Dolby Surround (Pro Logic) from Lord of the Rings DVDs

[Gunde G?sberg]

Hi, maybe this question is stupid, but I've tried to google and read
FAQs to find a solution...and I'm quite new to DVDs.

I have an old receiver capable of Dolby Pro Logic playback (4 speaker
system, TV as centre speaker actually), and I have an old JVC XV-S42
DVD-player capable of only Stereo output. (+ digital of course, but no
5.1 analogue)

Does the stereo mix of The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers,
contain the necessary mix for my amplifier to decode it as Dolby Pro
Logic?
Or is it up to my old DVD-player to mix the 5 channels into 2 Dolby
Pro Logic compatible stereo signals? And can I trust the player to do
this? If so, is the quality likely to suffer a lot, compared to
studio-mixed Dolby Pro Logic? (the manual is complete crap)

Yes, yes, I know I need to upgrade my system :) But I'm prepared to
bet money that my system delivers better sound than most cheap
DVD-packages shipped with tiny speakers ;)

[Eddie]

I just checked this out for The Fellowship of the Ring.

I used my DVD player to output "2 channel stereo". My amplifier confirmed
that only 2 channels were arriving at input.
Used Pro Logic to decode.
The surround is quite respectable (just listening for the first few minutes,
up to the first battle scene) - but defintiely surround.

I then switched the DVD back to output 5.1 Dolby Digital.

NOW I KNOW why I paid for that new amp - at the risk of stating the bleeding
obvious - the 5.1 sounds a lot better.

But, the answer to your question is yes - it appears to have a reasonable
Pro Logic mix on the DVD.

--
Eddie

Remove XORY (or someting obvious) from address to reply

"Gunde G?sberg" <sk32b@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:59f48be2.0312101528.660c25e@posting.google.co m...
> Hi, maybe this question is stupid, but I've tried to google and read
> FAQs to find a solution...and I'm quite new to DVDs.
>
> I have an old receiver capable of Dolby Pro Logic playback (4 speaker
> system, TV as centre speaker actually), and I have an old JVC XV-S42
> DVD-player capable of only Stereo output. (+ digital of course, but no
> 5.1 analogue)
>
> Does the stereo mix of The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers,
> contain the necessary mix for my amplifier to decode it as Dolby Pro
> Logic?
> Or is it up to my old DVD-player to mix the 5 channels into 2 Dolby
> Pro Logic compatible stereo signals? And can I trust the player to do
> this? If so, is the quality likely to suffer a lot, compared to
> studio-mixed Dolby Pro Logic? (the manual is complete crap)
>
> Yes, yes, I know I need to upgrade my system :) But I'm prepared to
> bet money that my system delivers better sound than most cheap
> DVD-packages shipped with tiny speakers ;)