DD5.1 on PPV and TMN - Some interesting info

[PKFK]

I had a good discussion with a CSR at VCC a couple days back, and I thought I would post the info here for everyone, since 5.1 seems to come up a lot. I was trying to get answers as to why 5.1 is so scarce, when I can get it on almost every DVD available for rental...

Apparantly TMN and VCC do not simply pop in a DVD and "presto" play the movies for the subscribers. According to the CSR, they do not receive movies in this format at all. The studios send movies out to the broadcasters in a format similar to large Betamax (can't recall the exact name I was told). These Beta-type tapes are then aired by TMN and VCC.

Unfortunately, most of these tapes are in DD2.0. I was told that although DD5.1 is requested by TMN/VCC, the studios do not always provide this format, or sometimes it arrives later (on a subsequent tape). If TMN/VCC were allowed to use DVD's as source material, then we would not have this problem.

Perhaps it is the studios/distributors we should be complaining to ? Anyways, this cleared up a misconception that I had (they don't use DVD....not as simple as I thought) regarding 5.1 availability.

If anyone has more info to add to this, please chime in...

[Satellite_Expert]

The easiest way to complain is to rent the DVD in 5:1 at Blockbuster, rather than renting in 2:0 on PPV. PPV can just say to Hollywood studio/distributor: Ship us 5:1 only. Ship us 2:0 and we won't show it, we will return it, freight collect instead.

[PKFK]

Agreed....this is what I do now...Blockbuster gets my $$ instead of Viewers Choice.....but when the weather is crappy, I would prefer to buy a PPV and not have to put my beer down to go get a movie !!

But I won't pay for 2.0, especially for an action flick with lots of sound effects.

[Skyway]

Same Here!

Watching a good movie that you havn't seen before in DD2.0 spoils the impact it could have in DD5.1...I'm not likely to rent it to view it a 2nd time unless its especially good...

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Ditto, the ONLY PPVs I ever ordered were the ones StarChoice gave me for free. In my house EVERYONE knows, DO NOT order PPV until they come in DD5.1. Everyone MUST rent it at the video store.

We have to give ViewersChoice some incentive to demand, not just request DD5.1 movies from the distributors.