Originally Posted by titcaptain:
“If you want to believe that anything that is not DD 5.1 is not surround sound then go ahead but don't forget to let those who made The Simpsons and many other shows including shows from ITV that carried the Dolby Surround logo on them know they were wrong all the time- and these shows were made before DD was even a concept”
You have to distinguish between what it true surround and what is just simply matrixed from two channel.
If the stereo soundtrack has surround encoded within then this will give surround, if it hasn't then the amps decoder will just matrix info from the left/right channels and send it to the rears, sometimes it can work, but generally it sounds pretty weak.
A CD will generally have a 2channel soundtrack and can be played back using DPL, doesn't mean it's surround, in this case it's nothing more than a DSP mode, it's fake.
I think the confusion that has come about here is whether you are referring to the source which carries surround sound, or are you just listening to surround sound which has been forced from what is basically a std stereo soundtrack.
Originally Posted by titcaptain:
“DD 5.1 places the sounds more accurately that PL2 but who the hell cares?”
DD5.1 does a lot more that place sounds more accurately - DD5.1 has a dedicated LFE channel for a start, all 6 channels are dedicated, none are matrixed, and all have full bandwidth capabilities. DPLII can sound good on certain content, but it's not DD5.1.
Originally Posted by titcaptain:
“I wonder what you make of BBC HD and Sky's movie channels that broadcast 24 hours a day in DD but very often with only 2 channels of sound- do they still not have surround sound.”
Very rarely do I see a movie on Sky that is only stereo, it's a mixture of DD5.1/Dolby Surround, the majority being DD5.1.
If a movie comes up as only stereo on my amp, I'll listen to it in stereo as I want to listen to the original soundtrack, not let the amp make one up, only when it comes up as surround will I let it engage surround mode, DPLIIx in my case.
The BBC HD channel, well they seem to have had problems from day one, I've never know a channel to have so many problems with their soundtracks.