Fun story from the weekend - I had a movie night with my son while the girls went out to watch the whales get saved at the local movie theater. My son decided he wanted to watch Real Steel. So I rented it from the Playstation Network in HD and we start to watch. We must have been a third of the way through the movie when I start thinking it sounds good, but not as good as usual. So I start checking some settings and discover we have been watching with the 2 channel stereo audio track. I switched it to the 5.1 encoded mix and it sounded way better - far more directional and the serious bass from the robot footsteps was now shaking the couch!
I was amazed however that it took me a good 30 minutes to notice something wasn't right which to me is a testament to how well modern AVR's can extract surround mixes from a 2 channel source (that or I should go get a hearing test!). Also it was a lesson for me to always check the audio feed when starting a flick. I am in the habit of doing this with my Blu-Rays but forgot because there is no menu screen when watching a rental from the PSN.
Anyway, all that to say I learned something and we had a fun time with the movie. Visuals were actually very good and I thought the audio was really good too (once I switched to the 5.1 mix!). YMMV might vary on the storyline but I think I could easily use some scenes in there to demo my system. If it sounded that good with the 5.1 I think I'll have to try the actual Blu-ray with the DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track.
Will anybody else own up to being caught out like that?
