Dolby Brings the Surround Sound Experience to…EVERYTHING!

[Attebery]

High-Def Digest's man in the field attends a Dolby Laboratories shindig in Los Angeles and leaves mighty impressed!

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/sh...ERYTHING!/3590

[BobbyDigital]

Hello forumers,

Longtime observer who's finally posting. I'm very intrigued with this article as it showcased a lot of great possibilities (especially in this day and age of low fidelity sound). However, I'm confused on how these technologies would be utilized. For instance, would I need to purchase specific movies or music indicating they are dolby home theater or dolby mobile compliant? Or would this be done through the hardware or software? Secondly, I was always under the impression that once a file was encoded at a low bit rate, increasing or tampering it was in the same vain as upscaling a 480p dvd image to 1080p, which I'm not a fan of. Is this correct? Lastly, when you purchase a song from itunes at 256 kbps, does converting that file to apple lossless (usually at 980 kbps) improve sound quality? Thanks guys, your help is greatly appreciated.

[Indy_aka_Rex]

The Dolby Axon thing is nice in its equalizing capabilities to help voice chat sound better, but positional voice communication in online games isn't really something new. I think the first, if not the earliest example of it is Halo 2. More often than not it's actually incredibly annoying, not really helpful at all.

[Palmer]

Hi BobbyDigital --

I have an email into Dolby about your second question. I do not believe there is an upconversion, but hope to get a more detailed answer. Also, the mp3s i heard were recorded at 256, and sounded quite good.

As to where one can find certain technologies:

For Dolby Mobile, check out LG phones (enV Touch, ARENA, and Renoir), as this is a built-in, not an app. For Dolby Volume, check out the Toshiba Regza Zv650 series TVs, as well as the Harmon Kardon AVR 7550HD, and the Arcam FMJ AVR600. I'm also looking into the Dolby Home Theater of it all (as to whether it is software of built-in). As it said in the article, on display were brand new Sony, HP, and Toshiba laptops. I'm guessing this technology will be built-in (in the way that some products are THX certified, for example), and like any of the Dolby technologies, when purchasing new products, just look for the various Dolby [fill in the technology here] logos.

Cheers,
Michael

[damonous]

Originally Posted by HDD

Too easy to forget that Dolby and its employees, through a need to innovate and enhance consumer content, are continuously raising the bar of audio reproduction.

...Well, while it's nice to later include the disclaimer about "what about DTS???” Feel free to continue the endless “which one is better” debate all you want". --I think this article is WAY overboard with putting Dolby in a sunny light. I mean, sure it's a 'report on the technologies'; but it's also littered with subjective comments throughout (so it's not like it's totally impartial).

Especially to say that Dolby are "continuously raising the bar of audio reproduction". ????

I'm sure someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but were it NOT for DTS ...I don't think we'd ever have seen the 'Dolby innovations' that are reported on here. if I recall correctly, I think DTS was first to give us TRUE 5.1 digital back in LD days (while Dolby was giving us 3-channel matrix). Even of the things listed in this article, Dolby TrueHD would NOT exist were it not for Dolby having purchased (and renamed) Meridian Lossless Packing (better known as MLP or DVD-Audio). And, even that was I think a reaction to the threat of DTS-HD Master Audio. DTS introduced the 'folded encode' way back with the ES soundtracks (where 1 track includes both a lossy track, as well as additional channels for increased resolution, etc.) --- an 'innovation' which Dolby much later included by folding DD & Dolby TrueHD together.

If Dolby were innovating, maybe they'd give us a lossless codec that can be used in-game. Axon sounds 'cute' and all, if it can really be delivered (unless it's just another "Dolby checkmark" for the videogame box, which sounds more-likely).

[damonous]

Originally Posted by BobbyDigital

Hello forumers,

Longtime observer who's finally posting. I'm very intrigued with this article as it showcased a lot of great possibilities (especially in this day and age of low fidelity sound). However, I'm confused on how these technologies would be utilized. For instance, would I need to purchase specific movies or music indicating they are dolby home theater or dolby mobile compliant? Or would this be done through the hardware or software? Secondly, I was always under the impression that once a file was encoded at a low bit rate, increasing or tampering it was in the same vain as upscaling a 480p dvd image to 1080p, which I'm not a fan of. Is this correct? Lastly, when you purchase a song from itunes at 256 kbps, does converting that file to apple lossless (usually at 980 kbps) improve sound quality? Thanks guys, your help is greatly appreciated.

BobbyDigital; welcome aboard to being interactive!

