1118 The Last Waltz

[flyonthewall2983]

To be fair they probably knew who DeRogatis was and that no matter how partial he was, if at all to their work they maybe put up defenses regardless because he was a journalist.

[yoloswegmaster]

The specs have been updated:

New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Martin Scorsese, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack supervised and approved by musician Robbie Robertson

Two alternate soundtracks: the original 1978 2.0 surround mix, presented in DTS-HD Master Audio, and an uncompressed stereo mix from 2001

[Drucker]

What would be the difference between a 2.0 surround mix and stereo mix? Is the former a 2 channel mix that plays the same out of a front left and back left speaker, for example?

[ChunkyLover]

What would be the difference between a 2.0 surround mix and stereo mix? Is the former a 2 channel mix that plays the same out of a front left and back left speaker, for example?

A 2.0 surround mix is similar to a four-track stereo or Dolby Stereo track. Once decoded, it will have left, center, right, and mono surround activity. I assume the 2.0 LPCM track will be a downmix of the 5.1 track.

[tenia]

Actually, reading those specs, I suppose the 5.1 track will be new, while the 2.0 track is stated to be from 2001.

[EddieLarkin]

What would be the difference between a 2.0 surround mix and stereo mix? Is the former a 2 channel mix that plays the same out of a front left and back left speaker, for example?

In practice, there is none. Any 2.0 stereo mix potentially has a surround element, once it is matrixed. Any out of phase information between the two channels is directed to the rear speakers. This is how "Dolby Stereo" played in cinemas, even though it was only two channels on the film print, the matrix decoder it was ran through directed sounds to 4 channels (Left, centre, right, mono surround). So any 2 channel cinema mix was in playback actually 4 channels.

[tenia]

Any 2.0 stereo mix potentially has a surround element, once it is matrixed.

That's actually the main question for me. It can be extremely hard sometimes to know if a 2.0 stereo track really is just that, ie a LR track, or if it actually is a surround mix with elements matrixed in. By default, my receiver amp is set up to Straight, so no Dolby Pro Logic, and I wish to know more explicitly when a 2.0 track is limited to the front channel or when I need to turn on DPL.

[EddieLarkin]

That's actually the main question for me. It can be extremely hard sometimes to know if a 2.0 stereo track really is just that, ie a LR track, or if it actually is a surround mix with elements matrixed in. By default, my receiver amp is set up to Straight, so no Dolby Pro Logic, and I wish to know more explicitly when a 2.0 track is limited to the front channel or when I need to turn on DPL.

You should have it on all of the time. If there is no out of phase information between the two channels, there will be no surround element, which is quite common with stereo tracks as obviously not every filmmaker cared to have surround sound. Similarly, if there IS out of phase information then that's a pretty sure sign of intentional use of surround sound in 2.0 tracks. So you're gonna hear it "as intended" whether it's a surround track or not.

And if we're specifically referring to catalog movies here, the Dolby Stereo or Ultra Stereo logo will be right there in the credits too. That's an absolute guarantee that the soundtrack was matrixed in compatible cinemas of the time (but again, not necessarily a guarantee of any surround element).

Having it on all of the time also has the added bonus of not having to worry about mono tracks encoded as 2.0, because the matrix will always fold these down to the centre channel anyway, which is preferable if you ask me, because if you listen to mono in LR instead, it's going to potentially sound wrong if you're not exactly centred, or further enough away vs how far the speakers are placed from each other.

[tenia]

Thanks for the detail. I'll keep DPL on for a time then, and see how things go.