LOW SOUND: Monsters Inc. (1 Viewer)

The 5.1 (EX for those who can make use of it) is just incredible. It's deep, solid and expansive. NEVER harsh. I like to send some LFE to my mains as for my HT set up, it helps for a more even flow of bass across the room. There's some great use of .1 here, some subtle, some not so subtle. Again Monsters Inc plays hosts to the endless talents of Gary Rydstrom who rockets the films sound mix into the league of the Toy Story movies and Bugs Life.
The first time Boo cries, there's an burst of electricity waves across all channels. The sounds flow from right to left, from the fronts and into the mains, and vice versa. The panning of the sounds as the power goes crazy just put a smile on my face because, for lack of a better word, it's just really neat.
There's so much to love about the 5.1 for this movie. It makes for the best kind of mix you could hope for as whilst Rydstrom employs some great tricks, nothing sounds over the top or overused. On the front end of things, the mains and centre channels are incredibly open and even. Sound effects never drown out music, or dialogue. It's really rather perfect... It's a wacky mix that somehow seems utterly natural.

You can see the other comments in this thread.
WSR gave it a 5 outta 5 for sound and noted it was reference. Here's what they observed;

• Aggressive Surround
• Surround Bass Below 50Hz
• Intense 25Hz Bass
• Deep Bass Challenging
• Aggressive 0.1 LFE
• Holosonic Soundfield
• Aggressive Split Surround
• Center Back Surround Imaging

You can check that review here.
I'm not sure what's going on with your version, but the R1 sounds like a winner.
Troy

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That is the main reason why I prefer DTS over Dolby.

Is there something wrong with everyone's volume control knob? Just turn it up. That's what the knob is for. DTS tracks are usually recorded and transferred hotter than DD tracks. Sorry to sound harsh. just turn that sucker up. You can set it back after you finish watching the film.

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Also, the THX cow trailer sounds different. When the robot flys and then lands on the ground, the Toy Story version has a bassy thump when he lands. Not so with Monsters Inc. The only bass in this version comes only when the cows charge at the end.

The TEX Moo Can THX trailer on the Monsters Inc DVD is the original one. If you listen to the old THX DVD or the new Ultimate THX demo DVD, the TEX Moo can sounds exactly the same.
The one for the Toy Story DVD set has been remixed in DD-EX. They added more bass and the "moos" sound different.
I also explained it below.
http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htfo...threadid=94666

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In my honest opinion the differences between DD and DTS is the fact that DTS doesn't alter the original sound that is on the track of the film. Also, at a lower compression rate I am able to hear more detailed sound where Dolby falls short because of a higher compression rate. Also, the Dolby encoder allow a user to alter to the sound for small room enviornments where all types of Re-EQ and Dial-Norm alters the sound.

So many myths in so small a space.
1. DTS tracks on DVD are not a raw dump of the theatrical sound track, nor could they be. Both the codec and the bitrate for home theater DTS are different from those used theatrically. The sound has to be re-encoded from original, uncompressed sources. In that process, the sound may or may not be remixed, sweetened or otherwise altered. The same is true for Dolby Digital.
2. There are many posts on this board addressing the pervasive myth that less compression automatically equals better sound. But in any case, given the "half-rate" version of DTS most commonly used on DVD today, the debate is even more pointless than it used to be. Both the DTS and the DD you get on most DVDs today are highly compressed; the question is whether the two codecs do a good job at maintaining fidelity. Both of them do.
3. Re-eq may be applied in preparing a track for DVD, but it's not a function of the Dolby encoder. As for dialnorm, it does not "alter" the sound. It simply instructs the Dolby decoder to raise or lower the overall volume by a set amount (the default is -4db). Raising or lowering the volume on your amp or receiver by the equivalent value entirely eliminates the effect of any dialnorm setting.
The very best piece I've ever read on DTS vs. Dolby is by our own Adam Barratt. I highly recommend it:
http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/adbarr/page1.html
M.

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so..anyone notice distortion? anyone, two, three?

I'm thinking most of us have to wait until we actually have a copy of the DVD before we can say.

Bruce

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let's simplify:

PET PEEVE: Having to constantly change volume settings.

That's what dialnorm is supposed to cure.

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