Netflix question about discs.

[cbayer]

Due to one of the worst internet connections in the whole US right now, we have been unable to watch streaming movies for a couple of months.

So, we borrowed a netflix disc from a neighbor last night (Carnage).

It's blu-ray and we have a blu-ray player.

It played the incredibly long commercial for blu-ray products, about 6 previews, and the opening credits just fine.

When it got to the actual movie, we could not hear any dialog at all.

Interestingly, we could hear some minor background noises - traffic, coffee cups being stirred, a door shut - but no dialogue.

This being Polanski, we at first thought it just an odd piece of filmaking, but rapidly concluded that that was not the case.

We took it out, cleaned it, changed from HDMI to A-C cables - nothing.

I began to think that somehow Netflix was able to do this purposefully to keep you from sharing, but that sounds awfully complex.

Anyone else have any ideas?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

1. There have been complaints on the Netflix Facebook page about defective disks

Does it play on your neighbor's machine?

I don't have a Blu-Ray player, so I don't know, but is there a sort of control panel section on the disk (including choice of audio language, subtitles) as there is on most regular DVDs?

[cbayer]

3. It worked fine on his machine.

We checked for english, no subtitles.

[NV Whino]

2. Did you switch to a later scene?

Since you could hear background noise, i think it's probably the movie. Maybe someone else has seen the movie and can clue you in on that aspect.

[cbayer]

4. Yes, it stayed like that throughout (though a replay of the previews worked just fine).

And my neighbor was able to watch it with no trouble at all.

We will get him to retry it on his machine today and see what happens.

[Goblinmonger]

5. Then I would posit it is something with your machine.

I don't know enough about BlueRay to give you any suggestions, but if it is working on other machines and not yours, Occam's Razor points to your machine.

[ZoltarSpeaks]

6. Check your player's audio settings...

Chances are that if you are hearing some sounds but no dialog it is because you are missing the center channel (where most dialog is routed).

If you only have stereo sound capability you may need to find the audio setting in the Blu-Ray player menu and set it to 2 channel or stereo (or whatever is appropriate for what you have). The disc probably has DTS, , AC3, or TrueHD audio with at least 6 channels of audio that may not be getting decoded or reproduced properly for your sound system.

[cbayer]

7. Is there any reason that that would be an issue for just this one disc?

We have never had a problem before, but I am going to go through the menu and do what you advise.

Thanks so much! It's always nice to at least have some way to approach the problem.

[ZoltarSpeaks]

8. It depends on your setup

Do you have a surround sound system (5 to 8 speakers total) or are you using the TV speakers (which is probably limited to 2 channel stereo)?

"Carnage" has a DTS-HD 5.0 channel soundtrack, and I'm pretty sure that you are for some reason missing the center dialog channel (I've run across this many times before with improper settings or because of pulled out audio cables). The player settings (via the "Audio" menu setup) must be configured to match your type of sound system, whether it is simple stereo or something better like 5.1 to 7.1 surround sound. When the audio is set up correctly the player will by default either send most the dialog to the center channel (if you have set it for surround sound) or will split it across the left and right speakers if you have only stereo sound.

If the player is (and always has been) set up correctly you may also want to look at the set up menus on the disc itself to see if there is a settings choice for which audio track to play, just in case it isn't automatically playing the correct track for you.

In any event there will be some settings that will get you fixed up, and there is nothing unique to a disc from Netflix that would preclude you from playing it. If you can't get it to work let me know the player make and model and the TV and or audio system you have (surround or just stereo) and I can probably give a better answer.

[cbayer]

9. I don't have any kind of surround sound and just listen through the tv speakers.

So, I am in the settings now and I feel like I am reading Chinese.

It's got:

Digital Output - set to PCM

PCM Downsampling - On

Dynamic Range Control - Auto

Downmixing moder - Normal Stereo

DTS Neo6 - Off

I honestly don't know what a single one of these things mean. I am not stupid, but even looking at the manual and the explanations of what all these options do, I am completely lost.

I have a VIZIO TV and Samsung BluRay player.

Thanks so much for helping me here. I have been setting up my own audio visual equipment for about 40 years, but I am at a complete loss right now.

[ZoltarSpeaks]

10. Your settings look good

Based on what you have said, and assuming you are connected to the TV through the single HDMI cable only, then the player should auto-detect the TV's audio capability (stereo in your case), and should already be correctly downmixing any multichannel (5 channel) sound from the disc into 2 channel stereo. I think any of the settings you described above only affect the player's digital output if feeding a separate audio decoder/amplifier, which you are not doing.

If you are getting normal dialog soundtracks from other Blu-Ray discs but not this particular movie, that seems a little suspicious. I would look at any options for choosing a 2 channel stereo soundtrack on the disc itself (instead of DTS-HD 5.0) when you get to the main play menu, just to see if that helps.

Beyond that you could check the TV's audio settings menu as well to make sure nothing looks unusual (turn off any audio processing modes such as enhanced stereo or phantom center channel) and make sure it is set for plain stereo. If your Vizio TV has a built-in Dolby Digital decoder, that may also be a factor. You can also make sure that any audio dynamic range controls in either the TV OR the Blu-Ray player are turned OFF. Although these settings usually enhance the dialog, it would be best to just rule them out for now.

The bottom line is that it seems that you are hearing only the left and right channels of a 5 channel soundtrack, and you need to be looking at player or TV audio settings, and possibly the audio track choices (if offered) when playing the movie to ensure that you are getting a stereo output.

Don't feel bad about being confused. Thanks to the HDMI debacle and too many different "standards", just getting a TV picture with sound with today's gear can sometimes rely more on luck than anything.

[cbayer]

11. So, we put in Midnight in Paris last night - same thing!

Previews ran fine (even one for Carnage, lol). Music during opening credits - fine. Dialogue - none.

We changed everything we could fine without results. Did a google search, found someone with the same problem with the same move with the same machine. He gave the right combination of settings and, voila, sound.

Thanks so much for your help here. This is way, way more complicated than it should be, isn't it. I was a hair's breadth from smashing that player with a hammer.

[dixiegrrrrl]

12. Interestingly...

I play ALL netflix discs on the puter, using VLC player
and
Blu-Ray discs play just fine for me.

I have a 19" flat screen monitor.

Only mention this to eliminate the disc as a problem. in your query.

[cbayer]

15. I tried to play this blu-ray disc on my computer to see if if were the disc or not,

and it wouldn't play at all.

[dixiegrrrrl]

16. Wel, you are not going nuts..

I have been unable to play some of Netflixes newer fresh from the studio movies on the puter, Netflix people at the other end of the phone say it is possibly the anti-pirate coding that is the problem.
Disney releases have given me the most trouble, actually.
So if it would not play on your puter or on your tv, I would assume the disc is the issue...

[lizerdbits]

13. I've had a problem twice with poor sound

I happened to have a mini TV-DVD player combo and they played just fine in that instead of my regular DVD player (I don't have blu-ray). Maybe there are some compatibility issues only with certain discs. I'm not an expert in electronics, so I have no idea what that would be.

As for the defective disc comment, I once received a disc that was physically broken (a chunk was missing) and the replacement of the same disc had the exact same problem. I decided not to see if the third attempt of it would be functional.

[cbayer]

14. This is the first problem we have had and it turned out to be blu-ray specific (I think).

I don't subscribe to the discs, but we borrow them from time to time, but I never had much problem when I was getting discs.