HDTV Forum

I just bought a new receiver with 7.1 Dolby and DTS. My old receiver only decoded 5.1 Dolby digital and pro logic.

I know the difference between pro logic dd5.1 and DTS but I was wondering if there was a link or FAQ for 6.1, 7.1, EX, ES, Discrete and Matrix. The general idea is pretty self explanatory but I was wondering about the details.

Also is there a listing someplace which shows movies that carry the extended soundtracks. A quick check of my DVDs (back cover) didn't really tell me anything. It has the Dolby Digtal symbol or the DTS symbol but I really couldn't tell what was 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1.

thanks

Chuck_G wrote:I just bought a new receiver with 7.1 Dolby and DTS. My old receiver only decoded 5.1 Dolby digital and pro logic.

I know the difference between pro logic dd5.1 and DTS but I was wondering if there was a link or FAQ for 6.1, 7.1, EX, ES, Discrete and Matrix. The general idea is pretty self explanatory but I was wondering about the details.

Also is there a listing someplace which shows movies that carry the extended soundtracks. A quick check of my DVDs (back cover) didn't really tell me anything. It has the Dolby Digtal symbol or the DTS symbol but I really couldn't tell what was 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1.

thanks

Don't have a website for you, but here's how it works:

Start with 5.1 (DD or DTS - doesn't matter). This gives you Front L/R, Center, Surround L/R (5) plus subwoofer (.1).

To that you can add another channel (6.1). This channel is a rear surround. The dolby digital version is called Dolby Digital EX. The DTS version is called DTS-ES. There is also a version of DTS-ES called Discrete. The other two are matrix.

Matrix encoding is used to add the rear surround while maintaining the original 5.1 discrete channels of sound for backwards compatibility. It's the exact same logic used in Dolby Pro Logic to get the surround and center channel from a stereo source. The decoder takes the surround L and R channels and decodes the rear surround channel. If you don't have the DD-EX or DTS-ES matrix decoder then you still get the normal surround channel, just like a pro logic setup. In fact, you can add matrix decoding to a standard 5.1 channel receiver with pre amp outs by running the pre amp out for the surrounds into a standard (cheap) pro logic receiver and connecting the rear channel to either the surround or center channel output on the pro logic receiver (forget which one exactly).

DTS-ES discrete is different and actually adds another digital channel to get 7 discrete audio channels. The result is the same but because the rear surround is discrete and not matrixed it should sound better.

7.1 is really a misnomer as there are no soundtracks with 8 unique sound channels. 7.1 is merely 6.1 input with 2 rear surround speakers instead of 1. But both rear surrounds get the exact same signal. But it sure sounds a lot better than 6.1 when you're browsing the features for a receiver.

Hope that helped.

Chuck_G wrote: Also is there a listing someplace which shows movies that carry the extended soundtracks. A quick check of my DVDs (back cover) didn't really tell me anything. It has the Dolby Digtal symbol or the DTS symbol but I really couldn't tell what was 5.1, 6.1 or 7.1.

thanks

The Phantom Menace was one of the first Dolby Digital EX DVDs. The pod race scene is awesome.

But let me warn you - the rear surround is very subtle. It won't jump out and grab you like going from stereo to pro logic. So don't expect a dramatic difference, but it does add to the experience.