BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

Very few movies have ever been mixed in 7.1, particularly with the lack of interest in SDDS. The vast majority are 5.1 with some having the EX matrix encoded rear center.

Doug

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

Hairspray was one was it not?

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

It appears that Hairspray had an SDDS mix so it would probably have a 7.1 track available. I don't know that they put the 7.1 mix on the disc.

However SDDS has a different speaker configuration than 7.1 DD true HD or DTS master audio. SDDS has 5 speakers behind the screen and 2 in the auditorium. 7.1 is actually left, right, center, side right, side left, rear right, rear left and a sub.

Also more often than not films mixed in SDDS are mixed in the standard 5.1 version because very few theaters were ever setup to play back the 8.1 speaker setup. Also Sony is no longer supporting SDDS so the likely hood of many more films being mixed in 7.1 or 8.1 are slim.

It's possible that some filmmakers will start doing a 7.1 mix for home theater, but I doubt it will be done very often.
Doug

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

Look at blu-raystats.com. 10 7.1 titles according to that site. I believe it is pretty accurate.

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

I just did a quick scan of that list, but all of the 7.1 films seem to be from Lionsgate. In fact on that list I can't find a single 7.1 title from any other studio. I'm not real sure what that means.

Doug

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

So, conventional wisdom would dictate that no rush to 7.1 is really neccesary regards getting a new receiver.

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

Honestly I think that 7.1 is a marketing ploy to get people to spend more money. While it maybe useful to have 7.1 channels in a very large theater to better define and localize the sounds, I'm not sure the they are needed in the relatively small space of a home theater.

Doug

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

I believe Crank is the only title with uncompressed 7.1 sound, also I think Lionsgate will release 3:10 to Yuma with 7.1 sound, uncompressed of course.

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

My room is 20x28 and benefits from 7.1 YMMV.

Crank is 6.1. But yes Lionsgate is the primary company supporting 7.1 PCM.

New Line is supporting 7.1 DTS HD/MA on both formats. Hairspray was the first title and is BR only(for now). More are coming.

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

'Shoot Em Up' out in January is supposed to be 7.1 lossless also, but only DTS-HD MA.

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

Here is a good list of 7.1 movies, as well as others (listed by audio tracks);
price-adjustment.com - Price Adjustment

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

Hellboy 2 is Uni's first in 7.1 if my memory serves me right.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army - Blu-ray Disc Review | High Def Disc News

My review will be up this weekend.

Sam

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

When we attended the HTF Hollywood meet recently, we were hosted by the fine people at Todd-AO sound.

We all sat in their dubbing theater and a question about 7.1 mixes was asked. The response was that the standard for Hollywood films is 5.1, period.

The few 7.1 BD's that have been released were all created by re-mixing the original 5.1 tracks to relocate and spread out the tracks.

Vern

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

I believe Disney's new Sleeping Beauty release has a 7.1 remix.

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

Hi all,

I am fairly new to this game. I had an old Panasonic theater-in-a-box and never really was that impressed with the 5.1. It always seemed that the surrounds weren't full enough and were more of a nuisance. Just very recently, I upgraded, bigtime. I got another theater in a box, but this is Onkyo's HT-S6100 7.1 system w/ Panasonics DMP-BD35 and using my bro's 1080p 27" LCD till I can get my 50" plasma, also going to be Panasonic. I tell you what, though. 7.1 is amazing!! I love it!! I know most of the tracks are 5.1, but with minor adjustments, the receiver and/or BD player can squeeze at least one faux back-surround. It's not like just having a front soundstage and a quiet whispering surround, it is being eveloped into the movie itself, like right there in the scene. Like in The Golden Compass when they are in the dining hall, not only is there the obvious dialog in front, but the sides produced a nice calm musical while you could hear people BEHIND you talking amongst themselves. NICE!! Not to mention the incredible detail of the 1080p! The only trouble I've had is getting it all to turn on in a decent amount of time... Sometimes up to five minutes for the tv to display anything. Also, today I opened up The Dark Knight and for some reason the receiver, which pulls the audio off of the HDMI, produced no sound and the display said "DVD FULL MONO". I tried for a half hour with all the adjustments, but still nothing. Finally I put in a movie I had already seen and it came to life. I reinstalled The Dark Knight and no problems, I even got a faux 6.1 through DolbyEx which the receiver did by all its self, no messing with the audio functions. Weird, yes. Awesome. VERY!!

