Transformers: Dark of the Moon

RBFC

WBF Founding Member
Apr 20, 2010
5,158
46
1,225
Albuquerque, NM
www.fightingconcepts.com
OK, here's the third installment of movies about toy robots. This one's much better than Revenge of the Fallen, but I would suspect you'll still need to be somewhat of a Michael Bay fan or a fan of the Transformers franchise to love this one.

That said, the video and audio experience are extremely well done. Clarity is almost startling at times, and the audio (Dolby TrueHD 7.1) is "off the hook".

While others here are more qualified to discuss the details of the video presentation, I wanted to post about the audio. This is one of those discs you'll pull out to show visitors how surround sound is supposed to work. The steering/panning of effects is exemplary, with the rear surround channels completing a sense of envelopment that can sometimes be less than impressive from 5.1 material.

One issue that I found, and one that has been discussed on other forums, is the apparent "filtering" of the audio that removes any content below 20 Hz. Whether this is content that was actually removed, or if that content never existed, is the burning question. Other films, such as Master and Commander, have been shown to have subsonic content on the DVD release and no such content on the Blu-ray disc. This infrasonic content is supposedly the source of room pressurization and "rumble", and is missed by those whose systems can reproduce below 20 Hz.

That said, there is plenty of bass and chest-pounding action in the film.

Anyone got any thoughts on the Blu-ray bass filtering controversy?

Lee
 

NorthStar

Member
Feb 8, 2011
24,305
1,323
435
Vancouver Island, B.C. Canada
I watched that Blu-ray flick last Friday.

Picture quality is fantastic with vibrant colors and plenty of details.

Sound quality (7.1 Dolby TrueHD) is also right up there at the top best spot!

* Now, let me elaborate.
As entertainment value, there is simply no equal! It is le-top-de-la-creme entertainment for all the senses. Period!

Regarding the Sound, or more in particular the Bass: it is good, very good!
But there is simply no way Jose that you can truly render justice to a spaceship the size of a skyscraper crashing and realistically surrender the huge amount of sound turmoil with subterranean low bass that real life around you would reproduce, just no way!

This is an Hollywood movie, made by humans, with CGI effects, and using a sound mixing console with preprogrammed electronic sounds on some chips, and then distributed from various audio stems, and managed, massaged by DSPs, EQued, controlled, dynamically altered, compressed, ... to finally get into your own room with protective bass that has been filtered below a certain Hertz frequency in order to protect many people less than ideal sound systems with restricted low bass frequencies (say below 25 Hz or so).


BUT! This BD flick is pure Visual/Sound adrenaline, all the way baby!
A tour-de-force for sure!

Blog {Transformers: Dark Of The Moon} => Michael Bay & Greg Russell On Sound Mixing

=> Full Interview Here
 
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