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First we need to understand the types of audio you can get from systems and their quality. Playstation 4/5: Best: LPCM (Uncompressed surround sound) Second: DTS (Compressed surround sound). Last: Dolby Digital (Compressed surround sound that often has a slight delay). Xbox and PC:
Soundbar channels can be very confusing sometimes. In this video, we dive into the specifics of what each soundbar channel configuration means.Our complete g...
- 7 min
- 126.1K
- Jonah Matthes
5.1 Surround Sound - 5.1 surround sound is now available when you’re watching any 5.1-enabled video on a supported device 5.1 in YouTube is supported on all 2021 and later TVs, Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku and most Fire TV devices. In addition, many 2020 and earlier TVs may also support surround sound.
Apr 10, 2020 · If you found this video useful, please make sure you leave a LIKE!Sound system channels can be very confusing sometimes. In this video, we dive into the spec...
- 5 min
- 50.4K
- Jonah Matthes
- Objectively Better Sound
- Recorded Sound 101: Speakers
- Surround Sound History
- Modern Surround Sound Takes Shape
- Kicking It Up A Notch
- The Spawn of Blu-ray
- Pro Logic Makes A Comeback
- T About 7.2, 9.2, Or 11.2?
- 3D/Object-Based Surround Sound
- Dolby Atmos
Before the advent of Dolby Atmos, soundtracks could be mixed in such a way that sounds moved from side to side, or forward or backward, but that was the extent of it. Granted, with the ability to route sound to as many as six discrete locations (plus a low-frequency channel), it was pretty immersive. But it was limited to one plane — the horizontal...
Before we begin, it’s helpful to understand the principle building blocks of all sound systems and recordings, regardless of whether they’re surround sound or not. All sound recordings are based on channels. A channel is a unique set of recorded sounds. If you played a single channel of sound on two speakers simultaneously, it might sound louder, o...
From two to four channels
It was the summer of 1969 when surround sound first became available in the home. It was called Quadraphonic sound, and as the name suggests, it provided four channels of discrete sound routed to four speakers placed in each corner of a room. It first appeared on reel-to-reel tape, but eventually became available on vinyl too. It was a genius idea that proved to be a commercial failure. Quadrophonic sound was difficult to create and even harder to play at home due to the expense and complexit...
Dolby Surround
The first truly successfulsurround sound format appeared 13 years later when, in 1982, Dolby Laboratories introduced Dolby Surround for home use. Instead of focusing on music recordings, Dolby’s efforts were centered on the rapidly growing home video industry kicked off by Sony’s Betamax and then massively expanded by JVC’s VHS tape format. Dolby Surround piggybacked a surround sound signal onto a stereo source through a technique known as matrix encoding.
Pro Logic
Playing a VHS tape with Dolby Surround on a conventional Hi-Fi (stereo) VHS player would let you hear stereo sound, but if you owned additional equipment with Dolby’s Pro Logic circuitry, you could decode Dolby Surround’s two extra channels, which fed the center channel and surround speakers with audio. Because of the limited space, however, matrixed surround signals came with some limitations. For instance, the surround channels in basic Pro Logic were not in stereo and had limited bandwidth...
Dolby Digital 5.1/AC-3: The benchmark
Remember LaserDisc? Though the medium was first invented in 1978, it wasn’t until 1983, when Pioneer Electronics bought a majority interest in the technology, that it enjoyed any kind of success in North America. One of the advantages of the LaserDisc (LD) was that it provided a lot more storage space than VHS tape. Dolby took advantage of this and created AC-3, more commonly known as Dolby Digital. This format improved on Pro Logic in that it allowed for more detailed, stereo surround channe...
DTS: The rival
What’s a technology market without a little competition? Dolby more or less dominated the surround-sound landscape for years. Then, in 1993, DTS came along, providing its own digital surround sound mixing services for movie production and first hitting theaters with Jurassic Park. The technology eventually trickled down to LaserDisc and DVD, but was initially available on a very limited selection of discs. DTS uses a higher bit rate and, therefore, delivers more audio information. Think of it...
In an effort to enhance surround sound by expanding the “soundstage,” home theater companies created6.1, which added another sound channel. The sixth speaker was to be placed in the center of the back of a room and was subsequently referred to as a back surround or rear surround. This is where some confusion began to swirl. People were already used...
Just when people started getting used to 6.1, along came 7.1 in conjunction with HD DVD and Blu-ray discs becoming the new must-have surround format and essentially supplanting its predecessor. Like 6.1, there are several different versions of 7.1, all of which add in a second back surround speaker. Those surround effects that once went to just one...
If you’ve been shopping for a receiver, you may have noticed that many offer one or more different versions of Pro Logic processing. In the modern Pro Logic family, we now have Pro Logic II, Pro Logic IIx, and Pro Logic IIz. Before we continue, let’s take a quick look at what each of them does.
As we mentioned previously, the “.1” in 5.1, 7.1, etc., refers to the LFE (low-frequency effects) channel in a surround soundtrack, which is handled by a subwoofer. Adding “.2” simply means that a receiver has twosubwoofer outputs instead of one. Both connections output the same information since, as far as Dolby and DTS are concerned, there is onl...
As we mentioned earlier, the latest and greatest development in surround sound is known as “object-based” or“3D” surround. For viewers, “3D” offers the best description of this technology because of its ability to make sounds feel as though they are moving through space. For instance, you might hear a helicopter take off from in front of you, hover...
This shouldn’t come as a surprise after reading this article to this point, but Dolby is the current leader in object-based surround sound technology. We’ve been over Atmos’ bid to revolutionize the movie theater experience, but what about home theaters?
Feb 17, 2022 · Both of the soundbars have a left and right channel, but the 3.1.2 soundbars have two extra speakers on top of them. This makes the soundbars even better. Because it has three speakers, the 5.1 channel soundbar costs more than the 3.1.2 channel soundbar, but that’s because it has the LCR speaker set up. Another thing that can affect the price ...
People also ask
What does Dolby Digital 5.1 mean?
Does 5.1 support paid video content?
Does true 5.1 support ad blocking?
What is the difference between Dolby Digital and THX?
Feb 15, 2024 · Usage. Directly related to performance, the main difference between what you can use a 3.1 and 5.1 soundbar for is that a 5.1 can be set up for surround sound and a 3.1 can’t. Beyond that, 3.1 ...
