 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Home Theater Programming Sources
Off-Air TV
Need more home theater information? Search for it here.
Copyright 2004-7 1 touch movie.com
Home theater and Automation Guide
All rights reserved.
Home theater and Automation Guide
All rights reserved.
Dolby Digital TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus -
High Bandwidth Surround Sound for Your Home Theater
High Bandwidth Surround Sound for Your Home Theater
1 Touch Movie.com
Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital TrueHD -
Surround Sound Just Keeps Getting Better
Surround Sound Just Keeps Getting Better
It seems like there are new surround sound formats popping up every months or so.
It's not actually true, but the latest digital surround sound offerings from Dolby Labs,
termed Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital TrueHD, do give home theater
enthusiasts marked improvements over previously available Dolby Digital. As with
many digital audio formats the gains come from improvements in compression
algorithms. This allows more audio information to be contained in the limited space
available on a disc. To be sure, with the advent of HD-DVD and BluRay Disc, there is
more space available than ever, but there is still a limit.
So just what do the new formats offer in terms of improvements over their
predecessors? Read on -
Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) -
Dolby Digital Plus is the next evolution in digital surround sound technology after
standard Dolby Digital (Dolby Surround EX not included). It has a higher bit rate, up
to 6Mbps over standard Dolby Digital, allowing improved sound quality. According to
Dolby Labs, Plus gives a data rate at least 3 Mbps on HD DVD and up to 1.7 Mbps
on Blu-ray Disc and is supported by HDMI. HDMI is actually a must for digital signal
transport of both the new formats. Existing digital connections simply don't have the
bandwidth required for the format.
Another benefit to Plus is that it gives better audio quality at lower bit rates than does
standard Dolby Digital, due to the improved compression algorithm. It actually uses a
modified version of the existing DD codec, but with improvements such as
pre-processing that allow increased efficiency. In addition, increased audio channel
counts, up to 13.1 are supported for future use. The speaker manufactures' hearts
are probably palpitating with the thought.
Dolby Digital Plus is fully compatible with existing DD equipment, such as surround
processors and A/V receivers. When receiving a Dolby Digital Plus signal, non-Plus
equipment will simply down-convert the bitstream to a standard, 640Mbs, Dolby
Digital signal.
While both of the new Dolby formats, Plus and TrueHD, are capable of transport over
HDMI, they can also be used by connecting to the analog 5 or 7.1 direct outputs of
an HD-DVD or BluRay Disc player that is so equipped. This way audio gear that's not
equipped to handle the advanced digital audio over HDMI1.3/a can still benefit from
improvements offered by Plus and TrueHD.
It's not actually true, but the latest digital surround sound offerings from Dolby Labs,
termed Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital TrueHD, do give home theater
enthusiasts marked improvements over previously available Dolby Digital. As with
many digital audio formats the gains come from improvements in compression
algorithms. This allows more audio information to be contained in the limited space
available on a disc. To be sure, with the advent of HD-DVD and BluRay Disc, there is
more space available than ever, but there is still a limit.
So just what do the new formats offer in terms of improvements over their
predecessors? Read on -
Dolby Digital Plus (DD+) -
Dolby Digital Plus is the next evolution in digital surround sound technology after
standard Dolby Digital (Dolby Surround EX not included). It has a higher bit rate, up
to 6Mbps over standard Dolby Digital, allowing improved sound quality. According to
Dolby Labs, Plus gives a data rate at least 3 Mbps on HD DVD and up to 1.7 Mbps
on Blu-ray Disc and is supported by HDMI. HDMI is actually a must for digital signal
transport of both the new formats. Existing digital connections simply don't have the
bandwidth required for the format.
Another benefit to Plus is that it gives better audio quality at lower bit rates than does
standard Dolby Digital, due to the improved compression algorithm. It actually uses a
modified version of the existing DD codec, but with improvements such as
pre-processing that allow increased efficiency. In addition, increased audio channel
counts, up to 13.1 are supported for future use. The speaker manufactures' hearts
are probably palpitating with the thought.
Dolby Digital Plus is fully compatible with existing DD equipment, such as surround
processors and A/V receivers. When receiving a Dolby Digital Plus signal, non-Plus
equipment will simply down-convert the bitstream to a standard, 640Mbs, Dolby
Digital signal.
While both of the new Dolby formats, Plus and TrueHD, are capable of transport over
HDMI, they can also be used by connecting to the analog 5 or 7.1 direct outputs of
an HD-DVD or BluRay Disc player that is so equipped. This way audio gear that's not
equipped to handle the advanced digital audio over HDMI1.3/a can still benefit from
improvements offered by Plus and TrueHD.