The Abyss on the 950

When I play the Abyss movie, the 950 detects it as DD 3/2.1 initially when the THX logo is displayed. Then it changes to DD2.0 at the start of the movie instead of remaining in DD3/2.1. I've tried changing DVD players to no effect.

Has anyone else experienced this problem with this movie? Any suggestions will be appreciated.

I haven't watched The Abyss in quite a while (since before I got my 950, in fact), so I can't speak to how my copy behaves. Amazon lists The Abyss as having both DD 5.0 and DD 2.0 soundtracks included. Have you made sure that you are setting the DVD player to the DD 5.0 track? It's possible that the THX logo screen is included in DD 5.1 only, which would create the results that you are seeing if the movie was set to play back in DD 2.0, and it was common at one time for discs with a 2.0 track to default to that track. Also, Digital Bits reviewed the SE, and at the end of the review they mention that a version of the disc exists that contains DD 2.0 tracks for both English and French, but no DD 5.1 track. There's a picture of the English/French version's cover at the end of the review.

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gonk -- Saloon Links | Pre/Pro Comparison Chart | 950 Review

What Gonk said. For whatever reason, for example, my DVD player always *defaults* to the 2.0 track (if present), so I always make sure to pick the audio track manually 1st.

Krishnan,

Just an FYI: if your DVD of 'The Abyss' has a DD 5.0 track, make sure you don't use EX decoding. The surround channels aren't stereo but rather dual-mono and the surround content would get stuck to the back wall with EX decoding. Beter to use the CES processing instead.

Best,
Sanjay

Gonk is right on the money. I have "older" DVDs that do this, they are set to play back in 2.0, the user has to go to the menu to select 5.0 or 5.1. However the intros are in surround but once the movie is loaded they revert back to 2.0. You don't see much of this practice anymore. And I understand that there are some higher-end players that can find the surround track and automatically select it for you.

Thanks for the help guys. Gonk, thanks for the link describing the different versions of the movie. Looks like there has been a packaging mistake. The audio menu on the disc shows English and French Dolby Surround soundtracks as options. But, the cover states English DD 5.1 and English Dolby Surround only. This is the second Abyss disc that has this problem.

How am I going to convince the dolts at Circuit City to give me my money back? All they do is exchanges, but it looks like their entire stock may have the same issue.

Any suggestions? Should I try to take this up to the company that makes this DVD.

I just took a look at my Abyss SE (UPC-24543-03783) and although it says Dolby D it is still playing 3/2.1.

(UPC-24543-03735) has DD2 only, even though it has the THX logo.

(UPC-24543-03783) is the disc that I have but I can't find it's UPC in DVD profiler?

(UPC-24543-00008) is said to have DD 5.1

Information provided by DVD profiler.