(I've also posted this in the Audio Video Film section of the forum. I wasn't sure which would be better. In there or in here, Mastering. Sorry ahead of time for the double post!)

So, I'm finishing up the audio for my friends film which is about to be released on DVD and I have a few questions. If any of you could help it'd be great.

I usually record bands and radio programs so that's where most of my experience resides. If I'm mastering material for people, 99.9% of them want the material brick walled. That's what I'm used to dealing with.

SO to my question, as I usually don't prepare stuff for DVD. I ripped a bunch of audio from a number of films on DVD to get an idea of what levels people were mixing at. (Pride and Prejudice, Tron, Undead, Return of the Living Dead). I was suprised to discover that the overall RMS for most of these mixes was at -30 db. Dialog sitting at -36, Music at -26 and fx peaking at around -16. Actually, -16db was the highest peak detected in any of these mixes.

Please keep in mind, I ripped only 2 channel mixes, no 5.1 or anything.

This levels seemed surprisingly low to me. What's the deal? Is this normal? I'd love some input on this as I don't want to give material back to my friend that's going to have people running for the volume knob to save their ears. My goal is to deliver the material at levels they are used to listening to.

Thanks!
-chvad