ROTJ Sound Funny?

[Jesse James]

I just watched my ROTJ DVD tonight with my gf, who fell asleep multiple times through it, and she and I both seemed to notice lips and voices not matching, voices seeming "low" and tough to hear...

Did anyone else notice this on their DVD?  Is it possible to get a "bad" copy of a DVD I mean?

[SilverZ]

Didn't notice any real dialog problems with mine. Do you mind posting a few more details? Like are you using a 5.1 system or is this 2 channel audio downmixed by the DVD player and fed to a TV through analog l/r outputs?

The Dolby Digital downmixing process in DVD players can often cause problems when the track has dialog normalization, so that might be the issue...

[Jesse James]

Wow Jared, I didn't even notice a reply to this so I apologize for my obviously delayed response, haha.    I'd given up on this thread.

Well, your words are a bit over my head...  I plug a TV in and let 'er rip more or less...  haha

Yeah, not exactly techno savy here.

I know I don't have surround sound, so I can tell you that much.  My TV's actually  not even got the red, white, and yellow ports most TV's have nowadays...  It's that old.  It's kickin' though so I just don't get anything new till this one works no more.  I'm assuming then that my TV has the latter.

I watched ROTJ at my girlfriend's house though, which renders that moot I guess, and her TV's big but I don't believe it has surround sound either...  She just has what the set has. 

The problem we noticed was dialogue not always matching character's lips...  Or things seeming very "soft" at times.  One sound louder than another and such...

Perhaps it is time I lept into the 20th Century (only one behind isn't so bad) and got surround sound for my mini TV I got going?

[SilverZ]

I've been following the DVD problem threads on a few sites and the only official documented issue with any of the discs is on ANH which hangs at a certain point on a small amount of players.

Funny enough, I have all three of the DVDs on my USB file drive here at the PC at the moment, so I did little listen to all three using analog left/right stereo, which should be similar to what you're describing as your gf's setup. Actually, to my surprise, dialog does sound soft at times in ROTJ -- it gets lost in a lot of the music and sound effects. It doesn't seem to be the case with ANH and ESB.

But I don't think it's anything too far out of the ordinary and most likely a problem that gets amplified when you're listening at quieter volume levels (which I'm guessing was the case if she were able to nod off during it).

So, in my jack-of-all-trades/master-of-none opinion, it's just a quirky issue with the soundmix, not an issue with your player or the disc. It's just the way it is.

However, if there are lipsynch issues, you might just check that the disc looks clean, and listen for it during other movies on her player next time you're watching something. Lipsynch hasn't been a reported issue with ROTJ as far as I've read and it's probably the player doing it. Could just need a blast of compressed air or a swift kick to show it who's boss. 

[Jesse James]

As a bit of research for a uniform issue, I was watching ANH and noticed (On My TV) that it was REALLY soft/low.  Very strange, and I really don't like this.    It's almost unwatchable it's so bad. 

I have a classic edit on DVD too, and it sounds better than a store-bought professionally done version.  That seems wrong to me on some level.

[Jesse James]

So after hearing that muffled sound on the ANH disc last night, I was talkign with CorranHorn in FFURG's Chatroom tonight and lamenting the sound issues.

Well, I played my DVD's on my X-Box which is just run through a regular tv (No surround sound).  I do have another DVD player though, but I got the DVD adapter kit for my X-Box because my regular DVD player wouldn't play a DVD-RW.  My X-Box would though.

So in my conversation with CH, the idea came up to try them in the regular DVD player (Which Iw as set to even give away to my girlfriend).  Well she's SOL because it will PLAY the SW DVD Box set with normal sound.

Normal enough anyway...  It's not great, but I think that a lot of DVD's are set for surround sound and just don't sound right without it...  It is much better than through my X-Box though.  At my girlfriend's we played the ROTJ DVD through a PS2.

Could it be that these just aren't great DVD players and they screw up the sound?  I dunno. 

Now I can play one copy of the SW Trilogy on the X-Box only, and one on my Apex DVD player only.    God I hate technology.  This is bull**** in its purist form.

[Jesse James]

BTW, the DVD's are so flawed...  I never realized.

Music missing, etc., etc...  Just reading up on this enlightened me to the low level of quality that Lucasfilm was willing to put out.  What a crock of ****, to be quite blunt.

Lucas's fat ass is rich off the $ we give willingly to him.  The least this jagoff could have done was have his minions of tard-dom put together a GOOD sounding, WELL made, HIGH quality DVD Box set.  I could've waited till after E3 if it meant the DVD would've matched the quality of...  oh... say, perhaps the Young Guns DVD?  I mean, christ!  Is it really that hard for the company that CREATED THX and all this other crap to enhance movies and sound to actually put together a good DVD set?

This is like Henry Ford not being capable of driving a car at all.

[MeBeJedi]

Hi, first time poster at these boards, but quite a regular at many other SW boards.

Just wanted to say it's a nice change to see more people who are not so blinded by the LFL gods as to not see (or worse yet, try to explain away) the atrocious changes made to the OT, in the form of the SE's or the "straight-to-video" DVD versions.

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be much traffic in this OT forum, but that just means there's less BS than at other boards. 

BTW, myself and other like-minded individuals are working hard on various restored versions of the OT to put on DVD. If this interests you, head down to OriginalTrilogy.Com/Original Trilogy Preservation. Make sure you sign the sign the petition  as well. A quick glance will show you that more than 5 people are upset about these changes.