Sound Question. Do i need both 5.1 Dolby and 2.0 Stereo???

[gmantakis]

My question is if i copy a DVD that has two Soundstreams, one 5.1 Dolby Digital and one 2.0 Stereo. Does it make sense to copy both of them on the new DVD? I have a 5.1 Home Theater but what if i copy only the 5.1 Stream and i borow the DVD to a friend who has not a 5.1 System? Can he watch the DVD with the right Sound? Or what if i want to watch the DVD on my Notebook which has ONLY a Stereo Speaker System? Will i hear something? Because i will have on the copied DVD only the 5.1 Stream.

I mean what is then the REASON the DVD Producer put in a movie 2 SOundstreams? one 5.1 and the 2.0 Stereo. There must be some reason. If there is no reason i only need to copy the 5.1 Stream and i can up the Picturequality for the movie with the MEgaBytes i saved not copieng the 2.0 Stream

Thanks for your help

[Gurm]

Some DVD players will refuse to output the digital soundtrack over the analogue audio outputs.

That's why virtually every DVD has a 2.0 soundtrack on there as well as the DTS or DD.

That said, many players WILL downmix. Make a sample, take it to your friend's house, and play with his DVD player's menu.

- Gurm

[ebenton]

Most (if not all) portable DVD players will not play 5.1 channel surround sound through their tiny little pair of speakers or their headphone jack, while you sit in your airplane seat. Unless you have a really nice sound card with AC-3 decoder *and* 5 speakers plus a subwoofer, I doubt if your computer will play AC-3 from your DVD-ROM, either.

[freestyler]

All DVD players I've seen will downmix 5.1 but each one does so differently and sometimes with undesirable results. The purpose of having a 2 channel AC3 track is for you to be able to hear the proper 2 channel downmix the producers of the disc want you to hear.

[jntaylor63]

Just keep the 5.1 sound.

You'll have a nice sound for a Home Theater.

As far as down mixing, In 6 years of playing back 5.1 sound on 2.0 systems (TV, Laptop,stero or portable) I have never had a problem.

[spiderman2k1]

My dad's DVD player will down mix DTS 6.1. I could not believe it. It's a Sony DVD player. I did not even know it did it. Iwas playing with the remote and the sound was still on.

[MysticE]

The size savings is insignificant. But DTS is another story, that's a real hog.

[pijetro]

Sorry to hijack your post, but can someone send me some links on DVD Audio. It's a bit confusing.
I've successfully ripped my first .AC3 soundtrack via DVD2AVI, and don't know if I've got 5.1, stereo etc, and if I should downmix or not.....
Thanx.....