DTS addicts - look in

[sweetmate]

Originally posted by danielzavitz
that's the way i thought it worked, basically the same as your front three speakers. i can set my amp to turn off the centre channel, and it then distributes speech to the other to front speakers.
good to know for sure though, rather than my wild speculating.

Not quite. The EX/ES matrix channel is folded into the left and right channel with phase reversed. Kind of how the surround channel works in a Dolby Pro-logic decode (although EX/ES is full frequency). The front 3 channels in DD or DTS are 3 discrete channels and there is no matrix version of the centre channel in the front left or front right channels, so when you switch off the centre channel the amp, as you say, distributes the centre channel to the front L&R speakers.

In dolby pro-logic, the centre channel is folded into the front left and right channels in phase.

But without the EX/ES decoder, the sounds will not come from where the director intended. Unless you have the surrounds behind you - bit confusing really.....

[sweetmate]

Yup, ideally it should be listened to in a proper 6.1 setup, I was just making it clear that ES-Discrete is totally backwards compatible as there was a faint whiff of uncertainty drifting through the thread...

[figrin_dan]

Originally posted by Army Bloke
Spot on mate - however this is DTS discrete - so you would lose the rear channel information.....and in reality, no matter what you say or read, you DO need ES decoding equipment to hear the surround back channel as surround back. You can not run a 6th speaker in series or parallel to simulate the SB channel. Only an amp or processor with at least 1 more speaker output will do this - and this will have the ES/EX decoding circuits.....

This I have heard before.

Originally posted by sweetmate
Whether its Discrete or Matrix, the rear surround is never lost. Hence the term backwards-compatible. Try it with Gladiator R1. Play it in 5.1 instead of 6.1 and swap between the DTS-ES Discrete track and the DD-EX Matrix track. You still hear exactly the same surround back information coming from the left and right surrounds.

Essentially it works like this: The surround back info on a DTS-ES Discrete soundtrack is included twice, once as a discrete 6th channel and once as matrix info folded into the left and right surrounds. So a 5.1 amp will play the matrix channel as it is (folded into the surrounds - some call this "phantom"), a 6.1 (non-discrete) amp will retreive the matrix version of the channel and play it from a 6th channel (or 6th and 7th if its THX), and a 6.1 discrete amp will retreive the matrix channel, remove that from the left and right surrounds BUT then play the discrete version of that same channel from the surround back. Thus everyones happy.

This I haven't.

Does anyone have a link or some other evidence of who is correct?
Cheers

Have a look at this It's a pdf file so I'm not sure whether or not it will work. Seems I was wrongish when I said you lose the surround back channel in dts es discrete. Learn something new every day....

[sweetmate]

I wasnt trying to nitpick, I just like to keep people informed when I can.

It's amazing how the brain holds useless information about Discrete and Matrix ES decoding minutiae, yet it can forget to pick up things like your wallet as you walk out the front door!

[figrin_dan]

Cheers for the info bloke and mate,
I have heard so many times about losing the centre that I was convinced too. At one point I even considered watching Goldmember in DD (!). The dts site is usually pretty out of date so I wouldn't have thought of looking there.
As for sweetmate's last remark, I agree totally. I can tell you the aspect ratio of every film I've seen in the last 10 years but can I remember anything I learned in college?

[sweetmate]

Originally posted by figrin_dan
I can tell you the aspect ratio of every film I've seen in the last 10 years but can I remember anything I learned in college?

[PaulaB]

I got the marrantz sr6200 because I knew that I wanted a 6.1 system. After some time I chose the mission, because the person I share a house with didn't want huge speakers so this is what I got (from advice from mission) and it sounds great


sub left right



rear left rear right




sub surround left surround right

I think next year a new amp and will get one with 7.1

Originally posted by PaulaB


sub surround left surround right

I think next year a new amp and will get one with 7.1

SSL & SSR? Hmmmm....9.1 anybody?

I know there ARE plans for 10.1, but only involves 2 subs if I remember rightly.....not 1 for each surround channel.