A Few Words About A few words about... Batman Begins (1 Viewer)

[Paul McElligott]

Remember that those huge speakers in theaters have to move a lot more air because they are trying to fill a space many times larger than your living room.

 

[Ed St. Clair]

Thanks for the review of the BB DVD (and film), RAH.
Any word on the A/V quality of "other four"?

 

[JoshB]

They are actually showing this at my college campus this weekend, with three showings a night Friday and Saturday at $2 a show. It's shown in a lecture hall but on a movie screen, and the sound is Dolby Digital and actually pretty impressive. I plan to catch it a few times this weekend before the DVD comes out.

I couldn't agree more with RAH. This is a superb film, one of the best of 2005. It ranks right up there with Spiderman 1 and 2 as the best comic book adaptations to date. Nolan was the perfect choice for directing and clearly has a talent for handling big budget pictures, though I hope he continues in smaller ones as well. I could go on endlessly about the film's qualities and even though the Katie Holmes/love interest was its weakest, it still didnt take away from the film.

I remember the sound from this film being one of the most memorable of the year, right up there with War of the Worlds. I'm sure it will be recognized at Oscar time for some kind of technical award with at least a nomination. All of the reviews I have seen rave about the sound quality, and Warner seems ot have done a great job with the image as expected.

 

[SteveCallas]

Exactly. You can EASILY get more impact and a more powerful presentation with a HT setup than you can at the movie theater. As has been mentioned, you also get more detail and a better FR. At home, you only need to tweak to get great sound at one or two seating positions, at the movie theater, if you aren't sitting in the middle, good luck. And how many subs at the theater come anywhere close to approaching 20hz?

I'll take a good HT every time.

 

[Kevin M]

They generally reach down into 10-15hz.

Here's the specs for the JBL professional cinema speakers I linked a photo to above (and bear in mind that these are not the largest out there, plus we are talking about power, I doubt many home speakers require 2400W) :


Frequency Range: 35 Hz to 16 kHz (-10 dB)
Frequency Response: 45 Hz to 12.5 kHz (+/- 3 dB)
Horizontal Coverage Angle: 80°, averaged 300 Hz to 16 kHz (-6dB)
Vertical Coverage Angle: 45°, averaged 300 Hz to 16 kHz (-6dB)
Maximum Output: 117dB-SPL @ 10 m
Recommended Crossover Frequency: LF/MF: 297 Hz, MF/HF: 2.5 kHz
Transducers:
Low Frequency: Four 2226H 380mm (15in) dia., 100mm (4in) edgewound ribbon voice coil
One 5504 LF enclosure with DiamondQuad driver array
Nominal Impedance: Each pair in parallel; two 4 Ohm loads per driver pair
Input Power Rating: 2400W, AES; two channels of 1200W Recommended Amplifier per driver pair
Sensitivity: 103dB, 1W @ 1 m (3.3 ft)
Input Connectors: Barrier Strip
Mid Frequency: 2392 midrange horn
2490H midrange driver; 100mm (4in) edgewound ribbon voice coil
Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms
Input Power Rating: 200W, AES; 300W Recommended Amplifier
Sensitivity: 115dB, 1 W @ 1 m (3.3 ft)
High Frequency: 2352 Horn
2451 driver; 100mm (4in) edgewound ribbon voice coil
Nominal Impedance: 8 Ohms
Input Power Rating: 75W, AES; 200W Recommended Amplifier
Sensitivity: 112dB, 1 W @ 1 m (3.3 ft)
Mounting Accessories: HF horn baffle board and mounting frame which couples MF and HF; mounts to LF enclosure for aiming/tilting
Dimensions (HxWxD): 2895.6mm x 1118mm x 812.8mm (114in x 44in x 32in)
Net Weight: 171.69 kg (378.5 lbs)

 

[SteveCallas]

I don't know what kind of movie theaters you go to, but none I have EVER been to put out respectable spl anywhere close to 20hz, let alone 10hz. That speaker may very well reach to 20hz, but not at a level high enough to be noticable in a theater.

In relation to the next post, sorry.

 

[Kevin M]

EDIT:

You know, I generally don't like sending threads off topic & I really don't want to do that with one that Robert Harris started in order to talk about a particular film.....start a new thread about cinema speakers vs. HT speakers and I will join you guys there but until then, let's talk about Batman Begins.
I did it in the Oz thread, I don't want to do it again here, you know?

