MovieChat Forums > Hardcore (1979) Discussion > Bad Sound on the DVD

Bad Sound on the DVD

posted 18 years ago by cootiegirl
6 replies | jump to latest

I had to check this out just because MST references the "Turn it off, turn it OFF!" line so much. :) The video is great on the DVD but the sound is HORRIBLE. You can hear every clink of the coffee cups, every chair scrape, you can even hear people's clothes rustle! But it's extremely hard to hear anything people say. If you like background noise this is oscar material lol. I had to turn it up blisteringly loud to hear any dialogue. And it's only this movie that sounds like this so it's not my player. Nice music though.

[–] rizollin 18 years ago

I disagree with your views completely. I had no problem with hearing the dialogue. Sure, the sound is a bit tinny, but that's not uncommon for a film of this vintage. Personally, I thought the music score was awful. Decent film though. Surprisingly rewatchable. I'll bet some sort of drinking game could be constructed for every time George C Scott puts his hand on his face.

[–] p0rn0graphalicious 18 years ago

I watched this last night with a friend, and we both agreed that the sound was really bad, but in other aspects. We noticed in one scene that there was alot of reverb, and that was probably due to the gain on the mixers not being set properly . The echo was definatly noticeable, and we think that they may have added in added background noises later on to try and hide it a bit.
My real big problem with the sound was in the soundtrack. I believe it was closer towards the conclusion of the film. There is a piece of music, which has a lead guitar spot. when the guitar comes in. It was so loud that the accompaniment instruments were hard to hear at certain points.

Its really too bad because this was an excellent film, and I think they could have fixed many, if not all of the audio issues.

[–] SampanMassacre 17 years ago

that happens a lot on DVDs; the dialog is low and then you crank up your TV - then the music comes in and makes you half of helen keller

"I don't hate my friends; I hate myself and chose my friends" Roger Morgan

[–] cymboline 15 years ago

I noticed the same thing. Loud as hell guitar. The mix is way off. I know about dynamic range on DVDs but this was off the charts annoying. I wonder if earlier releases like VHS ever sounded this way.

[–] Verdoux-1 15 years ago

I was watching this movie in the middle of the night and I had to turn the volume up and down constantly.

[–] flanger216 15 years ago

Probably not just the DVD... sounds more like the quality of production-recording and mixing just wasn't that high in the first place. Like the previous poster said, there's a lot of unnecessary, and overused, reverb plates on some of the dialog scenes; the music is mixed a good 10db louder than standard; within the music itself, the bass and guitar parts are *another* 5-6db louder than would be comfortable; etc.