Demo Content and Calibration Discs

Dolby Podcast Episode 12 - April 12, 2007

Jack and Craig pick their favorite content – movies, music and video games - to show off their home theaters, offer suggestions on calibration discs, and answer a listener's question about how to connect a Sony Playstation 3 to his Sony 5200ES receiver.

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Mentioned in this Episode

Jack Buser: Hello, and welcome to Dolbycast, the insider's guide to entertainment technology from the experts at Dolby Laboratories! I'm Jack Buser.

Craig Eggers: And I'm Craig Eggers.

Jack: And we're here to give you the straight talk on everything you need to please your ears!

Craig: It's been just a week since we've seen each other.

Jack: That's right, but what a beautiful week it's been. Over 80 degrees outside here in San Francisco !

Craig: Spring time has sprung.

Jack: I can't believe it. I was just talking to my friends in New York, and they're out there freezing. So if you're in New York, stay warm! We'll send some of this sunshine your way.

Craig: Definitely. And while we're on the subject of back East, I understand that I now have a distinguished colleague.

Jack: Really?

Craig: Yeah, Mr. Jack Buser, Kentucky colonel?

Jack: Oh, that is right! I am officially Colonel Jack Buser!

Craig: Now, what does this mean? That you're part of a corn cob, or you have access to the secret recipe, or what?

Jack: No, it's a little-known fact, but yours truly grew up in Louisville, Kentucky .

Craig: That's "Lou-ville."

Jack: "Lou-ville," Kentucky ! And the highest honor awarded by the governor of Kentucky is that of colonel. And that's where Colonel Sanders got his

"colonel." Little-known fact.

Craig: OK.

Jack: So I am officially Colonel Jack Buser!

Craig: So does that mean you're going to start a chicken business, or what?

Jack: I may well! The audio business has treated me well, but why not get into the chicken business, eh?

[laughter]

Craig: OK, let's get back to the podcast.

Jack: Fantastic! Listen, I've got to say, one piece of home theater gear that I am especially excited about right now, and I'm just chomping at the bit to check this thing out: It's that new JVC 1080p projector, the DLA-RS1. Got a fantastic review on projectorcentral.com! I just can't wait to check it out!

Craig: Now, our listeners should know that Jack comes to me once a week with a buy request for some new piece of equipment that's out there.

Jack: That's true! That's very true.

Craig: So, next week you're going to tell us that you're in love with..?

Jack: No, no, it's going to be this JVC! I'm telling you, it's true love. Love at first sight.

Craig: There you go.

Jack: Now, Craig, I think you've got a question from a listener for us?

Craig: We have a question from a listener by the name of Jerome. He writes: "Nice podcast. I've listened to all your 'casts over the last day or so because I've been trying to understand all of these formats. I have a PS3 and a Sony 5200ES receiver."

Jack: Love that receiver.

Craig: "So I'm at the bleeding edge of audio technology. It would be nice if you guys made a table of all the formats available and their technical information. Better yet, read the 5200 manual on the air and explain it to me."

Jack: Now Craig, I understand you made this table here.

Craig: I did.

Jack: Now, hold it up to the microphone so that everyone can hear it!

[laughter]

Jack: Oh, I guess that's not going to work in an audio podcast. But in all seriousness, Jerome, we don't have a table for you, but if you do go to dolby.com, we have descriptions of all of our technologies, as well as descriptions of how to connect your gear. Also, you should listen to our podcast on connecting your gear; it should help you out.

Jack: But specifically, on connecting the PS3 and the 5200ES, my number-one bit of advice would be for you to make sure you connect using HDMI—hopefully, that goes without saying at this point. Second of all, make sure that your 5200ES is set so it can receive audio over HDMI. Now, I use a Yamaha RXV2700, which is sort of Yamaha's corollary to the 5200ES, and those sort of things come preconfigured out of the box. I'm not sure about the Sony, but if you have to turn on "receive audio," you might want to check if that's set.

Jack: More likely, though, you have to set up your PlayStation 3. So, if you start up your PS3 without a disc in it, you get to the "cross bar," this sort of navigation bar, and in there you're going to find an area where you can set up the HDMI output. You can use either automatic or manual; I recommend first setting it up automatic, see if that helps your problem, and if it doesn't, then go in manual and enable all those different PCM outputs.

Jack: And that's going to make sure that when you're playing a game or watching a Blu-ray movie, it'll decode whatever format it's in inside the PS3, and then PCM over the HDMI connection to your receiver. So that should help, and if it doesn't then write us back, but that should solve your problem.

Craig: And Jerome, I want you to know, I'm sending Jack Buser over to your house, and he's going to read the owner's manual.

