7.1 movies?

gsxr141

Does anyone here know of any movies that are in 7.1 surround? I'm just looking to find some so i can test out my new rear surround speakers.
Thanks....... kevin

bevo

Hell boy 2
The new rambo
The golden compass( I think)
That's all I can think of off the top of my head.

There's a site that lists all of the 7.1 movies but I can't find the link right now. I'll try and post it later.

McLoki

Here are some Blu-Ray movies in 7.1 (about 147 of them).....

gsxr141

thanks guys. hopefully there's some on dvd, as i haven't got a blu-ray player.

ken brydson

McLoki wrote: »

Here are some Blu-Ray movies in 7.1 (about 147 of them).....

Damn, I've already got a couple on the list. Speakers in place, just need to run the wires...

kuntasensei

There are no 7.1 movies on DVD - it's a (unnecessary) conceit found only on Blu-ray. You can, however, find quite a few 6.1 titles (via DTS-ES Matrix or Discrete and Dolby EX) that will work quite nicely with a 7.1 system.

That said, most modern movies are mixed with the rear array in a theater in mind, which is what 7.1 is meant to recreate in the home. I (and Dolby) strongly recommend playing your 5.1 tracks back with Dolby Pro-Logic IIx processing applied (and your Dolby EX titles, per Dolby's recommendations), as this will get you closest to the rear array sound that theaters get using matrix processing of the 5.1 tracks. That goes for both DVD and Blu-ray. You're basically doing the processing at home that they do before encoding 7.1 tracks on Blu-ray; 7.1 tracks are absolutely unnecessary and are just a marketing point to sell discs.

wutadumsn23

I agree with Curt on this one, probably won't notice a huge difference between 5.1 and 7.1 Blu Ray tracks.

-Jeff

Knucklehead

There has been a lot of discussion on this, I need to listen to a nice 7.1 system, even high end retailers never have them set up.

wutadumsn23

Don't get me wrong, a properly set up 7.1 can be a good thing, lol. It's just that people get so wrapped up in 7.1 AVR's and 7.1 movies, when a well setup 5.1 will do just as good, IMHO. I had a 7.1 setup for awhile, but downsized to 5.1 when I bought my Onkyo and Polk speakers, couldn't be happier.

-Jeff

kuntasensei

The biggest problem with 7.1 is that people have a tendency to turn the rear surrounds up too high, making it sound gimmicky. That's not just an issue with 7.1, but with any new technology - they're looking for the "in your face" difference, when what they should be looking for is subtle reinforcement. If you have a 7.1 setup dialed in correctly, the side surrounds are still the primary source of surround sound. They're just reinforced by the rears so that you get better directionality behind you.

But it's also something you don't necessarily NEED, in the strictest sense of the word, to watch a movie. It's like the center channel... If it's just you in a room, sitting dead center between your mains, you really don't need a center channel. Audio will image perfectly fine between your mains. But if you move out of that sweet spot, the illusion is gone, so having a center channel anchors sound to that point for a wider range of seating positions. The same goes for rear surrounds. If you're in an ideal listening position for a properly placed 5.1 setup, sound from the side surrounds will image behind you. It's why Dolby recommends putting the side surrounds in a 5.1 setup around 100 degrees to either side. But in a larger space, that phantom imaging isn't as consistent. Theaters can't rely on phantom imaging because they use arrays, which means anything equal in phase and level between the side surrounds will give you the headphone effect (i.e. sound in your head) instead of sounding like it's behind you. So those sounds are steered to a rear array of speakers.

7.1 exists solely to address the differences between a theatrical space and the home space. No one should get hung up on 7.1 encoded listening material, because it's simply not necessary.

bigaudiofanatic

gsxr141 wrote: »

thanks guys. hopefully there's some on dvd, as i haven't got a blu-ray player.

When you find one let me know.

But seriously you are not going to find any 7.1 dvd's they would have to compress the movie just to fit the soundtrack on there.

