How is the 5.1 "Enhanced Home Theater Mix" different than the regular English 5.1 track on the disk? Is it like Disney's own version of DTS or something?

It's the 5.1 mix you hear in a shitty theater that doesn't have a good sound system.

I have been impressed with the "Enhanced Theater Mix" on both Lion King and Alladin. Its much louder and active on my system. Although I have never compared the two that much. I like having the choice.

So is it like 5.1 EX? Enhanced home theater miX

I think its just mixed a little louder with more bass for the systems that can handle it. If you have a $200 Home Theater in a Box, you probably won't hear any differences between the two.
Its designed more for "Mid-Fi" and "Hi-Fi" systems.

It's simply a different mix.

Yeah, but how?

Like has been said, it's pumped up more... surrounds are more aggressive and the bass thumps a little more.

The difference is very noticeable when you switch between the two.

When The Lion King: Platinum Edition came out, there was a nice write up on this exact topic in the Sound & Vision for that month. What the mixer basically did was take the source, which is made for a cinema with many more speakers than a HT; let's say about 15 in a cinema and about 7 in a HT. Instead of taking that original DD source for the cinema and converting it to a 5.1 mix, he takes the original sound source before it is mixed for the cinema, and creates a mix exclusively for HTs. I'm going to look around the web a bit for more info on this because it is very interesting to see what he did.

And IMO, the HT Mix is much better than the normal DD 5.1 mix. It is much more dynamic to my ears

Edit: found the article right here.

So, its basically Disney's own version of DTS.

No, it is still a Dolby Digital mix. They just went back and took the original sound mix and re did it in a home theater sized environment which has very different accoustic properties than a full sized cinema. It has nothing to do with the sound format that carries the mix.

Uhm... no, because it is still DD. DTS and DD are only ways to encode/decode sound tracks for films, not mix films.

More movies should get the enhanced home theatre mix.

I think many movies, at least "big title" ones, DO get a separate home theater mix, they just don't advertise it as an extra. There have been many articles in mags about the studios and technology used for doing home theater mixes for DVD.

I was very impressed by the Home Theater Mix on Lion King, but the one on Aladdin didn't sound all that impressive.

Aladdin's Home Theater Mix didn't impress me too much, It was ok but the lead vocals during the songs in the surrounds kinda ruined it for me

Word.

No, it`s DD version of DTS used by Disney.

Same difference.

Agreed!!! The ENHANCED is much more dynamic and the surrounds more aggressive however i'm really bothered by them mixing the lead vocals into all 5 speakers. The songs are mixed more like what you'd expect on a DVD-A not a movie. However the bass just absolutely kicks! However i'll admit LION KING was a better mix.