[laughter]

Jack: You know, actually, we were going to read the owner's manual here—we actually thought about it—but then we decided, that wouldn't actually be the most compelling content. But listen, thanks so much for writing, Jerome, and thanks for listening. All you other listeners out there, please keep sending us questions! We love getting questions.

Jack: When we get back, we're moving on to today's subject: It's what content Craig and I like to play back on our home theater systems in order to best show it off to the world.

[musical interlude]

Narrator: Craig and Jack would love to answer your questions. Email them at dolbycast@dolby.com.

Craig: Welcome back to Dolbycast. You know, everybody's got their favorite content that they want to use to demonstrate their home theater systems, and we're no exception.

Jack: This is very true.

Craig: Now, I know that you've got some great titles, and being a little older than you, I've probably got a little bit more history.

Jack: And you're going to say you've got more titles? Is that what you were going to say?

[laughter]

Craig: That's not what I was going to say!

Jack: See, I'm really interested to hear what it is that you use when you show off your home theater system—I know I've got my favorite discs. I have to say, I split it about half and half between some of the latest video games and some of the latest movies.

Craig: You know, it's interesting that you mention video games; we've talked about video games on a previous segment, and how video games can really bring a whole new dimension to the game experience—

Jack: Well, to the home theater experience.

Craig: I haven't thought about using video games to demonstrate!

Jack: I'd say again that video games bring a whole new dimension to the home theater experience. There's nothing better than just firing up your home theater, and firing up Gears of War on your Xbox 360, or you fire up Genji on PlayStation 3, and you fire it up on a 106-inch projection screen, 5.1 surround sound, I mean—it's just probably one of the best home theater demos you can possibly do!

Craig: But you have to live long enough for the excitement to happen, right? That's my problem!

[laughter]

Craig: I'd fire up the game and die in 3 seconds.

Jack: Well, what was the game you were addicted to...?

Craig: Band of Brothers. I had to set that aside, Jack.

Jack: [laughs] I think you'd be right there with Gears of War. It is just such a fantastic game. It's sort of an over-the-shoulder perspective. We talked about this on a previous podcast, but the environment is rendered so beautifully and the sound is so well done; the guy just won a few awards for the game sound, actually, from Gears of War.

Craig: So for our listeners who aren't into war, is there anything else that you use, as far as video games, to demonstrate your system?

Jack: Well, if there's no war, that really does narrow down... [laughs] We're down to about two video games...

Craig: Well, there's car races and stuff, right?

Jack: There're definitely car races. But there is another game that I actually think is a really cool home theater demo, but you've got to be in the mood for it. It's a new game that just came out for PlayStation 3. It's actually a downloadable game—doesn't come on disc...

Craig: Is that right?

Jack: Yeah. You can only download it off their PlayStation store, so you have to have a broadband connection. But it's a little game called Flow. It's so weird; you're like a little amoeba, floating around in the primordial soup, if you will, and you control your amoeba by tilting the controller. You don't really have to move the controller at all, you just literally hold the controller in your hand and just kind of tilt it around...

Craig: Wow.

Jack: It's the weirdest thing in the world. But it plays this really cool 5.1-channel ambient, textural music...

Craig: It's like embryonic music...

Jack: Oh, man, you can really play this game, and it totally puts you in this, like, Zen zone...

Craig: Just kind of like floating...

Jack: You are the amoeba, there in your home theater...

Craig: [laughs]

Jack: [laughs] It's very cool. Well, how about you, Craig? Do you use movies? Do you use games?

Craig: While we're on the subject of war... [laughs]

Jack: [laughs] Or amoeba, as the case may be...

Craig: Or amoebas. Or amoebas in war...

Jack: All right. Go on. Go on.

Craig: Classically, one of the first discs I reach for is either Apocalypse Now or Black Hawk Down.

Jack: Now, do you use Redux, the latest DVD?

Craig: The Redux disc is incredible. And for those of you who have got the new version of Apocalypse Now, there's a whole storyline in there, as to how Dolby actually impacted the recording and development of the soundtracks for Apocalypse Now.

Jack: Oh, no kidding? I didn't know that.

Craig: It's one of the most phenomenal soundtracks. And if you are interested in helicopters and want to hear helicopters flying over, that is the disc.

Jack: Yeah, what's the scene?

Craig: The second scene, where they're mopping up in a village and they're going, "We're here to save you!" And the helicopters are going left and right, panning left and right and front to back. It's absolutely incredible.

Jack: Amazing.

Craig: It's an absolutely incredible experience.

