Mono Means Which Speakers?

[Damage Inc.]

I have a quick question here:

I just came across a BD-release that shows here that it has 'LPCM Mono'.
No, I don't have this BD (yet), so I can't try it out.
But I was really wondering, if it's mono, and you have a speaker-setup that's more than 2.1, which speaker(s) will that track use?
Will it just utilize the center speaker, as it's one channel and (hopefully) centered.
Or will it actually use 2.0/1 and it's just audio without any panning (so no stereo)?

Or, otherwise, does this even differ among mono-tracks?
As in, that different tracks on different BDs that are called mono, can either be 1.0 or even 2.0 or 2.1,
but still sound like mono because there is just nothing more to it.

[bobbydrugar]

depends on how you set your receiver to play mono signal. usually you can set mono signal to play through the center speaker or you can set the receiver to play mono signal through the front left and right speakers. conversely some receivers will even allow for full mono (or all speakers playing the same signal) so you have the mono signal comming out all 5 or 7 or 9 or 11 whatever number of speakers you have. I prefer personally depending on the track to use my center for the mono signal but sometime I will switch it up to Front left/Front Right.

Hope that helps
Thanks,
T

[Bradman]

I have a lot of CDs in Mono and they play thru the two front speakers in my 7.1 system.
I'm guessing that would be the case with this BD release.

[srrndhound]

No matter how the mono track is recorded (which can vary), you can decide whether to play it from C or L/R.

[Damage Inc.]

Hm, alright.
But I mean at the very default settings, the original case, if you had no options.
What would the signal originally be sent through?
I guess the center speaker then?

I think I would also go for that, otherwise 2.0.
Letting it play through all 5, 7 or more seems strange to me. XD
That's like "no placement", "the voice of God" of some sort, coming from everywhere. lol
Imagine that if you have a 22.2 setup or whatever the heck amount of speakers that was. :P

Originally Posted by Bradman

I have a lot of CDs in Mono and they play thru the two front speakers in my 7.1 system.
I'm guessing that would be the case with this BD release.

I'm curious now. What CDs do you have that are in mono?

[rock, stone]

I actually have a related question, which is why are some BDs coded to have mono default to the center and others L/R? I know I can force my receiver to play it on the fronts, but it drives me crazy when it does occur. It is completely irrational, but there you go.

It usually happens on cheaply produced WB titles. Is there any actual reasoning behind it?

As far as mono CDs, stereo took a long time to become the default. Even production milestones like Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper were originally mixed in mono.

[Show spoiler](Sgt. Pepper did get a stereo mix, but while they toiled over the mono mix, they supposed knocked out the stereo version in a day or two, so the story goes)

[solarrdadd]

you are asking questions that should clearly be answered in the manual for your receiver. it is not the movie, the player that determines how a mono signal is handled. has mentioned before it's the receiver that deals with that.

you mentioned "default", what does your manual say the default condition for your receiver getting a mono signal is? does it state you can change how it deals with mono signals from the default and to what? these are questions you need to read up on from your manual.

for all of my receivers i know exactly how a mono signal is handled from my manual and from viewing it in my receivers setup menu.

the best information i can give you is to read your manual and check/verify the settings in the receivers menu. then you will know how mono is handled by "default" and you will also know how to change that if in fact you can.

once you have done that, report back to your thread how it all worked out.

[Damage Inc.]

No I'm not.
I'm asking what the mono-signal actually IS.
If it's originally a sound made by 2 speakers or by one or whatever.
Even in cases where there's not a receiver used...

[mywxrld]

Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or (in the case of headphones and multiple loudspeakers) channels are fed from a common signal path. In the case of multiple microphones the paths are mixed into a single signal path at some stage. (Thank You Wikipedia)

Another explantion with pictures...
http://www.bcae1.com/stermono.htm

[Deciazulado]

In Mono Lps, the signal is in one channel, and if you had a mono stylus it would just send a mono one channel signal to the amp. On theaters, 35mm had a mono optical track and it would send one signal. Then stereo came and with it stereo styli and 2 channel amplifiers and speakers. If you play a mono record on a stereo stylus it sends the same signal to both channels and speakers (L R) (no matter if you had a "mono" switch. The "mono switch just killed any noise that's not common to both channels by summing them, making the sound purer if the stylus/tonearm/levels are correctly aligned, but the receiver still sent the mono signal to L and R). On films, non mono sound meant separate magnetic tracks on the film and channels sent to the speakers till they made the optical track into stereo in the 70's. Then the 2 channels from the optical track were usually decoded into de-matrixed 4 channels and sent to corresponding speakers by the decoder. If it was a mono optical track the decoder saw that and sent to the center channel. On videotape it started as one channel mono then it split into 2 and "Hi Fi" etc. Then CDs and laserdiscs, and if you had a Stereo, you hooked the 2 channels to them and if the video or CD etc was mono the mono signal was recorded on 2 and came out of the L and R, just like mono Lps. If you hooked you tape machine, LD or CD player to a Dolby decoding receiver you could set the receiver to have the 2 channel signal to be decoded as a matrix surround to get 4 out of stereo but mono soundtracks would be decoded as center then.



