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DVDs with Monoural sound, what does it mean? (1 Viewer)

Johnny G

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I've seen DVDs with the audio listed at dvdplanet.com but some are mono and some are even DD5.1, so what does it mean?
 

Michael Reuben

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It means that some films are presented on DVD with 5.1 soundtracks (either because that's the way they were theatrically or because they've been remixed for 5.1) and some are presented with their original mono or stereo soundtracks.

Was that your question?

M.
 

Glenn Overholt

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The mono soundtracks just have the sound coming from the front center channel. Yeah, it sounds a little strange, but in a way it is just as important as OAR.

Pardon me if I am wrong, but are you questioning the Dolby Digital logo? That's just the method used to 'digitize' the audio soundtrack.

Glenn
 

Johnny G

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Do I sound stupid or something? I suppose I must.

I know all about remastered soundtracks and the insistance of original recordings where a remaster is made. I also know what comes from what speaker for every type of multi channel sound system, from mono to stereo to 4.0 to 5.1 to EX & ES to ES discrete.

The thing I don't understand is the meaning of the word Monoural.

As I said, some DVDs with monoural sound are in mono and others in monoural sound are in 5.1, what is the common thing about all these DVDs that make them monural?
 

Jeff Kleist

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mono is shorthand for monaural

Mono-One
Aural-Ear

1 speaker, no channel seperation

You can have 2 channel mono but every channel is putting otu the same signal
 

Peter Apruzzese

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As I said, some DVDs with monoural sound are in mono and others in monoural sound are in 5.1, what is the common thing about all these DVDs that make them monural?
I've never seen a DVD marked *both* DD5.1 AND "mono" when it was referring to a single audio track on a DVD.
 

Johnny G

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At dvdplanet.com there are titles such as Road House from 1989 which is stereo and would have been filmed in stereo so there's no question about it referring to mono recordings remastered to multi channel.

Then there is Bull Durham which in 5.1 but still says monoural.
 

Brian Lawrence

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The Portuguese track on Bull Durham is in mono. That is why there is a listing of a mono soundtrack at DVD PLANET.
 

Vince Maskeeper

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Is this the MGM se? If so, it includes a 5.1 english remix but also includes mono foreign lang tracks (at least the Portuguese is mono).

It's possible it's outlining the VARIOUS formats available on a particular disc. Although, it looks like sometimes they list mono and sometimes they list "Monoural".

I'm unsure what DVDPLANET means, but "Monoural" isn't a word as far as I know, but monaural doesn't mean "remixed".

-Vince

PS: Is Road House out yet? I have heard a couple people claim to have seen it in stores, but no retailer lists it as available.
 

Peter Apruzzese

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On the DVD Planet site, it's pretty obvious that it's either a typo or they are referring to the foreign-language tracks (which are frequently mono). If you look at DVD Empire, you'll see that there are 4 audio tracks on Bull Durham: English 5.1, Spanish and French DD2.0 Surround, and Portuguese Mono.

DVD Planet's listings are sloppy and unnecessarily confusing.

Vince, Roadhouse is listed as coming in February.
 

Robert Harris

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If what you're attempting to find out is "how can 5.1 be a monaural track?..."

Look at 5.1 as a means of holding the audio; be it single track (mono) or two track stereo, three track stereo, four track stereo or any other multi-track formats...

The 5 full frequency tracks can be used to place a single mono track anywhere, even understanding that its proper placement is front center.

Therefore, the five full frequency tracks in 5.1 can hold five totally separate tracks, having no relation to one another or five tracks of stereo or (for example) a single mono track at left front only.

RAH
 

GregoryM

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It is possible for a 5.1 encoded disc to monaural. I import a lot of kung fu movies from Hong Kong. Most are produced by one of two dvd distributors, Universe Laser or Mega Star. Every Universe Laser disc is encoded with a 5.1 soundtrack; it's just the default format for all their dvd releases. However, on many of them only the front center channel produces any sound when played back. Most of the older movies (say older Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan or Chow Yun Fat movies) are this way.

DD5.1 means that five directional channels of sound were encoded to the disc, but it doesn't mean that sound was encoded in each of the channels. In the example I guve above, the side and rear channels exist on the disc, but have no sound recoreded to them. The dvd player detects the channels and the reciever lights up the display for the respective speakers, but the dvd player sends no sound to any speaker but front center.

Monaural means that every speaker producing sound is producing the same sound. This may be front center only or front left and right only (on a perfectly calibrated system the two are indistiguishible). If a 5.1 signal only produces sound from the front center, it's monaural.
 

DeanWalsh

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Would the method Gregory mentioned actually increase the fidelity of the mono track? Could the remaining channels that aren't being used provide extra bandwidth to the mono signal or is each channel locked to a specific bitrate?
 

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