Hi,
Before everyone gets all worked up over Dolby Digital EX 6.1 and dts-ES Matrix, some clarification is in order. The extra "6.1" channel on these movie soundtracks is NOT a discrete channel. It's derived from the left and right (discrete) surround channels in the same manner as Dolby Pro Logic processing derives a center channel from the Dolby Surround matrix.
While the 6.1 processing with either decoder can supply a pleasant enhancement to 5.1 material, it's not the same thing as a 6.1 discrete channels. The latter are available with dts-ES Discrete discs, but there are very few titles in that format currently available. Indeed, the argument can be made that dts is a totally unnecessary system. Having to include it on DVDs eats up additional bandwidth and processing power that could be better applied to other features, and since there's no discernible audible difference between the two systems other than differences in the mixing of soundtracks (dts tend to mix the LFE deep bass at higher levels), dts is a redundant system.
This isn't to take away from the enhancement possible with 6.1 systems, by the way.
Regards,