With the advent of DVD and BD you can record the monophonic signal to 2 channels (L and R) just like on a CD/LP/LD or a single channel (C), or if they wanted put the same signal on all 7 channels. (It would still be mono in all cases). Depending on the disc channel arrangement and your player output settings and your receiver/speaker settings it might come out from the center or L R etc.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by mywxrld

Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction (often shortened to mono) is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or (in the case of headphones and multiple loudspeakers) channels are fed from a common signal path. In the case of multiple microphones the paths are mixed into a single signal path at some stage. (Thank You Wikipedia)

Another explantion with pictures...
http://www.bcae1.com/stermono.htm

You contradicted yourself by first saying that "typically there is only one microphone...." and they saying, "in the case of multiple microphones".... Except in regards to mono radio broadcasting, where the announcer uses only one microphone, mono music recording, from the advent of electrical recording, always has involved multiple microphones. And while mono hi-fi playback of the 1950s did usually involve one speaker system and mono theatre playback usually had only one loudspeaker, live music always had multiple loudspeakers and in fact to this day, most live music performance is actually mixed mono to account for different seating positions.

As for recording, even before stereo was widely adopted, multi-track recording was used primarily as a cost savings measure so that the instrumentals could be recorded separately and in advance of the vocal sessions. Almost all of the Motown sessions were recorded this way even in the days when they were releasing only in mono. Same for the Beatles even though many of their early albums were remixed into Stereo, especially for the Capitol U.S. releases. And the Beach Boys didn't care much about stereo either because Brian Wilson was largely deaf in one ear.

In audio playback systems, mono LPs or CDs output to both the Left and Right channels, but the signals are the same.

As for mono playback in the home for movies/video, one can make the case for almost any combination of speakers: Center only, Left and right only, all the fronts or all the speakers. Mono BDs are generally mixed to either 2 or 3 channels and sometimes to all five. I don't think I'm aware of any mono BDs that are mixed only to the center channel although theoretically, that's what should happen.

[ZoetMB]

Originally Posted by Deciazulado

The "mono switch just killed any noise that's not common to both channels by summing them, making the sound purer if the stylus/tonearm/levels are correctly aligned, but the receiver still sent the mono signal to L and R).

That's not completely correct. The mono switch would only kill any noise that is equal and out of phase between the left and right channels. It would sum any noise that was in-phase between the left and right channels and would maintain any noise that existed in only one channel.

[gcchifi]

My Onkyo pre-amp have flexible settings for different signals. In case of a mono mix, I can send it just through the center or a "full" one where it is emitted through all seven. I would be inclined to use the latter for an immersive sound even if it is mono.

[srrndhound]

Originally Posted by Damage Inc.

No I'm not.
I'm asking what the mono-signal actually IS.
If it's originally a sound made by 2 speakers or by one or whatever.
Even in cases where there's not a receiver used...

DVDs, BDs and digital TV have two different ways to deliver mono.

1) Coded as 1.0 audio in a compression scheme like DD, DTS, TrueHD, HDMA. In that case there is a single channel of audio in the payload.

2) Coded as 2.0 audio in a stereo codec like MP3, DD, DTS, AAC, TrueHD, HDMA, or in uncompressed PCM. In this case the payload has two identical audio channels.

As you see many of these codecs can go either way. 1.0 or 2.0.

Some content makers mistakenly think that if they use the more efficient 1.0 coding, it will force the audio from the center speaker, which has a reputation for being the weaker of the fronts. They fail to realize that at the stereo line outputs of the player, the audio occupies both channels regardless of the 1.0 or 2.0 encoding. So you discs made both ways.

[Hammie]

Mono sound is usually a choice of the Director. I know most (if not all) of Woody Allen's films are recorded in Mono because he prefers that.

Sometimes, the original mono recording is made into stereo by applying processing to the track to vary phasing and timing of various instruments. Early Beatles albums were recorded in Mono, but pressure from consumers made them recode them in Stereo. This has been met with mixed reviews as far as quality since there may be artifacts introduced when doing this.

[Damage Inc.]

Originally Posted by Hammie

Mono sound is usually a choice of the Director. I know most (if not all) of Woody Allen's films are recorded in Mono because he prefers that.

Sometimes, the original mono recording is made into stereo by applying processing to the track to vary phasing and timing of various instruments. Early Beatles albums were recorded in Mono, but pressure from consumers made them recode them in Stereo. This has been met with mixed reviews as far as quality since there may be artifacts introduced when doing this.

I agree that it should just but released as it was, although it can be remastered in the sense of quality.
Just like today they basically remaster old films into high definition digital files.
They try to make it as close to the original as possible, which is a great thing.
And if they alter mono into stereo and it works better, I think for movies that would be OK in some cases.

But it's such an opposite thing in music too, how they "remaster" old recordings and basically just pump up the volume (aka the Loudness War)
and for the rest just alter it so it actually becomes different from the originals.
It's a sad thing that music gets treated this way, it's as if the producers of the actual recordings and CDs are incompetent.
If if some group of people just wants to make money off a product, they take a recording, turn up some knobs and release it that way.
Imagine if they'd do that with movies, we wouldn't have much to look at and listen to...