Working at a theater is the 90s, we were all over this stuff. We had a theater with one auditorium that was THX, and it was a pretty big deal. It was formally a United Artist theater. Back in the day, they had a lot of clout and could get big, exclusive movies. When companies changed hands, they still had the equipment and eventually let the THX license lapse, but it still sounded amazing. When Cinemark came to town, they made a really big deal about promoting their THX houses. I saw tons of movies back then, and had my favorite theaters. The CInemark with the DTS/THX combo was my favorite.
11:54 and also in cars! My 2014 Lincoln MKS has the 14-speaker THX Audio system. It has a dedicated center channel and trunk mounted subwoofer that is ported through the rear deck. Sounds absolutely incredible
Love this new channel. Just got my first semi-surround system (A soundbar with subwoofer and rear speakers) for Christmas, and I'm already amazed at how much I was missing for so long. Looking forward to more videos and going back to games that I didn't have a chance to experience properly!
I've been a huge fan of surround sound since getting my PS3 back in 2009. Before that I experimented with non discreet Quadraphonic sound and JVC's Hyper Surround Sound. But I bought a Yamaha 5.1 Dolby Digital made in 1999 and hooked it up to 4 speakers, a center speaker and powered subwoofer to my PS3 and I haven't looked back. I think I'm gonna really like this channel a lot. Cheer's Joe.
Joe I am loving the content for this new channel and I learned a lot from this video! I can't wait to see what content you have lined up for the future!
Hey Joe, do you know that most Disney VHS tapes releases used “Lucasfilm Ltd.” instead of “Digitally Mastered”? Just about every THX certified VHS known to man has the dreaded THX Broadway trailer except one. The DVD’s had mostly Broadway, sometimes different THX trailers such as Cavalcade, Tex 1/2, Broadway 2000 and Amazing Life. As for laserdiscs, mostly Broadway and sometimes Cimarron, JFYI. (Just for your information).
Thank you, i've always had questions about sound formats, but there really arent many pieces of content that provide simple descriptions and all in one
Same here, i dont know what to choose for my surround sound in my xbox. Like I have blu rays w dts-HD and Dolby True-HD but there is no option on the xbox. Do I just choose uncompressed 7.1 or just choose Atmos for dolby content and DTS:X for all DTS content as I heard they might be backwards compatible w all their lesser formats. Do you know what I am supposesbto do. I cant find anything on this and like 50 plus million people use the xbox as their blu raybplayer but not 1 explaination on the whole darn internet.
I'm currently using Dolby Atmos trough Razer Nari Ultimate X headset on a Xbox Series X. For some reason, DTS X and Microsoft's equivalent causes me to suffer from migraines. Which is a shame as DTS X seems to have more clarity. Great video again.
Great video, i always wanted to know more about SDDS. Also, if you check the War of The Worlds DVD with Tom Cruise, there are 2 tracks: Dolby Digital and DTS, and OH BOY you can tell the difference on the bitrate right from the beginning. It’s pretty abysmal mainly on high notes, like the back fence on the house shaking just before the lightning strikes.
Yeah I'm having trouble getting all my movies converted into headphones surround. My first love of surround formats came when the The TV salesman looked at our media room which is very asymmetrical and in 2008 said it would cost $10,000 in labor alone plus the equipment to get it working in one particular place for surround sound. Luckily my friend was a competitor on WCG Ultimate Gamer season 1 and he never played his headphones before he listened to the Triton sponsored headphones and it's the games that use them well he said he could pick out sounds in 3D and make decisions a lot quicker and Do a lot more blind dodging and blind aiming than a normal stereo set. I got a Turtle Beach DSS1 which works great for the movie or video game.... As long as the movie or video game is encoded in some form of Dolby. Every Dolby movie sounded great through that every DTS movie was silent. Every LPCM movie sounded lackluster. The PlayStation 3 had auto conversions to any of the three formats based on what you told that your sound system could do. The Xbox One S came really close to the perfect audio system for movies that You could buy Dolby Atmos headphone for 15 bucks or DTS X headphone for 20 bucks or both and also use window Sonic which converts LPCM into a headphone surround track. The problem with that is it doesn't auto switch for some strange reason. I asked Dolby and DTS representatives why would anyone want to listen to all Dolby even on DTS movies and vice versa and both of them admitted you want to keep the headphone format and original movie format hand in glove. Mixing formats is the worst thing you could do in home theater. In our communal surround sound room we have to make compromises we have a Turtle Beach DSS1 but It only works on TV shows on Dish Network and on movies that are encoded in Dolby. No one makes a universal headphone adapter that could be spread to three or more users on headphones that could convert every movie accurately into 3D surround sound. The closest thing I found was the Xbox One S. The problem is I need to keep my One S for the 3D movies because the series S doesn't do 3D movies or blu-rays in general because it doesn't have a physical disc. But it couldn't do 3D digital movies either. What would be the best solution to this problem?
