At what point will broadcast 5.1 be REQUIRED?

[elambo]

I've heard a rumor (let's leave it at that) that in the very near future, all final audio mixes for broadcast television (not sure if it's network only or network/cable) will HAVE to be submitted in 5.1.

Like you probably will, I laughed, but I'm trying not to deny this opinion so quickly. It was well postulated and comes from the mouth of someone who's somewhat plugged in to the business, even if this statement seems obsurd.

Any thoughts???

[SnakeCained]

Once Rupert Murdoch (News corp, Fox) thinks he can make money out of it!!!

[MIKEHARRIS]

I believe the requirement is for the broadcaster to transmit in DolbyDigital..but the ruling does not apply to the content...which in some cases will be stereo tracks that have been re-purposed

[seriousfun]

Listen to Mike!

The mix may have to be delivered in Dolby Digital (as an AC3 file), but you could mix it in any format from Mono to plain-vanilla-2.0 Stereo to 5.1 (or even matrixed 6.1).

5.1 is absolutely the best way to deliver Mono sound (it will be played through a single full-range speaker channel) BTW.

[elambo]

Originally Posted by MIKEHARRIS

I believe the requirement is for the broadcaster to transmit in DolbyDigital..but the ruling does not apply to the content...which in some cases will be stereo tracks that have been re-purposed

Right! That's what makes sense to me also.

Even so, I was told that this was coming in the approaching "months", NOT years.

[the1Hub]

Originally Posted by elambo

Right! That's what makes sense to me also.

Even so, I was told that this was coming in the approaching "months", NOT years.

Look HERE for all the information on this.

the orignal traget date was in 2006 for major markets to switch to the dtv standard but many of the markets have filled for extensions. it depends on market exceptences of of the hd format. are you hdtv ready yet? anyways look throught the documents on that page it has all of the standards, policies and scheduals for the switch to DTV.