Surround Sound
Surround Sound Settings
Thursday August 03, 2006 | Permalink
Last night, I was watching M. Knight Shyamalan's "Signs". I like watching earlier hits from directors like this when one of their new movies comes out (Lady in the Water).
My surround sound system supports Dolby Surround and Dolby DTS, either of which kicks in when a DVD supports one of the two formats.
Most surround sound systems also feature DSPs (digital signal processors) which offer a faked surround sound mode for broadcasts which don't fully support Dolby Pro Logic and other true surround sound encoding formats. Just because you know for a fact a certain show was recorded in Pro Logic doesn't necessarily mean the channel its broadcasted on will support it. This is especially true for syndicated TV shows.
Anyhoo, the way a television broadcast sounds will be different depending on the sound settings you choose, whether Pro Logic or one of those faked surround modes. In my case, setting the sound mode to "Movie" results in stronger, clearer volume coming from the front three speakers, with some soundtrack stuff from the surrounds. Though I knew a DVD would force the use of DTS or Dolby Surround, I didn't expect the fake surround mode to still be in effect, but I was wrong.
Ever since I mounted my surrounds to the ceiling, I couldn't help but wonder why they sounded so muffled. (I had previously removed them from my living room because the little tike had started walking, and of course grabbing anything within 3 feet of the floor thats not nailed down, so bye-bye speaker stands). I had basically forgotten how surround sound was supposed to sound like.
I'm watching Signs and could certainly hear background music and other effects, but something just didn't feel right. The surround sound effect just wasn't as impressive as I would have expected it to be.
So I start fooling around with some of the sound settings switching between None, Music, and Movie (best for TV shows IMHO). While switching between them, a particularly powerful scene was on, namely the actual house invasion part where the aliens are running around on the roof. When I switched to None, I was completely shocked to hear the quality and intensity of the effects from the surrounds. I was so happy to find myself back to what I remember before starting the basement project that I zipped back to a bunch of different scenes I'd expect some good effects and I wasn't disappointed.
The moral of this story is to be sure to leave the DSP settings that simulate surround sound effects off when watching a DVD or digital television. You'll be happy you did.
My surround sound system supports Dolby Surround and Dolby DTS, either of which kicks in when a DVD supports one of the two formats.
Most surround sound systems also feature DSPs (digital signal processors) which offer a faked surround sound mode for broadcasts which don't fully support Dolby Pro Logic and other true surround sound encoding formats. Just because you know for a fact a certain show was recorded in Pro Logic doesn't necessarily mean the channel its broadcasted on will support it. This is especially true for syndicated TV shows.
Anyhoo, the way a television broadcast sounds will be different depending on the sound settings you choose, whether Pro Logic or one of those faked surround modes. In my case, setting the sound mode to "Movie" results in stronger, clearer volume coming from the front three speakers, with some soundtrack stuff from the surrounds. Though I knew a DVD would force the use of DTS or Dolby Surround, I didn't expect the fake surround mode to still be in effect, but I was wrong.
Ever since I mounted my surrounds to the ceiling, I couldn't help but wonder why they sounded so muffled. (I had previously removed them from my living room because the little tike had started walking, and of course grabbing anything within 3 feet of the floor thats not nailed down, so bye-bye speaker stands). I had basically forgotten how surround sound was supposed to sound like.
I'm watching Signs and could certainly hear background music and other effects, but something just didn't feel right. The surround sound effect just wasn't as impressive as I would have expected it to be.
So I start fooling around with some of the sound settings switching between None, Music, and Movie (best for TV shows IMHO). While switching between them, a particularly powerful scene was on, namely the actual house invasion part where the aliens are running around on the roof. When I switched to None, I was completely shocked to hear the quality and intensity of the effects from the surrounds. I was so happy to find myself back to what I remember before starting the basement project that I zipped back to a bunch of different scenes I'd expect some good effects and I wasn't disappointed.
The moral of this story is to be sure to leave the DSP settings that simulate surround sound effects off when watching a DVD or digital television. You'll be happy you did.
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