- 45 -
14.
Glossary*
• DTS
®
DTS
®
, owned by DTS
®
Inc., is a multi-channel digital surround sound format used for both
commercial/theatrical and consumer applications on LDs, DVD/Blu-ray, special audio CDs and
D-VHS. There are significant technical differences between commercial/theatrical and home
variants. DTS
®
uses compressed audio data, which are produced by a lossy audio compression
procedure.
• Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital (also ATSC A/52 and AC-3) is a multi-channel digital surround sound format
developed by Dolby Laboratories. Dolby Digital is used for commercial/theatrical and consumer
applications on LDs, DVD/Blu-ray as well as for broadcasting applications. Dolby Digital
contains up to six discrete channels of sound and uses a lossy audio compression procedure.
• Dolby Digital Live
Dolby Digital Live (DDL) is a real-time encoding technology to convert any multi-channel audio
signals into a Dolby Digital bit stream for transport and playback through a home theatre
system. With it, a PC or game console can be hooked up to your Dolby Digital-equipped
audio/video receiver or home theatre system via a single digital connection, eliminating the
confusion of multiple cables and ensuring the integrity of the audio signal.
• Dolby Pro Logic
Dolby Pro Logic is an analogue multi-channel format, which has been developed by Dolby
Laboratories for home cinema use in 1986. It is based on Dolby Surround Stereo, which was
originally developed in 1976 for analogue cinema sound systems. Dolby Pro Logic decodes the
sound information from a stereo source.
• PCM Stereo
PCM is the abbreviation for “Pulse Code Modulation”. It is a digital 2-channel sound, which is
also used for music CDs. In contrast to compressed sound formats such as Dolby Digital Stereo
and DTS
®
, PCM provides an uncompressed sound.
•
S/PDIF
Short for Sony/Philips Digital Interface, a standard audio file transfer format. S/PDIF allows the
transfer of digital audio signals from one device to another without having to be converted
first to an analogue format. S/PDIF is used with CD players, DAT recorders, MD players,
DVD/Blu-ray players and home cinema receivers as well as digital PC sound cards. S/PDIF is also
used for car audio systems, where a single fibre optic cable replaces a wiring harness, which is
also insensitive to interferences.
• TOSLINK
TOSLINK is a standardised optical fibre connection system for optical signal transmission of
20 Mb/s. TOSLINK was originally created by Toshiba to connect their CD players to their
receivers; but it was soon adopted for most CD players, regardless of manufacturer. Today
TOSLINK is used in consumer audio equipment to carry a digital audio stream between
components such as MD and CD players and DAT recorders.
*
For more information about the individual items, please refer to appropriate literature or the internet.
