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Home Entertainment Guide 2000-2001
Turn it Up!
Digital Home Cinema Sound
Technology is taking off and the home cinema audience is most certainly listening. Thanks to
Lucasfilm’s THX division, DVD home cinema audiences can enjoy similar high-tech sound
effects found in movie theatres. The THX label guarantees that the system can handle 5.1
channels for quality wrap-around surround sound performance.
Going a step further, THX joined forces with Dolby Laboratories to develop the THX Surround EX system.
This innovation adds an extra Surround Back channel to the soundtrack, meaning that one additional sound
path is decoded and actually flies right over the listener. Sound
surrounding you — plus sound flying right over your head.
Now, that’s realistic.
DTS-ES
Early this year, DTS introduced a new cinema decoder: DTS-ES. Using low data
compression and a high data transfer rate, DTS-ES adds an additional sound
channel to digitised films, allowing filmmakers to be even more creative with
sound.
This translates to better special effects that truly surround the audience like
never before. The third channel flies over the head of the viewers, putting them
right in the middle of the action. Used now only in cinemas, this exciting
technology will most certainly be implemented in future DVD home cinema
products.
