Jurassic Park Blu-ray & Original Audio

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Disclord

900 Club - QQ All-Star
Joined
May 19, 2005
Messages
944
Location
Plattsburg, MO (just outside Kansas City)
I thought I'd post this for those QQ Forum members who are into movie surround just as much as music surround.

I'm happy to report that soundtracks on the new Blu-ray set of Jurassic Park and The Lost World are from the same masters that were used to make the theatrical DTS-6 discs and the original DTS encoded LaserDisc's. The only difference is that any mono sounds that would have imaged between the rear speakers in 5.1 has been encoded discretely to the two extra rear channels to create 7.1 mixes for the films. Other than that single change, the 5.1 mixes are exactly the same, which is WONDERFUL - the AC-3 LD's and DVD releases (both the DTS and AC-3 versions) all had mixes that had been altered from the theatrical mixes - the AC-3 Dolby Digital mixes on DVD had some of the LFE bass re-directed to the main channels (a Dolby recommendation) and the Right Rear channel had a broadband 90-degree phase shift applied to create a better Dolby Pro-Logic compatible downmix for those consumers who have to use the 2-channel outputs of their DVD player: the unfortunate side-effect is that side-wall imaging is destroyed, as is any imaging between the rear speakers since one channel is shifted by 90 degrees in phase (Dolby recommends the 90 degree phase shift always be used for best 5.1 to 2 channel downmixing except in cases of a phase-coherent mix - then a separate 2-channel mix should also be supplied on the disc, which is something that Paramount and Fox routinely do so that their 5.1 mixes are not altered for DVD.) The JP & LW surround mixes on LD and DVD were not as aggressive as the DTS-6 (APT-X100 encoded) theatrical mixes - certain sounds were missing entirely or buried so far down in the mix that you could barely hear them. Imaging seemed to suffer too, especially in scenes like Nedry's car with the rain on the roof - you can hear the rain above you, almost as clearly as if a speaker were placed on the ceiling, in the original DTS theatrical and LD mix and now on the Blu-ray. Nor did the alternate AC-3 LD and DVD mixes seem to have as aggressive dynamics and headroom as the DTS-6 theatrical/DTS LD mixes. The DTS LaserDisc of Jurassic Park was the very first DTS LD released and DTS used the same (+20db headroom Dolby SR 6-track 35mm Full-Coat Mag) master to encode the DTS LaserDisc as they used to make the theatrical DTS-6 CD-ROM discs.

The sound of Jurassic Park 3 is a major improvement over that on the DTS DVD - probably because the DVD used the half-rate DTS system that starts to roll off high frequency response at 15kHz and is down by 5db at 20kHz - and while it was a Dolby Surround EX/DTS-ES encoded film, the Blu-ray is a discrete 7.1 mix with no matrix decoding of the rear channel - and even if the DVD was DTS discrete 6.1, DTS-ES Discrete can have audible 'coder-unmasking' artifacts due to the compatibility matrix required, especially on DTS-ES Discrete titles encoded at half-rate 768 kbps. Because all the films in the Jurassic Park Blu-ray set are losslessly packed using the DTS-HD Master Audio format, all concerns about audible coding artifacts are gone.

For some reason the reviews of these films on BD has been harsh, claiming they are grainy and look terrible. Not true! They are great HD transfers, with minimal video noise reduction applied - you can actually see the grain of the film! There's no edge enhancement to intrude and consistently high bitrates are employed for the video. I think many people have forgotten what film grain looks like - some films on Blu-ray, like Star Wars, have had it removed so aggressively that they look like they were an all digital production.

The supplements on each disc are very good - I just wish the original "Flying Disc" DTS trailer had been included - even though the theatrical DTS company doesn't exist anymore (It's now owned by Datasat who are completely unrelated to the DTS company that exists now) - and I wish Universal had included the 20 minute DTS Demo film used to sell DTS to theater owners before the premiere of Jurassic Park. Both Sony and Dolby envisioned digital as being the audio equivalent of 70mm - a 'special event' feature or for major films, not something that every film employed and every auditorium was equipped for; DTS made digital sound for all movies and theaters a reality, forcing Dolby and Sony to quickly improve the digital print yield of their systems, as well as lowing their prices which allowed more theaters to install digital in every auditorium. The Blu-ray of "Halloween II" contains the entire early 80's film "Terror In The Aisles" as a bonus feature (and what a GREAT bonus feature - with a new 1080p/24 transfer to boot!), so the DTS Demo should have been included here, especially since Jurassic Park launched the DTS system.

It's amazing to think that in 1997 I paid $49.95 for Jurassic Park on LD in DTS and now, for 10 bucks less, I got Jurassic Park and its two sequels in beautiful 1080p/24 high definition with lossless 7.1 channel audio!
 
Hey thanks, Disclord! We appreciate your surround sound reviews for these new movie releases. I would think everyone here who is interested in surround music also want to enjoy their movies in the same way! I know I do.
 
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