DVD vs Theatrical Levels

[StavrosSound]

So... considering the topic of dialnorm, I went to pop in a few DVD and see what levels resulted from the mix. Am I correct in assuming that on DVDs it appears the stems have been compresed upward? Normal dialog sat at rough -12 to -9, and spikes in the mix were as high as -3 to -0.3. I did lower the DVD output gain as well to see, and it appeared that a brickwall was used... some films more aggressively than other.

Is this assumption correct? Mix to a -18 reference level and then compress the stems upward? And then because the dialnorm is just left at -31, it results in an outwardly loud mix? Maybe it's not the correct way, but is that the norm these days for DVD?

This is what my researching is leading me to believe. Any clarifaction and enlightenment would be greatly appreciated!

This is the missing piece of the entire dialnorm puzzle for me

[StavrosSound]

Just got a reply in my email regarding this.

Theatrical is the normal -18 +85... DVD is squashed to near top though with compression and limiting.

[georgia]

as an example: LOTR DVDs are set for Dialnorm -31. I know this because Dolby and I set up an LM100 and checked them a few months back out of curiosity....


cheers
geo

[dr sound]

Poster: StavrosSound
Subject: Re: DVD vs Theatrical Levels

Just got a reply in my email regarding this.

Theatrical is the normal -18 +85... DVD is squashed to near top though with compression and limiting.

dr.sound replies:
Who said this? That is not true.

[Stuart P.]

Just got a reply in my email regarding this.

Theatrical is the normal -18 +85... DVD is squashed to near top though with compression and limiting.

I have not noticed this either. There may be some processing on some DVD's, but I'm not sure there are any hard and fast rules. I get a lot of screeners, and they seem to be pretty accurate transfers from the printmasters level-wise. When I play them at reference, it sounds right. That's how I judge it. Some are definitely louder than others, but I simply wonder sometimes if that's just the difference in the dub rooms characteristics along with the mixing team's subjective taste.

Would like to know more.

S.

[rhumphries]

So... considering the topic of dialnorm, I went to pop in a few DVD and see what levels resulted from the mix. Am I correct in assuming that on DVDs it appears the stems have been compresed upward? Normal dialog sat at rough -12 to -9, and spikes in the mix were as high as -3 to -0.3. I did lower the DVD output gain as well to see, and it appeared that a brickwall was used... some films more aggressively than other.

Is this assumption correct? Mix to a -18 reference level and then compress the stems upward? And then because the dialnorm is just left at -31, it results in an outwardly loud mix? Maybe it's not the correct way, but is that the norm these days for DVD?

This is what my researching is leading me to believe. Any clarifaction and enlightenment would be greatly appreciated!

This is the missing piece of the entire dialnorm puzzle for me

Are you taking into consideration what your DVD player is doing? Some DVD players do funny things with the DRC-- sometimes you can't disable this either, depending on the implementation. I don't think you could really tell what's up unless you were to look at the metadata in the AC3 stream itself.

-Richard

[originalscottyg]

When I was checking out the Neyrinck Dolby Digital plugin I decoded some scenes from Matrix 3 (what I happened to have laying around) from the optical out of my DVD player into the optical in on my 192, and recorded the decoded audio onto a 5.1 track in PT. I can't remember exactly what the decoder settings were...i.e. whether DRC was engaged.
Normal dialogue seemed to be peaking in the mid -20s.

[Kuba Pietrzak]

Just got a reply in my email regarding this.

Theatrical is the normal -18 +85... DVD is squashed to near top though with compression and limiting.

Eeeer, I would like to see a device which not clips at +85dB

Kuba

[Stuart P.]

Eeeer, I would like to see a device which not clips at +85dB

Kuba

Unless...... it's the new 128 bit audio from PTXD! Wait. That doesn't exist. Or does it?

[quadraphonics]

I don't know if this is perhaps what you are talking about. But sometimes a Theatrical mix is re-mastered for the home theater environment - aka a 'Near Field Mix'. Generally, the really quiet sections are brought up a bit to make these a bit easier to hear, light EQ to compensate for not having to shoot sound through a perf screen, etc. Occasionally really loud sections are brought down just a bit. If that isn't requested, usually the Theatrical PM is used as the source for the DVD/HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disc.