Quote:
'Tis a shame that the only network that provides 5.1 sound on a daily basis would not provide it here. If I had to choose, a good 5.1 sound mix would be better than HD. |
Maybe it's just me, but I've been extremely unimpressed with the "5.1" sound from ABC. I don't ever watch their movie broadcasts so I can't really comment on those. But for the few dramas I watch on ABC, I think the sound is lacking in dynamics and detail, and has a boxy, compressed sound to it. And even though they may have the DD encoder set for 5.1, the sound is nowhere near the level of what you get from DVD's. I wouldn't be surprised if they're taking 2-channel source audio, processing it as Dolby Prologic, and then encoding that as DD5.1 for insertion into the ATSC stream.
CBS' Dolby Surround-encoded 2 channel audio sounds
much better IMHO, especially when processed with ProLogic 2 by my pre/pro. Better bass, detail, dynamics, you name it. I also notice that I have to turn the sound up a little bit with CBS to achieve the same average "loudness" as ABC, which further supports the notion that the audio from CBS has better dynamics and isn't as compressed (dynamically, I'm not talking about data compression).