Audio mix/false advertising?

[takearushfan]

Hi all,
I'm wondering how one can be certain, before buying a DVD, what the DVD's true sound mix is.
To my knowledge, Stephen King's "IT" is only available in 2.0 Surround. However, in the attached images you'll see that they're advertising the release as having a 5.1 mix. I managed to *eh-hm*, "obtain" the PAL version and it only contains a 2.0 Surround mix. So, how do you know for sure? It's one thing for the website selling the product to incorrectly list the sound mix in their description... however, what do you do if the packaging itself is incorrectly displayed? I'd love to have a 5.1 mix of this film but I really do not think there's anything above 2.0 Surround.
Is there any way to be certain before purchasing?
Thanks all,
Justin

[intracube]

If the version you 'obtained' has been re-encoded, the audio has probably been down-mixed to two channels.

[takearushfan]

Well, part of the problem is that when using Google to search all over for details, I only find 2.0 described anywhere. I would love for the packaging to be accurate but from what I've found no place claims 5.1. Amazon doesn't help because I know from experience that their info can be inaccurate. With Clue I actually had to contact Paramount, let them know the 5.1 claim was incorrect and they had Amazon change it. Imagine how peeved I was to think that I was ordering a 5.1 mix of Clue and it had nothing but 2.0 Mono. All I can think of is trying Google again with different search terms or contacting Warner Bros themselves and asking straight from the horses mouth. I was just hoping someone knew of a less tedious way of knowing for sure.

[Cornucopia]

I think the bozos at the marketing/printshop stuck the wrong logo on there and nobody caught it except you.

Scott

[takearushfan]

I think the bozos at the marketing/printshop stuck the wrong logo on there and nobody caught it except you.

Scott

I still can't believe that happens. I mean, yes, "bozo" is the perfect word... or maybe too nice even. That kind of packaging mishap wasn't taken as lightly on Fox's Tales From The Crypt/The Vault of Horror combo!

[jagabo]

The movie It only has a stereo audio track. I wouldn't expect them to remaster the audio for a minor film like this. Of course, it could be encoded as 5.1 with only the front left and front right channels, and silence on the other four channels. So the advertising could be technically correct.

[takearushfan]

The movie It only has a stereo audio track. I wouldn't expect them to remaster the audio for a minor film like this. Of course, it could be encoded as 5.1 with only the front left and front right channels, and silence on the other four channels. So the advertising could be technically correct.

Please tell me they don't really do that, ever. To think that a studio would do such a thing makes me a bit sick.

[takearushfan]

Well, the following image says it all, I think...?
Just to be sure the app wasn't faulty, I extracted the audio and indeed, just the FL and FR are used.


[Attachment 8872 - Click to enlarge]

[jman98]

The movie It only has a stereo audio track. I wouldn't expect them to remaster the audio for a minor film like this. Of course, it could be encoded as 5.1 with only the front left and front right channels, and silence on the other four channels. So the advertising could be technically correct.

Please tell me they don't really do that, ever. To think that a studio would do such a thing makes me a bit sick.

Are any of the following, ALL of which have truly been done in various parts of the world by various studios, really any better?
Take a mono source and turn that one channel into bogus 5.1.
Take a multichannel (stereo or more) source and remix it to mono and pretend it's the "original soundtrack".
Completely redo the music ahd/or foley effects to turn an original mono soundtrack into true 5.1 but not admit that anything has been changed from the original.

In the USA most consumers are complete and utter morons and there is this common belief that if it's not 5.1 audio, or more, that "it sucks". Also there's a belief that anything not DTS "sucks". So the studios are just giving the morons what they want in putting only 5.1 audio on DVDs for films that were released originally in 2 or 1 channel sound. Only Criterion has been willing to stand up and not do this, but they're a specialty label.

[manono]

The movie It only has a stereo audio track. I wouldn't expect them to remaster the audio for a minor film like this. Of course, it could be encoded as 5.1 with only the front left and front right channels, and silence on the other four channels. So the advertising could be technically correct.

Please tell me they don't really do that, ever. To think that a studio would do such a thing makes me a bit sick.

I have hundreds of films on retail DVD where the original audio was mono but the DVDs are released claiming DD 5.1. And every channel has exactly the same audio. So, yes, technically it's DD 5.1 with a whole lot of bits wasted reproducing the same audio across all the channels. Echoing what jman98 said, ignorant buyers think they're getting something good when it says DD 5.1.

[takearushfan]

Yikes. That really sucks. I know that the 5.1 release of Black Christmas is along similar lines; hardly anything 5.1 about it and when there is, it's a foley effect. Oh, and let's not forget the surrounds being -5k decibels so that you can't determine that you're hearing the FL/FR channels with nothing more than an echo applied.