Surround Sound vs. DD on Dish Network

Archived from groups: alt.satellite.tv (More info?)

My fancy schmancy audio/video receiver was not showing a "Dolby digital"
signal for any HBO shows and I got suspicious, so I started looking. I
found a few movies with "DD" in their info summary, but they were few and
far between. Many had "Stereo". Does "Stereo" mean either 2 or 5 channel
stereo, but not discrete 5.1, and they ain't telling us which it is? I have
the sat receiver audio connected via infrared so if digital exists, it
decodes automatically. I naively thought that most movies today were
broadcast via satellite in full discrete digital 5.1 sound. I suspect my
old cable system had a higher ratio of Dolby digital to non-discrete
surround broadcasts. Does anyone have insight into this?

Also, is this the correct Newsgroup to discuss Dish Network & Direct TV?
Thanks.
------------------------------------------------------------
reply address bot resistant and human safe
------------------------------------------------------------