By far the most educational video Ive seen about sound format. One format that was missing, the RSS “Roland Surround Sound” which was used in “Snatcher” for PCE CD & SEGA CD. Was that a true format or just a fancy name for a sound gimmick??
Cool video. Just like to say that sometimes more channels isn't always a good thing. I have an anime series called Escaflowne on Blu Ray. Most of the discs have three audio options in Dolby TruHD: two for English and one for Japanese. The new English dub has five channels, which sound awfully quiet through my analog stereo speakers with a subwoofer, while the other two sound loud and clear (in dual channels).
Excellent stuff! I would love for you to break down what the sound is on different formats as well, from VHS, LaserDisc, DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD, perhaps in the future?
For Qsound it was permanently in the mix. It was never utilized well. You can hear it's potential at 1:07 of the Sting song Mad About You even on your stereo phone. Put phone close to your face with the stereo positioned left and right. If you hold the phone so left and right are vertical it doesn't work and the slide bass almost dissappears. But when positioned properly the bass is to the left and slightly behind. Back in 1990 you could see how can engineer is worried it will mess up the mono mix or sub par listening. But it Eleven works from RU-vid video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-MxtYzo0OLXs.htmlsi=s-PRhV4Jc2NYz-8t
That was excellent coverage of each sound format. There have been so many over time. It's great to have a primer on what each one is capable of in presentation & performance.
Actually, as reported by WSR many many moons ago, Tomlinson Holman Experiment was a term coined by the press and George Lucas being the considerate person he was never denied nor confirmed it. Find the very elaborate WSR article regarding THX, any true videophile will find it a fastenating
Same here, i dont know what to choose for my surround sound in my xbox. Like I have blu rays w dts-HD and Dolby True-HD but there is no option on the xbox. Do I just choose uncompressed 7.1 or just choose Atmos for dolby content and DTS:X for all DTS content as I heard they might be backwards compatible w all their lesser formats. Do you know what I am supposesbto do. I cant find anything on this and like 50 plus million people use the xbox as their blu raybplayer but not 1 explaination on the whole darn internet.
Love the video but you left a piece of the dts ES explaining on the table. dts made two versions of dts ES. There was dts ES Matrix which is the dts version of Dolby Digital Surround EX and there was dts ES Discrete. dts ES Discrete is a true 6.1 surround format where the rear center channel had its own channel information that did not rely on the left and right surround information.
So if you're trying to play older consoles in surround sound, what do you need? Do modern surround receivers decode older formats that Playstation and Playstation 2 games would output correctly?
I think I try hook up my spare speakers again. Do use a 3.1 audio. I do not have high end audio. It is a 5.1 set from a rel. small builder in Berlin "Teufel" Is optical hooked up to an receiver and than to the sub and from there to the speakers.
I'm upgrading my home theater system and this helped tremendously! Thanks, looking forward to more! I'm thinking of adding atmos, but I move my living room around alot and didn't know if it was worth it. Please let me know if it is. I love Good sound when watching a movie! Thanks again
is there any software that can simulate surround sound, or convert a file to surround, i know one would be boom3d, and one could be the razer surround, but those are live feeds, i was wondering if there was something for converting?
