Audiophiles: Pro Logic 2 question

[Gamereviewgod]

Ok, I bought a brand new Sony reciever at the beginning of the year. It supports DTS, DD 5.1, and all that fun stuff, but I seem to have no options as far as PL II goes.. Problem is, since the PS2 and GC mostly support the new PLII, am I completely out of luck? This sucks because I just bought this thing for $400 at the beginning of the year. Thanks for any help!

[Sylentwulf]

What's PL II? What model is the Receiver?

I have a STR-DE945 Sony Receiver myself and am pretty pleased with it, I just wish I had waited a year so I could have gotten some component inputs too :(

[Raedon]

I have never heard of PLII. I do know that the digital out on my PS2 seems to be sending digital 5.1 for almost all my games.

I have am older JVC receiver (1 year) and it only has one digital coax and one digital optical imput. :( but I got it for $300.00 with the usual surround speakers and a really nice 12" powered sub. It's nice, but I need a much better center channel.

I plan on using it as my computer sound system and upgrading my home theater in the near future.. before 2005.. probably around the same time I get a 16:9 HD monitor

[Sylentwulf]

Side Note:
MY biggest letdown on the Gamecube is the TOTAL LACK of Optical and component cables. The component cables I can live without, but I REALLY wish they had and optical digital output for sound...

[Sulaco22]

PLII or Pro Logic II is Dolby's encoding method of trying to get 5.1 sound out of a 2-channel mix. It's just an update of Dolby's old Pro Logic setup, which extracted dialogue from a stereo source and placed it in a center channel. This was used mostly for movies. PLII tries to "emulate" a 5.1 mix from a 2.0 source. If your receiver doesn't have it already Dolby has mentioned that it is possible to upgrade your receiver through either a software or hardware upgrade for newer receivers that have both regular Pro Logic and Dolby Digital but to contact the manufacture of your receiver. I however also have a Sony receiver and Sony does not currently support PLII in any of their recievers so I doubt they would offer an upgrade.

[theaveng]

So summarizing:
=========
ProLogic 1 has 4 channels (left, center, right, rear) plus subwoofer.

ProLogic 2 has 5 channels (left, center, right, left rear, right rear) plus subwoofer?

Is that correct?



Knowing how Dolby operates, the ProLogic 2 is probably backwards-compatible with ProLogic 1. No problems.

[wberdan]

personally, pro logic 2 is not something that would make me jump for joy.... and i would be very surprised if ANY video games actually support pro logic 2 decoding. pro logic was a half assed solution to a problem that has already been solved by discrete surround.... why they decided to upgrade this format is beyond me....
i can't see any games supporting this, but let me know if they actually are

willie

[theaveng]

There's no such thing as "discrete surround" on a 2-channel VCR, DVD, or Game system. You HAVE to use ProLogic for these systems.

[wberdan]

really? cause last time i checked my dvd player, sacd player, xbox and ps2 (on some games) offered discrete surround. here is another really good question: when did 2 channel stereo not become good enough anymore? my 2 channel phase and time correct stereo system can reproduce sound smoother and just as wide as a 5.1 system.. .
why the big deal about everyone needing 6 speakers to play games on?


w

[Anonymous]

Here's the skinny:

Pro Logic II is supported by all major manufacturers (even Sony). My friend has a Sony Reciever that supports PLII and it sounds fantastic. Very distinct sounds coming from all sides. the PS2 and the GCN both support PLII because it is emulated in software.

Anything Digital is Discreet. Dolby Digital, DTS, and PCM sound all use discreet signals to tell the reciever where to send the sound. Discreet means there is a separate data channel that carries this information. Dolby Pro Logic and Pro Logic II use subtle algorithm based sounds embedded in the soundtrack to tell the receiver where to send a particular sound.

There are, to my knowledge few to no games on the PS2 that support PLII. If there are, they are likely first party titles, and very recent. The first Gamecube game to have PLII support is a launch title (Rogue Leader: RSII). Every first party title from Nintendo has supported this except (I believe) Luigi's mansion and Super Smash Bros. Melee.

[theaveng]

really? cause last time i checked my dvd player, sacd player, xbox and ps2 (on some games) offered discrete surround.


Are you using the optical output then? That produces 5 channel output?

Most of us (sadly) only have the Right and Left audio plugs. That's why ProLogic exists... for us poor schmucks. Probably 99% of us are still using the 2-channel outputs.

Troy