BLU-RAY movies in 7.1 channel surround - Page 2

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/search.php?keyword=&studioid=&videocodec=&disc=&yearfrom=&yearto=&regioncoding=&aspectratio=&aspectratio_original=&releaseyear=&audio=7.1&subtitles=&synopsis=&submit=Search&action=search


 

it's unfortunate alot of the movies that came out on DVD at 6.1 are not going to 7.1 on blu-ray.  hopefully the EE editions of LOTR will be so.  
(edit - oops, i just read that the LOTR blu's ARE 6.1   - my bad).

does anyone know what happens to 7.1 discs on a 5.1 system?  do the center back channels get "added" to the L/R channels?
Edited by EricW - 3/29/10 at 8:39pm

Ratatouille

 

It's a great movie and makes excellent use of the rear surround.

 

I am using a Panasonic SA-XR55 and have both left and right rear surround speakers hooked up.

 

Also, the front left and right are bi-wire wired so that's a plus to have thanks to the SA-XR55.

 

Another neat feature is that even if a sound track is not encoded with 7.1, the SA-XR55 will split the side surround signal and send a portion of it to the back speakers, and NOT in mono!  You are not hearing the same thing out of side and back on either side wither, it splits the signal and sends a portion to the rear.

 

I have been looking for other movies like Ratatouille that make such good use of the rear surrounds.  Not much luck though

 

Steven

They are dropped.
 

I have a Dolby HD-DVD demo disc with 7.1 Dolby TrueHD, which my player can't pass to the receiver.  It has a channel ID test and the extra surround channels just go to the regular surrounds- back left goes to left, back right goes to right.

Not if you set up your receiver correctly. If you have those channels marked as "no" or "off" they will be downmixed into the surround channels. If you don't have an HD receiver then your blu-ray player will only pass the core DTS track or alternate DD track neither of which will be 7.1 anyway.

Not very many Blu-ray DVD's are in 7.1 surround sound. To get most out of your view experience, also look for DVD's that feature 6.1 or Dobly Digital EX or DTS ES, even if they say they are 5.1 EX or 5.1 ES, they are still encoded to use your surround back speakers so that all 7 speakers play sound at some point during the movie as needed.

Some Blu-rays allow you to go into the setup and select different audio, between 5.1 DTS-HD and Dobly Digital EX. While the DTS-HD is considered superior sound, if you want to use all your speakers, select the EX.

Also check the standard version against the Blu-ray verison of the movie. Some standard versions will feature EX/ES/6.1 audio formats where as the Blu-ray upgrades to losses HD 5.1 audio. Again if your surround sound is more important to you, go with the standard version of the movie.

Hope this helps.

It seems more 7.1 blu-rays are becoming available as time goes on... recent releases such as Scarface, Captain America and Thor are 7.1.  Hopefully the trend will continue.

A see a bunch of one and done posters in this topic. What ever happens to Obs?

I asked four years ago and now again. Does anyone notice any rear surround sound on these 7.1 tracks. I hear a fly over and an explosion once in awhile but not much else.

Tony D - The whole point of surround speakers is to envelop you into the movie. Best usage of this feature depends on what kind of movie you are watching. Movies such as Terminator 2, Punisher, and Blade 2 have lots of action and make true use of the surround sound effect. Other movies that have little to no action are not going to make very use of this feature.

Second, your speakers may need to be tuned to your listening room and balanced to each other. If not, more than likely what will happen is your front 3 channels will drown out your surrround speakers making them sound very weak or low in volume. I had this problem at first. I upgraded my speaker wire to a single one piece 12 gauge performance wire, used monster gold plated terminals on both ends, and ran a speaker sound test with a mic feature in my Yamaha receiver. Once I did all that, I then fine tuned each speaker level to my personal preference. Basicly, the surrounds were max out, the center was up 1/3, and the front left/right remain stock. The subwoofers was up 50%.

There is a lot that goes into making a good home theater sound really good. Before you start blaming the sound audio of the movie, you must take a really good look at your own system, speaker size and placement, and receiver quality tuning before posting 7.1 sounds dissapointing.

Thanks Carlos. I know all that I had omitted a few words when I posted that, I was wondering about the center rear surround sound backchannel.

I hear plenty of surround in the standard surround channels and love it.

I guess it depends on what you consider "not very many". I have over 82  7.1 Blu-Ray titles in my collection as of today and with more films now being mixed in 7.1 (for the theater, not just home theater) there should be many more on the way.

