Talk about giving your sub a workout !! (1 Viewer)

[Lewis Besze]

Balrog showed up or the house would have collapsed. The only scene that compares to the bass in this movie is the tank scene at the end of Saving Private Ryan.

SPR doesn't hold the candle for LOTR bass wise!
It seems that some of you need to take care of typical room mode of 40hz or so,either by EQ or room treatment.
This was a bass heavy movie but like many others[SPR for example] the bass was substantial well below 25hz at most of the bassy scenes,though not as dynamic as Titan A.E. IMO. A fine example of a great movie track.
If the same master will be used for the DTS track then it won't make any difference.
Will it be DTS ES Discrete or Matrix?

 

[Brian Kleinke]

LOTR allowed me to show my wife why she doesn't put things high on walls where they can easily fall off. I'll agree with everyone else, we have a new demo disc!
I think the Balrog sceen will be mine, since it's so cool as well
Brian

 

[John Gates]

This disc rocked the house. I have twin 20-39's, and they bottomed out about 5 times in different spots in the movie. As previously mentioned, managing your bass is going to be essential!
Time to really tweak the high pass filter on the Art 351! Maybe time to upgrade my original drivers or go to Ultras!
This movie reminds me of the #1 reason why people upgrade home computer systems: You get a new game you can't play on the current hardware!
Happy watching!!
john g
PS. I didn't catch this one in the theaters, but at home, I was blown away. What a HUGE movie!

 

[Jeff_M]

I can't wait until my dual SVS PC+ subs ship. I thought this movie was awesome in the theater. I can't help but think that from there, seeing it at home can only be a letdown. You have to take into account the fact that I was one of the lucky few to see it in an IMAX theater!

 

[Doug_B]

A bit off the main track of this thread, but can someone list the additional features of the upcoming Special Edition version of this DVD? Either way, a CS_Ultra should make for a great experience.

Thanks.

Doug

 

[Kieran Coghlan]

Lewis Besze:

I would bet money that it is DTS-ES discrete, since DTS does not do es-matrix only sound tracks. I don't know if they ever did, but if so, they don't any more. The es-matrix portion is now just a backwards compatibility aspect of es-discrete. As far as DTS is concerned, for sound tracks, there is only DTS-ES and 5.1 DTS. DTS-ES includes both discrete and matrix information. When the discrete track is played, the matrix information is subtracted out of the digital signal. If a discrete decoder is not present but a matrix one is, then the discrete channel information is ignored. So, if you have a dts-discrete decoder, then you will hear the discrete information. If you only have a 6.1-matrix decoder, then you will hear the dts-matrix information, and if you have only a 5.1 decoder, you will hear the matrix information, but through the SR and SL speakers, since there will be no SB speaker.

 

[Dustin B]

The special edition has the DTS-ES track and 30 min of additional footage (properly completed with brand new music for all of that extra footage, making FOTR a 3.5 hour long movie).

It is also gonna be a 4 disc set with two of the discs being extra features. And as far as my roommate can tell, the extra features will be completely different from the one that is out now.

 

[itai]

i was forced to use the d.comp on my 3802 (the night-time listening compression mode) on high, there's an enormous difference between the quiet parts and the...well, screams!
not dynamic? this thing can get you devorced! (and evicted of the building!...)
pure pleasure, HT reference material, keep 'em coming!!!

 

[Lewis Besze]

Kieran,
DTS ES Discrete is not a theatrical format,it was created to the home market.[and I'm familiar with it's technical aspects]
That's the reason why it is so few out there,it costs more hours and money to implement it.It also "requires" it that a new master be created like they did with the Haunting and The Gladiator.With ES Matrix they could just use the original EX/ES masters and reencode it in DTS.
That's is why I asked if it's a Discrete track,if it is we can observe some differences,otherwise don't hold your breath.

 

[Kirk Mango]

I have watched this movie twice already. I normally set my B&K Ref 30 Preamp to -15dB for watching most movies and on a movie like Titan A&E I will get peaks of 96 or 97dB on my spl meter during the most bass intesive scenes (the begining earth explosions & the Ice Maze scene). I thought that this was as good as it gets for bass response, that is until I LOTR. Man I watched maybe the first 10 min. at my normal volume setting then turned it down to -17dB. Had to get some readings on some of these scenes. I took several readings at -17dB on Preamp and my Spl got peaks of about 100dB and this level occurred at several places in the film. The scene where the Octopus attacks the group going into the caves of Modor had some very low bass, the scene where the Demon is attacking,and the scene where the Woman in the woods has Frodo look into the bowel of water to see past, present, and future all had solid bass. I never got any readings above 100dB on the spl. I cannot imagine playing this movie at reference levels. It would be overpowering.

