Thor volume level?

[Harold Hallikainen]

That SHOULD work unless the firmware in the JSD-60 is very old. The latest firmware is available at http://ftp.uslinc.com/Products/JSD-6.../JSD-60_PIC32/ .

[Dustin Grush]

Firmware is pic 130419 dsp 121208 panel 121206. My guess is that it hasn’t been updated. Is there much danger in updating? Is there a procedure outlined somewhere? Thanks.

[Harold Hallikainen]

I think the best way to update the JSD-60 firmware is through the web interface as described at http://ftp.uslinc.com/Products/JSD-6...06.pdf#page=69 . I'd probably update the DSP and the PIC32. The front panel update dealt with a display going EOL, so the code had to be modified to handle both the old display and the new one.

There is very little danger in updating, but stuff sometimes goes wrong. The JSD-60 has a bypass mode that keeps it going if it's totally dead. Also, there is a factory firmware (PIC32) restore procedure (http://ftp.uslinc.com/Products/JSD-6...06.pdf#page=58 ).

Harold

[Mike Blakesley]

Well, we are playing Thor right now and I can tell you, the sound mix for it is significantly softer than other Marvel movies of late. I started off playing it on the same setting we had Top Gun Maverick on (which was a real wall-rattler) and even cranked up a few points from that, Thor is barely registering on my noise-o-meter. You'd never know it was a Marvel movie just from listening.

[Jon Dent]

To the original question: yes I thought Thor was noticeably quieter than many other releases in our theater. I turned it up to the same level we ran Top Gun Maverick at in order to get the dialog to sound correct. Even with that adjustment it still sounded pretty flat and lifeless (TG:M sounded phenomenal at the same level). Certainly a new low for Marvel and a long way from the audio highs of Captain America: Winter Soldier.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Thor and his fans are getting older, that's why they decided to put the midnight mode on... Or maybe, this movie was considered to be released directly to streaming and that's why they didn't bother to make a more dynamic version for the theatrical release.

[Mike Blakesley]

Uhh, I kind of doubt that, considering no Marvel movie did the straight-to-streaming thing when it was announced as a theatrical. Still, who could put anything past Disney, I guess.

[Marcel Birgelen]

Maybe they entered the realm of "we don't give a flying ***". Disney's stock has tanked, so they need to save money somewhere and squeeze some extra cash out of existing customers... Why not just make one mix to fit them all instead of investing in a proper theatrical mix? It's quite clear that their current CEO's mission is consolidation and price/cost optimization and not expansion, neither can he be accused of being a forward looking visionary. That easily reflects on the rest of the company and lackluster releases are one of them. That being said, I remember commenting about a lackluster sound mix regarding previous Thor installments, maybe their mixing team just likes it flat.

[Steve Guttag]

Looking at the Atmos meters...as Atmos mixes go...it is quite the lively one. It doesn't look like one that was phoned-in.

[Marcel Birgelen]

If it was phoned in, you have your dynamic range issue right there, next time they'd really should use FaceTime instead.

I haven't seen this one in Atmos, as the Atmos house still was playing Elvis, but I also found the 7.1 mix to be pretty flat. Maybe someone screwed up the downconversion from Atmos to the 7.1 mix?

[Jon Dent]

Looking at the Atmos meters...as Atmos mixes go...it is quite the lively one. It doesn't look like one that was phoned-in.

It has good surround use and staging (at least in quieter parts), but the dynamics and LFE are pretty underwhelming for a movie of this caliber. When a huge crystal palace collapses I expect it to be big. Here it was barely louder than the surrounding material and had a pretty anemic low end.

[Steve Guttag]

Hmm...I've never seen nor heard the movie but from what I can tell, the Subwoofer (LFE) channel can indeed get some decent level on it:

AtmosMeter.JPG

[Harold Hallikainen]

Is the movie being played at "7"? Maybe this is the first movie in a while to be recorded at the right level.

[Jon Dent]

Hmm...I've never seen nor heard the movie but from what I can tell, the Subwoofer (LFE) channel can indeed get some decent level on it:

AtmosMeter.JPG

It does, but it's inconsistent. Things you would expect to have good LFE don't (like virtually all the explosions in the opening action scene), but then some random impact or 'mood boom' will rattle things to a decent degree. It's the same with the overall dynamics, some things you would expect to be loud aren't, and vice versa.

[Sascha Roll]

Is the movie being played at "7"? Maybe this is the first movie in a while to be recorded at the right level.

Actually this is not true, according to my experience. In the last 12-24 months I have seen an increasing number of features that could absolutely, without any issues, being played back at 7.0.
I don't recall all titles, but it were quite a few. Just lately ELVIS comes to my mind, and of course WEST SIDE STORY (2019), I just screened the latter yesterday at 7.0 and it sounded absolutely superb.