Do you force Dolby EX for ALL DD soundtracks? (1 Viewer)

[Dan Keliikoa]

Wondering what you fellow 6.1/7.1 system owners do for DD?

Personally, for movies I like to force EX for everything because it seems more diffuse and enveloping. 5.1 seems a bit more directional to me, but this can be cool for concert dvds at times.

I haven't actually messed matrixing DTS tracks yet...but most of what I have is DD.

What's your preference? Go with what's flagged/encoded, or go with EX?

PS Mods, not sure which forum I should post this in, please move it if I was in error. Thanks!

 

[John S]

EX for all, except on many concert/music DVD's I'll go with strait 5.1 though, ex does not seem to be as good when it is not flag'd on the disc.

 

[Vader]

I let my Denon decide. I have it set to automatically extract the rear channel via Prologic IIx, if it doesn't detect an EX flag. If EX is flagged, it switches to the EX mode. The way I understand it (probably incorrectly), EX is a matrixed animal anyway, so if a film is EX but not flagged as such (like EPIII), using PLIIx is going to do (approximately) the same thing. So, all of my bases are covered (sort of...). John, am I completely off base here?

 

[John S]

Well there is no being off base on this one. We have all these modes so we get to use them how we feel they are best used on our systems. Interesting about the DPLIIx though, I'll bet the poster never thought about that one. I only have DPLII, So it's either 5.1, 5.1 EX, or THX EX for me. I can use Denon's 7.1 mode as well, which I suspect is similar to what DPLIIx would do with it. But I try to at least somewhat use the actual mode the engineer used to encode the mix.

 

[Dan Keliikoa]

I have puzzled over PLIIx (which I have on my unit)...I had read it's best for matrixing stereo sources into 6.1 (sort of like DTS Neo). But I thought if you are working with a 5.1 signal, then using EX or ES Matrix would be the better choice? Thoughts?

 

[John S]

Hard call, it is a little known / used thing about DPLIIx, it will run over 5.1 sources. Maybe try it per the posters suggestions.

 

[rob-h]

It does make a diffrence, sometimes goo and other times bad. Its not good on DVD concerts. it tends to produce echo. For movies it can really add something that was missing. What its used for is to create 2 channels for 7.1 out of the signal going to the back speaker.

 

[Matt_Beals]

I tend to force EX for all my 5.1 movies. I've found that now I'm used to that center rear surround channel, the sound feels empty when it's missing. To my knowledge EX and Neo use the same matrix encoding as Prologic II uses to generate a center channel. I also heard that DTS actualy purchased rights to the Prologic II encoder for ES Matrix, so ES matrix is really EX matrix logic applied to the DTS signal.

 

[BrianWoerndle]

I use THX Ultra 2 for all my DD5.1 tracks.

I don't really care for just EX. It pushes a little too much to the center channel. THX does a much better job of creating a uniform rear sound field.

 

[rob-h]

The THX modes seem to take away too much of the upper frequencys (I know that's what they are meant to do!). It kind of makes the sound field empty. You can really tell the diffrence.

 

[John S]

I agree rob-h....


I use it when / if the dialog seems shrilled for lack of a better word.

 

[Mike Huber]

Yes, I set DDEX for all DD content. If its on TV or DVD I manually force the DDEX on my Integra 6.1 receiver. I find when I dont listen to the EX decoder now, it always feels like something is missing.

 

[Dan Keliikoa]

I agree with Mike's post above.

For TV, I like to use ProLogic IIX. Sounds pretty cool for NASCAR racing

 

[Lewis Besze]

That's correct!

 

[rob-h]

Lewis Besze, correct me if I am wrong here but the diffrence is that ex will create one channel for both the rear speakers in 7.1. DPLIIX will create two channels.

 

[Dan Keliikoa]

To add to Rob's question, is that the ONLY difference between PLIIX and EX?

 

[Blaine_M]

I also force EX/ES on everything, but concerts. Anyone ever played with that newer Eagles DVD that was recorded in Australia? Notice how the 4 guys playing wind instruments all come out through the rears? Switch the ES on and suddenly they mainly coming from the rear center....I still haven't decided if I like it that way or not. Anyway, if you have that DVD or are thinking about getting it, pick it up and check it out, you'll see what I'm talking about. I find a lot of the live music DVD's can be mixed in strange ways.

 

[Dan Keliikoa]

I agree, Blaine. Concert DVDs are a strange and different animal. Many times, they even sound better in PCM stereo!

However, two discs I have are exceptions. One is the Eagles Farewell tour DVD you speak of, and the other is Fleetwood Mac's The Dance.

Eagles is in straight DTS, and sounds phenomenal in DTS...10/10! I don't general mess with matrixing DTS stuff, but I love the mix as it is.

Fleetwood Mac is in DD 5.1, and sounds about as good. I DID try playing it in EX the other night, and it sounded really good, but I think I prefer it in 5.1.

It seems like with many concert DVDs, running them in 5.1 sounds unfocused (with a few notable exceptions, as above).

 

[rob-h]

Blaine_M, that eagles concert is one of the ones I was thinking of in my first post. EX sounds better the DPLIIX over DTS for the rear channel. DPLIIX creates weird echos on that DVD in certian spots. I do agree that its an excellent concert!