[danijel]

Originally Posted by Jesse Peterson

Thanks tons for the dvd info Danijel. :)

One other question regarding mixing for dvd. Do you apply any sort of curve to your room or do you monitor flat? DVD playback in my room always felt too bright so I've applied a 1db per 1/3 roll off starting at 8k and at the other end starting at 63. Do you do anything like that?

thanks again
J

Hey Jesse, so good that you brought this up. I was often wondering why every third (OK, maybe I'm over-blowing this) Hollywood-made DVD has sibilance issues in my monitoring, so I searched a bit, and it turns out that this issue, as well as your issue with HF are related to X-curve, and that Sony setup guidelines for DVD printmaster re-mixing actually do employ a roll-off that is similar to yours (albeit it is applied on the Gennies).

Here's the article:

Mastering for DVD - mastering DVD projects for home theater systems


This excerpt discusses the origin of the problem:
While the frequency response of home theater speakers is all over the map, it's rarely as attenuated on the high end as the X-curve. So a mix made to sound good on an X-curve playback system — in theaters and dubbing stages — is unlikely to sound good on a home theater setup. “It can be really bright in somebody's home,” Vessa says. “And we're not talking about that nice, silky high end that's way out there. We're talking about something in the harsh register, 4kHz to 8kHz. Dialog can be in there, sibilances can be in there, and effects, especially metallic-type effects, can trash your ears in there.”


Here's an excerpt from "The Sony Setup" Sidebar in that article:
Regarding the speakers employed, SPE's spec requires Genelec 1031A self-powered speakers and a Genelec 1094A self-powered subwoofer, or similar. The 1031As are to be used with the -2dB roll-off switch engaged on the tweeter only, with all other switches in flat position. “The -2dB switch,” says Sony's Brian Vessa, “puts a gentle shelf on the top. It doesn't let the response just go wide open out to the sky, because you would never have that at home.”
Skywalker's Jerry Steckling agrees. “There's no such thing as flat,” he says, “except maybe in Nebraska. If there's a speaker that measures flat at 1 meter in an anechoic chamber, when you set it up at 8 feet in a typical living room with a little absorption and all that sort of stuff, it's not flat anymore. The -2dB EQ on the Genelecs does a shelf that starts to roll off at about 6 kHz, and we believe that this is what is happening at home. Our own approach is to leave that switch in flat and apply a nice, smooth curve. But we're within spitting distance of Sony's spec on actual high-end response. We just arrive there a little bit differently.”

Another article right on the topic:
Learning from History - Cinema Sound and EQ Curves
(scroll down to section: What does all this mean for us at home?)