Best Blu ray Player for mixing down to 2Ch

[edplaysdrums42]

Hi All

I have a Sony BDP-S360 blu ray player and in general i am happy with it. I have no interest (or have the room) in having a home cinema set up and i'm happy enough with my 2ch set up but when i play some blu ray discs the sound effects are deafening and the dialogue is barely audible. I have tried every audio output setting on the player and TV but to no avail.

I run a toslink from my TV to my Audiolab DAC and then into my amp. I have tried the audio outputs from the blu ray player but then the picture is out of sync with the sound.

I have read elsewhere that certain blu ray players are better at mixing the surround sound on the disc down to 2ch better than others? This may be completely wrong but with some of the latest discsi have bought i would be probably been better off with just the standard DVD.

If anyone has got any opinions on this i would be very grateful to hear them.

Thanks in advance

Ed

ps apologies if this has been covered before, if so just post the link. Thanks!

 

[Sizzers]

Well this is my opinion and not sure there’s a solution.

Movies are produced for cinemas and the subsequent Blu-rays are trying to recreate this in a home cinema environment. Played through a two channel hi-fi stereo amp the 5.1/7.1 channels are downmixed into two where you have no control over the individual components, which in this case is the loudness/quietness of dialogue and action/special effects scenes.

I fully understand your issue as I also play my movies very happily through my hi-fi and I don’t have a particular problem with it, although I’m not that partial to “crash, bang, wallop” movies! However there is one sci-fi movie I occasionally watch (that occasional I can’t even remember the name of it!) where the sound of the spaceship repeatedly makes my whole room rattle. Nothing unusual there you may think, but when I tell you that the speakers are Rega RS1’s that is some achievement!!!

My opinion is that an alternative player won’t resolve the issue: you may get actual better SQ but it won’t make any difference to the great dynamic shifts. Part of the problem I believe is how the original movie was produced for even bigger and “better” sound effects for a cinema audience which in turn is fed down to the home cinema audience, but if anyone cares to differ and as a solution I’m also all ears!

 

[Toolpusher]

I would suggest that you need to get into the realms of the top-end Marantz or Oppo BD players. Especially the latter, with its excellent audio components. That said, I have the Sony player one below in the range from yours, and I've never experienced any problems as such, although it's not hooked up to an amp and speakers, I mostly listen through the TV's headphone output with a cheap pair of Sennheisers.

Only thing I've noticed is that certain discs, 'The Dark Knight' immediately springing to mind, are so quiet, even at max volume, as to be unwatchable. 99% though work just fine.

 

[Leeps]

I agree with Sizzers..most of your problems I'm sure relate to the mastering of Blurays where little consideration is given to home use and hearing dialogue. Maybe they think that the dialogue on many typical Hollywood blockbusters isn't worth listening to anyway.

The lack of control over the dialogue is the main reason I went down the multichannel path. In terms of pure audio quality I would have been quite happy with the old stereo system. Despite this I must admit that even after tweaking my set-up to enhance the dialogue-laden centre channel, I still have to turn the volume up and down with certain movie soundtracks.

it's yet another case of the industry giving us the opposite of what we actually want (3D, curved TV's, 320kbps max Spotify etc etc) and again agreeing with Sizzers I doubt if a new bluray player will help.

 

[manicm]

edplaysdrums42, there is one way to get around this - to an extent; when playing a movie turn up the volume on your telly too - first ensure your telly is set to accept sound from HDMI. This way you get playback from both hifi and telly to bolster dialogue somewhat.

 

[Superaintit]

I have never experienced any problems with listening to blurays down mixed to 2 channel.

As you can see in my sig I have a pana 210. The newer version apparently has a better Dac.

No high end bluray player required IMO.

 

[edplaysdrums42]

edplaysdrums42, there is one way to get around this - to an extent; when playing a movie turn up the volume on your telly too - first ensure your telly is set to accept sound from HDMI. This way you get playback from both hifi and telly to bolster dialogue somewhat.

This what i have been doing and seems to work ok but its not perfect. Thanks everyone for your replies, its much appreciated. I just wish that on modern blu ray's they would have a standard 2ch audio option. When i flick through the audio options i find that the dialogue on the descriptive option for visually impaired people is perfect!

Thanks again, Ed

 

[Sizzers]

edplaysdrums42, there is one way to get around this - to an extent; when playing a movie turn up the volume on your telly too - first ensure your telly is set to accept sound from HDMI. This way you get playback from both hifi and telly to bolster dialogue somewhat.

This what i have been doing and seems to work ok but its not perfect. Thanks everyone for your replies, its much appreciated. I just wish that on modern blu ray's they would have a standard 2ch audio option.

I've discovered this by accident in the past when I've forgotten to turn down the volume on the TV and wondered why my movie sounded so weird!

And on your second point, I well remember the days when a major selling point for cinema goers was that it was recorded in Dolby stereo!!

 

[Toolpusher]

Ever see "Kentucky Fried Movie"?

"Sir, you are aware this motion picture is shown in Feelaround?" :shifty:

 

[Son_of_SJ]

I have a Sony BDP-S360 blu ray player and in general i am happy with it. I have no interest (or have the room) in having a home cinema set up and i'm happy enough with my 2ch set up but when i play some blu ray discs the sound effects are deafening and the dialogue is barely audible.

Could you list,say, about five Blu-Rays that do this and if I have any of them I'll see whether I have the same problem on my systems. My Blu-Ray players have stereo analogue outputs, so I could try those to replicate your problem, of course using the main stereo pair of speakers only.