In Scenarist, is it possible to automatically have a 5.1 or stereo mixdown play?

[LordClick]

I am wondering if it is possible to automatically have a stereo mixdown track play along with a movie track if the DVD player / user doesn't have a surround system / decoder? I would like to make sure that the stereo mixdown sounds the same everywhere, so I would like to provide it instead of letting each player do it in realtime, because sometimes it sounds crappy. How do professional DVDs handle this?

[LordClick]

nobody have any idea? is 5.1 the default soundtrack with commercial dvds? do they add their own stereo downmix for regular TVs without surround?

[Bish0p]

The 5.1 DD track should automatically down mix if the user doesn't have a 5.1 suround sound system. I've never noticed "crappy" sound from this. Of course, if your having problems, you could give the option of either 5.1 or 2.0.
Are you getting the 5.1 out of house or doing it yourself?

[influenza]

I've never noticed "crappy" sound from this.

I think the main reason why a seperate 2.0 stream is available on the dvd is because the author is not satisfied by the downmixing of the 5.1 (don't know if thise would qualify as sounding crappy though :) )

I have several options on my standalone on how to downmix, but never tried those.

[dan]

I'm very, very sure that the DVD standard doesn't offer means of checking if the user is using the stereo analog outputs of the DVD player opposed to either of the digital audio outputs (common for 5/6.1 surround) or the 6 analog line level surround outputs (not as common). If you're familiar with the 'advanced' DVD stuff, none of the SPRMs are used for keeping track of the audio setting of the player. Commercial DVDs take care of this by, well, not doing anything about it. I think it's safe to say that most users don't even know what "downmix" means [not that they need to]. I've never actually made a point to check what "real" DVDs that have a 5.1 and 2.0 track set as default [the DVD authorer sets the navigation to choose a particular track as default during authoring, without caring or knowing about what hardware the user may have.], but it's probably safe to assume that maybe 2.0 is default, as most people who have a surround sound setup will check which audio the disc is using via the usually present audio menu of the DVD [well, I check it before I play a movie].

Being that the DVD standard doesn't offer a way to check what sound setup the user has, I'd make the 2.0 track default, as I would assume that those who have spent the money for a 5.1 system might check the audio setting in the DVD's menu. they strike me as people who might not check the audio menu, but oh well. Not that there's anything wrong with those setups or people who aren't really technically oriented and just want to watch a movie without any hassle.

For the sake of clarity.... DVDs don't really have a "default" audio track. When two exist and no other instructions [as in a SetAudio=X command] are in the command chain, the player plays the first audio track it sees. There's no "make this track default" checkbox or anything.

Hope this helps,
Dan

[auenf]

Originally posted by influenza
I think the main reason why a seperate 2.0 stream is available on the dvd is because the author is not satisfied by the downmixing of the 5.1 (don't know if thise would qualify as sounding crappy though :) )

I have several options on my standalone on how to downmix, but never tried those.

actually, i think its more that some people have DD 5.1 amps, but only 2 speakers, and they dont know how to set their amp to downmix the 5.1 digital signal to 2.0.

Enf...