If I'm to understand the descriptions of Dolby Home Theater & Dolby Mobile, ...it's the same concept as Dolby ProLogic 1/II/z, Dolby Headphone, or any other of a number of psycho-acoustic algorithms: it's hardware-dependent, and not software-specific. These technologies attempt to take the 'most likely result' in order to "fake" surround channels or "greater sound".

You are also mostly correct on upscaling audio. Although, I believe audio is more-predictable than video, so (for example) if you upscale a high-quality PCM audio file from 44.1khz to 192khz, you might be more-likely to approximate DVD-A/SACD quality than you are to approximate true HD video from taking 480i video up to 1080p. Also, I believe that there is the possibility of performing a NEW analog encode (real-time) in lossless, and potentially getting an improved audio characteristic, even from a low-bit compressed file.

But, some of that is 'voodoo' and 'fringe science' better left to Dr Walter Bishop. Bottom line for A/V: 'garbage-in'/'garbage-out'. Multiply garbage x 2. --Still "garbage x 2."

--It really depends how closely you really listen to music/audio, and what you personally can 'settle' for. As an example, I'll say this: I love DVD-Audio (really miss it as a viable format). Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD Master Audio: awesome. ....But, when I'm feeling lazy, I don't mind the PS3's upscaling feature for the 320kbps MP3's I have stored on it. And, I very much enjoy upscaled CD's through it, which sound somewhat near to DVD-A/SACD quality.

[Lee Stewart]

Originally Posted by damonous

...Well, while it's nice to later include the disclaimer about "what about DTS???” Feel free to continue the endless “which one is better” debate all you want". --I think this article is WAY overboard with putting Dolby in a sunny light. I mean, sure it's a 'report on the technologies'; but it's also littered with subjective comments throughout (so it's not like it's totally impartial).

Especially to say that Dolby are "continuously raising the bar of audio reproduction". ????

I'm sure someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but were it NOT for DTS ...I don't think we'd ever have seen the 'Dolby innovations' that are reported on here. if I recall correctly, I think DTS was first to give us TRUE 5.1 digital back in LD days (while Dolby was giving us 3-channel matrix). Even of the things listed in this article, Dolby TrueHD would NOT exist were it not for Dolby having purchased (and renamed) Meridian Lossless Packing (better known as MLP or DVD-Audio). And, even that was I think a reaction to the threat of DTS-HD Master Audio. DTS introduced the 'folded encode' way back with the ES soundtracks (where 1 track includes both a lossy track, as well as additional channels for increased resolution, etc.) --- an 'innovation' which Dolby much later included by folding DD & Dolby TrueHD together.

If Dolby were innovating, maybe they'd give us a lossless codec that can be used in-game. Axon sounds 'cute' and all, if it can really be delivered (unless it's just another "Dolby checkmark" for the videogame box, which sounds more-likely).

Dolby Digital was introduced with the movie Batman Returns (1992) while DTS was introduced with the movie Jurassic Park (1993)

I believe DD came first also on LD but I am still researching that. here is a list of DD LDs and DTS LDs, As you can see there is quite a difference in their number:

http://www.spannerworks.net/reference/10_4a.asp

And we all know that DD definitely came first on DVD because DTS missed DVD's launch date and had to be added later.

DD EX was a 6 channel lossy system that first appeared for Star Wars, The Phantom Menace. It added a matrixed back surround channel to the discrete L & R surround channels

[Favelle]

Originally Posted by Indy_aka_Rex

but positional voice communication in online games isn't really something new. I think the first, if not the earliest example of it is Halo 2.

In consoles that is.....

[krylonman]

Originally Posted by Lee Stewart

I believe DD came first also on LD but I am still researching that. here is a list of DD LDs and DTS LDs, As you can see there is quite a difference in their number:

It did come first on LD, in 1995, although I don't know what month or with which movie. The first DTS LD was 'Jurassic Park,' in January 1996.

I think the lower numbers have less to do with timing than with DTS being kind of a clunky fit for LD, though—because of the way they used soundtrack space, the legacy track was always of lower quality than on a Dolby Digital (or even Dolby Surround-only) LD. I assume that's why, instead of making it a standard, studios marketed DTS releases as a "premium" option that cost more than the DD equivalent and was only done for selected movies.

In other words, as Superbit was to DVD, DTS was to LD, sort of. I didn't really have a point here, just spouting useless information.

[Josh Z]

Dolby Digital 5.1 was introduced on laserdisc in January of 1995 with 'Clear and Present Danger'. DTS 5.1 was introduced two years later in January of 1997 with 'Jurassic Park'.

