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Skyscraper - Audio

S

steelman1991

Well-known member
Anybody watched this?

I downloaded over the weekend and watched last night and found the audio (DTS-HD MA, played back natively - no upmixing) to be very weak on dialogue - almost at times sounding 'muffled'. It was very difficult at times to hear what was being said - aside from the fact that the background noise floor was intense with all the action. Anyone else notice similar?

There's little by way of any reviews of this title 'in the wild' - so nothing to compare - though Will be of no use in comparison, considering this is a "K" exclusive - DTS-HD MA, against an Atmos track for the shiny disc release :mad:

Yet another Universal title bereft of an 'immersive' track - think I'm going to stop purchasing their titles in the meantime :(
 
Passed on this movie for purchase, but it makes me wonder where the studio even gets a DTS MA soundtrack for this? Everything I can find for this movie is Dolby (Atmos, DD, etc.). Do they transfer the DD audio to DTS? Goodness, I don’t understand why K just can’t get the Atmos soundtrack and be done with this issue once and for all. I know we all are TIRED of talking about it! SJ

Also, did you try the HD version with Atmos?
 
Yeah it does seem a strange one.

Be nice if someone in authority (please) could comment on this issue, not only with this track, but all the others still awaiting immersive tracks. I'm sure @cheena will have noticed it, as it is dragging on far too long. Can't say I was taken by the picture quality of this one either, seemed soft in places and almost out of focus at times. Wonder if it was a rush job to "early release".

Please don't anyone ask me for a time-stamp (was more of general observation) and in any case I have no intention of watching again, until an Atoms track is added.
 
Hi Steelman,

Can you provide a time-stamp? [just kidding]

We re-checked the movie based on your comments and did not notice any audio issues. We didn't re-watch the whole thing, but in our spot checks everything sounded correct, and our verification tools also produce results that look good. We're happy to check specific times if you or anyone else has them.

Regarding your picture comments, I haven't seen this film personally, but I can say that my experience of other films is that sometimes some scenes are just softer than others. Productions often use different types of lenses and cameras in different scenes, so it's possible that something like that is involved.

To SJHT's question, the core of an Atmos track is a conventional 7.1 multichannel surround track. So it's not a big leap to produce a 7.1 or 5.1 surround mix for a movie. They get produced as multichannel PCM, and then encoded to whatever surround format is needed. DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD are both lossless codecs, so both will reproduce the original PCM.
 
I guess the question (ongoing and ongoing and ongoing....) is why not just give us the darn Dolby Atmos (or DTS:X if that is the base) soundtrack with the 4K HDR version for these last few studios? A couple of forums would quit talking about it once and for all! :)
 
We certainly continue to work with all content providers to get the highest-quality audio available. Ultimately, it comes down to what they choose to offer.
 
Thanks Mike. We all know that you guys continue to work on this and surely appreciate it. I think we are all tired of the same conversations. After being involved in several threads on this, the two main issues which seem to bug people are 1. Lack of Dolby Atmos and DTS:X when there seems to exist that audio format on other media and 2. Movies Anywhere (e.g. Disney). Just purchased Ant Man and the Wasp from the K store and had to turn around and purchase the digital rights to keep my family quiet. :) OK, I will be quiet now and keep waiting. SJ
 
MikeKobb said:
We certainly continue to work with all content providers to get the highest-quality audio available. Ultimately, it comes down to what they choose to offer.
Click to expand...

Mike,

While we all understand it is the studios that control this, at the end of the day we choose the K experience not studio experience.

Is your response supposed to mean that this issue will never be rectified and it will always remain this way?

Lately even big hits and remasters are coming in with audio versions less than disc version. I cannot tell you the number of my friends who visit me and are excited by K, only to be disappointed to see that it does not have the same quality audio as the disc. So you are losing a lot of potential sales because of this.

And personally, I am getting tired of this as well. I am sure there are a lot of others in the same boat. I guarantee you, Lack of MA and sub par audio format are two things that are killing sales. Even hard core K enthusiasts will agree with this.

If this keeps continuing I may not have a choice but to move out of K world, which I would hate to do.

