DVD (movie) audio slider settings

[Blzer]

Do you guys think that someday companies will release DVDs with setup options such as being able to adjust the settings of specified audio parts of a movie? For instance, maybe three things could be: character voices, sound effects, background music.

Similar to that of video games with their adjustments, but since production normally begins by separating those said parts into tracks and then added during post-production. So, in a way, it's probably deemed possible. I would go for it, and maybe lower music and sound effects to raise dialogue, etc. Not saying that the options make it either "On/Off", but maybe a 1-10 slider.

Any thoughts or speculation on this possibility someday?

[Skerik]

Re: DVD (movie) audio slider settings

Most dialogue for a movie streams out of the center channel of a 5 or 6-channel surround system. If you're finding that dialogue is too soft in comparison to sound effects and music, you should try raising the volume on your front center speaker before doing anything else.

But what you're suggesting would be a nice idea for movies that are mixed poorly, in terms of the dialogue being too soft.

[SPTO]

Re: DVD (movie) audio slider settings

I would love to see how some dialogue heavy movies would sound if there was a slider to turn down the background music so that the experience would be similar to a movie from the 1930s.

[mjb2124]

Re: DVD (movie) audio slider settings

Kind of what Skerik stated, if you have a surround sound receiver, this really isn't an issue as most receivers do have something similar. They allow for +- decibel levels on all the speakers so one can turn up the center channel to get louder voices or turn down the front/surround speakers to lower all other sounds.

With my Harman Kardon receiver, this was part of the initial setup. I put a microphone where I sit in my room and ran a program on the receiver. It sent out a series of very loud beeps and static type sounds. Once it was done, it auto-configured how loud each speaker should be (among a bunch of other things).

[Blzer]

Re: DVD (movie) audio slider settings

Well unfortunately, my parents don't feel like keeping up with the Jones' when it comes to technology, so I don't have surround sound or any kind of speakers for that matter.

The reason I ask this doesn't necessarily have to do with any movies in particular, but I was more or less suggesting a topic of concern, and wondering if this may be possible to see in the next few years with DVDs, and if people would actually appreciate if they included this.

Actually, now that I think of it, one movie that I would love taking some sound effects or music from is Saw II. I just rewatched Saw last night, and one thing that I realized that I loved over Saw II is that there aren't too many instances of little background music during "scary" moments and such. Not to mention every cut to a new shot has a camera whoosh or some sort of sound effect like that. Completely unnecessary.


Anyway, I was just wondering if this was sometime possible in the near future that we could see this.

[mjb2124]

Re: DVD (movie) audio slider settings

I think the reason this is typically handled through a receiver is that a receiver can decode the audio track. Since a DVD is just the medium, I don't think sliders will work on it. I think the slider adjustments would have to be on the DVD player because the DVD player could possibly have the intelligence to decode the audio while the DVD won't. Just a guess though....