DOlby 5.1 Vs. Prologic - in Layman's terms
Dec 04 '00
I have seen the light and it is called DTS...but unfortunately, my receiver can only support Dolby Digital....not such a bad thing though. In this article I willtry to help explain some differences between DD5.1 and Pro Logic, and maybe even throw in some THX for you.
Now, this will not get that technical, but will cover some of the points I have witnessed on my own home theatre.
When I first purchased my DVD player I knew that the sound was a huge deal, and I wanted that perfect surround set up...but money and a wife helped curb that dream...so I settled for something a little less than ideal, but still what I think is a pretty gosh-darn good setup for what I spent. When I first set it up, I did not hook up the digital output(either coaxial cable, or optical) which is the only way to get Dolby Digital sound(unless you have a decoder in the DVD player which I don't. And as a result, my surround sound experience was limited to Pro Logic. Pro Logic is analog, the opposite of Digital. The difference is that the digital is a bunch of 1's and 0's encoded to tell the system which speaker should output certain sounds, and generally does not lose sound quality. Analog uses waves, much like a radio or TV uses waves to get sound.
Pro Logic is not that bad though, it does give "surround sound", but does not split up the rear sounds into their respective left/right channels, rather it combines them into a single rear channel. So if you are supposed to hear a plane come from behind you to the left, it will be coming from both speakers. Not that big of an issue right? Right. But I read in another comment on this issue that Pro Logic decodes a separate channel for the Subwoofer, which it does not. I know this because my receiver has a visual display of which channels are being used for each setup, and when pro-logic is used, the LFE(Low Frequency Effect) light is not lit up. However, sound DOES come from the sub, but it is a general sound, and not specificly designed to come from the sub, as it is with DD 5.1, the 0.1 is the sub.
Then, I decided to get teh digital cable to hook up and utilize the DVD player and receiver to their intended purpose, Dolby Digital 5.1!!!!! It was a big day for me, and I needed to find the perfect movie to demonstrate the difference to my wife, and prove that the money was spent on a worthwhile piece of equipment.
So now what happens is that the DVD player puts out those 1's and 0's like I mentioned before, and the receive decodes them into their respective channels: 1 - Left Front, 2 - Right Front, 3 - Center, 4/5 - Left/Rear surround, and 0.1 - Subwoofer. And now the movie is heard the way the film maker meant it to be heard, with sounds coming from all directions...for total immersion into a film. Now when you hear a dog bark from the neighbors house behind you in the movie, you will hear it come from the correct location, not just generally behind you. A much better system.
So I popped in Toy Story, which has some amazing surround and subwoofer effects, to demonstrate the power of Dolby Digital to my signifigant other, she wasn't impressed, but I was. Different Strokes for different folks I guess...
So anyway, if you have the opportunity to use Dolby Digital, do so...but if you are limited to using Pro Logic, go ahead, it is not that bad of a substitute, but you will notice a difference when you make the switch to DD.
Oh, and the THX you sometimes hear about or see the during the intro to a movie. Don't worry too much about it, it is basically a standard of sound and visual quality the Mr. George Lucas set out to create in order to get movies sounding perfect. So if a movie has a THX logo, you know it will sound sweet in your home theatre system.
Hope this helps.
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paramchuk
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Member: Jeff
Location: Portland, OR
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I am Canadian.
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