[Help] Jurassic Park 3 - Best Audio?

[Turisu]

Bitrate is only 384kbps unfortunately. The source was the R2 Universal DVD from the trilogy box.

EDIT: I've got the R1 DVD on the way. When I get it I'll compare the DDEX/DTS-ES tracks to what I already have.

[stwd4nder2]

Spot checked a few scenes comparing the DVD, BD and 4k audio.

The DVD is definitely a different mix, probably the closest to the original. Probably has the best low end. But overall I think I prefer the BD, the lossy compression of the DVD is really noticeable at a high volume. The 4k DTS:X mix is still terrible.

[Turisu]

Interesting. In which scene would you say the compression is most noticeable? It would be good to have something to compare when/if I get hold of other sources.

[stwd4nder2]

Any scene with a loud dinosaur roar really brings that ac3 track to it's knees. Check out the T-Rex at 00:26:27

[Turisu]

I now have the R1 DVD. Bitrate on the AC3 track is 448kbps and it's DDEX which would be theatrically correct as the original DTS-ES mix was matrixed 6.1. Sync to the UHD requires an initial offset plus a single frame adjustment mid-movie. The problem for me is having to re-encode back to DDEX. I've found a tool called EXMe that will set the EX flag on an AC3 file but this process is apparently not lossless. So you have potentially some small loss from re-encoding back to 640kbps AC3 and then further loss from the EX process.

So for producing a UHD-synced track we have the following options:

- Leave as standard 5.1 PCM (no matrixed centre-surround channel).
- Encode as DDEX with some additional loss.
- Leave the original AC3 alone and set the offset in the container so that the audio will be half a frame off for the whole movie.

I'm leaning towards the third option as half a frame is barely noticeable to most people and this retains a 6.1 matrixed track with no further loss.

[stwd4nder2]

Looks like ffmpeg can set the ex flag: https://www.ffmpeg.org/ffmpeg-codecs.htm...02d-Part-2 Assuming you export the synced audio as lossless then convert to ac3 at a high bitrate with ffmpeg the quality loss should be minimal, if any.
Alternatively, is it possible to de-matrix the rear channels and get a discrete 6.1 mix?

[spoRv]

Best option IMHO would be to encode in DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 or DTS-HD MA 6.1

[stwd4nder2]

The DTS-ES on the R1 DVD sounds very nice. Good bass (a tad better then the BD), and the clipping that was very noticeable on the R2 AC3 track is much improved, though there was still some sound effects where it was noticeable. If the Cinema DTS mix is nothing but a lossless encode of what's on the DVD, that'd be the definitive track (If anyone has this my PMs are open ). But as it stands now I think I'd rather stick with the BD 7.1 and just turn my sub up a couple db. There's no added/changed sound effects or foley that I noticed, and it sounds pretty great on a good system.

Also I didn't notice any sync issues with the DVD DTS later on in the film, even when actively looking for it.

[Turisu]

Thanks for the breakdown of the track. I compared the waveforms of the DVD tracks with the UHD audio track and with an offset of -424ms the difference throughout the movie is less than half a frame so that's all that's needed for good sync.

[ac3]

ya DTS ES wins tho i don't think the atmos is all that bad
the DDEX is flat tho