| Types of Dolby Surround Sound
The sound system is what really makes a home theater experience complete.
When you are choosing a receiver, you should decide two things: whether you want DTS support and how many speakers you want to use for your surround-sound setup. Dolby is a Given. You have to have it and almost every receiver has it. Dolby Laboratories and Digital Theater Systems. Dolby Laboratories formats include various versions of Dolby Digital® and Dolby Pro Logic®.
A little about DTS -
• DTS encoding uses less compression than Dolby encoding. This means that DTS sound is clearer and sharper.
• However, DTS encoding is also less commonly used on DVDs and television broadcasts.
• Most DVDs have some Dolby sound options, and some also offer choices for DTS sound.
The most common options are 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 surround, named for the number of channels. The ".1" indicates a channel for a subwoofer. The subwoofer channel carries low-frequency sound to give a bass boost ( the boom ) and create a rumbling effect for certain special effects sounds, such as explosions and trains. Here are the typical speaker setups that will support them:
5.1 (5 speakers + subwoofer)
A 5.1 surround-sound setup includes left, center and right front speakers. It also has left and right surround speakers. Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS 5.1 will all support this format. DTS 96/24 uses a 5.1 channel format to play audio at.
6.1 (6-7 speakers + subwoofer)
A 6.1 setup takes all the speakers from 5.1 and adds a rear channel. Dolby Digital EX uses this format, splitting the one additional channel into left and right rear speakers.
DTS-ES,uses a rear center speaker. DTS Neo:6 can also support a 6-channel format.
7.1 (7 speakers + subwoofer)
Dolby Pro Logic IIx has separate channels for the left and right rear speakers, rather than splitting one channel and directing it to two speakers.
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