THX EX SURROUND Question

Posted by Philip Brandes [IP: 24.8.188.112] on October 26, 1999 at 12:40:09
Using Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 4.5; Mac_PowerPC):

In Reply to: THX EX SURROUND Question posted by anthony on October 26, 1999 at 11:30:23:

: On the new EX DVD's (ex.Austin Powers)would you be able tp play it in regular 5.1 if you don't have either the EX upgrade yet or don't have the neccesary 7 speakers yet.

Since the soundtrack is still 5.1, you can play it back in your usual preferrd Dolby Digital format (Logic 7 would work fine).

The information for the 6th channel is matrix encoded so without an EX decoder it will simply be mixed into the surround channels, just like playing back a Pro-Logic source in 2-channel. You won't lose any information.

: How many "audio" selections will it have(ex.will it have Dolby Surround,Dolby Digital 5.1 and THX EX Surround?).

The disc itself sill not have any additional selections--it's up to the processor to recognize and decode the rear channel by extracting it from the surround mix. You tell the Lexicon to look for this by enabling some type of Surround EX "on" parameter in the 5.1 THX Effect.

: OR will it be like DTS laserdiscs and are only compatible with DTS Decoders(these DTS laserdiscs will only play DTS and Dolby Surround BUT NOT Dolby Digital 5.1). Does any one know?

As above, the discs will be playable on any DVD player, but you need a Surround EX decoder to extract the 6th channel. Otherwise, you'll hear a standard 5.1 mix.

The reason THX/Dolby went with a matrix-encoded 6th channel was to keep it backwards compatible with 5.1 systems.

Hope this clarifies,
Philip Brandes

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