Dolby Debuts Dolby TrueHD, 'Picture-Perfect' Sound for Next-Generation HD Discs

[phenix]

Dolby Laboratories announced its latest advancement in lossless audio technology, Dolby TrueHD, which is designed to complement the recent developments in high-definition optical disc formats. With Dolby TrueHD, home theater viewers will experience audio performance equal to the highest-resolution studio masters currently available.


Dolby TrueHD


Dolby® TrueHD is Dolby’s next-generation lossless technology developed for high-definition disc-based media. Dolby TrueHD delivers tantalizing sound that is bit-for-bit identical to the studio master, unlocking the true high-definition entertainment experience on next-generation discs. When coupled with high-definition video, Dolby TrueHD offers an unprecedented home theater experience that lets you enjoy sound as stunning as the high-definition picture.

Features

* 100 percent lossless coding technology.
* Up to 18 Mbps bit rate.
* Supports up to eight full-range channels of 24-bit/96 kHz audio.*
* Supported by High-Definition Media Interface (HDMIâ„¢), the new single-cable digital connection for audio and video.
* Supports extensive metadata including dialogue normalization and dynamic range control.

*Dolby TrueHD can support more than eight audio channels. HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc standards currently limit their maximum number of audio channels to eight.


Dolby Product Introductions page
http://www.dolby.com/events/aes2005/product.html

Additional information
http://www.dolby.com/consumer/technology/trueHD.html

 

[Rur0ni]

Neat.

Bit off topic:
Is the video on the discs btw going to be 1080p for all discs?

 

[PC-Engine]

Neat.

Bit off topic:
Is the video on the discs btw going to be 1080p for all discs?

HD DVD will hold video information just like DVDs ie two fields with flags on how to combine them for 1080p. In other words HD DVDs can be viewed in 1080i or 1080p just like how DVDs can be viewed in 480i or 480p, however it will be up to the HD DVD players to allow interlaced or progressive output.

Anyway this new technology from Dolby is very nice. It's great that it's mandatory for HD DVD instead of optional for BR.

 

[Guden Oden]

Falls into the "cool but useless tech" category for me, because:

A - DD and DTS already offer more than good enough sound quality, and
B - none of my sound systems can decode this fancy new stuff, unlike DD and DTS...

 

[PC-Engine]

Falls into the "cool but useless tech" category for me, because:

A - DD and DTS already offer more than good enough sound quality, and
B - none of my sound systems can decode this fancy new stuff, unlike DD and DTS...

Benefits

• Delivers enthralling studio-master-quality sound that unlocks the true high-definition entertainment experience on next-generation discs.
• Offers more discrete channels than ever before for impeccable surround sound.
• Compatible with the A/V receivers and home-theaters-in-a-box (HTIBs) of today and tomorrow.
• Dialogue normalization maintains the same volume level when you change to other Dolby Digital and Dolby TrueHD programming.
• Dynamic range control (Night mode) enables you to customize audio playback to reduce peak volume levels (no loud surprises) while experiencing all the details in the soundtrack, enabling late-night viewing of high-energy surround sound without disturbing others.
• Selected as the mandatory format for HD DVD and as an optional format for Blu-ray Disc.

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

* 100 percent lossless coding technology.

Rather than that 98% lossless coding we are used to currently ;-)

 

[London Geezer]

That's the thing, who on earth will hear the difference, with the sound systems we have at home?!
As such, the fact that it's optional for BlueRay is more of a blessing than a flaw. Why waste disc space on this when most material will sound just fine with a good quality DTS track? And that's without going into the argument of what kind of sound system will be good enough to replicate this lossless sound properly and make us hear the difference.

 

[Rys]

Like most things of this ilk, it's just a progress issue. The disk space is there to advance the audio quality, so why not. Whether you'll hear it or not on your own audio kit is entirely moot. The fact remains the space is there, so why not use it.

As long as it doesn't negatively affect video quality to any degree because of space, then they should use it as much as possible. It's backwards compatible with DD5.1 and DTS after all.

 

[suryad]

Sorry to be off topic but is there are really big difference between 1080i and 1080p?

 

[Moloch]

Sorry to be off topic but is there are really big difference between 1080i and 1080p?

Yep
Since 1080i is interlaced,you still get the jaggies you see in standard def tv/video in motion.
interlaced pictures relies on our eyes to blend the two 540 fields, *however in motion it's just the slight time offset in the two 540 portions is more noticeable to our human vision system if the motion is too fast in relation to the delivery rate of the two 540 vertical resolution portions such that our vision system is not "tricked" into blending them as well.*

*copied from avsforums

 

[suryad]

Thanks for the info radeonic2

 

[Moloch]

Thanks for the info radeonic2

Thank avsforums

 

[randycat99]

This is essentially SACD/DVD-A caliber sound for movies. I don't know if anybody has taken any dynamic range or frequency spectrum measurements on some big movies lately, but it would be surprising to me if any of them have been breaking 93 dB in dynamics or exceeding 20 kHz in frequency. I suppose this had to come along sooner or later, though.

Aside from that, movie sound still struggles to approach the quality level you find in a good quality CD master. As an example, if you compare the music in the end credits of a movie to its version on a CD soundtrack, you often find a marked difference (the CD really runs circles around the DVD track). It's not really the delivery format that is lacking (hence, the dubious proposal that movie formats actually need a better sound format), but the production chain to get music into a movie production that is limiting to quality. There's just too many things in the chain (in the movie production process) to really get a consistent pristine track of music through w/o it getting "murkied".