PowerDVD 4 did it in normal play...

PowerDVD 6 does it in the way described above (and I suppose 5 as well). Stupid...? You bet! Why did they drop it? No idea. I also believe DJ Doena reported that PowerDVD 7 still does it in the same way described above.


Dolby 2.0 Mono and Dolby 2.0 can also be determined "audibly". Albeit, as indicated by Skip, only with a wave editor. This description was once posted at InterVocative and I have successfully tried it out several times:

Quote:
Load it into a sound editor and invert one channel. If you get zero output (you may get a very week signal if they are not matched 100%) it's mono. If you hear anything  it's stereo.


Using nero wave editor.

Load a chunk of the audio, you sould see two wave forms.

Select 'tools', 'stereo processor'

Set the outputs to Left 100% Right -100% Hit preview, if it's mono you will hear nothing, or almost nothing. If it's stereo you will hear quite a bit.

I found this tidbit over in Intervocative forum about this very thing:

quote (ya_shin) :

Audio/Video data is better be looked at in the Configuration. Right click in the movie window, select configuration and then select the tab on the right (forgot the name). Within that information, you'll have to scroll down a bit to get to the Audio.

Now, in normal operation, the above-mentioned information will always show 2.0, never the flag for Surround. To see that, you close PowerDVD, browse to the VIDEO folder on the DVD using Windows Explorer and open one of the large VOB files (with a part of the movie). If you go to the Configuration now, you will see "Surround", if the flag is set.

endquote

Quoting surfeur51:

Quote:

You are right, except that I'm exasperated by this guy that pursue me on all forums calling me Yves as if he was my friend, but whose only purpose is to  denigrate my positions since he does not like them. I tried not to answer his attacks, but since they didn't stop, I went so far as to do the same...

Skip posted first in this thread, so he's hardly "pursuing" you in this case. You jumped in to denigrate HIS position.  I agree that it's presumptuous of Skip to call you Yves, but in this case that doesn't take away from the fact that your original post was unnecessary and uncalled for.  You fired the first shot here, so you have absolutely no right to cry foul when Skip shot back.

Quoting ya_shin:

Quote:
Quoting widescreenforever:

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PowerDVD doesn't see the Surround Flag.

Yes it does! But you need to open the/a VOB file directly, rather than playing the DVD from the drive.

Just browse to the Video_TS folder on the DVD and double-click one of the large files. Then you should see the flag. Only minor annoyance is, that next time you open PowerDVD you need to switch the source back to the DVD drive.

Thanks, I did not know this. I'm very happy with this new "feature" I could use.

Quoting GSyren:

Quote:
I have a feeling that this has been asked before, but I couldn't find any answer, so apologies if it has...

I recently switched to a new computer with Windows Vista. My old one came with PowerDVD 4, the new one came with PowerDVD 7. The old version could differentiate between Dolby Stereo and Dolby Surround, but as far as I can tell, no version after PowerDVD 4 does that. Seems really strange unless the old version was giving incorrect results... 

Anyhow - is there any software out there (preferably freeware) that can tell if an audio track is Stereo or Surround? I have tried a couple, and none seem to be able to do it.

Why not just put the disc in your player, run it through the A/V and see if you get Dolby Surround?

Quoting Katatonia:

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7.3 will still read a surround flag when you directly open a VOB file however.

It does indeed. Thanks all for this tip.

Quoting ya_shin:

Quote:
No! How are you going to have PowerDVD read the DVD if it's not in the drive ?

Psychic DVD verifiying powers?

If you come across software that should detect dolby surround in audio files: here are some files to test with: http://www.kellyindustries.com/sounds.html