Jack: I'm going to have to go back and watch this. I've got to tell you, as much as I love DVD—and I love DVD—recently, I find it very hard to do a demonstration without an HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc ™ . And the disc that goes on more than any other disc, when I'm demo-ing my system recently, has been Superman Returns.

Craig: Just came out.

Jack: HD DVD with the Dolby TrueHD soundtrack. Oh! Talk about a soundtrack! Two scenes in there: the plane crash scene where Superman saves the day is fabulous. If you want to put on just a super-intense scene where the day gets saved, and it's just got beautiful sound and beautiful video, that's the scene. But there is one scene that has a tech demo. Go on...

Craig: I was going to say, from the very beginning of the disc through the whole disc, the audio track is incredible.

Jack: Oh, it's fabulous. That's what I was about to say: the opening credits. Say what you will about the intensity of opening credits, but the audio that they did when Krypton just sort of goes into the sun and explodes is some of the most dynamic audio I have ever heard.

You hear the dialogue in the background, where Superman's father is talking to him, and then all of a sudden, you hear this massive explosion. I can't even wager a guess how much louder that explosion is than that dialogue, [laughs] but it just blows people away every time.

Craig: You know, the visuals on that are just equally incredible.

Jack: Oh yeah.

Craig: The animation people deserve a special shout-out on that.

Jack: In fact, they do, because they're the same people that did our Dolby TrueHD trailer. Did you know this?

Craig: Is that right?

Jack: It is actually The Orphanage.

Craig: Is that right?

Jack: Yeah, actually it was. And we were there—and I probably shouldn't tell this story, but what the heck—we were making the trailer, the new Dolby TrueHD trailer, Bit Harvest, we call it, and I peeked my eyes around someplace where my eyes probably shouldn't have been, and I saw an image of Superman saving the day...

Craig: Oh, is that right?

Jack: And I was like, "Oh, man! This movie's going to be cool!"

Craig: Oh, that's cool!

Jack: Yeah, it was too cool. So I've been waiting for this movie for a long time.

Craig: Very, very cool.

Jack: How about you? You got any HD DVDs or Blu-rays that you've been watching?

Craig: You know, I have come to your side of the world.

Jack: [laughs]

Craig: You are a big Serenity fan, and I have to be honest with you, I've never really paid attention to the movie, other than when we use it to demo things to the press, etcetera...

Jack: Yes.

Craig: I watched the movie the other day. And a Dolby Digital Plus soundtrack, the warmth, the depth...

Jack: Oh, it's amazing.

Craig: The imaging, the ability to hear so many distinct and various elements within the sound field was just absolutely incredible.

Jack: Absolutely. It really goes to show how good a lossy compression scheme can sound. It really does sound right up there with lossless—it's everything but. It just sounds so good.

Craig: Well, we've actually had some reviewers say that it's virtually transparent.

Jack: Virtually transparent. Yeah, absolutely.

Craig: It sounds virtually transparent.

Jack: And there's a Blu-ray Disc with a lossy soundtrack—actually, a Dolby Digital soundtrack—that I think is equally as impressive. As a lot of our listeners know by now, Dolby Digital on Blu-ray is actually being run at a much higher data rate than it was ever run on DVD, so it actually sounds very, very, very close...

Craig: Significant difference in quality.

Jack: Yeah, significantly better. And there's a great demonstration of that, actually, on the Blu-ray side, which is The Fifth Element, the classic demonstration disc for home theater.

Craig: Oh, truly. Truly.

Jack: The Fifth Element, the scene...

Craig: Where the diva sings...

Jack: Where the diva sings. It's just such a great demonstration scene.

Craig: That has classically been used to judge video performance, as well as audio performance.

Jack: Yep, absolutely.

Craig: It's an incredible scene. I want to go back to standard definition for a moment, and you'll probably kill me for this...

Jack: Are you going to talk about what I think you're going to talk about?

Craig: I don't think so.

Jack: I think I know which one you're going to talk about. Does it involve bridges and counties?

Craig: Yes, it does.

Jack: [aggravated] Oh, man! Do we have to?

Craig: Yes, it does! Yes, it does!

Jack: OK. You're going to admit to the world that you love this movie. Go ahead.

Craig: It's a Clint Eastwood movie. Who doesn't love Clint Eastwood?

Jack: [laughs] Go ahead. All right. I'll give you Clint Eastwood. Go ahead.

Craig: The end of The Bridges of Madison County is one of the most perfect surround sound demos in the world. It's the scene where they go into town. It's raining. They're driving the old '50s style pickup trucks. You hear the rain popping off the tin roof of the pickup truck. You hear the back and forth of the wiper blade. You have thunder that starts from behind you and just rumbles throughout the entire room. And then there's that tinkling of the piano that creates the whole emotional attachment. It is perfection when it comes to audio mixing and creating an emotional attachment to what's happening on the screen.

