system, I'd have to set it at say "2" on a 600 watts system? Won't the sound and clarity, seperateness and richness be the same? Same thing if I play a rock record CD. The only thing I see of being an advantage of having alot of watts is if I'm in a huge room and want to blast something without distorting the sound. Please correct me if I'm wrong in this as I don't mind upgrading my system if I'll notice a difference due to the number of watts. Thanks

[paul_pci]

Thanks for fast reply. My system, which I asked a question on yesterday is a Koss C-220 200 watts system. When I put on a music DVD (Eric Burdon of the Animals live) I had decent sound coming out from the back albeit it was only the keyboards on a 5 piece group, so I assumed it was recorded that way. I thought on 5.1 surround sound systems DVD's with dialogue and not much music/sound effects would have voices coming from all speakers but apparently in movies like Best of the Show, this might not be true. I'm interested if other people found the same thing true on "Dialogue" type movies. Also curious about Looney Tunes as I would have thought the surround sound would be great for the special effects but they weren't. The one thing I still do not understand is, if my system is in a normal not huge size living room, 10 feet from my sofa, will 500 watts of power instead of 200 watts of power make any difference in the sound, if the overall volume level played is the same- i.e. to get the same volume that I set at say "4" on my 200 watt system, I'd have to set it at say "2" on a 600 watts system? Won't the sound and clarity, seperateness and richness be the same? Same thing if I play a rock record CD. The only thing I see of being an advantage of having alot of watts is if I'm in a huge room and want to blast something without distorting the sound. Please correct me if I'm wrong in this as I don't mind upgrading my system if I'll notice a difference due to the number of watts. Thanks

For the most part, I'd say that watts has little to do with volume, especially when one is talking about cranking the volume up. To me the clear advantage of higher watts is to achieve that same amount of clarity and detail at lower volumes as you would at higher volumes and to increase the power (the ability to drive) to achieve the best possible sound.

Now, in dialog heavy movies, the main dialog is going to come out of the center channel and to a lesser extent the two front mains. The rears usually carry the effects or ambient sounds. For instance, I was watching Identity the other night and most of the thunder effects came out of the rear channels while the central action came from the front channels, and that's the way most movies are encoded. If you're looking to upgrade, I would again caution that not all watts are created equal. For instance, Harman Kardon receivers typically offer 55 or 65 high current watts, but you'd be hard pressed to find an owner who didn't think their HK was not powerful enough. Also, as a side note, be sure that the tweeters on your rear speakers are ear level I can hear a difference in my rears if I'm sitting up or slouching back.

[Woochifer]

How much surround activity you hear is entirely up to the discretion of the people who mixed the soundtrack. Even in an era of 5.1 soundtracks, some movies just won't have a lot of surround activity because some dialog driven films simply don't need a lot of sounds swooping abouts from all directions.

Now, for your specific system setup, I would check a couple of things. First, make sure that the DVD player is actually sending a digital signal to the receiver. Quickest way to check that is to simply unplug the analog cable. If you hear silence, then you weren't getting 5.1 in the first place and need to configure the DVD player to output the sound through the digital outputs.

Second, you should check and see if your receiver can generate a test tone so that you can check the levels on all five speakers. Using that test tone, you need to set the levels so that all five speakers are at roughly the same level. If the surrounds are set too low, then you won't hear much from them.

[hershon]

Hi,

Thanks for your response. I'm still confused in regards to what additional wattage does. Let's say hypothetically I play say a remastered but not remixed CD of say for example a 70's album by the group Free ("Allright Now"). If I play the CD at the same volume on a 200 watts system as opposed to a 600 watts system- what exactly will I hear in terms of difference in sound- lets assume the CD is played on the same DVD/CD player? By same volume I mean in terms of loudness coming out they're the same (I've set it at say 5 on the 200 watts system and 2 on the 600 watts system). Is the sound going to be any richer, have more clarity, seperation- etc, or will they both sound the same? If there is a difference in sound, will it be very minor and undistinguishable unless I try very hard to listen for the differences or will they be immediately noticeable? I only play blues and 60/70's rock, I don't listen to classical music, so for that type of music I don't need to play at soft volume, in fact I listen in my apartment at reasonably loud but not hangbanging levels- in other words not loud enough for the neighbors to complain. Anyway, excuse my redundency, but given that will increased wattage make any difference in this situation? Again, thanks for your feedback.

For the most part, I'd say that watts has little to do with volume, especially when one is talking about cranking the volume up. To me the clear advantage of higher watts is to achieve that same amount of clarity and detail at lower volumes as you would at higher volumes and to increase the power (the ability to drive) to achieve the best possible sound.

Now, in dialog heavy movies, the main dialog is going to come out of the center channel and to a lesser extent the two front mains. The rears usually carry the effects or ambient sounds. For instance, I was watching Identity the other night and most of the thunder effects came out of the rear channels while the central action came from the front channels, and that's the way most movies are encoded. If you're looking to upgrade, I would again caution that not all watts are created equal. For instance, Harman Kardon receivers typically offer 55 or 65 high current watts, but you'd be hard pressed to find an owner who didn't think their HK was not powerful enough. Also, as a side note, be sure that the tweeters on your rear speakers are ear level I can hear a difference in my rears if I'm sitting up or slouching back.

[paul_pci]

Hi,

Thanks for your response. I'm still confused in regards to what additional wattage does. Let's say hypothetically I play say a remastered but not remixed CD of say for example a 70's album by the group Free ("Allright Now"). If I play the CD at the same volume on a 200 watts system as opposed to a 600 watts system- what exactly will I hear in terms of difference in sound- lets assume the CD is played on the same DVD/CD player? By same volume I mean in terms of loudness coming out they're the same (I've set it at say 5 on the 200 watts system and 2 on the 600 watts system). Is the sound going to be any richer, have more clarity, seperation- etc, or will they both sound the same? If there is a difference in sound, will it be very minor and undistinguishable unless I try very hard to listen for the differences or will they be immediately noticeable? I only play blues and 60/70's rock, I don't listen to classical music, so for that type of music I don't need to play at soft volume, in fact I listen in my apartment at reasonably loud but not hangbanging levels- in other words not loud enough for the neighbors to complain. Anyway, excuse my redundency, but given that will increased wattage make any difference in this situation? Again, thanks for your feedback.

If you want further feedback on function of wattage, perhaps you should start a new thread asking just that. Hopefully that will generate some good answers.