[kosmokrator]

Originally Posted by Lipflap

There's a lot of room for personal taste in this discussion. I watch films very aware of the fact that I'm in a theater, watching action on a screen. I don't see this reality as a limitation, but rather as a framework within which to enjoy the tale that unfolds before me. I like my story on the screen, with only a space provided by the room and the surround speakers. I am distracted by "envelopment" soundtracks, and I find them annoying. Worse yet are films in which "realistic" points of view are maintained within edited scenes, resulting in background elements flying from the screen to the surrounds, or from left to right. My preference is for a pretty stable screen image that lets me stay there, on the screen. (I was also never a fan of Quad Sound in the early '70s, that put you in the middle of the band; I always found it confusing. Perhaps, then, I merely have very old-fashioned taste in sound imaging.)

But that's only my opinion. Thankfully, there's room for all sorts of surround styles, just as there are many types of films.

Fair enough. Can you give me an example of an "envelopment"-soundtrack? I'd like to watch a movie with such a thing, but never did actually.