Mono Means Which Speakers?

[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

[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.