Question about sound (5.1) on SVCD

[Hansomfiser]

How is the 5.1 dolby surround/digital soundtrack store itself on a media? I mean, if I burn a 3 CD-SVCD movie which is an original DVD-rip converted to MPG, is the 5.1 track kept or is it a normal 2 channel sound?

I can hear sound effects on my rear sattelite speakers in my 5.1 system at home when watching those 3 CD-SVCD's, but I wonder if its the same thing as the "real deal", thats is 5.1 on a DVD?
Hope you understand my question.

Thanks

[bugster]

SVCD does not support 5.1 surround sound. Only Stereo. However a stereo soundtrack will often contain Dolby pro logic which provides a basic surround effect from stereo audio with an appropriate decoder. Any device that decodes Dolby Digital Ac3 (5.1) is likley to also decode Dolby prologic.

[Hansomfiser]

Thanks,
can you or somebody else explain this Dolby Pro Logic-thing a little further maybe? I mean, how it works, and how it "fakes" the true 5.1 surround in SVCD's?

[bacardi/avt]

@Bugster

This is what I found in the official Philips SVCD spec

Surround Sound can either be realized by coding a Dolby Surround matrix encoded two-channel audio source with MPEG-1 Audio, or optionally by coding a 5.1 channel audio source with MPEG-2 multi-channel (5+1) Backwards Compatible audio. This mode is defined in the MPEG-2 Audio standard ( ISO/ IEC 13818-3), and is fully compatible with MPEG-1. A MPEG-1 decoder will decode the basic stereo (left and right) audio from the multi-channel MPEG-2 audio signal. So it's an option to add a MPEG-2 multi-channel decoder.

So surround Sound do exist in the specs but I do not know if any player manufacurer ever implemented it in their machines..

[Cornucopia]

So surround Sound do exist in the specs but I do not know if any player manufacurer ever implemented it in their machines..

Philips did.

You could always rip the track (VCDEasy) and analyze the stream (MPEGID) to see if it's 2ch or 5.1/7.1 ch.

If you wanted to create this yourself, or convert from an AC3 5.1 source, I would suggest Hypercube Transcoder.

Scott

[bugster]

@bacardi/avt, yes, you are right. I forgot, SVCD does support 5.1 audio if it is multi channel mp2. I wish you luck finding a DVD player or decoder that supports it though! They do exist, but are very rare.

What I should have said is that SVCD does not support Dolby Digital (AC3) surround sound, only mp2 which may contain dolby prologic.