Dolby Digital EX Technology Ups The Ante For Movie Surround Effects At Home

8-Jan-03

With approximately 50 DVD-Video titles presently encoded with DolbyÆ Digital EX technology, and an additional 20 first-run movies scheduled to be released on DVD in 2003, Dolby Digital EX technology, referred to in cinemas as Dolby Digital Surround EXô, is transforming the home theatre experience. Dolby Digital EX technology employs highly advanced Dolby matrix decoding to add a third surround channel to Dolby Digital 5.1-channel soundtracks. Located at the center back position, this additional rear surround channel complements the left and right surround channels of Dolby Digital 5.1-channel audio to produce an intensified degree of realism, further immersing movie viewers in the on-screen action.Thousands of cinemas worldwide are now equipped with Dolby Digital Surround EX technology--the most rapidly adopted new sound format in cinema history.Recent Dolby Digital EX releases on DVD-Video include ""Monsters Inc.,"" ""The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Extended Version),"" ""Austin Powers In Goldmember,"" and ""Star Wars: Episode II-Attack Of The Clones."" Dolby Digital EX releases currently showing in theatres include ""Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets,"" ""James Bond: Die Another Day,"" and ""The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers.""""Watching a movie or DVD-Video encoded with Dolby Digital EX technology is an experience in enhanced spatial audio, almost indistinguishable from reality. It's about powerful flyovers--sensing, for example, alien creatures or jungle animals circling to your rear--or clearly distinguishing conversations and street noise as they seem to occur directly behind you,"" said Craig Eggers, Director of Consumer Channel Marketing, Dolby Laboratories. ""The ability of Dolby Digital EX technology to add spatial and directional cues to the home theatre experience is resulting in the release of more DVD titles encoded with Dolby Digital EX, and more hardware manufacturers adopting Dolby Digital EX decoding technology in their audio receiver and home theatre-in a-box products.""Dolby Digital EX Technology Enhances Movie Atmosphere And Action Speaker(s) positioned to the rear of the viewer reproduce the third surround channel enabled by Dolby Digital EX technology. In a cinema, these speakers are located directly behind the audience. For the third surround channel to be reproduced in a home theatre, Dolby Digital EX encoding must be included in a receiver or preamp/processor, and the audio reproduced via a rear surround speaker and appropriate signal amplification.Feature films released in Dolby Digital Surround EX include the encoded third surround channel in subsequent DVD-Video offerings, as well as during 5.1-channel Dolby Digital satellite and terrestrial television broadcasts. When a home theatre system has a receiver or preamp/processor equipped with Dolby Digital EX decoding, viewers can experience the movie soundtracks as they were intended to be heard, with the increased spatial realism created by the additional surround channel.Dolby Digital EX software programming is fully backward-compatible with all existing Dolby Digital 5.1 decoder products.  For more information about Dolby Laboratories or Dolby technologies, visit www.dolby.com.

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