Surround-Sound Adventures

[techieMoe]

I guess I could also call this "A Gadget Story - Part 3". In case you haven't heard, my fiancee recently bought me a six-speaker surround sound system. It's this model:

Amazon.com: Samsung HT-WX70 Wireless DVD Home Theater System: Electronics

After using it a few days I'm kind of shocked at how poor the ratings for it have been. So far I haven't had any of the problems the reviewers on Amazon had. I certainly haven't noticed any smoke!

I have my Toshiba HD-DVD player hooked up to it with HDMI. HD-DVD may be dead, but that Toshiba still has the best up-converted picture quality of all my players, including the 5-disc changer that came with the surround system. I've hooked up the TV using an optical audio cable, though unfortunately it only pipes in sound from the coaxial input and not the other inputs (component, RCA, VGA, S-Video).

This is my first experience with a surround-sound system, so I can't really judge the sound quality against anything else. The difference between just regular TV speakers and this system is quite noticeable however.

I've been digging up DVDs lately to try out on the system. So far my favorite is the lobby scene in The Matrix. I'm also planning on watching some of the Star Wars movies this weekend.

Does anyone else have suggestions as to a good movie for surround sound? If I don't own it, I can always rent it.

[bigtomrodney]

Yeah I love some Surround Sound man!

If you're looking for a good surround sound film try Braveheart or Gladiator. You really get the full experience in that type of film.

On the Matrix and Star Wars...The Matrix was always my benchmark for checking out new systems. However when I got my HDTV and upscaling DVD player it looked terrible. MPEG artefacts, not-quite black blacks and generally noise around the picture. That was odd because none of my other DVDs displayed this behaviour and in fact my TV is a monster in all other aspects.

With Star Wars I was very dissapointed with the late 90s reissues when they added 5.1 sound. All of the new sound really sounded like it was just layered on top of the old soundtrack. Old stuff up front, a few new blaster effects hitting me from behind. Pretty poor. The new Star Wars films were the complete opposite, they were really designed for the full setup and it adds a lot.

But most of all, check out Braveheart. Really great cinematic experience for your setup and I never grow tired of hearing people pretend they weren't welling up at the end of the film .

[techieMoe]

Yeah I love some Surround Sound man!

If you're looking for a good surround sound film try Braveheart or Gladiator. You really get the full experience in that type of film.

Good recommendations, both. I have a copy of Gladiator. I think I traded in Braveheart a few years back. Might have had something to do with Mel's breakdown. Maybe I just got tired of kilts.

On the Matrix and Star Wars...The Matrix was always my benchmark for checking out new systems. However when I got my HDTV and upscaling DVD player it looked terrible. MPEG artefacts, not-quite black blacks and generally noise around the picture. That was odd because none of my other DVDs displayed this behaviour and in fact my TV is a monster in all other aspects.

Interesting you mention that. I did a side-by-side comparison of my copy of the Matrix (the original box issue, cardboard snap case, you know what I mean?) and the HD-DVD release.

For the purpose of that side-by-side I used my HD-DVD player for the HD-DVD (obviously) and my Panasonic upconverter for the regular DVD. The picture on the Panasonic was precisely as you said. Crappy, MPEG artifacts everywhere, grain in the blacks, awful.

Compared to the HD-DVD in my Toshiba player it was night and day. However for the sound test I used the Toshiba player for the regular Matrix DVD, and damned if the picture quality wasn't significantly better! It still wasn't up with the HD-DVD version of course, but a lot of the graininess and picture noise wasn't as noticeable. I think the quality of the up-conversion chip makes a difference.

With Star Wars I was very dissapointed with the late 90s reissues when they added 5.1 sound. All of the new sound really sounded like it was just layered on top of the old soundtrack. Old stuff up front, a few new blaster effects hitting me from behind. Pretty poor. The new Star Wars films were the complete opposite, they were really designed for the full setup and it adds a lot.

Another interesting point. I purchased the "Limited Edition" DVDs because they had the second disc with the original 1970s-80s versions before Lucas went senile. I was going to do the sound test on the newer discs, but if it's as you say perhaps I'll rent one of the prequels just for sound testing sake. I actually didn't care for Episodes 1-3 all that much. Beautiful scenery and effects, terrible dialog.