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The Low Frequency Content Thread (films, games, music, etc)


maxmercy

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I haven't looked at the DVD of The Hobbit.

 

Well guys, if you ever check the 1st post, a few films have moved up, and a few films have moved down in the rankings now that I am measuring 100% digitally.  I am sad to say that War of the Worlds is now a 4.75 Star film, so is Looper.  I have many films to go, but those two surprised me, even more so that WotW is riddled with clipping in every channel.  I do not own the film (didn't like it), but every high spl scene has clipping in at least one of the channels.  Like every other film, the center channel clips the most.

 

Harry Potter 3&4 soon...

 

JSS

 

Thank you for taking the time to re-do the measurements.  I really appreciate your work.

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I haven't looked at the DVD of The Hobbit.

 

Well guys, if you ever check the 1st post, a few films have moved up, and a few films have moved down in the rankings now that I am measuring 100% digitally.  I am sad to say that War of the Worlds is now a 4.75 Star film, so is Looper.  I have many films to go, but those two surprised me, even more so that WotW is riddled with clipping in every channel.  I do not own the film (didn't like it), but every high spl scene has clipping in at least one of the channels.  Like every other film, the center channel clips the most.

 

Harry Potter 3&4 soon...

 

JSS

 

Explains A LOT! I knew I wasn't crazy.

 

Still.. WotW remains as one of the kings of bass, imo. 4.75 ain't a bad spot. ;)

 

Nice work, I'll go check out the new scores.

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I would rather highly compressed than highly clipped any day of the week, unless it is used purposely (the sound crew for Revenge of the Fallen purposely clipped mics while recording gunshots to make them 'thicker').

 

Interesting to see where Elysium will fall.  Maybe next weekend I'll take the time to update polls and such.

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Getaway (5.1 DTS-HD MA)


Level        - 5 Stars (112.5dB composite)
Extension - 5 Stars (1Hz)
Dynamics - 4 Stars (26.11dB)
Execution - 4 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 4.5 Stars

Recommendation - Rent (by poll)

 

Notes:  This movie has a ton of bass content - It's literally just one long car chase.  There are some amazingly hot stretches that rival the amplitude of just about anything (see scenecaps below).  However, it's not all good. There's frequent and annoying road noise LF/ULF that kills its execution.  Some would have been OK, but they put it in most scenes in the middle of the movie, and it's very out of place.  I'm not even sure why it's there most of the time - it's used in such a way that doesn't sound anything like real driving.  Also, it's earned every bit of its 4.0 star IMDb rating!  It's After Earth bad.  ;)

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-33187200-1385516621_thumb.png

 

SL Scenecaps

 

post-17-0-59715800-1385516643_thumb.png

 

post-17-0-69218000-1385516656_thumb.png

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The Grandmaster (7.1 DTS-HD MA)


Level        - 4 Stars (110.26dB composite)
Extension - 5 Stars (1Hz)
Dynamics - 5 Stars (29.85dB)
Execution - 4 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall     - 4.5 Stars

Recommendation - Rent (by poll)

 

Notes:  This is for the 130min Chinese version.  Measurements don't lie, and The Grandmaster has a lot of bass, but it's used pretty subtly.  It's almost entirely contained in the slo-mo fight scenes, of which there aren't enough.  There's a minor amount of limiting/clipping in the center channel, but it's not too bad.  The LF effects are used appropriately, and there are some fun moments.  They can't redeem the movie, which is quite a long slog of alternating arthouse slo-mo in every fight scene, or bad Chinese melodrama.  The kung fu isn't especially well done, either - nothing like other notables, such as Hero, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, House of Flying Daggers, etc.  Maybe the 108min US version will be better, but who knows about its mix.

 

PvA:

 

post-17-0-10528600-1385516941_thumb.png

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Frankenstein's Army:

 

Level - 3 Stars (109.81dB composite)

Extension - 5 Stars (1Hz)

Dynamics - 2 Stars (20.34dB) worst ever!

Execution - 3 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall - 3.25 Stars

 

Recommendation - Rent (by poll)

 

Holy Jesus.  This is not a movie - it is an ASSAULT.  That 20dB Dynamics number is real.  The Crest Factor is only 10.4 for this film.  THEY EVEN LEFT 4dB OF HEADROOM ON THE TABLE FOR EVERY CHANNEL.  I cannot imagine what Hell could have been unleashed had they used it....the RMS level for the entire film is 98.29dB.  It could have been 102.29dB.

 

It still clips, just at -4dB.  No bonus points for the 16-bit DTS-HDMA encode posing as a 24bit encode with lots of zero bits.

 

This is a film probably best enjoyed after a few 'ones that are cold'....I'll find out this weekend.

 

 

JSS

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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:

 

Level - 3 Stars (107.5dB composite)

Extension - 5 Stars (1Hz)

Dynamics - 5 Stars (30.52dB)

Execution - 5 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall - 4.5 Stars

 

Recommendation - Buy (by poll)

 

Notes - They just keep getting better.  Minimal clipping.  This is where the films make the turn toward a definitively darker storyline, with LF to match.

HarryPotterandtheOrderofthePhoenix.thumb.jpg.741201435cb2aa02da571eeb1a701c83.jpg

JSS

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Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:

 

Level - 2 Stars (106.54dB composite)

Extension - 3 Stars (16Hz)

Dynamics - 5 Stars (32.45dB)

Execution - 3 Stars (by poll)

 

Overall - 3.25 Stars

 

Recommendation - Buy (by poll)

 

Notes: A step down compared to The Order of the Phoenix, and one of my least favorite in the series overall for plot and sound.  Almost as if the Thor/Oz crew did this one.  I kept just wanting it to end.....as if I wanted to say to the characters 'get on with it, already'....

 

 

JSS

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But the dynamics are there. IME, if the dynamics are there, level is not as important, as a certain part will only seem as loud as the level of quietness before it.

 

JSS

Definitely. I enjoyed the series including the soundtrack and have the series on BD, but since he was asking 'why' the movies are rarely mentioned when discussing movies with bass, I'm pretty sure it's because of the lower average levels. The lower levels don't elicit the, "WHOA... HELL YEAH!" reaction as much compared to scenes from TIH, WOTW, FOTP, WWZ etc.

 

Can't wait to see the graphs for the rest of the series.

 

 

Max

 

BTW, I agree that The Half Blood Prince was a disappointment, cinematically and especially for folks who've read the books. The ending of HBP could/should have been so much better.

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