Dolby Digital was also first in theaters with 'Batman Returns' in 1992. DTS premiered the following year with 'Jurassic Park'.

Damonous also forgets that Dolby has been a major innovator pushing the bar in theatrical sound since the 1970s.

In any case, they're both good companies who do their job well. With their respective lossless formats, there's no difference in sound quality between them at all.

[vancouver]

Dolby Volume seems really interesting and useful especially for those of use who live in Apts. I am surprised how few components have it as a feature though. Its been out for near 2 years now and only 2-3 components have it?!


I wish they came out with a processor you could load your own apps into. i.e. if you want to download and install dolby volume all you would have to do is pay and download to your processor.

[JediFonger]

In addition, Jurassic Park also became the first home video release to contain DTS sound when it was released on LaserDisc in January 1997, two years after the first Dolby Digital home video release (Clear and Present Danger on Laserdisc), which debuted in January 1995.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DTS_%28sound_system%29

The first film with Dolby sound was A Clockwork Orange (1971), which used Dolby noise reduction on all pre-mixes and masters, but a conventional optical sound track on release prints. Callan (1974) was the first film with a Dolby-encoded optical soundtrack. In 1975 Dolby released Dolby Stereo, which included a noise reduction system in addition to more audio channels (Dolby Stereo could actually contain additional center and surround channels matrixed from the left and right). The first film with a Dolby-encoded stereo optical soundtrack was Lisztomania (1975), although this only used an LCR (Left-Center-Right) encoding technique. The first true LCRS (Left-Center-Right-Surround) soundtrack was encoded on the movie A Star Is Born in 1976. In less than ten years, 6,000 cinemas worldwide were equipped to use Dolby Stereo sound. Dolby reworked the system slightly for home use and introduced Dolby Surround, which only extracted a surround channel, and the more impressive Dolby Pro Logic, which was the domestic equivalent of the theatrical Dolby Stereo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Pro_Logic

technically DPL is a steering logic engineering similar to your 'folded encode' you are talking about.

re: video game audio "is" already lossless. get a radeon 4xxx or 5xxx series. i have a 4890 feeding my AVR-4308ci LPCM 7.1 24-bit/192kHz for all types of games in surround sound.

get your facts straight next time. google/wikipedia is just a click away.
-JediFonger

Originally Posted by damonous

Especially to say that Dolby are "continuously raising the bar of audio reproduction". ????

I'm sure someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but were it NOT for DTS ...I don't think we'd ever have seen the 'Dolby innovations' that are reported on here. if I recall correctly, I think DTS was first to give us TRUE 5.1 digital back in LD days (while Dolby was giving us 3-channel matrix). Even of the things listed in this article, Dolby TrueHD would NOT exist were it not for Dolby having purchased (and renamed) Meridian Lossless Packing (better known as MLP or DVD-Audio). And, even that was I think a reaction to the threat of DTS-HD Master Audio. DTS introduced the 'folded encode' way back with the ES soundtracks (where 1 track includes both a lossy track, as well as additional channels for increased resolution, etc.) --- an 'innovation' which Dolby much later included by folding DD & Dolby TrueHD together.

If Dolby were innovating, maybe they'd give us a lossless codec that can be used in-game. Axon sounds 'cute' and all, if it can really be delivered (unless it's just another "Dolby checkmark" for the videogame box, which sounds more-likely).

[JediFonger]

most newer (last 2-3 yrs?) AV Receivers have a 'night mode'. same diff.

Originally Posted by vancouver

Dolby Volume seems really interesting and useful especially for those of use who live in Apts. I am surprised how few components have it as a feature though. Its been out for near 2 years now and only 2-3 components have it?!


I wish they came out with a processor you could load your own apps into. i.e. if you want to download and install dolby volume all you would have to do is pay and download to your processor.

[vancouver]

Originally Posted by JediFonger

most newer (last 2-3 yrs?) AV Receivers have a 'night mode'. same diff.

Is night mode really the same thing? For some reason I thought night mode heavily compresses the audio and reduces its quality and not just dynamic range. Perhaps I just read to much hype on what Dolby Volume does and figured it was much better.


Thanks for clearing that up.

[vancouver]

"The system "continually monitors (or 'listens' to) the audio at all times and performs content-dependent processing...[on] all types of audio." The processing isn't just straight-up compression, it's more of a smart EQ that takes dialogue and music into concern, and adjusts many frequency bands. This has the benefit of keeping funky artifacts out of the process, but it does of course take more horsepower to do, hence the slow roll-out."