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Topic: Phasey sound on DVDs - how to cure? (Read 3658 times) previous topic - next topic
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Phasey sound on DVDs - how to cure?

This is probably not related to psychoacoustic audio coding, though it could be related to decoding. Anyway, appologies for the slightly off topic post, but I can't find any reference to this in DVD discussion groups; and it is audio!


I've just bought a DVD player (first one!) - Panasonic DVDS75EBS.

I've bought the Pal (Region 2) recent release of West Side Story.

I'm watching through a normal TV, with my stereo (not surround) system connected to the stereo audio output of the DVD player. The TV sound is off.


On this disc, all the speech sounds very phasey - like the flanger or ADT effect that was popular in the 1960s. It's as if two versions of the same dialogue are added together - one slightly delayed.

I'm assuming that the dialogue is on the centre _and_ L/R channels simultaneously for some reason. If I put the player in surround mode, and connect the Front Left and Front Right outputs to my stereo, then everything sounds fine - and I still get the dialogue.

Surely, on the disc, the dialogue that is mixed to both centre and L or R should be perfectly in phase, so adding it (for a stereo version) wouldn't cause phasing? If so, why do I get phasing?

I've turned off every clever effect that my DVD player offers, but it's still there.

Any suggestions or ideas? Has anyone had a similar experience?

Cheers,
David.

Phasey sound on DVDs - how to cure?

Reply #1 –
Quote
This is probably not related to psychoacoustic audio coding, though it could be related to decoding. Anyway, appologies for the slightly off topic post, but I can't find any reference to this in DVD discussion groups; and it is audio!


I've just bought a DVD player (first one!) - Panasonic DVDS75EBS.

I've bought the Pal (Region 2) recent release of West Side Story.

I'm watching through a normal TV, with my stereo (not surround) system connected to the stereo audio output of the DVD player. The TV sound is off.


On this disc, all the speech sounds very phasey - like the flanger or ADT effect that was popular in the 1960s. It's as if two versions of the same dialogue are added together - one slightly delayed.

I'm assuming that the dialogue is on the centre _and_ L/R channels simultaneously for some reason. If I put the player in surround mode, and connect the Front Left and Front Right outputs to my stereo, then everything sounds fine - and I still get the dialogue.

Surely, on the disc, the dialogue that is mixed to both centre and L or R should be perfectly in phase, so adding it (for a stereo version) wouldn't cause phasing? If so, why do I get phasing?

I've turned off every clever effect that my DVD player offers, but it's still there.

Any suggestions or ideas? Has anyone had a similar experience?

Cheers,
David.

Does the disc have a 2 channel ac3 soundtrack? I've seen problems with *old* DVD players where discs with only multichannel mixes sounded awful, almost as if they were heavily surround encoded.

If your player does DTS it might be a good idea to see what that sounds like too...

Phasey sound on DVDs - how to cure?

Reply #2 –
Quote
Does the disc have a 2 channel ac3 soundtrack? I've seen problems with *old* DVD players where discs with only multichannel mixes sounded awful, almost as if they were heavily surround encoded.

The disc doesn't have an English 2.0 track. It has various other languages, 2.0 only, but all these sound like they came from old optical film soundtracks, whereas the 5.1 mix is beautifully remastered.


However, you make a good point. I was having similar problems with the disc "magnolia", and this was cured by selecting the 2.0 sound track.

Does anyone know how to stop my DVD player doing whatever it is doing? Assuming it's a player fault/issue.

Cheers,
David.

Phasey sound on DVDs - how to cure?

Reply #3 –
About the only thing I can think of is going into the DVD player setup menu and choosing either AC3 or PCM. Possibly your unit may have some sort of audio enhancement that can be turned off.

It may make a difference what your receiver can decode; AC3, or PCM. It may also make a difference how your receiver is setup if it has selectable sound modes; Dolby Surround, Theatre, Dolby Digital. I've noticed on my receiver if I select Theatre it adds way too much reverb for my small A/V room.

Phasey sound on DVDs - how to cure?

Reply #4 –
It's not a surround sound processor or a receiver - it's a stereo amplifier. No more, no less. So there are no settings to play about with there. As for on the DVD player: I think I've tried every setting, and it hasn't helped.

I just want a good old fashioned stereo compatable output from the DVD player, without any phasing, artificial double tracking, or whatever, even if the same material appears on 2 or more of the 5.1 channels.

Cheers,
David.

Phasey sound on DVDs - how to cure?

Reply #5 –
I wonder if your DVD player just has a crappy downmixing algorithm, or something like that.  Sounds like it might be worth returning the DVD player and trying another, if you can do it (there are so many different models, surely you could try another at a similar price?).

I've always rather liked Toshiba-anything (my DVD player is 4 years old, still alive & kicking and hasn't had a single problem with any disc yet that I've rented or bought!  At least not that I can remember).

Phasey sound on DVDs - how to cure?

Reply #6 –
Quote
I wonder if your DVD player just has a crappy downmixing algorithm, or something like that.  Sounds like it might be worth returning the DVD player and trying another, if you can do it (there are so many different models, surely you could try another at a similar price?).

It does seem to be the downmixing. It's hardly a crappy player though (not expensive, but not the cheapest) - it's a Panasonic which can do DVD-audio as well as DVD-video, and has built in AC-3 and DTS decoding.

I've phoned Panasonic UK customer service, and they said "it must be a fault - return it to the shop". I don't believe it's a fault, and I don't think the shop will either - it's working within spec.

Any other forums where this might have been discussed?

Cheers,
David.

Phasey sound on DVDs - how to cure?

Reply #7 –
I've seen some Panasonic products that have an audio enhancement called Spatilizer which can cause strange sounding audio. I think Spatilizer may just be QSound rebadged with a different name, however I cannot verify that.

My experience with Spatilizer:
With my old standard Sony TV I could enable Spatilizer on my Panasonic VCR and it gave a simulated surround sound effect. With my new wide-screen Sony TV it totally messes up the sound and has to be disabled.

From what I've listened to all Stereo signals have a very strange and difficult to listen to mixture of sounds, everything is just mixed together, which isn't the way its supposed to be. For instance; speech is difficult to hear with it enabled. With mono signals it does give the sound a simulated surround effect, with the expense being more dB being outputted in one channel, on my system the more dB comes out of the right channel.

Phasey sound on DVDs - how to cure?

Reply #8 –
Andarvari,

Thanks for the suggestions. The player has got stuff like that on it - 2 settings for simulated surround from two speakers, and 2 settings for simulated surround via headphones.

But as far as I can tell, I've got these switched off (you know when they're on!) - and still there's this phasey effect.

It's not on all (or even most) discs - just on this one or two which have the same sound panned to centre and left, or left-front and left-rear etc simultaneously.

If anyone has got any other suggestions....

Cheers,
David.