A couple of questions about the surround sound on the dvd's

[hxclespaulplayer]

1) Is it true dolby surround, with speech in the centre speaker and the surround speakers being used properly like in movies? I know the episodes of ds9 and later were advertised as dolby surround, but that was a pretty old standard, and definitely not digital.

2) I'm quite a fan of the "ambient" music in episodes, what would be the best way to record this? Ages ago, there was a site where people, for the Heroes dvd's, were doing something like recording from the line level outputs for surround speakers. I have no idea how they seperated sound effects from the music.

 

[Hatshepsut]

Not sure what you're getting at, but having good speakers in your home theater set is what matters most. Even an old mono soundtrack is reasonable on quality speakers, and Dolby recording won't rescue your sound from brutalization by cheap playback equipment.

 

[Kor]

Maybe he's specifically looking for true 5.1 channel surround sound, not just "good quality."

Kor

 

[Ssosmcin]

The surround sound mix on the DVDs is really just additional sound effects being spread around. The series was broadcast in mono. Even the later VHS "stereo" mix isn't really accurate. So, yeah, the dialog is in the center channel. Sound effects and music are spread around.

You like the music? Here's the best way to get it...

http://lalalandrecords.com/Site/STTOS.html

Totally worth the purchase price. Individual albums are being released digitally as well on iTunes and the like.

 

[hxclespaulplayer]

The series was broadcast in mono

Thanks, this tipped me off to the fact that I posted in TOS instead of Trek general!

 

[Indysolo]

2) I'm quite a fan of the "ambient" music in episodes, what would be the best way to record this?

There's no need to attempt to extract it from the surround channels, a dubious practice since it's really poor quality. As stated, the music has been released on CD by La-La Land Records, completely restored and mastered from the original tapes.

Neil