I have the Sean Connery James Bond's. Most of them (5 out of 6)are in mono DD 2.0. According to the manual for my Yamaha 496 the sound should come from all three front speakers. Instead it all is coming from the center speaker. If I put my ear to the side speakers I can barely hear some sound. The problem with this is that my L & R speaker are better quality than the center and I would like sound, albeit mono, to come from them.

I swear that some other 2.0's do come from all three speakers, but I can't name any. The only way I can get the sound from the L&R is to switch my DSP to a music setting, like ROCK. However this cuts all sound from the center speaker so I wind up turning up a little sound from the TV's speaker to help fill in the sound.

What's up with this?

David

I don't know about your DVD player, but with mine, I change the audio output from the digital bitstream to a downmixed analog one. That way I can (if I want) get sound from my mains instead of just the center channel. Most useful when watching Hard Boiled or The Killer. :johnwoo:

:)

I'm not sure what receiver you have, but if you have something like an "auto format decode" you should try that.
My Sony 555ES, when using a "Cinema" DSP will put 2.0 thru the center, but if I go to a "Auto Decode", it comes thru the mains.
Hope that helped!

Yeah, most receivers, if they detect identical audio in both L and R channels will automatically kick into DPL and send the info to the center channel. Try switching to 'stereo' mode. I'm not aware of any way to make 2.0 mono come through three speakers. Maybe your manual meant 2.0 stereo.

Yeah, when the right & left are the same (as they are in 2.0 mono), the receiver will combine them in the middle. This is so when you listen to 2.0 surround it does spread the sound out to all 3 front speakers. Combined sounds go to the center & sounds just on one side will come from that side. Many 2.0 surround tracks on less dynamic movies actually sound like mono most of the time. If I want the 2.0 mono to come from the left & right, I turn off the surround on my receiver & it comes out the left & right as mono stereo. I also do this when listening to stereo music. The fake surround doesn't spread stereo out properly making it sound more mono.

Yeah, it does look like switching to a plain stereo mode is the only way it works. I tried switching to analog and got no sound. It looks like I can do this: Run stereo cables from the back of the player to the receiver. Switch the receiver and the player to analog. This might give me a pro-logic sound which would come out of all three speakers(?).

Another this is that if you are using only a coxail cable for the digital sound from the DVD player to the amp you won't I believe get analog sound, works that way on my system also, someone correct me if I am wrong. But and I have not tried this yet but it makes sense that if you use regular RCA plug cables and hook them up the the amp you may get it to work using an analog siganl. Please let me know if it works for you. I am interested in trying it. I also have all the Bond flick but have not watched them yet. Man I hate mono... how hard can it be to make a DD 5.1 mix???

I really hate hijacking a thread, but....
How hard is it to make a 5.1 mix..
Well,that's not the point.
1)MGM is doing the discs
2)MGM is suck
3)The movie was made before "surround sound" was available on a home basis
4)Wouldn't you rather have the movie the way it was intended, without butchered sound?(The Killer/hardboiled 5.1 anyone?)

Those 2 movies are very poor examples because they were made with limited budgets most of the 5.1 mixes that I have heard are very good. Exorcist being one of them. So to answer your question why would I want mono when they can make it sound better? Original way or not, I would prefer a 5.1 or DTS mix pure and simple they sound better(at least on my system anyway) if you want to listen to mono why bother with a home theater in the fist place then? I am not trying to pick a fight here just that regardless if the origianl film is in mono or not if a better mix makes it sound better then they should do it. Mono just doesn't do it for me. I sounds like crap... the Bond movies are big pictures with big sounds and a 5.1 mix would really enhance the film... they sound flat without it and don't have the same effect. Just my .02....

Caddyshack 20TH is another movie that has this problem. I do not understand why they did not redo the sound.

If the movie is in mono, no matter how you connect the DVD player, you will not get sound out of the three speakers unless you use a DSP or soundfield like "simulated surround" that sends the same signal to all of the speakers. 3-stereo is just a variant of Pro-Logic, which will always send a mono signal to the center speaker because of the way DPL is encoded/decoded. Don't know what the Yamaha manual is trying to say...

Hey thanks for the tip that DSP in the 3D phonic mode rocks!! Man the simulated surround sounds great!! I just watched Code of Silence with it. I won't piss and moan so much about mono anymore I can't believe the difference it makes. Thanks again I would probably never have tried that if you would not have gave me the tip!! :D :D