Keep up the good advice.

Re: BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround

I 've listened to a unch of these 7.1 blu's
Really haven't noticed much in the way of center rear surround
activity.
and occasional sound effect is all.

anyone think any of these 7.1's have a good center rear track?

So i am extremely dissapointed in the way blu-ray is working out. I recently bought a sony blu-ray player and i was really excited, it takes a while to load but the picture is amazing. Then i noticed that some movies came in 6.1 (top gun) and i heard about 7.1 coming up, so only having a sony 5.1 receiver i decided that i needed a 7.1. so i bought a sony 7.1 surround receiver, bought matching sony speakers 4-way for the front, the center speaker, and 4 3-way speakers for the back.

It was a complete waste of money!!! nothing comes in 7.1 and the 6.1 thing is a joke, i was hoping all blu-rays would come in 7.1 but there are hardly any and i just feel like 7.1 is a rip off and i wish i hadn't invested that much money on it.

And just when you thought 7.1 in the home was overkill: www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/prologic-IIz.html

Why stop there...

http://www.audyssey.com/technology/dsx.html

Just an FYI - you should do a bit of research before you make your next purchase.  Sony is great for TV and Blu-Ray, not so great for receivers and speakers.

Plus, did you know that movies are mostly all 5.1. Even the ones that are 7.1 on Blu are remixed after the fact.

How is this the fault of "the way Blu-ray is working out"? DVDs come in 6.1/7.1 as well, y'know.

Really? How does that work? Does the DTS dvd format allow more than 5.1? How about an example of a dvd movie with more than 5.1 channels?

I don't know if there are any DTS 7.1 DVDs...I don't have any. However DTS with 6.1 channels is quite common, look for DTS-ES Discrete 6.1. Titles you may have heard of include all of the Lord of the Rings ones (unfortunately these are the only titles where I actually prefer the DD over the DTS !).

Edit: this is an oldie, but I just remembered there is a thread here "somewhere" that was kept as an ongoing list of all the EX/ES/discrete DVD titles, anything with better than 5.1 IIRC...

the star trek movie collection (kirk and spock) are in trueHD 7.1
star trek season 1 and 2 on bluray are DTS 7.1
nightmare before christmas is trueHD 7.1

there are a few titles.

Jacob

7.1 titles that I have in my collection (besides the ones listed above) are:

DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD
The Bird With The Crystal Plumage
Dead & Buried

DTS-HD
Prince Caspian
The Doors
Pinocchio
Requiem For A Dream
Snow White

How expensive is it, really, for a studio to remix a movie in 7.1 for home theaters?  I've heard anything from tens of thousands of dollars, to being something that any indie filmmaker can do in a Mac.  If it's relatively easy, I don't understand why more studios don't just bite the bullet and do it....and if it's that cost-prohibitive, then how can a small studio like Lionsgate afford to do it for huge bombs like Punisher: War Zone?  I've also been wondering about alternate language dubs....do they have to do a whole new mix for each language, or can they just "drop in" different dialogue tracks into one master mix?

It's not that it costs that much, it is more about the directors (and sound mixer's) vision of what the movie should sound like.  If it was originally mixed at 5.1, then to do it right you should have the same folks mix it to 7.1.  Now that could be expensive.  Plus, you will end up with a different movie (either way).

Remember, movies are 'art' and the sound is a major part of the art.

I agree with David. I don't think that just because you have eight speakers, they should contain audio all the time.

I agree with Stephen:

I am all for the mix that the director intended to be heard, but if there is better technology out there and the theaters have a bunch more than 5.1 speakers, why not upgrade and start mixing your Blu-ray movies in 7.1 speakers? It makes no sense for Dolby and DTS to keep creating these technologies and no one use them to their full potential. If Lucas did it for movie theaters, why can't another director or film company start doing it for home theaters?

And hey I realize that is "the way it has always been done" I love my pro-logic receiver back in the day and was amazed at how the sound actually came from behind me, ha ha... but I think that Dolby and DTS need to start throwing more parties for the from companies so we can experience even more enveloping sound. 

Did anyone find the list of movies and specific sound formats? I would love to have that info. blessings! Thanks for a good discussion.