Halloweentown High DVD Audio Problem

[Spottedfeather]

I was just wondering if anybody else out there has this problem. On the Halloweentown High dvd, during the scene near the end where the bad guy, Dalloway, is making the monster displays come to live and terrorize people, I have an audio problem. After Cody puts out a fire, he runs up to Marnie to talk to her. For a few seconds during this scene, the audio becomes significantly softer. For an exact example, Cody says "Marnie, why are you using your magic this way ? " Marnie says, " Cody, it's not what you think. "
Cody says, " I thought you said you were one of the good kind. " Marnie says, " I am, I don't know what's wrong. Grandma, why isn't it working ? "
This is the scene where the audio drops down. I don't think that it's my dvd player as I only have one other movie (out of about 200) that has this problem. Any ideas ? Anybody else have this problem ?

[MJL356]

Yeah, I have the same problem. It occurs over both DVD's a number of times. It's not that big of deal, but can get kind of annoying.

[Trippin315]

You gave a scene, but is it possible for you to find a time code and I will see if I am able to find it. I didn't notice antying when I watched it.

[AwallaceUNC]

What kind of set-up are you watching it on?

-Aaron

[MJL356]

What kind of set-up are you watching it on?

-Aaron

Set up? I just poped in the DVD in and watched it. I didn't know there was a way to change the set up.

[AwallaceUNC]

Set up? I just poped in the DVD in and watched it. I didn't know there was a way to change the set up.

Are you using a 5.1 surround sound speaker set-up? Or just a stereo TV?

-Aaron

[MJL356]

Set up? I just poped in the DVD in and watched it. I didn't know there was a way to change the set up.

Are you using a 5.1 surround sound speaker set-up? Or just a stereo TV?

-Aaron

I think just stero tv... but I'll have to check on that.

[AwallaceUNC]

That may be why, then. I'd have to go listen to the scene again to be sure, but I remember that scene specifically and I didn't notice any problem. When a DVD is encoded in 5.1 surround sound, and you're watching it on a 2.0 set up, it squishes all that sound from 5 speakers down to 2, which can sometimes make dialogue difficult to hear, particularly in scenes where there's a lot of background music. Perhaps that's the case with what you're hearing?

-Aaron

[Spottedfeather]

That may be why, then. I'd have to go listen to the scene again to be sure, but I remember that scene specifically and I didn't notice any problem. When a DVD is encoded in 5.1 surround sound, and you're watching it on a 2.0 set up, it squishes all that sound from 5 speakers down to 2, which can sometimes make dialogue difficult to here, particularly in scenes where there's a lot of background music. Perhaps that's the case with what you're hearing?

-Aaron

I don't know if that's it, Aaron. Most, if not all of my 200 dvds are 5.1 and, other than a chase scene in Tremors 4 which has deep rumbling sounds during part of the scene, I've never had a problem with any other movie I have. I have a dvd player with the video connected directly to my tv and the audio connected to an Awia 2 speaker, 3 cd changer stereo. I have plenty of movies with lots of bass and speaking at the same time ; Jurassic Park, Independence Day, Tremors 1, 2, & 3, Knight's Tale, Braveheart, Godzilla 2000, Twister, etc. I never noticed any audio problems on these or any other movies I have. (except Tremors 4)

Below is part of the email I sent to disneydvd.com/support

This occurs during about 8 minutes, 15 seconds or so into Chapter 8. My dvd player has several setting for virtual surround sound and I've played the problem section with each of the settings and the problem's still there. There are also other sound settings : Wide Range (lets all ranges of sound on the dvd play), TV mode (lets the low sounds be heard clearly if you have the volume on low), and Normal. There are also settings for
downmix : Dolby Digital, and Normal. No matter what I try, the problem is always there, and when I change the last settings I mentioned, not only is the problem where I mentioned it was, the same thing also occurs during a scene several seconds earlier, where the character, Cody is putting out a fire and the character of Marnie is talking to her grandmother.

And MJL356, I didn't notice anything sound wise on the Double Feature disc, only on Halloweentown High. Which was strange, when I think about it. They had to have compressed the movies a bit to fit both of them on one disc and keep any kind of quality. I did notice something about frame speed on the double feature disc, though. In two scenes, there is a weird speed issue. At the beginning, Kal's Golem dad is helping Gwen in the kitchen at the Halloween party. Gwen is pouring green punch into a bowl. There seems to be a frame speed issue. While the punch is being poured, the frames per second seems to be a little off, like every other frame of film was taken out or something. Then, the second occurence is when Marnie and Aggie are in Halloweentown and talking about her second spell book, this same frame speed up is present while Aggie is talking. But strangely, the audio of her speaking doesn't seem to be out of sync with her mouth. Since the sound and picture didn't suffer, I can live with this.

[MJL356]

I did notice the problem on the Double Feature. The sound getting quieter. I don't know, it doesn't really bother me that much...

[Spottedfeather]

I wrote Disney about this. They asked me where I got the disc, how long I've had it, was there any discolouration on the dvd, etc. Then they said that they were sending me a prepaid mailing label. Why are they sending me something ?