CED VideoDisc and Player Discussion

[Alex S]

I noticed I do have a couple dicks with the matrix surround sound track. But I don’t recall ever seeing any AV receivers in the 80s or from the 80s that had any Dolby decoding function. Does anybody know of any or can shed some light on this. I wouldn’t mind finding a 80s receiver with Dolby to go with the CED player

[banjodrummer]

The surround sound on the stereo titles can be accessed by utilizing Pro Logic decoding on A/V receivers, which turns the stereo sound from the RCA inputs into 4.0 (3 front channels and a mono surround). As long as the receiver has some form of Pro Logic, then you can experience surround sound from the stereo titles! (Mono titles through Pro Logic will come out of the center speaker only.)
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Austin N.

[Jesse Skeen]

Home surround was pretty rare until the later 80s, we got our first system in 1989 in time for the Super Bowl which was broadcast with it (it was the year before also.) Here's what you should know though:

EVERY movie produced in Dolby Stereo, or the knockoff brand Ultra-Stereo (which came after CED), should be played in surround. Not every movie will have noticeable surround effects, but the capability is there.

Also EVERY stereo video transfer of these movies is playable on a surround system. The surround info is recorded out of phase and that's what gets played through the rear channels. The only exception to this is a few Magnetic Video laserdisc titles, which were actually processed to remove the surround info.
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Videodisc and stereo sound- there's no better value around!