7.1 Downmixing ignores Subwoofer?

WD Legacy Products WD TV Live Streaming
1

Hi all,

I have downloaded the Channel Check video from the Dolby Digital Plus Demo website and played it on my WD TV Live. There is a female voice announcing each speaker location; when the voice announces the LFE channel (=the subwoofer), NO sound plays at all.

The audio output of my WD TV Live (latest firmware: 2.01.86) is set to “Stereo” (which means it will do downmixing to 2 channels) and my TV is connected via HDMI. Is it normal that the the subwoofer channel gets lost in the process of the stereo downmix, or could it be an issue with my TV?

2

That’s a good question.   I’ve never thought about that.

According to Dolby, the LFE channel should be dropped when doing downmixing.

http://www.dolby.com/uploadedFiles/Assets/US/Doc/Professional/18_Metadata.Guide.pdf

See page 12:

"In all downmixes, the LFE channel is not included.  "

But that’s specific to Dolby Technology.   I’m not going to read the whole thing to see what the implications are for other devices…  :) 

But if you Google the phrase “Does LFE belong in a stereo downmix” (without the quotes) you’ll see tons of spirited argument!