Babylon 5 Season 4 Sound Issues (1 Viewer)

Hey, I just got through watching the 6th episode, "Into the Fire" on disc 2 and I noticed the dialogue sounded very muffled. Sometimes I had to strain to make out what the characters were saying. Then during the end credits, heard static coming from my front left speaker. It happened at 43:26 (1:27:12 if you select the "play all" option") and lasted for about 6-7 seconds. Has anyone else had this same problem?

Just to add further, I've tried the disc in both a Panasonic RP-82 and a Sony DVP-CX860 and I got the same result. I checked my speaker connections and everything is good on that end, so I suppose it's just a bad job on the soundtrack for this particular episode. It's too bad since it's a pretty important one too.

Haven't played them on my main setup, but I didn't notice anything when playing them on a player just hooked up to a TV. If I get time tomorrow I'll check it on my HT setup.

I had no such problems on both of my Toshiba players (SD-1600 & SD-3805).

Rob, are you playing the 5.1 channel English track? I've seen several reports of people complaining that the dialogue is muddy and even slightly out-of-sync on this one episode, but can't confirm because my HT audio gear is still boxed pending some work I have to do here in my new condo. So I too only heard the downmixed version through my TV speakers. Sounded perfectly OK to me, but I suspect there is a serious screw up with the 5.1. If so, I want hope we can verify this and star pushing Warner Bros. to exchange the discs like they did in R2/PAL edition of S1 when the CGI was screwed up in one episode. (Instead of zooming the CGI and component shots and matting them they "stretched" them the way you'd expand an anamorphic image.)

People are reporting the same problem on several B5 websites and on the moderated newsgroup.

Regards,

Joe

I didn't notice a synch issue with this episode, but the dialogue was just really muddy sounding. Every other episode I've watched so far sounds great, but "Into the Fire" is a complete disappointment.

I watched it on a 5.1 setup and don't recall any problems. Is it the whole episode, or are there specific time codes?

The dialogue for the entire episode was not up to par. The rest of the episodes on disc 2 were just fine.

As Joe said, people on the B5 moderated group have noticed this as well, so it's not just me

"Into The Fire" has always had some sound issues. The broadcast version sounded muffled and the VHS tape had the same problem.