Dune 2021

[DavidMcRoy]

Do you know the bandwidth you use when watching HBO Max? I hear distortion when the streaming service throttles the stream. The distortion is similar to old 128Kbps or lower MP3 recordings. There is a lot of data required for a film like Dune, which is chock full of audio and dynamic video.

It's an HBO Max 4K @ 59.94Hz stream, which always looks solid here, so bandwidth isn't an issue. The "sound" of this distortion reminds me of IM, which I always find particularly disturbing. It's like sandpaper. A few isolated scenes in the movie have dialog that sounds cleaner, and most of the SFX tracks sound cleaner, (admittedly it's impossible to know or judge what SFX "should" sound like,) leading me to suspect that someone may have added distortion to the dialog tracks for effect, and maybe WAY over did it for my taste. The fact that tons of viewers have complained about indistinct dialog in this production makes me wonder whether this distortion is what's causing that issue. It's my understanding that this director has a history of making movies with intentionally indistinct dialog sound. When I read that, my assumption is that the dialog is simply made muddy with EQ and buried in the mix at a too-low level, but that's not so much the case here. It's just very distorted.

 

[symphara]

All this talk about the dialogue mix leaves me scratching my head. I have the BluRay version and no issues that I can recall, and we watched it a few times.

If I had one complaint, it would be how dark it is in the later scenes.

 

[voodooless]

All this talk about the dialogue mix leaves me scratching my head. I have the BluRay version and no issues that I can recall, and we watched it a few times.

I've watched the HBO version and had no issues either, nor did I hear any 128 kbit MP3 "compression artifacts"...

 

[OldenEars]

Any sufficiently advanced unknown science looks like magic.

That's Clarke. The quote I'm thinking of was from someone more obscure and I'm struggling to find it

 

[voodooless]

The line between sci fi and and fantasy is thin. Paul's powers are supposedly produced by a selective breeding program and the mysterious substance spice mélange. That's almost magic.

It's simple: if they try to explain it, it's sci-fi. If they don't bother, it's fantasy.

"The Force" in Star Wars is similar. It's explained via midi-chlorians, microscopic organisms living in the cells of force carriers. Although the Sequal Trilogy seemingly wholly ignores the concept and favors more a fantasy approach, once again showing that the people running the show do not know how to make good sci-fi.

 

[Ron Texas]

It's simple: if they try to explain it, it's sci-fi. If they don't bother, it's fantasy.

"The Force" in Star Wars is similar. It's explained via midi-chlorians, microscopic organisms living in the cells of force carriers. Although the Sequal Trilogy seemingly wholly ignores the concept and favors more a fantasy approach, once again showing that the people running the show do not know how to make good sci-fi.

Midi-chlorians, where can I get some? Is it like CBD?

 

[OldenEars]

It's simple: if they try to explain it, it's sci-fi. If they don't bother, it's fantasy.

"The Force" in Star Wars is similar. It's explained via midi-chlorians, microscopic organisms living in the cells of force carriers. Although the Sequal Trilogy seemingly wholly ignores the concept and favors more a fantasy approach, once again showing that the people running the show do not know how to make good sci-fi.

first 3 star wars movies are fantasy.

Other star wars movies are fantastically shit

 

[OldenEars]

It's simple: if they try to explain it, it's sci-fi. If they don't bother, it's fantasy.

"The Force" in Star Wars is similar. It's explained via midi-chlorians, microscopic organisms living in the cells of force carriers. Although the Sequal Trilogy seemingly wholly ignores the concept and favors more a fantasy approach, once again showing that the people running the show do not know how to make good sci-fi.

I saw an episode of star trek where the ships's sensors couldn't read the writing on a ship half buried in an asteroid (i think it was) the alien second in command solved this by looking at the sensor screen and zooming in with his magical alien eyes

 

[JSmith]

I watched Dune 2021 for the first time finally and I was impressed, a very good adaptation.

This was much better than the 1984 attempt which to me never made much sense. Very much looking forward to part 2.


JSmith

 

[DavidMcRoy]

I've watched the HBO version and had no issues either, nor did I hear any 128 kbit MP3 "compression artifacts"...

I didn't hear any compression artifacts, either.

 

[Head_Unit]

Plus all the added stuff like the voice weapon.

