It seems that both lossless tracks, DTSHDMA and DDTHD put the dialogue through all three front speakers instead of just the center channel, this issue occurs on all three cuts of the film and the foreign track is not affected by this issue. I have checked other movies and this does not occur so it is not the player or the receiver it is the movie. I also exchanged my first copy to see if it was defective but the new copy does the same so this tells me that it is the movie, and the next question is was this intentional or a screw up, can someone please check their copy and see if it has the same issue so I can then just return the movie and assume it was a bad batch and go get it somewhere else. Thanks in advance...

Do you mean that the dialogue is directional, as in the voice will be in a speaker corresponding to where the person is located? Or do you mean the dialogue is in all three speakers at once?

If it's the former, that's how it's mixed. Many movies used to be mixed that way. These days most movies are mixed with most or all of the dialogue in the center, but the Toy Story movies (and maybe others from Pixar) are rare examples of directional dialogue in modern films.

the dialogue is evenly distributed through all 3 front speakers, being slightly lower in the FL and FR...and what does it being originally mixed like that have to do with anything that's the whole point of remixing the audio when they release new versions of movies. I have a bunch of movies from the 70's and 80's that are true 5.1...this is like 3.1 put out through 5 speakers...People on other forums have checked and their copies are doing this too so I would assume it is either intentional like you said or just a mass fault and unless Sony admits to their fault we'll never know, but I'll be honest this is a first for me...

I meant that the dialogue would be in a position on the front soundstage that lines up with where the speaker is on screen. So if someone is speaking on the left, the voice would come out of the left speaker. If he walks over to the right, the dialogue pans with him over to the right speaker. I didn't mean that it's supposed to come out of all front speakers at once. I don't actually know if CE is mixed this way or not.

That does sound like a problem, if it's coming out of all front speakers.

I haven't noticed it, but I'll go back and check. I have another one for you:

In chapter 5, at the branching point (between different versions), the "ice cream" line is truncated as if about 1/2 second is chopped off. I don't know if it's a problem in the disc, or in the way my Samsung 5000 is handling the branch. It occurs using either advanced soundtrack.

Can either of you confirm that it occurs for you too, and what player are you using?

Thanks,
Doug

I have the PS3 and didn't notice any dropout.

:)

I'd swear Cars has this also with the dialogue to all the front speakers from what I recall. I remember myself putting an ear to each of the speakers since I noticed it.

Don't recall this for Close Encounters. I honestly think I would have noticed it.

I have a denon 2500 going to denon 3808 recvr and havent noticed any audio problems