I have the Director's edition DVD for Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan and it seems to be missing some audio that I remember from my TV taped version I had. The audio I remember is in the clip below. What I remember was actually hearing the engineering crew yelling "I can't breathe" "I need air" and Scott's command to them to use their respirator's and to return to their posts. Was that dropped from the DVD? [yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDyZ-cMlnlQ&feature=related[/yt]
whoa! I love it! Scotty: "GET BACK TO YOUR POSTS!!" I don't recall ever hearing any of those background voices, but it really takes the intensity up a notch. shame on paramount if you can barely hear them and they are on the soundtrack.
I meant to post earlier, but watched the entire clip and forgot what I was doing. Now, I'm able to hear it in my Blu-ray, but I have the audio set to stereo (since it's just a small TV).
To be clear, the Scotty lines "Use your respirators" and "Stay at your posts" are very clear in the new mix while the cadets shouting things like "Air! I need air" are tougher to hear. "Use your respirators" was always audible in the mix with all of the cadets shouting. "Stay at your posts" is something I never noticed until the new mix on the Blu-ray. I've never noticed it on previous video releases or the many theatrical viewings I've had of the movie. "Star Trek IV" also has one extra line of dialogue on the Blu-ray that wasn't there before, heard during the climax of the hospital chase.
That's a good point - The default audio on DVDs and Blurays these days is 5.1 or 7.1 surround. If you're not watching them with a surround system, it's going to sound different on your TV's built-in stereo speakers because it's not mixed for that. I bet there's a regular stereo or 2.0 option in the audio menu that will correct the OP's problem. I spent a good amount of time wondering why "Batman Begins" on bluray didn't sound as awesome as it should until I realized it was defaulting to a lesser audio track. Once I switched settings, the difference was clear as day.
Yeah, i'm always surprised when a disc doesn't default to the 'highest' quality sound settings. Granted if it has both DTS and 5.1/7.1 not sure what they should default to, but certainly discs with just 2.0 and 5.1 should default to the 5.1 and let users downgrade if necessary.
My disc only has two 5.1 surround sound options for English. I can sorta hear the crew yelling about breathing and air but Scott's lines are gone.
Batman Begins defaults to the Dolby Digital track because it's not guaranteed that a player will be able to play the Dolby TrueHD track; especially with Warner Brothers' autostart they use on Blu-rays (love that), they didn't want people to put the disc in, get no sound, and think it's defective.
I find this topic fascinating, as I'd swear I've always been able to hear, "Use your respirators lads!" (I've always heard Scotty calling the cadets "lads") and, "Get back to your posts!" The cadets have always been harder for me to make out individually, but that one fella wailing that he can't breathe is chiseled into my brain. I would assume this to be for as long as I've been watching the film since its television premier (I missed it in the theatre). I can't be sure since I no longer have that tape, but I used to play that thing over and over again. Heck, when I listen to the soundtrack now I can't help but hear that and all the other movie's dialog playing out in my head with the melodies, having committed it all to memory as a single unit at a fairly young age.