Great video I prefer great sound in video games that take advantage of real surround sound it can make the experience so much better gears 5 has an awesome sound experience by the way
I’ve only just discovered how many older dvds and Blu-rays use DTS especially DTS master audio. And I discovered this only after buying a new OLED tv… which doesn’t support DTS! I think this will be a problem going forward, the more new sound formats created, the more companies will ditch others due to licensing fees.
As patents for the older compression formats expire, manufacturers can put open source software codecs in a TV. AC-3 is now free. I'm not sure where DTS stands as it is newer. Patents last about 20 years. Now Dolby invents newer formats and convinces everyone that we need them to keep a revenue stream coming.
Awesome work, Joe! Great subject and a great new channel. Subscribed. A real shame that RU-vid only lets me hear it in simple-ass stereo, and not the 7.1 you intended!
How much do you know about sound.....I'll stay subscribed to this if you can fill us with your knowledge. I mean you should do a explained on soundchips on video games like the Genesis or the SNES :)
2024. This is one of the best summations/explanations of the endless marketing BS regarding sound format wars. The simplicity of 5.1 is still top-notch vs modern day Atmos this and that. I remember there was a format that included a centre rear channel, making it 6.1. Personally, for me I think that would be the ideal format without an overkill of channels for typical home theater set ups. Cinemas would be different due to the large venue allowing for unlimited space and speaker placement options. A full discrete 10.1 surround set up in this case. eg L, R, C, left upper channel, right upper channel and the same at the back = 10 discrete channels + the subwoofer would be the way to go. Unless you are a multi-millionaire who can afford a large, dedicated home theatre room, this would be an overkill setup for a typical home environment. Personally, for me, that THX intro was the best out of all the format promos videos. Gave me goose bumps in its presentation especially at home.
Q-sound at the end of the day IS totally normal stereo, on a technical basis. It’s just very widely mixed with some occasional phase tricks employed by the processor in the mixing stage. I don’t like to look at Q-sound from the perspective of “Q-sound is better or worse than no Q-sound” but rather, it just is what it is. Some things used it and some things didn’t, but ultimately they sound how they sound. At the end of the day there really IS no basis for comparison. Some things were mixed with it and some (most) things weren’t. The US soundtracks for Sonic CD and Ecco The Dolphin CD are mixed with Q sound, as were many of the titles worked on by that composer (his name escapes me) They both have a very particular, high-gloss sheen to them typical of late 80’s/early 90’s pop/funk (in the case of sonic) or New Age music (in the case of Ecco.) I think the Q sound mixing is complementary to that style that was particularly in vogue at the time. They sound right to me. And it’s not like there is a non-Q Sound version, so again, they sound how they sound whether you ignore the fact they used Q-sound or not. For another great Q-sound demonstration album, - excellent on headphones - and something a bit more popular/mainstream than game music, look for the original 1990 CD release of Madonna’s “Immaculate Collection”. It’s a compilation album of practically all her biggest hits up to that point, all newly remixed in Q-sound. Since some of the remixes are so drastically different to the originals I think it is able to stand on its own merits as a great listening experience without an apples-to-oranges comparison to the originals.
Not entirely sure what you're getting at. But Q-Sound is a thing just like Dolby Pro-Logic is a thing. Both are delivered via normal stereo connection and both require stereo. Q-Sound is worth discussing, and people wonder how it can envelop you and how you should place your speakers to take advantage of it, etc.
@@soundsack5400 I would say the distinction between Q-sound and Pro-Logic is that with pro-logic, there are multiple channels of audio going into the processor at the studio to matrix them into a 2 channel format, and then on the listener’s end there is another layer of processing that attempts to re-separate those channels as originally input. There is something there that has to be encoded, and then de-coded. Q-sound on the other hand from every step in the studio to the end listener is only stereo. It’s a very enveloping use of those 2 channels, but from beginning to end, still stereo. The Q-sound processor in the studio would be patched in during the mixing stage and applied to individual channels on the board, but it just affected their phase relationship between those 2 channels. Similar tricks have existed since the 60’s but Q-sound was an effort to give the process a cool name, standardize it and market it as such. I think it’s cool. It’s a shame it didn’t really make it past the mid-90’s! It’s worth noting that there were also more advanced implementations of Q-sound that were a bit closer technically to what pro-logic achieved, but the one used for on some music CDs (and by extension, some Sega CD games with redbook CD audio) was the earlier, more basic implementation.
