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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 950 |
| | Posted: | | | | Okay, bought my first music dvd, and the back of the cover states:
Dolby Digital 5.1
Surround Sound & Stereo.
The options in the menu are just Surround or Stereo. My dvd player calls them PCM 2chEnglish and Dolby Digital 5.1 chEnglish.
So one would be English Dolby Digital 5.1, right? And the other is that Surround, Stereo...the same thing? There are Dolby Digital Surround and DD Stereo options as well in Profiler.
Thanks! | | | | Lori |
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| Registered: July 31, 2008 | | Reputation: |  Posts: 2,506 |
| | Posted: | | | | Stereo & Surround are two different settings. Stereo has Front Left & Right channels only while Surround adds a Surround channel as well. Unfortunately a lot of set ups can't distinguish between Stereo & Surround and they'll often get reported as Stereo even when it's in fact Surround. Although not exclusively, I've found that most (modern) US releases tend to be Surround. |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 950 |
| | Posted: | | | | Well, I know the dvd has both. But how to tell which one is which? And one is coming up as 5.1 which is supported by the cover, but is that same as one or the other? I'll be honest...I usually have been able to use my player to get the right settings so when I get "PCM," I have no idea what that means...
I know for sure I have 2 audio options. There is no commentary, and the menu plus my player tells me that. What should I use as the audio though? | | | | Lori |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 810 |
| | Posted: | | | | PCM 2ch on a DVD is 16bit uncompressed audio. It is 'CD' quality but at 48ksamp/sec, CD is at 44.1ksamp/sec. This should be entered as 'PCM stereo' in DVDProfiler. The other track is DolbyDigital 5.1.
The stereo track is the same as you might find on the CD version, the DD5.1 track is a re-mixed version made for the DVD.
pdf | | | Paul Francis
San Juan Capistrano, CA, USA |
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| Registered: March 19, 2007 | Reputation:  |  Posts: 6,018 |
| | Posted: | | | | Forget's story applies to Dolby Digital, which is a compressed format, not to PCM which is uncompressed. Indeed in case of Dolby Digital you will often need to use your home theatre system to distinguish between DD Stereo and DD Surround. Your case is different. You have a Dolby Digital 5.1 track and a PCM Stereo track that can be entered as such. Regarding language: if the songs are sung in English, use English. If they're in a different language, use that language. If they're instrumental only, use Music Only. BTW: PCM is short for Pulse Code Modulation. You can read more about it here. | | | | Last edited: by dee1959jay |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 950 |
| | Posted: | | | | Thank you! I've never had a dvd come up with PCM before and didn't see it listed in the drop down list even until you pointed it out... | | | | Lori |
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| Registered: February 18, 2009 | Reputation:  | | Posts: 37 |
| | Posted: | | | | Is it safe to post whatever PowerDVD says? I've seen a lot of contributions which say Dolby Digital Surround, where PowerDVD says Dolby Digital 2.0. I've seen PowerDVD return Surround a few time also, but much less commonly. I also often see PowerDVD return 2.0 when the back cover says Mono. I'm guess that is because the same Mono track is encoded to both the left and right right. Is Mono ever encoded in such a way that PowerDVD can recognize it? |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 21,610 |
| | Posted: | | | | No, it is not, Kvack. MOST releases of PowerDVD cannot distinguish between DD2.0 Mono, DD2.0 Stereo and DD2.0 Surround. The only software tool I am aware of is DVDShrink which can tell you the difference between Stereo and Surround. That still leaves DD2.0 Mono and I know of no tools for that, unless you use some of Sound Analysis software that is out there, much like an oscilloscope, if the two channels are graphically the same it is 2-channel Mono, ANY difference would be stereo. Most PowerDVd will only see DD2.0 and will not reveal anything else.
Skip | | | ASSUME NOTHING!!!!!!
CBE, MBE, MoA and proud of it.
Outta here
Billy Video |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 21,610 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting LJG: Quote:
Thank you! I've never had a dvd come up with PCM before and didn't see it listed in the drop down list even until you pointed it out... PCM is not common, LJG, at least in my experience as it pertains to film, I run across it now and again. I THINKit might be a bit more common in the world of MusicDVD but i won't swear to it...I might however, be willing to swear at it.  Skip | | | ASSUME NOTHING!!!!!!
CBE, MBE, MoA and proud of it.
Outta here
Billy Video |
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  | T!M | | Profiling since Dec. 2000 |
| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 8,722 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Jubal: Quote:
I THINKit might be a bit more common in the world of MusicDVD It is indeed. |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Reputation: |  Posts: 1,946 |
| | Posted: | | | | I don't know if this has been posted before, but I had some difficulties in finding a tool for reading Blu-Ray disc info. Somebody mentioned BDInfo, but it failed on all titles. I have come across a tool called DVDFab, they have a free version here. It starts in menu mode, listing all paying options on top, and the free version on the bottom. The tool to launch is called HD Decrypter. It is not the fastest tool but it works nicely. Just select "Main Movie", and you get the correct runtime, Audio tracks and subtitles. | | | View my collection at http://www.chriskepolis.be/home/dvd.htm
Chris | | | | Last edited: by cvermeylen |
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| Registered: March 19, 2007 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 6,018 |
| | Posted: | | | | Thanks, Chris!  |
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| Registered: December 13, 2008 | | Reputation: | | Posts: 334 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting cvermeylen: Quote:
I don't know if this has been posted before, but I had some difficulties in finding a tool for reading Blu-Ray disc info. Somebody mentioned BDInfo, but it failed on all titles.
I have come across a tool called DVDFab, they have a free version here.
It starts in menu mode, listing all paying options on top, and the free version on the bottom. The tool to launch is called HD Decrypter.
It is not the fastest tool but it works nicely. Just select "Main Movie", and you get the correct runtime, Audio tracks and subtitles. Thank you very much! I wasn't getting anywhere with BDInfo either. |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 |  Posts: 2,337 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Jubal: Quote:
No, it is not, Kvack. MOST releases of PowerDVD cannot distinguish between DD2.0 Mono, DD2.0 Stereo and DD2.0 Surround. The only software tool I am aware of is DVDShrink which can tell you the difference between Stereo and Surround. No it cannot. I have several DVDs where DVDShrink says that they are DD2.0, when they actually are DD2.0 Surround. |
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| Registered: March 14, 2007 | | Posts: 2,337 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Jubal: Quote:
PCM is not common Very common on Blu-Rays. |
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| Registered: March 13, 2007 | | Posts: 810 |
| | Posted: | | | | Quoting Kulju: Quote:
Quoting Jubal:
Quote:
PCM is not common
Very common on Blu-Rays. PCM is not very common on DVDs. It is uncompressed 16bit stereo, which makes it a 1.5Mbit/s track. With only 10.0Mbits/s for both audio and video this is seen as a big hit! DD2.0 is 192kbits/s (I think). DD5.1 uses at most 640kbit/s and DTS5.1 often runs at 768kbits/s (but can run at the full 1.5Mbits/s). Early DVDs of low-budget films that only had stereo audio often used PCM. After a while as the 5.1 sound took off even these films got some sort of 5.1 re-mix and switched to DD5.1. Now Blurays have a full 50Mbits/s feed (five times that of DVD) which gives them more room for higher bit-rate audio tracks. pdf | | | Paul Francis
San Juan Capistrano, CA, USA | | | | Last edited: by pdf256 |
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