What's up with the lossless 2.0 Mono tracks? Is there any difference from 1.0 Mono?

[Shalashaska]

I've seen this in a lot of Blu-rays.

Why split one-channel into two when your intention is to give us the original track? Can you put them back together coming out of the center speaker?

[UFAlien]

Running 2.0 mono tracks through a surround decoder such as Dolby ProLogic II should place all the sound in the center speaker.

[Shalashaska]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

Running 2.0 mono tracks through a surround decoder such as Dolby ProLogic II should place all the sound in the center speaker.

Why do they release them as 2.0 tracks though? Any economical benefits?

[UFAlien]

I honestly have no idea, sadly.

[CraigThom]

Originally Posted by UFAlien

I honestly have no idea, sadly.

I do! I looked it up, and DTS supports 2.0, 3.1, 5.1, 7.1, and 11.2, depending on how fancy your DTS is. 1.0 is not a format they list, so I think they don't support it.

[HDTV1080P]

I have seen some Blu-ray discs with 1.0 lossless soundtracks, and when played through a A/V receiver the sound comes out of the center channel only (that feature is working as designed).


However there are many consumers that do not own A/V receivers and play Blu-ray’s on their 2.0 stereo system or flat panel with 2.0 stereo speakers. Depending on the system software in the flat panel or Blu-ray player, sometimes or many times when a 1.0 channel audio source is detected, it only comes out of the left speaker only instead of both speakers. Therefore studios have been releasing 1.0 mono lossless soundtracks as 2.0 mono lossless soundtracks so that everyone can hear the mono sound out of both left and right speakers. Now sometimes the 2.0 lossless soundtrack is encoded with a Dolby Prologic flag or DTS Neo flag. If these matrix flags exist on the soundtrack then a 2.0 mono soundtrack will only come out of the center channel speaker when a consumer owns an A/V receiver setup.

[Shalashaska]

Originally Posted by HDTV1080P

I have seen some Blu-ray discs with 1.0 lossless soundtracks, and when played through a A/V receiver the sound comes out of the center channel only (that feature is working as designed).


However there are many consumers that do not own A/V receivers and play Blu-ray’s on their 2.0 stereo system or flat panel with 2.0 stereo speakers. Depending on the system software in the flat panel or Blu-ray player, sometimes or many times when a 1.0 channel audio source is detected, it only comes out of the left speaker only instead of both speakers. Therefore studios have been releasing 1.0 mono lossless soundtracks as 2.0 mono lossless soundtracks so that everyone can hear the mono sound out of both left and right speakers. Now sometimes the 2.0 lossless soundtrack is encoded with a Dolby Prologic flag or DTS Neo flag. If these matrix flags exist on the soundtrack then a 2.0 mono soundtrack will only come out of the center channel speaker when a consumer owns an A/V receiver setup.

Perfect. Thank you.