RU-vid, Can I like this video 4,000 times please? Not just because the video is that amazing, but because the total number of likes would be 5.1k and everyone knows 5.1 is really really cool.
Thank you very much for this. I run 35mm as a hobby. Its good information as I consider myself a rookie. I am running a CP500 and have DTS along with Dolby Digital.
i have a question. by the way big gamesack fan mabe part of the reason I'm requiring beter audio. why is it when i select Dolby atmos in windows my avr lights up true hd but no sound. Dolby digital Dolby digital plus work fine but no hd its a pioneer vsx 822 from 2013. am i missing something or is the equipment to old.
Dolby Atmos is either Dolby TrueHD or Dolby Digital + with spatial information applied. It's possible that your receiver only recognizes the Dolby Digital + version of Atmos which is usually used for streaming services. TrueHD is losslessly compressed so it's generally reserved only for discs, like 4K UHD Blu-rays.
@@soundsack5400 I did get the dts working though. That makes sense I ended up buying another used amp this ones from 2010 but its a thx 7.1 when I select Dolby atmos in Windows it doesn't even light up the truehd light it just doesn't do anything lol. Anyways thanks Joe like I said big fan of the Show. FYI I miss the Dave Skits
If this helps anyone...I recently watched Cruella on Blu Ray. This has DTS Master Audio in it. I am running PS4 to Soundbar to Projector. I played with the sound settings both in The PS4 and Blue Ray settings. With "Bitstream(Direct)" Selected in Blue Ray along with Bitstream Dolby selected in PS4 I got Dolby Digital. With Bitstream DTS selected on PS4 setting I got DTS Surround. BUT with LPCM selected on both PS4 and Blue Ray the display on the blue ray(press pause for this display to show) I got the DTS Master 7.1 audio fed into my setup. I only have a 5.1 setup so idk what happens to the those other 2 channels 🤣🤷. Also in LPCM the dialogue was alot better from the center channel. However I believe video games get downgraded to stereo in lpcm possibly. The action scenes and object sounds actually sounded surround (Horizon Zero Dawn) but whenever you speak to someone I heard voice in the 3 front channels. So theres that.
But, what about home tv sound formats like SRS and BBE that was popular on Sony Trinitrons years ago? What are they and what do they do exactly? I think Sony might still be using SRS on its current LCD/LED tvs or, at least, a newer variant
I away like SDDS and DTS on 35mm cinimark xd was THX but it didn't use masking and the sound was always set low so it has no punch sometimes they would get in trouble and have to fix the sound back to 7.0 but must of the time the would run it way lower I did hear a THX system in holloywood at the chineese theater and it was perfect on 35mm way better then common DCI theaters
IMAX theatrically has its own audio format that films are mixed for to play in these theaters. There is the older 6 track format and the modern 12 track. What makes the format unique is that it does not have an LFE channel at all as all IMAX speakers are full range meaning they can reproduce low frequencies.
Well all normal theater speakers are full range as well. The LFE is its own independent channel and not there just to pick up the slack from the main channels. Very very few cinemas have their low frequencies crossed over with a subwoofer. IMAX is a different beast (don't take that to mean "better" because it isn't).
@@soundsack5400 That's interesting to know, I was not aware of this fact, IMAX propaganda probably got to me lol. BTW great video, I loved how you explained all audio formats including Dolby Stereo which always confused me. I also appreciate mentioning video games as gaming audio/sound formats/ surround sound is not talked about at all.
That one dislike... I bet it was The Exasperated Gamer. He's definitely not an audiophile! Neither am I, but I do appreciate you explaining us the different audio formats.
Interesting ,i never tout dolby prologic could distinguisch out of phase audio with regular audio while saperating mono from stereo,dolby prologic 2 has stereo out of phase audio, now am surprised that dolby stereo uses noise filtering and dolby prologic not,but i guess dolby stereo just uses a agressive lowpass filter to reduce noise.