Sometimes I wish K would just take the 4K disc and copy it bit for bit and download to encore systems. Something like premiere system, but the disc copy happens in the cloud and users download from there. This at least gives the same quality as disc.
 
Is your response supposed to mean that this issue will never be rectified and it will always remain this way?
Click to expand...
No, absolutely not. I said that we continue to work with the studios to get the best audio available, and that's exactly what we're doing. You can see, if you look at the history of the past couple of years, that we've steadily improved the availability of Atmos, adding additional studios and additional titles.

We fully understand that these are important features. Believe me, I would like nothing better than to never have this conversation again. We're working hard towards that day!
 
MikeKobb said:
Hi Steelman,

Can you provide a time-stamp? [just kidding]

We re-checked the movie based on your comments and did not notice any audio issues. We didn't re-watch the whole thing, but in our spot checks everything sounded correct, and our verification tools also produce results that look good. We're happy to check specific times if you or anyone else has them.

Regarding your picture comments, I haven't seen this film personally, but I can say that my experience of other films is that sometimes some scenes are just softer than others. Productions often use different types of lenses and cameras in different scenes, so it's possible that something like that is involved.

To SJHT's question, the core of an Atmos track is a conventional 7.1 multichannel surround track. So it's not a big leap to produce a 7.1 or 5.1 surround mix for a movie. They get produced as multichannel PCM, and then encoded to whatever surround format is needed. DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD are both lossless codecs, so both will reproduce the original PCM.
Click to expand...

LOL thanks Mike for taking the time to respond to my concerns and checking the source, it's appreciated. You're lucky not to have watched it ;) As I said Mike, it was very much a generalisation and one which I haven't been aware of in other titles. Same with the visuals. Not a title I intend to re-visit, think once is more than enough, but I probably would go with a second sitting, if only to compare the immersive track, with the current one.

As you point out to @SJHT the provision of tracks is a fairly simple one to go from Atmos to core, but the question remains if the Atmos asset is already there why are certain studios going down the route of introducing that step to then provide Kaleidescape with different audio. I sometimes wonder if it is a case that these studios are attempting to push consumers - even those who embrace the K eco-system - to purchasing the 'shiny disc' as well as the K equivalent. For me that ain't going to happen.

MikeKobb said:
You can see, if you look at the history of the past couple of years, that we've steadily improved the availability of Atmos, adding additional studios and additional titles.
Click to expand...

I agree great strides have been made in the provision of Atmos/DTS:X titles in the recent past, however little seems to have been done to address the issue of "missing" immersive tracks as witnessed by the thread on this forum. As others have said, and I'm sure you don't need reminding, this surely is having a detrimental effect on sales. I'm aware of other users who quite categorically refuse to purchase from K, if the full assets aren't available.

Thanks once again for participating and I too look forward to the day when we can but this topic to bed :D
 
The problem goes beyond Atmos/DTS:X soundtracks, though. For instance, for the Star Wars series, most of titles in the K store are missing surround-back channels that are available on the disc (either 6.1 or, more recently, 7.1). The exception to this seems to be the two most recent movies, and the very first movie. One is left to assume that this is also a studio decision, but the reasons for such a thing are incomprehensible. Whatever the case, it dissuades me from adding these titles to my collection.
 
I would like to add to the chorus as well.

Lack of similar audio tracks to released disc is cutting my purchases back significantly.

Also another question Mike.

Does K ever go back and update existing movies if a new audio track has been added to a film?

And if so how would we know?

Is there any mechanism that would allow our servers to update films?
 
jbm007 said:
Does K ever go back and update existing movies if a new audio track has been added to a film?

And if so how would we know?

Is there any mechanism that would allow our servers to update films?
Click to expand...

In my experience - they are few and far between - you only need to look at the thread on here http://www.kscapeowners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3054

We don't know as there is no notification mechanism. Basically a case of checking the release threads or here https://www.kaleidescape.com/movie-store/dolby_atmos/titles. This list is updated, but again no notification.

Something that has been requested on numerous occassions and one which K state they are aware of and are looking at a solution.
 
maybe a time stamp reference.

in the information panel that would m
indicate a updated release?
 
Updated audio etc. need to be automated by K. Just let it delete and update movies on my system. SJ
 
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