Forum

Are anime Blu-Ray releases (at least of TV series) likely to be in 5.1 lossless (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD master audio) any time soon in the future? Soon being within the next 3-5 years.
I thought at first, with the advent of blu-ray, there's going to be 5.1 lossless audio on them (even though it's an optional codec and not a requirement). However looking at my anime DVD collection, I realise that most of them are 2.0 and that most 5.1 are just remixed English 5.1 from the Japanese 2.0 (e.g. Azumanga Daioh, although I could be wrong?) and very few of them were originally mastered in 5.1 (I suspect GitS:SAC and samurai 7 are the only TV series in my collection that were mastered in 5.1). CD Japan's website seems to imply that the Blu-Ray release of Code Geass only has a 2.0 audio track. Other websites only mention that it's Dolby. I have to admit, Code Geass is probably the first reason of many that I want to upgrade to a 5.1 lossless setup despite the fact that Bandai have yet to confirm an English Blu-Ray version.
With the advent of digital TV and 5.1 audio, you'd think there'd be more surround sound anime, but looking at my home country (Australia), I don't think any of the channels regularly broadcast in 5.1 and I don't think they're going to change soon. Is Japan 'in all it's technological superiority' (being a bit cynical and stereotyping a bit too) going towards 5.1 audio in its TV broadcasts? From what I've seen of the country, households with surround sound about as common as it is over here; while not rare, aren't exactly everywhere and putting surround sound on TV broadcasts are probably going to be too costly for the benefit of a (relatively) small proportion of the public. If they're not broadcasting in 5.1, then the original masters are likely to be stereo only and remixing them into surround (by the USA company) is not going to greatly improve sound quality (although I might be wrong?)
So I've probably answered my own question, but I'd like to know what other people think. Also I'd like a definite answer as to what sort of audio is on the Code Geass Blu-Ray version. Forgot to check it out while I was over there.
Thank you.

My magic 8 ball says... ....no, sorry. Wink

Seriously though, the Retail Forum might get you a better answer.

Well, look at it this way. Most TV series are made for just that, TV. Having a perfect 5.1 true-surround HD etcetcaudiophilecrap doesn't make as much sense because it's not a theatrical production. You don't see BD's for the OC coming out, do you? And god help us if we do.

I'm fine with 2.0 for TV series, I'm more concerned about the picture quality.

The thing about audio codecs and sound design is that they cost money. Depending on the studio and whatever kind of sponsors you can round up, I'd say that'll pretty much decide it. Nowadays, both anime and live-action TV are at least being produced and broadcast in HD, so I think it's good to say most efforts are about halfway there.

Here in The States, I know of a few TV shows that have regular Dolby Digital 5.1 during broadcast. There aren't too many of them on Blu-ray yet, but for the ones that are, I think Heroes, The Sopranos, and Band of Brothers all have DTS-HD 5.1 and Dexter has Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (three of those shows are premium cable titles, by the way).

In terms of anime, I think it comes down to budget. I've seen a few titles that have lossless audio, but they were all movies or full-length features. Economically, I don't think it'd be viable to mix lossless audio encodes for a TV series, unless it had a low episode count or the company had a LOT of money. The most they could probably do is provide higher bitrates for 2.0 (upgrade from DD to LPCM) or possibly even an average DD 5.1 or DTS 5.1.

The Japanese Code Geass BD has Linear PCM 2.0 at 384kbps or something like that. Normally, I think most anime have DD 2.0 at 192kbps, so you basically just get more clarity and depth from those two speakers. The video is amazing, though. Too bad Bandai U.S.A. will never bring it over. And if they do, they'll probably give it shit treatment like GitS 2: Innocence.

I think it'd be like the soundtrack for Appleseed Ex Machina bluray which I have-if you're talking about older series-probally the same as the originial dvd release-ac3 2 channel stereo.

Appleseed: Ex Machina only has regular Dolby Digital 5.1 track at 648kpbs (stupid Warner Bros.) in Japanese and English, and then DD 2.0 for German, Dutch, and Chinese, which is too bad. I feel the movie would've been slightly more enjoyable had it been given a TrueHD encode.

Thanks for your replies. While it is encouraging to hear that at least USA is producing surround sound audio mixes for cable TV, I doubt there'd be any anime series with a budget that's on par with what they spend in the States and with the way the economy is going and the state of the animation industry in Japan, I suppose 5.1 in TV anime series is probably a pipe dream.
Movies though, anime or otherwise, I would expect to have surround sound audio (lossless or lossy) since surround sound came about as a way to capture the 'cinema experience' and they're almost always made with a surround sound master so including one in the DVD release wouldn't be much of an effort, financially or otherwise. That's why I was specifically asking about TV series.
Your replies have been enlightening, thank you for replying.

Don't forget that anime is by it's nature 2D - there is no directionality as the sounds all come from people standing in front of a single microphone and from foley. Any directionality needs to be created by panning voices and sfx around and it probably isn't worth the effort for anything other than theatrical anime most of the time.