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You must have seen it by now. You click on a movie and all of a sudden see an extra number next to it โ 5.1.
And now youโre thinking, what does 5.1 mean on Netflix?
When streaming, you want to enjoy a cinematic experience complete with all the surround audio of your home theater system.
But when you see that 5.1 (or sometimes 7.1 and even ATMOS) you wonder what itโs about and if there is a difference to just regular surround sound?
Table of Contents
What does 5.1 mean on Netflix?
Surround Sound is a method of integrating audio throughout many speakers or speakers to create the feeling of being in a virtual โwallโ of sound.
There are many different formats of surround sound but the most common are 5.1, 7.1, and ATMOS.
5.1 is the most common and most often seen on movies and TV shows available via Netflix or any streaming service as itโs the format that most closely resembles traditional movie theaters.
This means there are 5 speakers located all around you, much like in a theater, with the front left and right speakers located in front of your couch, center channel speakers behind you in the back of your couch, and two surround speakers to either side of your couch or on either side of you.
As such, when viewing this show or movie, you can hear all five speakers in your home theatre system: front left, front right, center speaker for dialog, surround left, and surround right for the music and sound effects in the back of your room.
The more speakers used, the better the surround sound effect.
This is why you need a 5.1 speaker system to experience a real surround sound effect.
5.1 surround sound means there are 5 speakers and a subwoofer, with all of the channels outputting at the same time.
The .1 after the 5 means there is an LFE channel, which is short for the Low-Frequency Effects channel.
This channel pumps out low bass frequencies that you feel more than hear in movies.
What do I need to stream with 5.1 Surround sound?
Streaming 5.1 audio requires a device with 5.1 surround capability, like a Blu-ray player or an Apple TV.
The easiest way to stream 5.1 is with the Apple TV if you want to stream music as well, as it can play a wide variety of formats and can handle streaming almost every video format you could ever want without compression or loss of quality on the video and audio side.
The audio system should also be capable of playing movies or TV shows in 5.1 surround sound.
A surround system must have a subwoofer for the bass frequencies and speakers for the high-frequency parts of the audio spectrum.
Lastly, youโll need to set the streaming quality to High, Medium, or Auto.
This is important because it determines the amount of data that is dedicated to the video and audio components.
If you set it too low on the quality scale, youโll start to notice compression in the video or audio.
If you set it too high, you may slow down your network too much and be unable to stream in HD.
How do I know if a title support 5.1 Surround sound on Netflix?
If a title supports 5.1 Surround sound, it will show a 5.1 icon next to the description or display the Dolby Digital Plus icon.
This is an indication that the show or movie will have Surround sound audio available.
You can also see the type of audio by clicking on a title or show in your list of movies or TV shows.
To do this, click on the info button to see the available audio formats and then choose Dolby Digital Plus if there is a 5.1 icon next to it.
If you want the audio to be output at 60Hz instead of 48Hz, which is how most home theatre systems currently output audio, then youโll need an HDMI cable that supports HDCP (High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection).
This means your device or TV must support HDCP to enable 5.1 Surround sound streaming.
There are HDMI cables available that support HDCP, but they are more expensive.
Does 5.1 make a difference?
5.1 audio is a cool feature that you can use to enhance your streaming experience.
Itโs a bonus feature rather than something you have to have in your home theater system.
But itโs definitely worth the extra cost if you can afford it.
There are better and worse titles and shows on Netflix, so itโs worth trying out some titles in 5.1 to see what you think.
With a 5.1 audio quality, youโll be able to feel more immersed in the movie or TV show, but there is a definite difference between audio quality when streaming any streaming service and full-blown home theatre systems with the same audio components.
Final Thoughts
To sum things up, 5.1 means there are five speakers and a subwoofer connected to your streaming device or TV but not all 5.1 materials are equal.
Some 5.1 titles sound better than others, some may sound worse, or you may find yourself listening to the same thing over and over again because you can only listen to it in a crappy audio format.
So if you want 5.1 Surround sound when streaming, there are certain things you can do to get the best audio quality including using an HDMI cable that supports HDCP, setting your streaming quality to High or Medium, and buying a 5.1 system with speakers and subwoofer that are high quality.
FAQs
Whatโs the difference between 5.1 and normal audio?
The main difference between 5.1 surround and normal audio is that 5.1 surround is recorded with studio monitors that have better sound quality than the speakers on TVs, whereas normal audio is compressed to save space and will not sound as good.
What does HD 5.1 mean?
Dolby Digital 5.1 is the digital format that 5.1 Surround sound is encoded and decoded.
Itโs a newer, more advanced format and only used for 5.1 surround and not 2-channel audio.
What does Dolby Digital Plus mean?
It means the movie or TV show has been encoded with the new Dolby Digital Plus encoding technology, which provides higher quality audio tracks than other audio formats.
