movies not released in 5.1

[whoopdido]

Is there any place I could find a list of movies that weren't orignially released in 5.1, or if that doesn't exist about what year did movies start to get released in 5.1? I just saw the Spaceballs thread and I'd like to know which movies I should watch in stereo, like it was intended, instead of a remixed 5.1. I didn't get involved in the big Jaws debate, but I don't think it's beneficial for a movie to add sound effects just so it can have surround sound especially if it actually makes it sound worse, like Spaceballs appears to.

[Daniel L]

If it's an older film and there's a stereo / mono track, chances are that's more or less how it was originally presented. Disregard Terminator and Jaws.

[whoopdido]

Originally Posted by Daniel L

If it's an older film and there's a stereo / mono track, chances are that's more or less how it was originally presented. Disregard Terminator and Jaws.

Yeah, I figured that, but does anybody know about what time most movies started making their soundtracks in 5.1? Obviously The Seventh Seal or something like that wasn't intended for surround sound, but was it in the 70's or 80's that most movies became 5.1? I said I didn't want to watch a movie that was remixed just to make it surround sound, but at the same time I don't want to make the mistake of watching a movie in stereo when it was intended to be viewed in 5.1.

[chileorgullo]

so films with DTS remixes will not sound as good as films that had 5.1 pre jurassic park, or just 5.1 and never originally DTS (in their original 5.1 track)
I too think the jaws mono and terminator monos sound better than the new mixes (no debating here)

[SINGLE104]

The year of 1992, Batman Return was the very first movie that was theatrically released in Dolby Digital 5.1

[whoopdido]

Originally Posted by SINGLE104

The year of 1992, Batman Return was the very first movie that was theatrically released in Dolby Digital 5.1

Is that really true? So, does that mean that every movie released prior to 1992 that has a 5.1 soundtrack on the dvd is actually a remixed track and therefore not the original soundtrack? Take Aliens, Indiana Jones or the Back to the Future movies for example.

[SINGLE104]

Yes! exactly. any movies that were released prior of 1992, was originally recorded in Dolby Stereo.

[SINGLE104]

View the end credits from those DVDs that you've mentioned, or any other title that was released prior to the year of 92. And at the very end, the sound format is always listed, and it will be stated that the movie was recorded in Dolby Stereo.

[Drexl]

A Star is Born was the first film with a Dolby Stereo soundtrack in 1976. A few movies have had multichannel tracks over the years, such as Fantasia, which was originally released in 1940 in Fantasound.

[gorgo99]

Yes, SOME earlier films were recorded in multichannel, for instance, 2001: A Space Odyssey was recorded in 6-track. So a 5.1 mix isn't terribly inacurrate.

[djtoell]

Originally Posted by SINGLE104

Yes! exactly. any movies that were released prior of 1992, was originally recorded in Dolby Stereo.

Er...no. Even prior to Dolby Digital, there was a digital 5.1 format called CDS. Titles released in this format included Dick Tracy and Terminator 2. Furthermore, over the decades, many films had non-Dolby-Stereo multichannel mixes, often with 70mm 6-track mixes and 35mm 4-track mag mixes. Indeed, the current 5.1 speaker design was introduced on the 70mm 6-track mixes of Superman (as a test release) and Apocalypse Now.

And, of course, as noted already, Dolby Stereo wasn't introduced until the mid-70s, so to say that all pre-92 films were released in that format is wildly inaccurate.

This chart gives a good overview of the history of multichannel film sound. You can see the introduction of the modern 5.1 format, for example, in the Dolby "Split Surround" 6-track entry.

DJ

[Mike Lowrey]

IIRC, there was some mention that the 1988 release of Die Hard was the first movie that used some sort of new sound technology.

With that said, the 1992 movie Last of the Mohicans lists Dolby Stereo in the credits.

[NitroJMS]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowrey

IIRC, there was some mention that the 1988 release of Die Hard was the first movie that used some sort of new sound technology.

With that said, the 1992 movie Last of the Mohicans lists Dolby Stereo in the credits.

Even though 5.1 was available in 1992, alot of movies didn't start using it yet, much like how 6.1 wasn't immediately adopted when that came out in 1999. 5.1 slowly became the standard.

[whoopdido]

Ok, now I'm more confused than when I started. Could somebody give me a couple examples of dvds that weren't originally released in surround sound, but for the dvd the soundtrack was remixed to make it 5.1. Obviously Jaws is a good example, but what are some others.

[SINGLE104]

DJTOELL! I must admit that you are absolutely correct about: CDS (Cinema Digital Sound.) there were only just a handful of titles ( less than ten)that were encoded with CDS in the 90's, until Dolby Lab had discontinued the format. I have completely forgotten CDS actually, because of the very short period of time being used.
So technically, CDS and DD 5.1 is the same.

[Cygnet74]

Originally Posted by Drexl

A Star is Born was the first film with a Dolby Stereo soundtrack in 1976.

i believe that honor goes to Tommy (1975).

[djtoell]

Originally Posted by SINGLE104

DJTOELL! I must admit that you are absolutely correct about: CDS (Cinema Digital Sound.) there were only just a handful of titles ( less than ten)that were encoded with CDS in the 90's, until Dolby Lab had discontinued the format.

Why would Dolby discontinue the format? It was developed by Kodak and the Optical Radiation Corporation. Dolby and CDS were in competition. In fact, Dolby's early announcement (more than a year before introduction) of Dolby Digital was one of the issues that led to poor venue adoption of the CDS format.

That sounds like an Onion headline some years back, something to the effect of "ABC Cancels 'E.R.'".

So technically, CDS and DD 5.1 is the same.

I'm not sure what you mean here. Yes, they have the same 5.1 speaker setup (as introduced by the Dolby Split Surround 70mm 6-track format in the late 70s), but the technologies are very different (delta modulation vs. perceptual coding).

DJ

[Josh Z]

Originally Posted by whoopdido

Ok, now I'm more confused than when I started. Could somebody give me a couple examples of dvds that weren't originally released in surround sound, but for the dvd the soundtrack was remixed to make it 5.1. Obviously Jaws is a good example, but what are some others.

The Godfather I & II - originally mono, now 5.1.

[chileorgullo]

any DVDs have SDDS? it came out first with Last Action Hero. it sounds damn good, but either there are no one with the 8 speakers, or it's just too big to put on a disc.

[djtoell]

SDDS is not a home format and Sony has said they have no intentions of making it such. Even if a disc had an SDDS track, someone would have to rig up a commercial decoder into their HT system in order to hear it.

DJ