 

To date, there are about 5,306 blu-ray DVD's avaliable. Of that, there are 288 (6.58%) that have 7.1 surround. Six percent?!?!?! I would say that is not that many.

Of the total blu-rays avaliable, 3,522 movies have 5.1 surround sound which makes up a whopping 80.50%!!!!

I know 82 might be a big number to you, but unless you can prove its a big number to me, I will continue to stand by my statement "not that many" are avaliable on 7.1 surround sound.

For up to date info, check out this link:

http://www.blu-raystats.com/Stats/Stats.php?OrderBy=Title&Audio=7.1

Well, you're missing the point in your own argument.  3522 have been released in 5.1 because that's how they were mixed. The majority of the ones in 7.1 have been re-mixed for 7.1 for the home video market because they too were originally 5.1 in the theater. So if 288 have been re-mixed just for us home theater enthusiasts, that's quite a large number in my opinion. They could have just put them out as the original 5.1 mix (and in some cases might as well have done that). A good 7.1 upmix from a 5.1 original takes some time and effort and ideally, access to the original stems.

Theatrical 7.1 is fairly recent with Dolby Surround 7.1.  The good news is most of these titles are making it to Blu-ray with their theatrical 7.1 mix.  Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Mega Mind, Super 8 are all examples of theatrical 7.1 mixes on Blu-ray.  Transformers DotM was spectacular!  I'm hoping to watch Super 8 this week.  We had the opportunity to talk with Erik Aadahl who did the 7.1 mix for several theatrical and Blu-ray releases, and here the footage here: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/t/309662/erik-aadahl-supervising-sound-editor-for-megamind-on-designing-a-mix-using-dolby-surround-7-1

Super 8 is a 7.1 mix only for certain parts of the film. It was kind of a missed opportunity for several scenes where it could have added a larger dimension perhaps. For example, the rear channels make there first entrance at 16:38 into the film. The other two titles you mentioned are very good 7.1 mixes, especially Transformers 3 - conceived as 7.1 from the beginning, not just for home theater. "Thor" was another one in 7.1 at the theater.

Wonder what's next, 12.1?

Just watched/listened to Fright Night and Kung foo Panda 2, both are 7.1 but no noticeable difference to me.

Ultimately its up to the producer/director how they want the finish product to look like/sound like. I too was disappointed in some movies that are in 7.1 and didn't sound as good or make as good use as other films in 5.1 EX. Its like the 3D fad, some movies make good use of it, while others make customers demand their money back when very little of film is or shows any 3D.

Only one movie thus far has blown me away with its surround sound usage. Terminator 2. This movie maybe old, but holds true to the old saying "They just don't make them like they used too...". The movie uses Dobly Digital 5.1 EX which is perfect for a 7.1 home theater system, the aspect ratio is 1.85 which is perfect for a big widescreen TV (no bars) and the blu-ray version comes with 3 different versions of the film...Theater version, Extended version, and the hidden Skynet version which is the best in my opinion. Its no wonder it was a blockbuster hit. If more producers/directors followed this "guideline", movie watching at home would be way more enjoyable.

Actually that would be 11.4, mainly intended for very large rooms were 5.1 or 7.1 using small speakers can't create enough sound volume to fill the room. My receiver allows me to upgrade one more step to a 9.2 setup. Since my front left and right channels are large floor standing tower speakers, I can't see how 2 more enhancement channels will make it sound better....but it sure is tempting and would look super cool.

TERMINATOR 2 is 2.20:1, not 1.85:1.

Sorry my mistake, I got Terminator 1 and 2 mixed up. Both blu-ray movies are in Dobly Digital 5.1 EX which sounds great on a 7.1 surrond sound system. Terminator 1 is 1.85:1 (No Bars) and Terminator 2 is 2.35:1 (With bars) aspect ratio. So if more movie makers followed Terminator 1's layout/format; movie watching at home would be way more enjoyable!

Carlos:

 

Not sure what you find less enjoyable about watching a 2.2:1 movie on your system than a 1.85:1 film.

 

But as long as the disc represents the filmmakers intent (as closely as possible)...you should be having a pleasurable experience. 

 

That's what we like to advocate for here on the HTF:

 

 

 

That's from the HTF's Mission Statement.