Kirk

 

[John_Bilbrey]

Regarding the DD vs. DTS track: if they use the same master, I don't understand how it COULDN'T be different, seeing as how DTS uses less compression than DD. Would that inherently not make it sound better? I may have opened up the proverbial can o' worms with this one....

 

[Dustin B]

Well Kirk, you prompted me to pull out my spl meter. I just watched the opening battle scene again at what is 10dB under reference according to Avia on my system.
For pretty much that entire battle scene my spl meter (c weighting, fast response at my listening position) read between 97dB and 102dB. And one of Sauron's big swings (I think, was watching the spl meter, not the screen) spiked my meter to past 110dB (was set on the 90-110dB range and maxed it). The only other scene that has done that on my system is the ball explosion in the THX intro to TPM at 5dB under reference.
That constant barage of 100dB sound is just too loud. But that reverse sweep or whatever that is when Sauron explodes sounds damn cool.

 

[Jason Wilcox]

i "felt" my cheapo jbl 8" sub for the first time during this movie. like when the mountain was falling down on the group while they were in the snow.

 

[Tom Vodhanel]

A lot of the scenes have VERY loud bass in the 30-60hz range...not many extend under 20hz though.

chap7, right before the 9 ride out of the gates, Mt. Doom is shown...that extends

 

[JackIR]

Tom,

Appreciate your info. At the beginning of this post I said that my sub got a workout. Indeed, my CS-Ultra was sweating after this movie!! I think it used every drop of my 500 watts amp.

 

[Geoff L]

Thanks Tom for jumping in and providing us with some real freq data.
My humble vintage Rotel RTA looks as though it was showing things pretty proper.
Man they pushed the dbs in this one didn't they!
Great movie, far better than I thought it was going to be. Never saw it in theater, so new not what to expect. So glad I picked it up.....
A sure keeper people....
Edit:
Glad to see Tom mention (great dynamics), what I thought also.

 

[Lewis Besze]

Regarding the DD vs. DTS track: if they use the same master, I don't understand how it COULDN'T be different, seeing as how DTS uses less compression than DD. Would that inherently not make it sound better?

NO,since the compression technique is different,so they won't make any practical comparison to one another,only a direct comparison to the original master would yield any meaingful outcome.

 

[Michael_UK]

I loved the bass track on this film, I liked that there was differnt types of bass ranging from continous rumbling to swift punchy attacks.

I just build a DIY subwoofer kit last week and this film was a good test of its capabilities.

I watched the whole film at -20 below refrence.

The loudest parts I found were when the rock falls in the battle of the squid type monster and when Frodo puts on the ring to get away from Boromir and he looks towards the dark tower.

after the film finished I pulled out my SPL meter I played scenes a bit louder they pushed around 104 db when run at -15 db below refrence.

I will have to try Titan AE to see what this sound like.

LOTR is now my newest DEMO disk.

 

[Holadem]

spend more time on the Blarog showdown if anything) Just a great film though...brought an *unfilmable* book to the screen in ways I never thought would be accomplished.

[off topic]
TOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!
From this paragraph, I gather that you read the books!
Quite a few things were modified from the books to fit this movie but PJ knew to keep his hands off this particular scene. The Bridge of Khazad Dum (sp?) is THE most important scene of the FOTR. He did wisely to film it exactly as it was written, right down to the dialog, and even the balrog's moves!!
That was perfect, I would change nothing.
[/off topic]

--
Holadem

 

[Kieran Coghlan]

Lewis Besze:

You are of course absolutely correct about dts-es discreet being a home, not a theatrical format. Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear, but I didn't mean to imply otherwise. What I was getting at is that I don't believe that DTS makes dvds with dts-es-matrix soundtracks specifically anymore. If it says DTS-ES, it is discreet. Possibly, if it is the same sound track as was in the theater, but only 5.1, while the theater was es-matrix, then I suppose the 5.1 dvd would then inherently be es-matrix, even if it didn't say so. Thing is, DTS is IIRC, trying to get away from the "confuse Joe 6-pack" terminology of discrete versus matrix, and instead is just going with dts, or dts-es. So, in the future (and recent past) if a dvd says dts-es, it is discrete, whereas if it just says dts, it may or may not have the matrix info on it.