Ruining sound in the theater on purpose, like the dots?

BrandonL · 12-17-2003, 03:45 PM

I saw the ROTK midnight showing at the new (about 3-4 months old) AMC 16 Theater in Burbank, CA. Burbank is where all the movie and TV studios are, just in case this might matter.

During the movie the audio was popping like a badly ripped mp3. This happened mostly in scenes with dialogue.

Also the sound kept changing on the speakers. To me it seemed like the scenes were either going from Stereo to Mono, or Surround to Stereo. It was really hard to tell. This happened at least 7 times during the movie. And to me it seemed like it would happen between battles and slower scenes.

So the battle would end with really good surround and bass. Then you hear this noise like someone is pushing an audio selector button and it switches to some horrible low quality audio. I noticed people would turn their heads and look around when the audio changed or the constant popping came up. So I know a lot of people noticed this.

Since they are putting those annoying dots in the films now, what is to stop them from purposely messing up the audio track like this? Maybe they thought no one would notice because during the dialogue you don't hear as much surround as if you were in an action scene.

Did this happen to anyone else? Sorry for making this so long, but after I left the theater I came to the conclusion that this might be the last movie I ever see in the theater. I am not going to pay that much money to see something so badly put together.

Jason Harbaugh · 12-17-2003, 04:19 PM

This happened at my screening. You could mostly hear it when the music held a note for a while, you would hear it pop in and out. I just took it as something wrong with the speakers or print. This was in an Imax theatre. It really pulled me out of the movie though, as great as it was.

BrandonL · 12-17-2003, 04:26 PM

whoever has had this happen want to list the city and what theater company? I am kind of curious since this happened to someone else in a completely different theater.

StevenA · 12-17-2003, 04:26 PM

Interesting. I experienced bad audio pops/dropouts during FOTR EE a couple of weeks ago. TTT EE was fine, though.

Cinerama Dome, Hollywood, Dolby Digital sound (I'm seeing ROTK there at the weekend, I'll report if it happens then)

Scotty_McW · 12-17-2003, 04:34 PM

I thought this was my imagination, but it has happened a couple of times. Most recently at Last Samurai at Carmike Oakdale 20, not sure if DTS or Dolby Digital though.

**HTF Ads**

DaveGTP · 12-17-2003, 05:07 PM

I noticed several dropouts in the Dolby track @ Trilogy Tuesday in Flint, MI - on both of the EEs. I think also on ROTK, but I was so enwrapped in the movie, I can't remember.

And don't even start me on the F@&(!!@@! dots.

Bill Street · 12-17-2003, 05:35 PM

It sounds like what you were hearing were digital dropouts in the sound. The major digital sound systems (DTS, Dolby Digital, and SDDS)all use an analog backup (the soundtrack physically printed on the film) in case of errors that cause temporary loss of the digital sound. The change in sound-source can be distracting, but at least sound is not totally lost.

I'm not sure which type of digital system you experienced, but at one time the DTS version of ROTK was going to be issued on 3 CD's which was going to require some theatres with older equipment to have to manually change out a CD during movie playback. This issue might have been corrected, however.

Hope this helps!

Bill S.

Jason Harbaugh · 12-17-2003, 06:22 PM

Imax screening, Colorado Center, Denver.

Not sure what sound format they use in that venue.

Derek Miner · 12-17-2003, 07:16 PM

The theater I'm working at test screened the print last night, and we had equipment issues, but the source material on the print seemed to be fine. Our issue was a bad amp or speaker in the center channel, but the sound never dropped out from the print, nor were there any digital artifacts - bass and surrounds were excellent throughout.

I have noticed that if the Dolby Digital reader is misthreaded, digital sound can drop out unexpectedly, as well.

Peter Apruzzese · 12-17-2003, 08:35 PM

Poor alignment and/or operation of the equipment. Or a defective print. It's not a deliberate attempt to distort the sound.

Dennis Pagoulatos · 12-17-2003, 08:51 PM

Yep, this is pretty common...even at "nice" theaters unfortunately. And it happens on brand new prints as well. Poorly maintained equipment, monkeys behind the scenes (or no one) in the projection booth to ever check these kinds of problems out...

-Dennis

Aaron Garman · 12-18-2003, 01:50 AM

Contrary to what DTS had been saying, the DTS track for Return of the King ended up on 2 discs, thus making it compatible with the older DTS units as well as the newer ones. I've seen the film twice, both in DTS, and sound was absolutely flawless. I did not watch our third print, which is in Dolby Digital, but the guys that did mentioned no dropouts. More than likely, the problem is the bulb on the Dolby reader. After awhile, it needs to be changed if there are constant failure rates displayed on the processor. I forget the part number, but we actually just got some GE bulbs from Loewes that worked like a charm. Anyhow, this is one MAJOR gripe I have with Dolb