MSCL.com

Howdy folks.

First & foremost: I (STILL) LOVE THIS SHOW! I'm about 1/3 of the way through the DVD box set (Amazon), and am digging it righteously. I still get a chill when I hear the intro song for god's sake! Just finished watching "Why Jordan Can't Read," and that scene where Angela gets out of his car & goes pirouetting up to the house, accompanied by Snuffy Walden's perfect little toy-piano score, is just about as good as it gets. Which sorta brings me to the topic...

I read in another thread where someone thought the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack on these discs sounded "weird" to them. I agree, in fact I was getting frustrated with the audio on this set. Tonight I finally had time to work some things out, and I'm posting my findings here for what it's worth. I'm also interested to hear what you all think of the sound of MSCL on DVD as well.

First, it appears the 5.1 audio track definitely has some issues. It's not a discrete mix, which is understandable since a 2-channel mix is probably the only one that exists for this show. But to compound the problem, the 5.1 "extraction" has its center channel mixed too soft (with no discernible logic steering), which leaves most of the dialog out wandering around in the left/right channels instead of being anchored in the center where it belongs. Also, the 5.1 bass channel seems a lot hotter than normal - around 6-8 dB higher than the bass levels in the 2-channel track, which puts it way over the top on my system.

The 2-channel track actually seems to work better on these discs, at least with my (average) home-theater setup. The bass is full & deep without dominating (in 5.1, whenever someone closes the fridge door in the Chase kitchen, it sounds like a T-Rex footstep!), and with Dolby Pro-Logic, the dialog is back in the center. Also, if your receiver has Pro-Logic II, try both the Movie and Music settings. I prefer the Music one myself - it lets more of Snuffy's wonderful score shine through, with less gain-wrestling between music & dialogue. God, this show has such great music!

Anyway - just thought I'd throw this out there & say don't skip the stereo audio track, you might like it better.

Cap'n Fool, watchin' MSCL on DVD, doin' the Snoopy dance.

For financial reasons, I haven't gotten the box set yet, but I wonder, why'd they try Dolby 5.1 sound in the first place? It seems like overkill for a television drama filmed in 1993-94.

Bubba wrote:For financial reasons, I haven't gotten the box set yet, but I wonder, why'd they try Dolby 5.1 sound in the first place? It seems like overkill for a television drama filmed in 1993-94.

My guess would be marketing - "because it's there." They got 5 channels and by god they're gonna use 'em. Also, this way they can put "Remastered in 5.1 Surround Sound" on the box, even though it's really just re-processed 2-channel.

Cap'n Fool

Cap'n Fool wrote:<snip>Also, the 5.1 bass channel seems a lot hotter than normal - around 6-8 dB higher than the bass levels in the 2-channel track, which puts it way over the top on my system.

A quick update: This 5.1 bass problem seems to start with Disc 2! After going back & checking Disc 1 again, the 5.1 bass is much more in line with the stereo track (as well as all the other discs in my collection). In fact, the 5.1 center channel balance even seems a little better on Disc 1. I haven't gotten to Discs 3-5 yet, I gotta stop & get some sleep!

Cap'n Fool

Cap'n Fool wrote:First, it appears the 5.1 audio track definitely has some issues. It's not a discrete mix, which is understandable since a 2-channel mix is probably the only one that exists for this show. But to compound the problem, the 5.1 "extraction" has its center channel mixed too soft (with no discernible logic steering), which leaves most of the dialog out wandering around in the left/right channels instead of being anchored in the center where it belongs.

I just received the set (also from Amazon) and promptly sampled each of the discs, and noticed the same thing. I actually thought my centre speaker had been disconnected.

ClarenceWorley wrote:I just received the set (also from Amazon) and promptly sampled each of the discs, and noticed the same thing. I actually thought my centre speaker had been disconnected.

Yup. I did a fair amount of hair-pulling trying to figure out what had gone wrong with my rig. Then after I went up & stuck my head right in front of the center channel, I finally realized it was just the way the disc was produced. What confused me the most was the difference between Discs 1 & 2 - the first one has a pretty normal-sounding 5.1 track. Since my original post, I've moved on to Disc 3, and it has the same troubles as Disc 2. They must've just re-used the audio from the original 3-ep release on Disc 1 of this set - I sure wish they would've listened a little more carefully when they were mastering the remaining episodes. I guess I'll be using the Stereo audio track from here on out...

Cap'n Fool

This is pretty common. I cannot watch a lot of DVDs unless I use all 5 speakers plus subwoofer. Some don't even have a plain stereo track. It sucks!

Cap'n Fool wrote:

ClarenceWorley wrote:I just received the set (also from Amazon) and promptly sampled each of the discs, and noticed the same thing. I actually thought my centre speaker had been disconnected.

Yup. I did a fair amount of hair-pulling trying to figure out what had gone wrong with my rig. Then after I went up & stuck my head right in front of the center channel, I finally realized it was just the way the disc was produced. What confused me the most was the difference between Discs 1 & 2 - the first one has a pretty normal-sounding 5.1 track. Since my original post, I've moved on to Disc 3, and it has the same troubles as Disc 2. They must've just re-used the audio from the original 3-ep release on Disc 1 of this set - I sure wish they would've listened a little more carefully when they were mastering the remaining episodes. I guess I'll be using the Stereo audio track from here on out...

Cap'n Fool