As we're on v3.61, 7.1 surround sound coming soon?? Or is this old news??
As Toronado mentioned, not only has 7.1 audio been supported since launch over four years ago, but it has even supported 7.1 HD lossless audio since launch as well.
7.1 is a waste of money. All movies are made for 5.1 sound to begin with. They might mess with the official recording to make a 7.1 track as a gimmick for a blu-ray... But all movies for theaters are done in 5.1. 7.1 is a lame gimmick.
First of all, several films have discrete 7.1 sound tracks like;
- Toy Story 3
- Step Up 3D
- Megamind
- Tangled
- Tron: Legacy
- Gnomeo and Juliet
- Mars Needs Moms
- Gulliver's Travels
- The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
- Rio
- Thor
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
- Kung Fu Panda 2
- Green Lantern
- Cars 2
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon
- Captain America: The First Avenger
And based on recent releases and comments from various directors, producers, and studios, most major films in the future will be released with discrete 7.1 sound tracks.
Second of all, remastered 7.1 audio isn't a "gimmick", especially in the case of most 7.1 sound tracks released on Blu-ray, as most are supervised by the director and or sound effects editor. Not only that, but if you understood the technological difference between 5.1 and 7.1 you would also understand that a 7.1 sound track does not need the rear channels to be discrete to create a superior surround sound effect over 5.1. After all, even a discrete 7.1 sound track isn't "adding" anything new to the surround sound.
The benefit of 7.1 (discrete or remixed) and especially 10.1 systems is to create a significantly better surround sound effect, where by having more surround channels, the sound editor can create more precisely placed directional sound. This is also why even 5.1 sound tracks converted electronically to 7.1 by an audio processor/receiver will often create better directional surround sound effects than the original 5.1 track.
Frankly, your criticism of 7.1 sounds remarkably similar to the typical criticism that 5.1 got from less than informed individuals when it started to replace Dolby ProLogic, which was typically 4.1 and used only one channel for the surround sound, and thus the two (or as much as 8 in commercial theaters) surround sound speakers were all fed an identical matrix signal.
Look, there is nothing wrong with 5.1, but to suggest that 7.1 is nothing more than a gimmick is not only untrue, but would be terribly misleading to anyone who is unfamiliar with the difference between the two.
really is old news then!
at least once. 160gb might be good for you. Sitting on 78GB left on my 320GB HDD.