My reviver can do 7.1 but I have been fighting myself thinking of weather or not to use it. My 5.1 setup sounds great and I enjoy it but I still think that there can be more. a lot of the newer movies are coming out with 7.1 but not all of them.

wutadumsn23

bigaudiofanatic wrote: »

a lot of the newer movies are coming out with 7.1 but not all of them.

They can make them all in 7.1, still won't make a difference, IMHO.

-Jeff

cheddar

One of the best tracks I've heard is a 7.1 mix imported from Hong Kong. It's probably a combination of the quality of the original track (Many Asian titles seem to have 7.1 standard -- often with TrueHD, DTS-HD MA, AND uncompressed LPCM options -- on their top tier blu-ray releases. And even 5.1 tracks on lower tier releases seem to have extra care taken when mixing the sound.) and how they mixed it for 7.1 surround.

The movie is Red Cliff 2 (Red Cliff 1 was very good audiowise as well.). While the 'splosions and stuff are stellar, what really impressed me was during the naval battle when the enemy fleet burns. It slowly builds from directional explosions and small boats on fire to a raging inferno that seems to be burning everywhere with a wall of sound. Not knocking any of the points made about the purpose and effectiveness of 7.1 tracks, just saying that this 7.1 track on my 7.1 system sounded fantastic.

The movie itself may or may not appeal to people because it's a Greek Hero type of a story but with Chinese Heroes that people on this side of the pacific probably haven't heard of. (I had a hard time keeping track of the characters my first time through.) But technically, it's an outstanding blu-ray. It's going to be released soon in the US. But it may suffer a downgrade (as many Asian movies do) to 5.1 when it gets here. It would be good if they keep at least one of the 7.1 lossless tracks if they do, so it's possible to compare the mixes.

bevo

The place to find out how good 7.1 can sound is with PS3 games. It's a huge difference then 5.1. Shooters on the PS3 sound much better then the 360 because of how well you can locate the enemy just from sound. Racing games are also very good at helping you here a car pull behind you, then try and pass you as it comes beside you, and then overtake you. Actually most games benefit greatly when 7.1 is put in place.

Really like everyone says, 7.1 is kind of overkill so far in movies, because they just don't try and utilize it like games do. Really though to see how good a really well done 7.1 can sound you need to put in socom confrontation for the ps3 and hear the bullets and gun fire all around you. It's something that 5.1 does well to, but 7.1 takes it to a whole new level. I really don't know why movie companies don't out forth the effort for 7.1 that game companies do. The results in games is fantastic and it could be in movies too.

As far as DVD's go, the disney movie cars has some pretty good 6.1 dolby ex. It uses the rears better then any of the 7.1 blue rays I've seen. I still watch it with my little boy sometimes just for the sound.

MrNightly

Hell Boy 2 has incredible 7.1 sound, IMO.

kuntasensei

bevo wrote: »

The place to find out how good 7.1 can sound is with PS3 games. It's a huge difference then 5.1. Shooters on the PS3 sound much better then the 360 because of how well you can locate the enemy just from sound. Racing games are also very good at helping you here a car pull behind you, then try and pass you as it comes beside you, and then overtake you. Actually most games benefit greatly when 7.1 is put in place.

5.1 from the 360 processed with DPL-IIx to go 7.1 sounds just as good as 7.1 on the PS3. It's the same reason 5.1 mixes on BD sound right in 7.1 - because of the existing mixing standards. Any sound panned to be behind you has phase and level correlations that DPL-IIx can use to properly steer them for 7.1. The PS3 just lets developers mix discretely for 7.1 PCM output at an API level. The only difference is where in the signal chain it occurs.

cheddar

kuntasensei wrote: »

5.1 from the 360 processed with DPL-IIx to go 7.1 sounds just as good as 7.1 on the PS3. It's the same reason 5.1 mixes on BD sound right in 7.1 - because of the existing mixing standards. Any sound panned to be behind you has phase and level correlations that DPL-IIx can use to properly steer them for 7.1. The PS3 just lets developers mix discretely for 7.1 PCM output at an API level. The only difference is where in the signal chain it occurs.

