Lena:

There are of course a lot of 'adjustments' that can be made downstream to the balance of the tracks. I don't know why anybody would take the time on a satellite feed to do it, though. In DVD authoring, the film sound is monitored in a room with the typical size of a large bedroom, and is balanced and equalized in such a room. It is possible, and probable, that some adjustments are made there. I doubt though that they would 'pump up' the LFE track beyond the level of the original track, but I suppose anything can happen. The original dubbing mixers aren't dumb; they make a very well balanced mix, and I can't remember any instance where I have thought they had bad taste overall. When I hear the average HT demo in a dealer, the bass is _way_ pumped up compared to the mix as I heard it. In typical movie theatres, LFE is somewhat more like the dubbing stage, but I have heard them louder than they should be. Generally, the overall sound in a movie theatre is a lot poorer than on the dubbing stage, sounding more 'muddled' than it should be. But then again, I'm used to hearing the 'non-Dolby digital' sound of the original master of the soundtrack.

People pay a lot for their subwoofers, and they want to hear them, I guess.

[This message has been edited by soundhound (edited October 23, 2002).]