Audio help for ps3 bluray

[falen]

I picked up Watchmen on bluray yesterday. My bluray player is my ps3 and my tv is a Toshiba 32 inch LCD, the speakers are just the standard built in speakers with the TV.

However, Watchmen is almost unwatchable. The dialogue is so soft I can barely hear it unless I crank up the volume and then the action and sound effects is so loud I fear I'll blow the speakers in the TV. Is there any way to balance the sound, is there an option to force the bluray to just play 2.0 stereo audio or something?

I've been scouring the internet for help with this issue with no luck so far...

[jon-f]

You could try turning the BD/DVD Dynamic Range Control (in the Video Settings) to On.

[az0madman]

I'm assuming your connected through HDMI? Under Sound Settings> Audio Output Settings> HDMI> Manual, make sure to uncheck all options. There should be two greyed out options that are constantly checked (Linear PCM 2 Ch. 44.1kHz & 48 kHz).

[satori]

Yeah, they've dumbed down so much of the PS3 settings it's a little crazy that I feel like I need an entire manual on setting the audio settings. I just don't think it should be that hard.

[falen]

BD/DVD Dynamic Range Control setting improved it a lot though it is no where near as balanced as saying watching a television show is.
That's weird that the Dynamic Range is listed under video settings though, I would have never guessed it affected the audio.

[jon-f]

BD/DVD Dynamic Range Control setting improved it a lot though it is no where near as balanced as saying watching a television show is.
That's weird that the Dynamic Range is listed under video settings though, I would have never guessed it affected the audio.

Pretty ridiculous, huh? They really should put all the audio and video settings together under one menu to avoid this confusion.

[dolson]

Yeah, they've dumbed down so much of the PS3 settings it's a little crazy that I feel like I need an entire manual on setting the audio settings. I just don't think it should be that hard.

For people who invested hundreds/thousands of dollars into a sound system, dumbing it down much more than it is wouldn't be beneficial. There is an automatic option that should work for most people, though.

[satori]

For people who invested hundreds/thousands of dollars into a sound system, dumbing it down much more than it is wouldn't be beneficial. There is an automatic option that should work for most people, though.automatic simply shunts it through the HDMI cable. If I want to simply use the RCA jacks into a common amp and use regular speakers I should be able to. None of the settings allow for simple speakers... apparantly I'm supposed to know what frequency the speakers output? I have no idea. What about automatic, and then simple, or advanced settings. I know very few people that are running high end speakers and having a middle ground would be nice.

[stubadub]

For people who invested hundreds/thousands of dollars into a sound system, dumbing it down much more than it is wouldn't be beneficial. There is an automatic option that should work for most people, though.

I've spent nearly $1,000 on my sound system, but I'm afraid to make use of a few of those options because I don't want to fry my system. It would be nice to not have to jump through hoops to figure out what each one does.

It doesn't have to be one or the other. Automatic gives no control, and the other options give no information. You can have a middle interface that gives more control than automatic but automates some of the selections based on the provided criteria.

Really what I'd be happy with is better documentation about what each option does. The existing online documentation rarely provides any more information or context than you can get from the option name itself.

[satori]

ok, have my PS3 set to automatic and Watchmen just had the scene in the ping pong room where they're looking for Manhattan and she whispers something and I had to crank the sound all the way to the top just to barely hear what she said.

[az0madman]

Hm... I'm remembering now that this happened when watching Planet Earth where the narrator was quiet but everything else was loud. I've always wondered why that was.

[jon-f]

ok, have my PS3 set to automatic and Watchmen just had the scene in the ping pong room where they're looking for Manhattan and she whispers something and I had to crank the sound all the way to the top just to barely hear what she said.

Hm... I'm remembering now that this happened when watching Planet Earth where the narrator was quiet but everything else was loud. I've always wondered why that was.

I'm curious what your setups are. I probably won't get Watchmen through Netflix for a few weeks, but I'll pay attention to the mix when it finally shows up. I use my PS3 outputting linear PCM over HDMI to a 7.1 receiver that's been Audyssey-calibrated.

[dolson]

I've spent nearly $1,000 on my sound system, but I'm afraid to make use of a few of those options because I don't want to fry my system. It would be nice to not have to jump through hoops to figure out what each one does.

It doesn't have to be one or the other. Automatic gives no control, and the other options give no information. You can have a middle interface that gives more control than automatic but automates some of the selections based on the provided criteria.

Really what I'd be happy with is better documentation about what each option does. The existing online documentation rarely provides any more information or context than you can get from the option name itself.

That's fair - I didn't say there shouldn't be more options, I just said I didn't want less control than what's given. A middle-ground would probably be good, perhaps one that asks how many speakers you have hooked up and goes from there.

If you spent over $1K, you spent more than I did, and my system supports every option in the list, with the possible exception of the last one (can't recall the name of it). Your sound system's manual should be able to tell you what it is capable of.

If someone has only stereo speakers, you're not going to get very good audio* no matter what you do, so just disable everything except for the 2.0 stereo options. No sense having 7.1 or 5.1 anything checked off if you don't have six or eight speakers to support it.

* - what I mean is, I wouldn't worry about trying to check off as many options as possible, unless I had the sound system to support it. I'd just go for the bare minimum, and since there's no mono option, that means just using the ones that can't be disabled (as I believe was mentioned earlier in the thread).

[az0madman]

I'm curious what your setups are. I probably won't get Watchmen through Netflix for a few weeks, but I'll pay attention to the mix when it finally shows up. I use my PS3 outputting linear PCM over HDMI to a 7.1 receiver that's been Audyssey-calibrated.

I've never had issues with any other, though I've yet to try Watchmen. I'm connected via Optical with 5.1 DD/DTS.

[satori]

it's only been that one bit that I've noticed it on. It's so quiet it's nuts. With the Blu-ray you get a free digitial copy in Canada and the US so I set it up on iTunes. I'll try and find that bit and see if it's the same on a regular version and not just the blu-ray version.