I have to be honest - I'm also not sure what is less enjoyable about a 2.35:1 or other similar aspect ratio. If I'm reading you correctly, you're advocating that people should start shooting in 1.85:1 and you aren't advocating for a cropped image. If that is the case, I don't agree with that, either

I enjoy all movies in their prospective formats....But I perfer and favor movies that don't have black bars. I paid for a 58 inch widescreen TV and I want to use all 58 inches. I don't like the idea of having a big screen TV only to use 75% of it. Movies with 1.85 ratios fill up my entire big screen and thats what I enjoy....my personal preference.

It's not the movies that have black bars - it's the TV set.  (   )

 

Different movies have different aspect ratios, and because TV screens aren't made of rubber, you cannot always use all of its surface - but you need (and payed for) it for the other movies.

Of course your preference is as valid as anyone else's, though.

 

Cees

Happy Holidays to all! Just wanted to let you guys know I got the entire Star Wars Saga on blu-ray...all 6 movies. They ALL feature 6.1 DTS!!! And it sounds totally awesome!!! Sure, the rear sound speakers act as one, but there is so much action, echo dialoge, and chases that all the surround speakers are constantly being used. Even episodes 4,5, and 6, that are over 20 years old sound great. So if you really want to test you 7.1 system, check out any one of these six films in 6.1 DTS!!!

In reality, the human ear just can't tell the difference between between EX/ES/6.1 and 7.1. Sure you can tell the difference from the left and right side, but once all 7 speakers are producing sound, I can't tell which speaker is playing what other than the obvious sounds.

Any other great recommendations for EX/ES/6.1/7.1 movies that sound great on a 7.1 surround sound?

Here is a list of theatrical Dolby 7.1 titles.  Any of the Blu-rays currently released will have a great 7.1 mix, since they were mixed theatrically for 7.1

 

 

Studio	Titles	Theatrical Release Date
Pixar Animation Studios/Walt Disney Pictures	Toy Story 3	18-Jun-10
Walt Disney Pictures	Step Up 3-D	6-Aug-10
Media Asia Distribution	Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen	23-Sep-10
	Los Ojos de Julia (Spanish)	29-Oct-10
DreamWorks/Paramount	Megamind	5-Nov-10
Walt Disney Pictures	Tangled	24-Nov-10
20th Century Fox	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader	10-Dec-10
Walt Disney Pictures	Tron Legacy	17-Dec-10
20th Century Fox	Gulliver's Travels	22-Dec-10
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures/Touchstone Pictures	Gnomeo and Juliet	11-Feb-11
Walt Disney Pictures	Mars Needs Moms	11-Mar-11
Warner Bros.	Torrente 4 (Spanish)	11-Mar-11
SuperVision Media	Lord of the Dance 3D	17-Mar-11
20th Century Fox Film	Dum Maaro Dum	22-Apr-11
Star Union Skyee, Edko Films (China)	The Lost Bladesman	28-Apr-11
Paramount Pictures/Marvel	Thor	6-May-11
Walt Disney Pictures	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides	20-May-11
DreamWorks/Paramount	Kung Fu Panda 2	26-May-11
Paramount Pictures	Super 8	10-Jun-11
Paramount Pictures/Marvel	Captain America: The First Avenger	22-Jul-11
Walt Disney/Pixar	Cars 2	24-Jun-11
Paramount Pictures	Transformers: Dark of the Moon	29-Jun-11
Sombrero Productions (France)	Derriere les Murs (aka Behind the Walls)	6-Jul-11
Walt Disney/DreamWorks	Fright Night	19-Aug-11
Lionsgate	Warrior	9-Sep-11
Walt Disney Pictures	The Lion King 3D	16-Sep-11
Walt Disney/DreamWorks	Real Steel	7-Oct-11
Eros International (India)	RA. One	26-Oct-11
DreamWorks/Paramount	Puss in Boots	4-Nov-11
Relativity Media/Universal Pictures	Immortals	11-Nov-11
Summit Entertainment	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1	18-Nov-11
Walt Disney Pictures	The Muppets	23-Nov-11

 

I am not looking for a list of 7.1 films, but rather a recommendation of movies that people have ACTUALLY SEEN that sound great on 7.1 surround sound system. From your list, I have seen Thor on my 7.2 system....while its an B+ movie, I wasn't too impressed with its 7.1 audio. Again, any recommendations of movies anyone has seen that sound great as well?

I have been searching om here for a couple of hours and not found one single 7.1 audio track here in the UK all region B Blu-rays seem to be in 5.1