Step Brothers Now Available For Purchase With DD 5.1 Surround Sound

Posted December 2nd, 2008 in Movies by Eddie V.

One new purchase title which snuck under my radar last night was Step Brothers. You can purchase and download this title now through Apple TV or the iTunes Store.

Not only that, but it appears as though this is the first “Purchase Only” title to come with Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, this feature was previously limited to HD rental titles. Also, it seems to be the first time Apple has listed any title in the iTunes Store, not Apple TV, indicating that it contains DD 5.1.

There is no rental date for this title at this time.

Update – As commenter ConnorW pointed, apparently 3 days ago, Apple has been adding Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound to various HD TV Shows as well, such as The Office. As I track down which TV Shows contain this new feature an update will follow.

http://www.allaboutnate.com Nate Thompson

Wow, this is a very big step for the iTunes store… hopefully this is a sign of things to come. I’m much more inclined to impulse-buy SD movies if they include DD5.1.
Andrew Abate

That’s great news, but I would be totally sold if the movies were available for purchase in HD like TV shows. Do that and I’m sold. Hopefully soon-I don’t want to get blu-ray.
http://www.redwindsoftware.com ConorW

As I pointed out 3 days ago in the forums, the most recent SD episode of The Office (Frame Toby) also came with DD5.1 for me anyway
I have just downloaded the lastest Deperate Housewives so Ill be checking that out when I get home
http://www.allaboutnate.com Nate Thompson

Regarding your update, my HD TV shows have all had DD5.1 soundtracks since they started selling them. I think he is pointing out that the SD version for the recent “The Office” episode also included it (instead of just AAC 2.0).
http://www.appletvjunkie.com Eddie V.

You are correct, my mistake with the “HD”. Thats been there from the beginning. I will say this, I believe it is the first time that Apple has made note of which HDTV shows have DD 5.1, and not all HD TV content appears to have it.
matrix6028

Maybe AppleTV is gearing up to release The Dark Knight in HD 5.1 as a purchase now?! (Like 24 that just came out. $19.99 do you think ?)
http://Www.allaboutnate.com Nate

That’s a pretty big leap… We’re just getting 5.1 in SD purchases. That said, I do think they are getting things ready for an announcement, maybe at Macworld.
Mark

What announcement do you think they’ll make at Macworld?
http://www.allaboutnate.com Nate Thompson

I’m just speculating based on some of the new things we’re seeing on the AppleTV (HD logo on movies, further streaming optimization of HD content, etc).
http://www.redwindsoftware.com ConorW

I can confirm that the latest episode of Desperate Housewives, ‘Me and My Town’ also comes with Dolby 5.1 even for the SD download! This is a great sign that my two most recent SD purchases also include 5.1
http://www.appletvjunkie.com Eddie V.

ConorW, one question. Are you sure you aren’t confusing 5.1 Surround with “Dolby Surround”? How are you confirming that your SD downloads are 5.1?

There is a difference as some SD content contains “Dolby Surround”. If you scroll to the bottom of the Apple TV Spec page you will see this listed.

http://www.apple.com/appletv/specs.html

I would love to confirm the 5.1 added feature as I have downloaded the latest episode of Heroes and it does contain a Surround Sound track but I cannot confirm if indeed it is 5.1.
http://www.redwindsoftware.com ConorW

From what I understand “Dolby Surround” is just another name for “Dolby Pro-Logic”.

The reason I believe this to be full 5.1 is my amp shows it as “Dolby Digital 5.1″ whereas I have certainly seen it show previous Apple TV purchases as “Dolby Pro-Logic”. Aswell as that the amp shows an image of what channels are on the source. “Dolby Surround/Pro-Logic” only ever shows two, as it is in fact encoded into stereo. “Dolby Digital 5.1″ always lists the full 5.1 channels and this is what I’m seeing on these tv shows.

Also from content I have encoded myself the amp has always been accurate in showing the correct audio track. It’s not a high end amp however but is reputable enough, a €350 Sony.

Of course I or my amp could be wrong and I don’t have anything else to go on.

Step Brothers Now Available For Purchase With DD 5.1 Surround Sound

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