Atlantis: The Lost Empire Sound Problem (1 Viewer)

[Scott Bourden]

First off, I did a couple searches, and read through about a dozen threads about the sound dropouts, and this is not my issue.

I have the regular edition (a gift) and everything is fine when I start it up. The previews all play perfect in DD (the lights on my Denon 1802 all come on and I can audibly tell). The menu screen of the graphics rushing toward you and raising from the water are both perfect as well. COntinue on to the "THX" logo, and their little demo of intense sound. Still all good.

But, sadly, here is the issue. As soon as the actual movie starts (when they are all rushing away from the tidal wave) the sound dies. If I turn my reciever up to +14 (as high as it will go) I can just barely hear hear it (literally, can just pick out voices and sounds from the movie). Everything appears to be fine (my reciever is on auto, and picks it up as a Dolby Digital soundtrack) and every other part of the movie (intro, thx demo, previews) work 100% flawless. WHen I switch it from DD to Stereo, it plays back at the normal sound level, and the same with "Virtual Surround", but back to Dolby Digital 5.1, and the sound is gone again.

I swapped in three other DD movies (Jeepers Creepers, Shrek disk #1 and Ninja Scroll, and all three worked perfectly, ruling out that it is a hardware issue just for dolby digital. (I've also checked it with DTS and it works fine then as well)

My DVD player is a JVC XV-S40.

This is quite frustrating, and any help is much appriciated.

 

[Scott Bourden]

Bump for some help... Anybody had this happen before?

 

[Gary Kellerman]

I have this disc out on rental thru Monday. I did not have trouble in the spot you mentioned. I did have a freeze up in a later segment of the disc on a Pioneer DV-341 player. I did clean the disc but have not retested it in my player. In did play fine in my brother's Pioneer Elite DV-37. Although WIDESCREEN REVIEW gave a very good review to the soundtrack, I do not think it is up to parr. The audio on the whole track is somewhat lower than normal and not as clean as other Disney releases. I could hear this on both players.

The first thing I would do is very gently clean the disc, however, if you bought it at a store where you can exchange it and there is still time to do that, I would go right away and exchange it. It could be a software defect. The only way to know if it is giving a particular problem on your JVC player is to be able to play this disc on another brand of player. If you are unable to exchange the disc and/or try it on some other players, clean the disc and try it again in your player.

 

[Scott Bourden]

Gary: The disk is absolutley spotless, not even a speck of dust on it, but the problem persists. The DVD was a gift, and the person has since lost the bill for the DVD. My only hope is to go back, tell them that there is something wrong with it (and not my player I hope) and trade up to the 2 disk edition. This is all hoping that they will even take a disk back which has been opened, and with no bill.... And I have very very low hopes for that working out.

 

[Ray Chuang]

I would suggest you report the problem at once to Disney's DVD support web site (http://www.disneydvd.com/support). Select Report A Problem once you get to the main web page and fill in the information on the entry screens.
The reason is that Disney has confirmed that both the Standard and Collector's Editions of the movie don't work on some players due to bugs in the decoding firmware on the DVD player itself on older DVD players.
I would suggest you check with Denon and see if you can get a firmware upgrade to your Denon 1802 player. I do know that several DVD player owners have said the problems playing the Atlantis: The Lost Empire DVD's went away when the DVD player's firmware was upgraded.
(Psst: if you report the problem comprehensively they might even send you a replacement disc for free )

 

[Gary Kellerman]

Scott; Follow the directions that Ray has given you.

At 73 minutes into the movie where the princess ascends into the crystal, my unit freezes on that spot. This is a Pioneer 341 that BestBuy sells and as such it is a current model. The same spot went through without any problem on my Zenith IQD2300 and as I mentioned before, my brothers Pioneer Elite 37A. There is one thing I must mentione here. I am having the problem only on the FULLSCREEN choice. I had no problems with my two players on the WIDESCREEN CHOICE. Before calling the HOUSE OF THE MOUSE, see how the disc works in both formats on that problem scene. Good luck.

 

[Scott Bourden]

Ray: I've filed my report of a problem, so hopefully "within two business days" I will get my reply
I am also waiting on a reply about newer firmware from Denon.
Gary: I have checked around the 73 minute mark about a dozen times since your post, and exactly where she acends the crystal (between the floating masks) and there are no freezing problems with my JVC XV-S40. I'll check a couple of the other reported problem area's though.

 

[Wes]

Scott, I just set up a system for a friend. He has a Dennon new 1802 DD/DTS/PLII and a new Mits 2080 (I think it is) DVD player that has a onboard DD and DVD audio decoder. We put in that same disc and had the exact symptoms you have. So I switch the Dennon inputs to the 6channel EXT and from out of the Mits's DD decoder and we got the DD 5.1 to come in perfectly. So it appears to me its a incompatibility with Dennon and the way Disney did the DD encoding. We also have the same problem with Pearl Harbor DD (DTS worked fine), Jurassic Park III DD (DTS worked fine). These same discs work perfectly in DD and DTS on my Pioneer 709 and Toshiba DVD player.

Wes

 

[Scott Bourden]

Wes: Unfortunatly, my DVD player doesn't have onboard decoding, and even if it did, I would much rather not have to use it to play 1-2 particular movies. I'm just hoping that I can get a return and perhaps trade up to the 2 disk edition, so I can watch the movie in DTS.

 

[Scott Bourden]

Great news. I recieved a reply from Disney after on the DVD problem, and due to my Dolby Digital issue's with this title, and even though I specified numerous times I only had the regular single disk edition, they are shipping me Special Edition, and specified in the email that I should use the DTS track on disk 2 for problem free audio.
Talk about service!!!!
I'll have no second thought's about buying a Disney animated title after this fortunate turn of events

 

[James Herrod]

I also have a Denon AVR 1802 receiver and have the exact same problem with Atlantis. Does this mean that I'm going to have continuing problems using this receiver with DD soundtracks? Also, could you tell me more about this firmware upgrade for the Denon receiver? Thanks.

Jim

 

[Matthew Anderson]

I have a Pioneer dv-414 and my Atlantis disc in dts mode froze twice last night. Once in chp 6 and once in chp 14. It was a little annoying but it was only for a couple of seconds each time.

 

[Roogs Benoit]

Matthew,
There have been a few titles encoded with an extended bitstream parameter
in the ac-3 file. Atlantis,J.P.III,etc. There is a playback issue in a few units by
Denon, Kenwood, Onkyo, and possibly others. That is why the DTS plays fine
on these titles. The actual ac-3 file is fine just not 100% compatible with some
decoders. If there is a way to bypass the decoder on your Denon (as I see someone
has) there is no problem. Dolby,Denon,Onkyo and others are all aware of
this problem and are working on a correction.
Enjoy your new deluxe edition.
Roogs

 

[Oscar]

I only own the movie only edition with minimal features (im a cheap bastard), and i didnt face that problem, of course i dont own a Denon, i own a Sony Home Theater System, which cost me 379 bucks, and it sounds awesome

 

[Ed Vandeweerd]

Scott,

Have you thought of a Firmware upgrade for your player? When I had my Tos 3109 I sent the player back cos I had problems with discs freezing. When it came back it performed flawlessly.

 

[James Herrod]

This should answer everybody's questions.
Link Removed
Jim