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 Post subject: Dolby Stereo on Laserdiscs
PostPosted: 17 Oct 2019, 18:56 
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In the early years it seemed the disc manufacturers went out of their way not to use the "Dolby Stereo" on their movie jackets and "Dolby" on their surround processors, a lot of the times just using Stereo and then just Surround.

My guess is that it was a trade mark issue and licensing fees.

What year did they start using Dolby Surround on the jackets and what was the first title so designated?
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 Post subject: Re: Dolby Stereo on Laserdiscs
PostPosted: 17 Oct 2019, 19:11 
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“Surround” is the brand name for home use, Dolby Stereo is for theaters. I don’t know when that distinction was made but I’d guess when the first home surround processors came out, when was that? Perhaps that was when they started putting the info on the discs. Before that there was no official way to use matrixed surround.
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 Post subject: Re: Dolby Stereo on Laserdiscs
PostPosted: 17 Oct 2019, 19:51 
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I have a copy of the Laser Video File catalog 1989, they mention surround sound just once, though there is a cover shown for Willow that does have "Dolby" on it.
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 Post subject: Re: Dolby Stereo on Laserdiscs
PostPosted: 17 Oct 2019, 20:32 
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I didn’t really notice surround in the home taking off until about 90/91, then it really exploded in like 92-95.
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 Post subject: Re: Dolby Stereo on Laserdiscs
PostPosted: 20 Oct 2019, 00:04 
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Based on this link.....

https://www.dolby.com/us/en/about/history.html

.... Dolby Surround was introduced for the home by 1982 but I know for a fact that 1987 was the first introduction of Dolby Pro-Logic for the home. I started collecting LD's in '87 and very vividly recall seeing a lot mainstream releases sporting the Dolby Surround logo on their jackets. If they did not and just noted "stereo" on the jacket, I would usually still play the disc back w/ Dolby Pro-Logic and it would still produce some incredible surround sound (the Japanese anime Baoh was one such title I recall that had some excellent surround effects).

Anyway, not sure if the intent of some software manufacturers was to save money on licensing by not stating Dolby compatibility but I would not be surprised. It wasn't tough back then to matrix encode just about anything to work w/ a Dolby Surround processor since it was a simple math concept (e.g.: L+R = Center and L-R = Surround). As for hardware, I don't think many manufacturers tried to skirt the usage of the Dolby Surround circuit on their eq since that was really the buying point for many consumers that wanted surround sound. I would probably not have bought an AV Receiver w/o Dolby since I might feel I wasn't getting something that did meet a certain minimum standard (although I think high end manufacturers like Lexicon had their own proprietary surround decoding scheme that ignored using anything Dolby and I believe they actually sounded better).
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 Post subject: Re: Dolby Stereo on Laserdiscs
PostPosted: 04 Nov 2019, 19:17 
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Furthermore there’s no easy way to remove the surround aspect from a film’s soundtrack so if it isn’t stated specifically to be Surround it’s probably still there as long as the disc is stereo.
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 Post subject: Re: Dolby Stereo on Laserdiscs
PostPosted: 12 Nov 2019, 07:09 
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signofzeta wrote:
Furthermore there’s no easy way to remove the surround aspect from a film’s soundtrack...


That is very true. However, I think just about anything that is in stereo will produce a surround effect of some sort whether it was intended or not just because that's how matrix encoding works. Dolby and other matrix decoders will just keep looking for the "differences" and decide what should be pushed to the rear channel.

A good example of this would just be any kind of music one plays back and listening for what happens if a Dolby Pro-Logic processor is left on. Sometimes it might sound really awesome like it was mixed for surround or other times it will sound very gimmicky (like some constant reverb).

And speaking of surround for movies, I have found some pretty big differences between older and newer matrix mixes. The first edition of "Macross: Do You Believe in Love" is only noted as "stereo" on the disc jacket and when played back on Dolby Pro Logic sounds quite underwhelming. However, when the Perfect Edition was released with a very purposefully mixed track for Dolby Surround, it was amazing. At times, I thought it had a surround track that was very comparable to a Dolby Digital discrete mix.

So I guess what I'm saying is that a lot of great mixes can still be had w/ plain old matrix encoding. However, a lot of effort needs to be made by the sound designer to take advantage of the encoding process to the get the right combination of surround and minimal channel bleed (definitely don't want sounds meant for the front to come out of the rear).
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 Post subject: Re: Dolby Stereo on Laserdiscs
PostPosted: 12 Nov 2019, 22:07 
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Yeah, the Perfect Edition had major work done to the sound. Since that’s been the main version I watch for so long though I forgot what the changes were. :)
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