DTS 6.1 ES?

[Ryan]

THe new special ed Lord of the Rings DVD set has a DTS 6.1 ES soundtrack alopng with DD5.1 EX?

I have no surrond system now, so if I start looking, what does 6.1 get me over 5.1, and what are ES and EX?

[brentp]

Cool. With 5.1, you get 5 discrete channels (center, left main, right main, left surround, right surround), plus what is referred to as Low Frequency Effects (LEF) channel (or the *.1).

With 6.1, you will get one more channel, which is a center rear channel. There are only a few movies out right now that support 6.1, but many of the newer high end ones are going this way. One thing to note is that many call the left/right surrounds rear channels, . . . in truth, they should be located on the sides equal with, or slightly behind the ears. This extra channel then adds true rear sound effects.

Just to confuse you some more, 7.1 processing is now on the market, although I don't think a single movie has yet to be release that supports it. This adds left rear/right rear channels instead of center rear.

ES and EX refer to 6.1 programming. One being Dolby Digital and the other for DTS. DD-EX is capable of producing 6.1 sound, even though it is listed as 5.1. The extra channel is obtained through processing with the sound for this channel mixed in with the left and right surrounds. DTS-ES is all discrete, I believe.

Go listen to these in a store's sound room. Dolby Pro-Logic is good, but DD and DTS 5.1/6.1/7.1 are awesome.

Hope this helps

Edited Addition:

I should have also stated that with a DD-EX soundtrack, if you listen to the soundtrack in a 5.1 environment, you will still get all the sound. The '6th' channel will be produced on each of the surrounds. I'm not sure how DTS-ES handles this case (if the sound is lost or processed into the surrounds) :

[Chris Blount]

Want to hear something funny? I actually invented 6.1 surround back in 1997 but Dolby stole my idea:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&th=d79c76ab45cada6b&rnum=1

Okay, maybe not but it's still fun to think about.

[brentp]

Chris, . . . very interesting thread, . . . now if you only had patented the idea! :)

[Richard King]

Great idea, you sure did stir things up there didn't you? :D

[STXJim]

That's pretty damn impressive.
But I was one step ahead of you.
I was the one that actually invented 'Quadrofonic Stereo'.
It was in the mid 70's.
Two channels - Four speakers.
Check out my site.
www.ibull****younomore.com :D

[Tomsoundman]

link must be broken... ;)

[Nick]

Yeah, well, I invented the notebook PC, only it was intended to be an electronic LCD book reader with plug-in modules like the old HP scientific calcs- each book's content could be preprogrammed or downloaded. Excellent for students. Total weight with 9 modules - 11.5 ounces. This was 1978, three years before the introduction of the IBM personal computer. Today, I would incorporate an MP3 player with 3.5mm stereo jack.

I also invented the wheel, but that was a long time ago. ;)

[brentp]

Now I know how Al Gore invented the internet! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[DarrellP]

Originally posted by STXJim
That's pretty damn impressive.
But I was one step ahead of you.
I was the one that actually invented 'Quadrofonic Stereo'.
It was in the mid 70's.
Two channels - Four speakers.
Check out my site.
www.ibull****younomore.com :D
Sorry STXJim, I beat you! In 1969 when I was in High School (note: HIGH), I had a Heathkit radio that I had built and I wired the hell out of it in my bedroom with about 6 speakers. Not true quad surround, but the speakers were sonically mismatched so bad you could here distinct sounds coming from each speaker. :lol: