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Post #1368880

Author
a_purist
Parent topic
The Shining - 35mm print opportunity (a WIP)
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1368880/action/topic#1368880
Date created
14-Aug-2020, 8:24 AM

SilverWook said:

Laserdiscs were always dual channel regardless of the audio track. There was no 1.0 mode like DVD or Blu Ray. A mono track could be put on one channel to accommodate a commentary on the other, but a viewer would have to manually select either track or both would be heard at the same time. The addition of digital sound to the format in the mid 80’s allowed for four mono tracks, (two digital, two analog) but this was rarely done.

valien said:

a_purist said:
For this preservation, what would be more accurate? 2.0 or 1.0? In principle, both. But not for a film before… what year? I don’t know how you see it.

The two channels of the “dual mono” soundtrack are exactly the same, and the sound was intended to be reproduced by a single loudspeaker behind the screen at the center.
In a 2.0 setup, both 2.0 mono and 1.0 tracks would be reproduced the same way, i.e., the same signal coming from both loudspeaker. The impression would be that of a single phantom channel at the center. In a setup with three front channels (e.g., 5.1), 2.0 mono would be reproduced from L and R, while 1.0 from the center. So I believe the latter would recreate more faithfully the theatrical experience.

TheHutt said:

Nope, 2.0 mono would be also reproduced from the center. In a Dolby Surround system, if L and R are identical, they are routed to the center.

pipefan413 said:

TheHutt said:

Nope, 2.0 mono would be also reproduced from the center. In a Dolby Surround system, if L and R are identical, they are routed to the center.

This is broadly correct except that it isn’t quite handled that way by the current generation of Dolby’s upmixer/dematrixer (which is, perversely, simply called “Dolby Surround” even though that was the original name of the really basic home tech they used back even before Pro Logic was a thing). It seems the current DTS upmixer does route 100% to C (unless you’ve got the AVR set to LPF the low end out to your sub or whatever) but Dolby Surround actually sends mid-low sound via a LPF to the L and R speakers, with the majority (but not the whole thing) going to C.

This is presumably based on the hypothetically improved bass response of L and R speakers (which are potentially, though not necessarily, floor standing speakers) vs a C speaker (which is usually 2 woofers and a tweeter in a horizontal arrangement, with somewhat limited bass response and a focus on mids instead). In my setup, which has fairily mid-to-treble focused side speakers, this fails miserably and sounds ridiculous so I force the DTS mode instead for 2.0 dual mono and use “Direct” mode for 1.0 to route to C based on the number of channels alone with no fancy upmixer/dematrixer stuff being brought into it.

I didn’t know Laserdiscs were always dual channel, I’ve never had one. It’s very interesting. Whether you choose 1.0 or 2.0 I’m sure you’ll do the right thing.

By the way, as we know “The Shining” was shot in FullFrame, but how do we know the exact part of the frame that would be shown in the theatres? For example, Blu-ray and UHD releases are 1.78:1 (instead of 1.85:1) and despite having the same wrong aspect ratio, both have different framing.

Blu-ray:

UHD:

UHD has less information in the frame (up, down, right and left).