Home Theater Myths: Part Two

Myth: Dolby logo means Surround sound
This one is picked up from the comments section on the part 1 article. The reader is absolutely right, a 'Dolby' logo on a Home theater system does not really mean definite 5.1 sound. 5.1 means a total of 6 channels: 5 channels plus one subwoofer channel of sound. Now it's important to realize that the source itself must be in surround sound, that is your TV, CD or DVD must be giving out 5.1 for you to receive actual 5.1. It's not that 5.1 surround sound automatically means big sound, and please do not get misguided by the marketing slogans. In India, DVDs and PC games have tracks in surround sound, in 5.1 or DTS 5.1. Audio CDs and our cable TV do not have surround sound, it comes in stereo, meaning only two channels of sound, or 2.0 sound. An example of file format that can store surround sound is .AC3 file. These can be downloaded for free off the net. That brings us to our next myth.

Myth: Stereo Audio CDs and Cable TV just cannot have surround sound
When I talk about cable TV I'm referring to Indian broadcasting in the year 2009. And of course good old stereo audio CDs. Like i explained in the previous myth, these have only stereo audio, that sound in 2 channels: left speaker and right speaker only. There are SACDS which have 5.1 sound choices, but our discussion does not include those premium discs. We can artificially get surround sound from these sources, provided we have a good AV reciever in our Home theater system (actually any AV reciever these days can do it). So if your CD player or TV is connected to a full fledged Home theater system with 5 speakers, AV receiver and subwoofer, then it is possible to get artificial surround, by using built in proprietery technologies like Dolby Pro Logic and DTS Neo. These are all in your AV reciever. They artificially process the sound and make it appear to come from 5 speakers. I like DTS Neo better. It works excellent with DivX videos and VCDs with stereo audio. Does it sound like the real thing? NO, but it's fun to try out.