Who controls theater volumes (1 Viewer)

[Duane Robinson]

Well I just got home from seeing the Two Towers and I am again reminded why I hate going to theaters. Everything else was damn near perfect during the whole movie. Nice big screen, pristine print, good audience, but the surround sound was friggin non existent. This happened when I went to see Friday After Next but since it was a comedy I didn't mind too much (still wanted to walk out ). But a movie like TTT needs to be above a certain level to be completely immersed in and to fully enjoy.
During the battle of Helm's Deep it felt like I was watching the movie on TV instead of being in the theater it was so low. I thought going to the theaters was supposed to give you a better presentation than what you can get at home. Visually, it succeeded but it failed misrerably on the aural front since I could get better sound at home.
I don't even own a high end system like some of you guys because if I did I surely would have waited. Whatever happened to the days of going to the theater and getting blown out of your seat by the first sound you heard and then having it continue for the whole movie. I want that back, or I might as well forfeit the bigger screen and wait for the dvd since then I can ensure that I get a quality visual and aural experience. Now it feels like I'm in a dark living room watching a big screen TV with a bunch of strangers instead of getting a presentation that would knock my socks off.

 

[RobertR]

These comments confirm why I'm going to see the film at the Village Theater in Westwood. They take pains there to play films at reference level, and they do sound checks to ensure this.

 

[Dave F]

A few years ago when Eraser was in the theaters, my local theater actually had a warning on the door regarding the extremely loud volume level. I guess their volume knob was stuck on 11.
-Dave

 

[AaronJB]

U-571 was another film where the director wrote a note to theaters asking them to play it loud. The theater that I saw it at played it at a level where I thought things were going to fall off the walls. Exciting, though.

 

[Jesse Skeen]

I gave a copy of that letter that came with U-571 to the box office people to show to any customers who might complain about it being too loud!

 

[Kami]

Well I just got home from seeing the Two Towers and I am again reminded why I hate going to theaters. Everything else was damn near perfect during the whole movie. Nice big screen, pristine print, good audience, but the surround sound was friggin non existent.

I had a similar experience today, except much much worse. :frowning:
Commercials play fine, then the first trailer comes up and loud, deafening crackling and popping ensues for the next 3 trailers (JUST crackling...no trailer sound at all). The final trailer plays fine, then the movie starts....New Line cinema logo comes up, MORE ear-popping crackling....for FIVE MINUTES STRAIGHT! I missed the entire Balrog sequence because of this. And the twerps wouldn't even restart the feature after I asked them to. Then when the volume comes back...guess what?
-MONO sound from front only!
-LOW volume (lots of dialogue was not audible)
-NO dynamic range whatsoever
I was so fumed that it took me almost an hour to get back into the movie and enjoy it. LOTR was so good that I actually could in these putrid conditions (and I already planned on getting myself free tickets so I wasn't worried about wasting money).
Then just when I'm beginning to tolerate this, the sound starts crackling AGAIN!! this time for about 3-5 minutes...I missed the whole Gimli "dwarf women" speech and most of Aragorn's flashback.
Amazingly enough, I didn't explode and enjoyed the rest of the movie. Picture quality was top notch...possibly the only thing that kept me from going nuts!
Needless to say I walked out with 6 passes (I went alone by the way).

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

Well I learned that if the trailers are deafening, to go complain to the manager so the main feature will be turned down (maybe).

No! Trailers are always mixed loud, just like TV commercials. If the volume is turned down based on the loudness of the trailers, it will almost always result in the feature being too quiet.

 

[Jonathan Burk]

Normally, the level is set between 4.5 and 6 depending on how populated the house is.

This is a huge factor in how "loud" the sound is. I used to work in a theater where the sound was turned down a little during the week, when the house was usually emptier, and up a little on the weekend. Because of this variable, there is no "one" correct setting, no matter how much tweaking you do. Background noise is also a factor. 600 people chewing popcorn can raise the noise floor quite a bit. And if I'm not mistaken, the ultimate authority on the correct sound level in a movie theater would be SMPTE.
I know the world doesn't need any more dumb theater employee stories, but I'll add mine: when we were playing Face/ Off in a smaller house (200 seats), the sound system would default to mono for every showing. Hundreds of people saw that movie without the stereo or surround channels active. I mentioned it to the theater owner, but he just said that "it always defaulted to the way it was supposed to be." One evening, I decided to catch the boat chase at the end, and a few seconds in, realized it was mono, so I ran up to the booth and punched the Dolby SR button, and ran back down. The sound was much louder and coming from all channels. There were only about 20 people in the auditorium, but I wonder what they thought when all the channels suddenly came on.

 

[Jim A. Banville]

I play movies at home at a much lower volume because I have good speakers and don't need to overwhelm the ears to cover up the bad sound.

Sounds like a Bose ad
"We here at Bose make amps with only 20 watts max because our speakers sound so good, you don't have to turn them up as much."

 

[Aaron Garman]

Kami,

What probably happened was that you saw the film in a DTS house. The way DTS works in the theatre is that the sound is read off of a CD-ROM that is kept in sync via a timecode reader on the projector. Anyhow, what most likely happened, was that the only discs in the drives were for the trailers, and perhaps not the picture. It is also possible that the timecode on the print was messed up, thus causing failure. Heck, some incompetant projectionist may have even scratched the discs. In any case, the film can't be restarted so easily. Film does not work like a DVD or VHS: you can't just rewind it in a couple seconds. If one actually took the time to restart TTT for you, it would have taken possibly a half hour! Don't be too troubled. This goes out to everyone: if their is a presentation problem, COMPLAIN COMPLAIN COMPLAIN! This is the only way to talk any sense into theatre personel into caring. From the sounds of it, your experience was not pleasant. Perhaps you could consider a complaint to the particular theatre's corporate office. If they are anything like ours, coporate will take care of the problem. Cheers!

AJ Garman

 

[Jesse Skeen]

It IS possible to re-start a show from the beginning, but you have to know what you're doing!
Complaints about anything should go to the corporate office, since if the theatre is badly-run it usually means the management there doesn't care. I complained to UA about a theater here though and they sent me passes but still haven't made any improvements, so I've given up on them.

 

[Aaron Garman]

It IS possible to re-start a show from the beginning, but you have to know what you're doing!

I never said it was impossible, just arduous and difficult. Restarting like that also can lead to possible print damage such as scratches. Anyhow, I have a love-hate relationship with complaints. I mean I don't like them in the sense that I don't like a dissapointed customer, but I love them because I know that there is in fact something wrong and perhaps I or we can fix it.

 

[Christian H]

I just adjust the volume based on what I hear. Most movies are played at 4.5 - but sometimes I adjust the volume if that's too low or too loud. If we were to play the movies at reference level (7) the audience would go deaf.