Why does blu ray seem louder than dvd?

Question

I found out that blu-ray isn't louder, it's just that blu-ray's sou8nd has more detail than dvd. So, why do explosions seem more ear-splitting, etc. Like for example I watched a nightmare on elm st. on dvd then on blu ray. When freddy smashed his hand through a mirror at the end the sound was good, but didn't really shock me. At the same volume, the blu ray version of that moment seemed to cut my ears with shattered glass and I physically shook. Why is this?

Answer 1

Sure there are arguments for the sound quality on Blu-ray being superior to that of DVD, but that has nothing to do with how loud the sound is. That's a matter of how the audio was engineered (See 1st link). I suspect that the sound balance is different on the Blu-ray version of the movie to that on the DVD. Philosophy changes with time. It's well known that modern re-engineered versions of 70's music tracks are often louder (but have lower dynamic range) than the original (It's called the "Loudness War"). Whether this is an "improvement" or not is debatable but the bulk of opinion is that greater dynamic range is preferable (See 2nd link). I suspect something similar with Blu-ray versions of movies vs the original DVD version.

Answer 2

I suspect it will vary from disk to disk.



You used NOES on DVD and BluRay and assume based on 1 test that BluRay will always be louder than DVD.



It really depends on the Sound Engineer who mastered the disk. I used to work in sound production and there is no such thing as creating a sound-track with an "average" volume. Occasionally some tracks would come out too "hot" or too "cold" and have to be re-done.



It is worse with commercials where there were huge volume changes from one ad to another.



So I suspect you found a case of 2 different sound studios with 2 different mixing boards and different engineers.

Answer 3

DVD contains "lossy" audio formats meaning the audio file information is compressed or minimized similar to mp3. Reason is because the limited storage space of the disc. (4.7 Gb or 8.4 Gb)

Blu Ray, because of it's high-definition qualities and huge capacity (25-50 Gb) have likewise increased it's audio information thus improving detail sound up to it's "lossless" audio format by utilizing decoding features like DTS-HD-MA and Dolby-Tru-HD.

Answer 4

I'm no sound tech but I just got a blu-ray player yesterday and I noticed it as well. It's probably just more advanced technology then before and its objective is to make you feel like you're right there.