do all home dvd players have 5.1 surround or do you have to spend a fortune now days to get it. I remember back in 2002 when I bought my apex ad1100w which I would put up against any high end player for $59.99 at walmart . I want to buy a new dvd player and want to know what brand or model. I keep running into this virtual surround personally anything that says virtual to me is fake or substandard. I want the real thing. Please help. Man I have been in proaudio for 25 years and I feel like a dummy when it comes to my own home theater lol...Duh... Please help!!!
Short answer: regular DVD players don't come with 5.1 or 7.1 audio. The DVD's themselves are encoded with the audio tracks and then your reciever decodes them and plays the audio to your speakers. there are very few movies with 7.1 audio so your receiver will add or matrix the last 2 channels. Blu-Ray and HD-DVD players do have audio decoders built in , but that requires the long answer.
7.1 channel surround is found usually on the dvds that you either rent or buy. Look for either dts es or dolby digital ex encoding for audio on the dvd disc itself. Now, if your system is not set up for 7.1, (meaning that you have 7 surround speakers and a subwoofer which is the .1 of 7.1) it won't make any difference because you will not be able to hear that additional bit of audio information especially from either the rear sides and back or just added back effect. The best example of a dts es dvd is Gladiator. It was the first dvd movie to come out in dts es back in 1999 if memory serves me correct. The fight scene with the tigers in the stadium will just make you freak out if you have a true 7.1 surround sound system. I have heard it and boy....the sound is to die for. It will make you turn your head behind you if your system is adjusted properly.
Thank you guys for the information it made sense to me and I will check out the movie but am only hooked up in 5.1 although I could go to 7.1 if needed buy for now until they come out with more EX sound tracks I'll say 5.1. Anyway, I had a discussion with a friend who actually mixes movie sound tracks and he told me that the dvd player must be able to decode in the surround format that the sound track was encoded in ie;DTS and or Dolby digital and neo, it has to have a surround decoder to tell the receiver what format to decode weather it be 5.1 or 7.1 thusly the dvd player has to have the surround decoding capability or else it would just be either 2 channel DTS or Dolby or in some cases virtual surround. So to answer my own question not all dvd players come with the surround decoding capability To answer your question of what kind of sound system do I have it is made up of 4 Bose 501seriesIV, 1 Bose VCS10 center channel , 1 JBL PS-120 sub,1 PIONEER VSX -815k receiver which is 5.1 and 7.1 DTS and Dolby digital,prologic I&II and NEO-6 decoding and a APEX AD-1100W DVD player but I just got aa APEX AD-1201 DVD player on ebay today new in the box so they say I'll find out when it gets here. I think the system sounds great personally. Tell me what you think of it.
Your receiver has the ability to run either 6.1 or 7.1. All you have to do is add additional speakers for the rear center for 6.1 or back speakers for 7.1. If your current rear speakers are behind you, rear center channel goes between the two existing speakers. If you have rear speakers that are on the side walls, you are set for 7.1 rear speakers. Make sure they are no more than 3 feet apart on the back wall or rear area. This way you have rear side and rear back speakers. Run an audio diagnostic check for all your speakers for size, distance, and level to maximize total overall performance. If you have a dvd movie that has a dts es option, select that audio option on the dvd in its menu select. Your receiver so long as you have it connected with either a optical or digital coax cable and NOT an analog set of rca cables should be able to self adjust the signal and give you an incredible sound performance for that particular movie. I say consider at least a rear center channel speaker, use it in 6.1 neo for most of your regular dvd movies but have it ready for that special dts es or dolby digital ex movie for that special treat. Good luck.
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