That was in the book, "Voice" - this was just their conceptualization of that for the silver screen. At least in this one the Baron is scary as hell, not the wacky buffoon of the previous, which Sting in a loincloth did not enhance (well except for those who swing that way ha ha)

 

[krabapple]

The portrayal of Baron Harkonnen in the David Lynch thing was an atrocity. The mad max/punk costume stylings have dated very poorly too.

 

[krabapple]

Midi-chlorians, where can I get some? Is it like CBD?

I've always assumed it was George Lucas's typically puerile, half-assed attempt to reference the word 'mitochondrion' (plural 'mitochondria') the actual microscopic power plants of cells.

The whole dumb concept actually made 'the Force' far less mysterious.

 

[krabapple]

I think at 10x more compression many will hear the difference.

Technology Dolby Audio Dolby TrueHD | Dolby Developer

Dolby TrueHD, also known as MLP, is a lossless audio codec used widely on HD and UHD Blu-ray Discs. Dolby TrueHD supports up to 24-bit audio and sampling rates from 44.1 kHz to 192 kHz.

developer.dolby.com

Again, simple numerical differences don't necessarily predict degree of audible difference. Lossy audio compression is based on psychoacoustic models.

Variable bit allocation to channels (if practiced), and the masking effect of multiple channels (artifacts audible in a single channel that are masked in multi playback), are also considerations in delivery and evaluation of lossy audio

 

[elvisizer]

That was in the book, "Voice" - this was just their conceptualization of that for the silver screen. At least in this one the Baron is scary as hell, not the wacky buffoon of the previous, which Sting in a loincloth did not enhance (well except for those who swing that way ha ha)

They’re taking about the OTHER voice weapon that was added in the lynch movie, not Voice.
I don’t think they gave it a name in the old movie, the atreides armed the fremen with guns that somehow worked off of voice power- anyone could use them not just people trained in Voice
Edit: they called them “weirding modules”, took me a minute

 

[sarumbear]

Again, simple numerical differences don't necessarily predict degree of audible difference. Lossy audio compression is based on psychoacoustic models.

I wasn’t commenting on the degree of audibility. How much is subjective, just that 10x compression difference will always be audible.

 

[Head_Unit]

I wasn’t commenting on the degree of audibility. How much is subjective, just that 10x compression difference will always be audible.

So if there was zero compression, 10 times zero would be zero, it would not be audible...

(Personally below like 160k stuff can start to sound...I don't know how to describe it. Thin or hollow or something. When you get to satellite radio bitrates, gargly sometimes.)

 

[sarumbear]

(Personally below like 160k stuff can start to sound...I don't know how to describe it. Thin or hollow or something.

That’s the realm of Dolby Digital. DTS gained market share because people heard the difference in sound quality.

Dolby Digital compresses 5.1 digital audio down to a bit-rate of 640 kbits/s (kilobits per second) for Blu-ray discs. For DVD discs, it supports a slightly lower bit-rate: up to 448 kbits/s. DTS, on the other hand, is less compressed and supports higher bit-rates of up to 1.5Mb/s (megabits per second).

Dolby Digital vs DTS: what you need to know about the two big surround sound technologies

Dolby Digital or DTS? Dolby Atmos or DTS:X? How are they different and how are they similar?

www.whathifi.com

 

[krabapple]

I feel like I am writing messages in bottles that never arrive anywhere, on this topic.

Neither Dolby nor DTS's lossy versions allocate a fixed number of bits per channel. Ponder the implications of that. And beyond that they do things quite differently. Yet remain similarly good at what they do. Comparing them fairly in a listening test to tell which has the better 'sound quality' is in fact rather difficult, and you can bet few if any home listeners have ever done it*. That WhatHiFi summary of the matter is rather 'lite'.

Here's a better article on the two technologies, from 2004:

DTS, Dolby Digital and DVD: A History

* and in audiophile forums , people default to the 'higher bitrate = must sound better' fallacy, as has happened right here.

 

[sarumbear]

I feel like I am writing messages in bottles that never arrive anywhere, on this topic.

Maybe the message is not illegible...

* and in audiophile forums , people default to the 'higher bitrate = must sound better' fallacy, as has happened right here.

Everything else the same, 10x data rate difference in compression (as I entered this discussion with that premise) will be audible.