Jack: [reluctantly] I'll give the movie to you, but only if you give me this one.

Craig: OK.

Jack: It's standard definition. Excellent demonstration disc—only because it might be the finest piece of cinema ever created: the Coen Brothers' The Big Lebowski. Give it to me. Give it to me.

Craig: [hesitantly] Uh-oh.

Jack: The soundtrack, the dialogue, the mix...

Craig: Yeah.

Jack: It was an early DVD, it was a fantastic transfer for when it was released, and the audio is just great. The dialogue—it's just all about the dialogue in the movie. If you haven't seen it ten times, see it ten times.

Craig: I'll give you The Big Lebowski, but you've got to give me something.

Jack: OK.

Craig: We promised we weren't going to talk about music videos...

Jack: OK, but...

Craig: But...

Jack: [laughs] Give it to me.

Craig: Blu-ray. Blu-ray Disc: what am I talking about?

Jack: Well, you're either talking about the new Nine Inch Nails...

Craig: Which we are going to audition in a future podcast.

Jack: Yes. Or you're probably talking about Legends of Jazz.

Craig: Legends of Jazz. This was originally encoded and recorded at 2,496. The recording is now been preserved on TrueHD, on Blu-ray, you've got a sensational high-definition picture and audio experience. It's like being on the set.

Jack: You know it really is amazing. I'm not a huge jazz fan, but I do love jazz and I've got to say, I threw the disc in the PlayStation 3 and it was just fabulous.

Craig: Just fabulous?

Jack: Just fabulous, makes your speakers really just sing. But I've got to tell you I'm looking forward to the Nine Inch Nails disc. That's coming out in TrueHD on both Blu-ray and HD DVD. I don't have it yet; it's actually supposedly out.

Craig: It's out.

Jack: It's out. And it's also on standard-def, so if you don't have one of the next-gen players, you can also pick it up on standard-def as well, Dolby Digital, I believe.

Craig: Dolby Digital. And we're going to review it. We're going to review it in a future podcast.

Jack: I haven't checked it out myself; I'm looking for it, I'm picking it up, but I did get a chance to hear some of the content here at Dolby while John was working on it. And it sounded great, so I'm really looking forward to it.

Craig: Some of the initial reviewers already got a hold of it, and I know some people are saying it's their new reference disc.

Jack: Yes. So speaking of reference discs, we'd better go to a break.

Craig: We'd better.

Jack: When we get back we're going to talk about a couple reference discs that you have to have in your home theater collection, specifically for Mr. Kane and Avia. So when we come back, it's going to be all about calibration discs.

[commercial break]

Craig: And welcome back to Dolbycast. In our previous segments, we talked about our favorite selections for demonstrating our home theater systems to our friends, our neighbors, and our families. But you know before you get to that activity, there's one thing you need to do, Jack.

Jack: Calibrate.

Craig: Calibrate.

Jack: Got to calibrate. If you don't calibrate, how can you demo?

Craig: You've got to make sure that your system's working to its fullest potential.

Jack: Absolutely.

Craig: There are some really cool discs out there that enable you in a basic environment, as well as a very highly technical environment, to do calibration to your video displays and to set up your audio system. One is the Avia test disc, which is full of test patterns; it's out on standard-definition DVD.

Jack: Avia: A-V-I-A.

Craig: And it's a wonderful tool for calibrating your system. I have to say, if you're not familiar with setting up your display monitor, if you don't know how to calibrate it, find a professional to do that.

Jack: Yes.

Craig: One of the very first discs that came out with the advent of the DVD format was Digital Video Essentials from Joe Kane . Joe Kane was one of the initial founders of the Imaging Science Foundation. Joe's initial disc really concentrated on how to set up and properly calibrate a video monitor. His latest disc, Digital Video Essentials, incorporates all kinds of high-definition content as source content.

Jack: Yup.

Craig: But he also addresses audio calibration, audio setup, as well as video setup for the home.

Jack: Now is this out on HD DVD yet, or is it going to be?

Craig: I have to say, it's going to be.

Jack: All right.

Craig: Everybody's been anticipating it, and I've been talking to Joe; he's going to have soundtracks in Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby TrueHD on the discs.

Jack: Cool. Cool, cool, cool.

Craig: Reference-quality material.

Jack: Well, looks like I'm going to have to pick that one up as soon as it come out and watch, yet again, one of my favorite films, which I haven't mentioned yet. But The Departed on HD DVD. Have you seen this movie?

