Do people understand surround sound? (1 Viewer)

[WayneG]

I've been revelling in Dolby Digital and DTS for a
couple months now. My brother followed in taking the
plunge and called me the first night after renting a
DVD and asked, "do I want Dolby Surround or Dolby 5.1?"

Surprised, I said, "5.1." He thought surround meant
surround! I'm wondering how many people are confused
about this and actually click on Dolby Surround and not
on 5.1.

I bought my parents a DVD player for Christmas and the
salesman was telling me how it had surround sound. I
didn't say anything but I'm wondering how many people
get surround DVDs or surround TVs and wonder why the
space ships in Star Wars don't sound like they are flying
over their heads?

Wayne

 

[Brian Glaeske]

Lots!

 

[Ken Chan]

wonder why the space ships in Star Wars don't sound like they are flying over their heads?

They should get that, although the effect may not be as pronounced. What they definitely can't get is the ship flying behind them and to the left (for example). Although some advanced processors like Lexicon's Logic 7 do come pretty close in certain cases, with just 2.0 surround.
//Ken

 

[Kevin C Brown]

That's true. I've never actually seen *in a product manual* that you *should* use Dolby Digital (5.1) for example instead of Dolby Pro Logic... (I.e., better channel separation, more "discreteness" to the soundtrack, better sound quality, etc.)
How many people think that Dolby Pro Logic II is preferrable to Dolby Digital simply because it's newer?
I think the people who cruise HTF understand it, but others, maybe not.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

OMG TONS!!!! Literally. I even explained it to a salesperson at Best Buy once. Such a sad state of things. But seriously, people buy DVD players to put with their old mono, or stereo TVs, and expect surround sound. I swear, the damn Bose 3-2-1 system befuddled everyone with it's "surround" with 2 speakers. BAH!

I even had a friend, whose parents spent some big bucks, for some decent, but misguided purchases, then hooked em up all wrong. The surround system was crappy, but it had a DD receiver, and then they got an HDTV, and a progressive scan DVD player. I go over there, and am confused by what I hear, and discover that they are feeding their 5.1 system with the analog inputs, and not even using PLII!! BAH. So I totally reconfigure everything for them, and calibrate the audio, adn the video, then discover that their progressive scan DVD player was hooked up with an extra fancy monster cable component cable, through composite connectors. BAH again!! They had the extra-ripoff triple super-duper wire, and were only using one of the strands as a composite video connector. So I set that up, and set the DVD player to output progressive, and it seemed everything was in order. UNTIL, I pop in LOTR and find it fills the whole 16:9 screen. ???? Confused, I ask them why they've set the default viewing mode like this, they say, "well, there were those black bars everywhere, the salesman said the widescreen would solve that problem." GAH!!!!

 

[Jack Briggs]

Now that's what I call a worst-case scenario, Chris. Wow. I trust you set these people straight?

 

[Brian Ruth]

As a former employee at Best Buy, I must admit that it is the state of things at most electronics stores. I find it sad when companies put more of a premium on domestic ability (cleaning up) and profit margins (attatching 'accessories' - which are marked up about 2 to 3 times what the original product it marked up) than actual product knowledge.

Couple that with the fact that a lot of customers are stingy (a byproduct of repeated conditioning, I guess), and I'm sure you have MILLIONS of DVD players and other components hooked up incorrectly.

I guess I shouldn't be suprised - its an entry-level job for employees, and most of them end up being college students or high school students with little to no knowledge that isn't drilled into them by bonus-hungry managers. If you go into an electronics store and they focus more on selling you a 2 year ISP commitment and/or excessive accessories than on selling you a decent product in the first place, now you know why.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

Yep. Pretty much. Although not always true. I'm one of those soon-to be college know-nothings trying to get a job at best buy for the cash, who actually knows quite a good bit about audio. Experience is what I'm after, but I still have way more knowledge than the average CC/BB bozo.
What ticks me off most of all though, is going into a nice store and getting one of two treatments, the first being ignored totally, the second being TOLD where the cheaper stuff is as if im somehow gonna smuggle out a 100-pound mono-block in my pocket, or breathe funny on on their display models. Which is why I keep going back to one of the local stores, very fancy indeed, which treats me as if im there to spend a million bucks, when I obviously am not.

 

[Marty M]

I am sure the management at BB is more interested in training new employees on how to sell extended warranties rather than education on the products they sell. OK, I feel better now.

 

[Brian Ruth]

Marty:
You're actually right. Unfortunately, educated customers and higher store profits don't really go well together.