This of course assumes that there is a sound present in the surrounds in the first place. When DTS was compared with Dolby on DVDs, the DTS track would often sound superior because they would release a special edition DTS version with a new and improved remixed sound track. I'm beginning to notice that blu-rays or games with 7.1 sound often mean that the release devotes special attention to the sound design and quality often leading to a great audio title. The 7.1 LPCM track on uncharted 2, for instance, really takes the game to a more cinematic level. Just because a 5.1 title can sound great, doesn't mean they all do. And while the same could be said of 7.1, I've found that if they go through the trouble to make a 7.1 track, it's usually a good one.

kuntasensei

You do understand that games aren't mixed like movies though, right? They don't really pre-assign sound to individual channels the way they do for movies (unless it's a pre-rendered cutscene). They use software to assign the steering to the individual channels according to where the item emanating that sound is in 3-D space. The audio is, however, steered between channels the same way that mixers place sound between channels for theatrical soundtracks - through the phase and level correlation between channels. Because of this, steering algorithms like DPL-IIx can steer the audio of a 5.1 bitstream from a game accurately to a 7.1 setup... whereas PS3 games in 7.1 are simply performing this steering in the software API for direct 7.1 PCM output. In other words, a 7.1 game on the PS3 will sound near identical to the same game on the 360 with 5.1 + DPL-IIx so long as they're using the same API for the audio.

Your comparison to the DTS remixes used on DVD (Saving Private Ryan is a perfect example of one) doesn't apply to game audio, since the mixing is handled real-time by the software API. Not that I'm negating your observations on Uncharted 2 (where I'm sure care was taken to ensure those channels were used), but my point is that much like with Blu-rays, 7.1 has benefits even with 5.1 material that shouldn't be ignored, especially with games.

(Wow, we've slowly meandered off topic, haven't we? Heh...)

cheddar

Actually, there is a lot of forced perspective gameplay in Uncharted 2 that plays like a movie scene. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they designed certain sequences exactly like they would a movie scene since the character can't deviate from a certain path and sequence of events.

And I'll say it again, if the sound isn't present in the 5.1 surround channels, it won't be there in an AVR enhanced 7.1 resteer either. You can be surrounded by bad guys, but if the bad guys only make a sound when they shoot you, you won't hear them moving around you until they do. Good sound design takes effort to record a lot of ambient noises and sound cues so you can localize different events in the environment. I'm just saying that it's been my experience that when either a movie or a game makes the effort to release a 7.1 mix, it's usually a good one. I think at some point it is just much more productive to talk about individual titles than general technical comparisons between 5.1 and 7.1. Because there are plenty of 5.1 titles out there that underutilize even the 5.1 surround channels. And no amount of extra steering can create a surround field that isn't there in the first place.

bevo

If you want to see the difference in sound between 360 games an ps3 games go get operation flashpoint for both systems. I bought it for the ps3 and played half way through it, and then some friends who have 360's wanted to play it, so I traded in my ps3 version and bought it for the 360. The first thing I noticed was the sound. I wasn't listening for any difference, but it was noticable as soon as I put it in.

I would say to just go and try out any shooters that are on both consoles, and you will probably notice a difference as long as the ps3 version is 7.1.

Or better yet turn your 7.1 off on the ps3 and play a game with dolby doing the 7.1 work instead of the game. That should be the easiest way to find out for sure.

emoxley

Here's a very good list of 7.1, 6.1, 5.1, 4.1, 2.1, etc............
http://price-adjustment.com/BLURAY-audio
Enjoy!

gsxr141

thanks for all the responses. that last post was especially helpful.

chiptouz

I just recently moved into a new house where I had the builder pre-wire for 7.1. After being a long 5.1 user I am sooooo glad that I did so. Almost to the point where I was kicking my self for not doing it sooner. 7.1 really does sound much better. Even my kids and the wife are enjoying the 7.1 (mostly 5.1 with the DPL IIx processing).

I'm Lovin' it!