Youtube's 5.1 Audio Explained (read description).

Hello Everyone! You are here because you are confused about Youtube and the 5.1 audio support. I will explain it as easily as I can. You will be disappointed at the results... (please click read more) Here's our little test... Say you created a video with 5.1 sound effects for each channel: -1 front right (meow) -2 front left (bark) -3 center (laugh) -4 rear right (quack) -5 rear left (tweet) -6 woofer/LFE (buzz) --------------------------------------------- Before 5.1 was supported --------------------------------------------- If you attempted to upload these sound effects, you would only hear 1(meow) and 2(bark) after the video was published to Youtube. This means you have lost 3(laugh), 4(quack), 5(tweet), 6(buzz). Youtube didn't recognize the 5.1 format and left them out of the final published video. --------------------------------------------- Now that 5.1 is supported --------------------------------------------- If you upload a video with these sound effects today, Youtube will take those extra channels 3(laugh), 4(quack), 5(tweet) and downmix them into 2.0 speaker output. This means the final video, after being published, will now contain these sound effects that would have been lost previously. --------------------------------------------- The disappointment... --------------------------------------------- 5.1 audio support on Youtube does NOT mean you will not hear 3(laugh) on your center speaker or 4(quack) and 5(tweet) on your rear speakers "independently". You will NEVER hear 6(buzz) because LFE is not supported on youtube. It really should say "Youtube supports 5.0 audio", not "5.1". Yes it is a misnomer: 5.1 support on youtube does not mean you will hear sounds on each speaker independently. 5.1 support only means that youtube "reads" the audio from extra channels (as it hasn't before) and turns them into 2.0 output so you can now hear all the sounds in stereo. If you want to hear sound on all speakers, go into your sound card settings (realtek for example) and click "speaker fill". This is not surround sound, it just sends the same audio channel (mono) to all 5 speakers, thus you will hear the exact same sounds coming from front left/right, center, rear right/left. You still will not hear LFE. Note: If you wish to download the video sample, go here: http://ift.tt/2bq6tTR If you play the file from the link in Media Player, you WILL hear sounds coming from each speaker independently as well as the LFE. Notices at 0:10, in Media Player, you will hear LFE, but you won't hear it in the Youtube upload.
via YouTube http://youtu.be/cYhwx0lipyM