Netflix Complaint: Is Netflix DD5.1 a fancy wrap on an empty box?

[TheForce]

For quite a few months now, Netflix has had a token few offerings of HD movies in DD5.1. I was very excited to hear surround sound on a few new releases. But the hunt for these was very elusive. They had more hype about offering DD5.1 surround than we actually got in the lineup each week. In addition, many of the Netflix devices did not support DD5.1 in their application software but did support the Dolby Digital in other applications. For me, out of 5 different devices, only my PS3 application offered support for Dolby Digital on Netflix.

This week I was surprised to find lots of new release movies being offered with DD 5.1 listings on my Netflix PS3 ap. Unfortunately, when I went to play these, I discovered the sound was not surround and in many cases, not even stereo. The meta data was properly set and all 6 audio channels were switched on. BUT all but the front center channel was dead silent! Not even noise level.

Dolby digital encoding has been around for over a decade. It is inexcusable to make mistakes like this. I applaud Netflix for making the effort to offer surround sound on their programming but I'm afraid the actual content is nothing more than a fancy wrapper on an empty box.

I like Netflix and will continue to subscribe, for now. But, if I want high quality picture with sparkling surround sound in DD5.1, I prefer to get my movie on VUDU.

 

[jayn_j]

Were these movies you were expecting to have surround content with?

One thing they don't highlight is how many movies are released with mono soundtracks these days. Even when they claim 5.1, you often find only a very short sequence, usually a mixed music track where anything comes out from the surrounds.

I started looking at the S&V reviews several years ago. They have a nice little box that tells usage of each of the channels. The large percentage do not have anything from the rears, and a surprising percentage are mostly mono.