Mono DVD Soundtracks

[John Beresford]

No, the packaging is correct because they put the monophonic soundtrack onto the discrete L and R channels. It does not imply that it was mixed in stereo, it merely states the number of discrete tracks that got encoded into the DD soundtrack. An alternate approach would be to do a 1.0 soundtrack, and place that into the center channel. I believe that some soundtracks are done this way and labeled as such.

If everything plays through the center channel with a 2.0 mono soundtrack, then your system is playing it back exactly the way that it should. The way that the Pro Logic decoders work is that any kind of surround information that gets extracted relies on the channel separation you get with a stereo soundtrack. Same thing with the center channel, it gets extracted from the stereo signal -- sounds with no channel separation get played back through the center channel, other sounds get played through the left and right channels. If the signal is two monophonic channels, then you get no stereo separation and the decoder collapses the signal into the center channel.

P.S. This topic sounds very familiar and has been discussed many times before.

Thank you, but I had no idea this was discussed before; forgive me and please accept my wholeheartedly emotionally tied apologies.

I just read on a DTS/Dolby Digital comparison site that 2.0 labeled mono soundtracks should play back through the two front left and right stereo speakers. So I still do not understand when you say "the system is playing it back exactly the way it should"...WHY label something as 2.0 then? Why give TWO monophonic channels when the end result is gonna be one channel mono anyway?

[joel2762]

Thank you, but I had no idea this was discussed before; forgive me and please accept my wholeheartedly emotionally tied apologies.

I just read on a DTS/Dolby Digital comparison site that 2.0 labeled mono soundtracks should play back through the two front left and right stereo speakers. So I still do not understand when you say "the system is playing it back exactly the way it should"...WHY label something as 2.0 then? Why give TWO monophonic channels when the end result is gonna be one channel mono anyway?

Labeling it 2.0 means that the same monophonic channel is playing from both of the front speakers.