DVD 2.1 or 5.1?

[The_Parson]

I have some DVDs which are supposed to be 5.1 mixes of albums, which also include a Blu-ray (they are the new Pink Floyd box sets). The DVDs are advertised as having 2.0, 4.0 & 5.1 mixes of the album (all 640kbps) and the blu-ray the same except featuring uncompressed audio instead of 640kbps.

Basically my BD player allows me to cycle through all audio mixes on a disc, and the DVDs show that the audio is in 2.0, 2.1 and 4.0 whereas the BD audio really is in 5.1.

So my question is are DVDs not capable of true 5.1 audio (using 2.1 instead) or have fans just been fobbed off with a 2.1 mix masquerading as 5.1?

 

[PP Mguire]

I have plenty of DVDs that output in 5.1 Either you're missing a codec or something isn't setup right.

 

[The_Parson]

I have plenty of DVDs that output in 5.1 Either you're missing a codec or something isn't setup right.

I don't see what could not be set up right. I simply select the 5.1 mix from the menu and it plays, but the info bar says 2.1. If I play the Blu-ray version it says 5.1

I've just played some other "5.1" DVD albums (Muse, Genesis) and it says they're all 2.1 too.... hmm...

 

[PP Mguire]

Are you talking about on your computer, or on an actual player?
If on the computer, you could be missing a certain codec the 5.1 stream calls for or not have something setup right for the DVD playback.

DVDs do come with 5.1 audio.
For instance.

 

[The_Parson]

No, not on a computer, on a Blu-ray player. The DVD version shows the 5.1 640kbps track as 2.1, the accompanying BD shows it as 5.1 uncompressed audio. So I'm wondering if fans are being given a faux 5.1 disc which is actually 2.1. To me the 4.0 Quad mix from 1975 sounds clearer than the "5.1" from 2009.

 

[PP Mguire]

That's because compressed audio sounds trash. Then again, your BD player might not be able to decode (from missing a proper codec) the 5.1 audio stream and is just converting it to 2.1. Do you have any other 5.1 capable DVDs to try other than band stuff? Action flick or whatever.

Just to be clear, the uncompressed 5.1 on the BD uses a difference decoder than 5.1 on the DVD.

 

[The_Parson]

Well I tried some of my Genesis 5.1 DVDs which have the albums in Dolby and DTS 5.1 and they both show 2.1 as well. I will try and dig out a movie DVD which shows 5.1 and post what I find. Thanks for the help.

EDIT: I just tried a movie and that showed 2.1 instead of 5.1 as well. So basically my Blu-ray player is missing a codec? I may have to look online to see if there are any firmware updates then :-(

 

[PP Mguire]

This is what you are referring to right?

 

[PP Mguire]

Well I tried some of my Genesis 5.1 DVDs which have the albums in Dolby and DTS 5.1 and they both show 2.1 as well. I will try and dig out a movie DVD which shows 5.1 and post what I find. Thanks for the help.

EDIT: I just tried a movie and that showed 2.1 instead of 5.1 as well. So basically my Blu-ray player is missing a codec? I may have to look online to see if there are any firmware updates then :-(

Before you do that, I'm trying to figure out exactly which disc you are referring to so I can find out what audio format it outputs.

Then I'll need your BD player info.

Edit: You would be better off listening to the audio 2 track I linked. It's FLAC stereo.

 

[The_Parson]

Okay I made this video to show to people illustrating my point:

Apr 17, 2013 - YouTube

Today I also spoke to someone from LG who says that where my INFO display shows DVD 5.1 audio as 3/2.1 this actually means 5.1 and the "3/2" are referring to different speakers. When I play a BD it simply says "MultiCh" but this is because the "MultiCh" also supports 7.1 and 11.1 apparently. So it seems that I've gotten to the bottom of it and there was no issue to begin with :-S