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High Definition surround sound audio and how to get it
For any surround sound application, those red and white RCA jacks just won't cut it anymore. With almost every DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray release, as well as most HD broatcast and cable programs contain a surround sound mix of some sort. There are many different connectors and surround sound formats, so if you are confused about Dolby TrueHD, DTS neo 6, DTSHD-MA and such, this article will be for you.
Dolby pro logic(II) and DTS neo 6.
Dolby Pro Logic, Dolby Pro logic II and DTS Neo 6 are what we call matrixed surround formats... these formats take a two channel input (such as a VHS VCR, old game system, or DVD player) and they extract 4-6 channels of surround sound. It increases the sound quality of programs that are not broadcast in surround sound by adding some depth to what you are watching. These formats are used quite a bit still because even the special features of the latest movies and some of the cable programs are not broadcast in surround sound and when that is the case, your receiver is smart and uses one of these decoders to simulate surround.
Dolby Digital and DTS
Dolby Digital and DTS are the First True surround sound formats. Almost every DVD and HD cable program has a Dolby Digital or DTS track on it. Dolby Digital is more common on American releases, While DTS is more popular on European movie releases, but it is not uncommon to see either or both on and movie, regardless of country of origin. Also DVD audio discs usually have one of these two formats on their discs. Dolby digital and DTS require audio connections that are fit for surround sound in order for either of these two formats to be heard in their full clarity. Optical toslink cables are some of the most common. The connectors for optical cables are found on many cable boxes, DVD players, and video game systems today. Other common cables to transfer DD and DTS are digital coax, 6 analog rca cables, and most recently HDMI.
Dolby Digital plus and DTS-HD-HR
Dolby digital plus and DTS-HD-HR are two higher resolution surround sound codecs that are commonly used on HD DVD discs and sometimes on blu-ray discs. They are also being developed for use in cable TV as we found out at CES 2008 where Motorola announced a new cable box that supports Dolby digital plus. These audio codecs provide the user with closer to studio master tracks than Dolby Digtial or DTS, but there is a catch. In order to enjoy this richened sound, you can not use optical cables or digital coax. You must use HDMI cables or analog 6-7 channel cables. These formats also add a possible sixth channel to the mix, but many releases are still just 5.1 but contain a more crisp soundtrack.
Dolby True HD and DTS-HD-MA
Dolby True HD and DTS-HD-MA are the newest lossless audio track compression methods used on HD DVD and Blu-ray disc formats. These formats replicate the studio master track bit for bit and they use a simple compression to conserve space on the disc. Think of zipping up a file on your computer. However, you must use HDMI cables or analog 6-8 channel cables to be able to hear the best that this format has to offer. With these audio formats, there are two ways of decoding the format. The most common way is to decode the format in the high def player, and output the signal as Linear PCM (aka uncompressed audio). Another method is to do something called bitstreaming, where you output the compressed codecs to the receiver for decoding in the receiver. This bitstreaming requires a receiver that decodes these audio formats and an HD DVD or blu-ray player with HDMI 1.3 ports on them.
Uncompressed PCM audio
Supported by blu-ray and HD DVD formats, but uncommon on HD DVD are PCM audio tracks. These tracks are uncompressed lossless audio on the disc. Blu-ray discs use this format just to show off that they have more disc space. There is no user detectable difference between a PCM track and a Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD-MA track. Also, in decoding all the High def audio formats, HD DVD and blu-ray players decompress these tracks and output them as PCM tracks as an option, allowing even the olest surround sound receiver with analog 5.1 inputs to be able to take advantage of lossless audio tracks and High resolution audio tracks.
Also See: All High Definition Television Articles
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