Craig: I understand it's pretty grim, Jack.

Jack: I can't get enough of this movie! Scorsese, man!

Craig: You can't get enough—that scares me, Jack.

Jack: Man, this is the movie! Totally lossless audio, on both Blu-ray and HD DVD, Dolby TrueHD on HD DVD, sounds so good. The movie is so fabulous, yes, OK fine, it's a little violent, it's a little violent, what do you expect from Scorsese, you know. You should go in, expecting what you are going to get, but it's just a fabulous movie, and it's got so many twists and turns, the plot is so good, the audio so; it's just a, it's a class act, it's a class act.

Craig: Very cool.

Jack: Such a great movie.

Craig: Very cool.

Jack: Do I get a second one?

Craig: All right, one more.

Jack: One more.

Craig: One more.

Jack: The other scene that put the, the one particular machine that I put in when I really want to put the pedal to the metal, now this is only available on standard-def DVD, I'm waiting for it on Blu-ray or HD DVD: Predator. Specifically, specifically, the scene where the guy takes out the mini gun and just mows down the forest.

Craig: Just, that's...

Jack: That's the one, man!

Craig: You're in a violent kind of mood today.

Jack: No! I don't know, I guess it's 'cause it's a Monday or something.

Craig: We started out on war games, war games on gaming.

Jack: I don't know what it is!

Craig: Then we went to—

Jack: I don't know what it is!

Craig: I'm, I'm scared. I'm just, you know.

Jack: I'll tell you what; there is nothing better than that scene from Predator. I cannot wait for that film to come out on high-def.

Craig: That's an incredible scene.

Jack: Aw man, just the bass output.

Craig: And if I get one more.

Jack: All right, go ahead.

Craig: Sylvester Stallone's Assassins.

Jack: I haven't seen that one.

Craig: The very beginning of that movie, there's a scene in a courtyard where there's a lot of birds, and a sniper takes a shot and takes out the victim.

Jack: Huh.

Craig: But when he takes the shot, the shot rings out and the birds fly away. And then they pan to the next scene, where Sylvester Stallone is walking in a swamp and it's raining, and you can hear the sloshing as they slosh through the mud underfoot. And it's raining and you can hear the rain bouncing off their raincoats, and again, it doesn't have to be crash, bang, and boom, and all those things. It's about creating that emotional attachment and putting you in the seat.

Jack: That is so true. There's one particular example of that that I have to bring in here. Those of you that have been listening to this podcast for some time know that I love electronic music, and there is one movie where the sound puts you in the scene.

Craig: OK.

Jack: And that movie is Tron. Another classic movie! My gosh, the soundtrack all done by Wendy Carlos, all on an analog Moog synthesizer. And if ever you wanted it to sound like in your home theater, that you're actually inside a video game from the '80s, it is the movie Tron. And that's another one that I'm dying to come out on HD, it just looks fantastic. I'm a child of the, well mid-70s, I suppose, but grew up in the '80s.

Craig: Careful.

Jack: So I'm a product of the '80s.

Craig: Careful.

Jack: And there's [laughs] there is nothing better than Tron.

Craig: All right, if you haven't figured it out, we could probably sit here for 5 more hours talking about our favorite movies and asking for extensions in times.

Jack: [laughs]

Craig: So you know what, Jack, now that you've hit the microphone—

Jack: Yes, that is true, sort of a tradition.

Craig: Sort of a tradition.

Jack: Sort of a tradition.

Craig: I think it's probably time for us to sign off.

Jack: Aw man, and we didn't even get to kung fu.

Craig: Kung fu?

Jack: I didn't even get to House of Flying Daggers.

Craig: We didn't do King Kong.

Jack: Aw, man.

Craig: Aw, man.

Jack: You know we might have to do a follow-up on this podcast.

Craig: You know I didn't even get to mention [Pink Floyd's] Pulse.

Jack: This is true. There's a lot more. Listen, anybody out there with listener questions, let me remind you one more time; please send in your questions. I'll add to that, if you have other demonstration discs that you'd like to.

Craig: We'd love to hear from you. That'd be so cool.

Jack: Yeah. Scenes specifically, if you could pick out a scene from a movie that you've been enjoying, or a video game, or a high-definition broadcast, or…

Craig: [whispering] Rr…

Jack: [laughing] Or anything you can possibly think of. We'd love hear your recommendations, we love to get your questions. As always I am Jack Buser and

you are.

Craig: I'm Craig Eggers.

Jack: Craig Eggers, and we are together...

Craig: [simultaneously] Dolbycast.

Jack: [simultaneously] Dolbycast.

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