Difference between DD5.1 and PCM Stereo 2.0 when played on a Beam

  • 2 March 2021
  • 3 replies
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C
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Hi,

Could somebody please tell me exactly what the difference is between DD5.1 and PCM Stereo 2.0 when played on a Beam? I know DD5.1 is a 5.1 soundtrack and the Beam isn’t a 5.1 speaker, so what happens?

Because of the lip sync issues caused by my TV when watching some content, I have to have my Blu-Ray player set to PCM instead of Bitstream. This means the Beam receives PCM 2.0 Stereo instead of DD5.1. If I play the same scene, on the same volume but change the two audio formats the scene is much louder when played on DD5.1, but is volume the only difference between the two in this scenario?

Thanks.

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3 replies

N
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If you’re listening to a DD 5.x signal, the Beam will play the three front channels - Front Left, Centre (usually the dialogue channel) and Front Right; if it’s only a DD 2.0 (ie stereo) signal, only Front Left and Front Right speakers are active. A PCM 2.0 stereo signal is only Left and Right with no separate centre channel info. 

C
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Thanks.

I presume the Beam commons together the two purple speakers as front right and the two green ones as front left?

 

Also, do you know why a movie scene in PCM Stereo 2.0 is much quieter than in DD5.1?

J

To add a bit more info, my understanding is that, given a DD5.1 source, the rear channels are also played from the Beam’s speakers if there are no surround speakers - those channels don’t just vanish from the audio. 

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