 

[Mark Lucas]

I didn't think the sound mix for Batman Begins was overly loud. It's just that most movies are mixed too damn low.

 

[TravisR]

I'm sure it was a stylistic choice but I guess they wanted was LOUD in the movie to be very LOUD! to the audience. I'm sure the DVD will replicate that and it should too. Although, I thought alot of it was the sonic equivalent of a red herring scare in a horror movie.

 

[Robert Harris]

To Mr. St. Clair...

I've only found a bit of time to examine the original Batman as well as Batman Returns.

There is a huge difference between the new and old Batman discs, less so with Batman Returns.

My assumption is that either the studio re-mastered, or re-compressed these, or both. The newer films will obviously exhibit less of a difference.

As for the original Batman, replacement with the new edition is recommended, as state of the art as changed immensely.

RAH

 

[Eric F]

Movies like this sound great on my Pioneer SE-DIR800C setup. Dolby Headphone thrives under conditions like this.

I can't wait to give BB a go.

 

[MatthewLouwrens]

Wow. Is it that bad? What's wrong with it?

EDIT: Never mind. I completely misread RAH's comment, focused on the last line rather than everything in the rest of the post, and thought he was saying this release was faulty and needed replacement, rather than the earlier release needing replacement. Thanks Greg. Wow, do I feel stupid.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I took his comments to mean that if you own the original release, it is in your best interest to replace it with the new. Maybe I misread his intentions, though.

 

[David Coleman]

I thought I was the only one who thought BATMAN BEGINS as the best film of the year!!! So much better than the others!!

Can't wait till October 18th!!!

 

[Tim Hoover]

Wait a minute...am I missing something here?

 

[Kevin M]

They are large horns, look at the specs just below the one's you quoted.

Practically the same with These Klipsch professionals, only not as large as the JBL's.
If you really wanted to kill peoples hearing I guess they could be mated with an additional woofer, like this Klipsch monster......why the hell you would want to do that...I don't know.

 

[SteveCallas]

Going lower won't kill peoples' hearing, only going louder would. If you have the capability to go down solid to 15hz in your HT at reference levels, you know how much more it adds to the experience. As I said earlier, movie theaters can't come anywhere close to 20hz at reference - they'd be lucky to hit 30hz at reference.

 

[Robert Harris]

There are theatres and screening rooms which can hit extremely low hz.

The orchestral recordings for Napoleon go to 12-10 hz in the organ sequences, and are fully reproduceable at theatres which are well set up.

RAH

 

[Stephen Orr]

The only film I paid to see twice in theaters in about 5 years. One of the three or four films I actually paid to see in theaters this whole year. The only movie I paid $12 to see in Imax on opening night.

Am I buying this DVD?

Ordered two from amazon - one for each eye and ear!

Actually, the second is for my son in college...

 

[PatrickDA]

I enjoyed 'Batman Begins' as an actual FILM much more than
any of the first four offerings in the series. However, as
a huge 'Batman : The Animated Series' fan, I can't say it
felt too much like the Batman I know and like. But as a
true work of cinema, 'Batman Begins' works on far more
levels of reality than the other pieces. Christian Bale
has long been a favorite of mine and made a perfect Bruce
Wayne. Having not been a fan of Mr. Nolan's other films, I
was a little worried about his attempt to give new life to
Batman. Thankfully, I was wrong and will enjoy watching
this film on DVD for many years to come! I saw 'Batman
Begins' twice at the bargin theater, which actually has
better sound and picture quality than the first run
theaters where I live. However, Oliver Stone's 'Alexander'
holds the record for number of viewings of a film since
2000, at four in four different theaters by the way. I
wish 'Batman Begins' had played at the near by Branson
Meadows Cine for I find the "Stealth" design of Nova Cinemas
to be truly original and the best joe-six-pack can get to
a screening room level quality. The DVD price of 'BB' at
Amazon is simply wonderful and the extras sound very nice
based on what all the reviews have said. Lately, voice-over
commentaries have lost some of their appeal to me...so I'm
not broken up over the fact 'BB' won't have one. Plus, Mr.
Nolan isn't the most exciting speaker I've heard.