13.1 = Dolby Digital Plus (1 Viewer)

[AaronPeek]

i can't post the link because i am new but it is on http://www.gamespot.com upper right.



This is really exciting. I can't wait to see how it's implemented into exsisting home theaters.


As a home theater designer this is just making me drool.


But why did a video game site release this news first?, thats funny

 

[Chris Bardon]

Here's the link:

13.1 sound

Nothing in the article about the actual configuration though-maybe something like 4 front channels and three channels for left side, right side and rear? That's a whole pile of speakers...

 

[James Phung]

Imagine getting a 13.1 receiver for these. They will have to be double the price of current 7.1 receivers.

 

[Elinor]

Evil Dolby Person: How do we continue to suck more money out of gullible consumers?

Second Evil Dolby Person: Just add Plus or Extended to the end of Dolby Digital. After that, make it Extended Plus, or Plus Plus. Hell, it worked for "C."

Evil Dolby Person: Oh come on, will they really fall for that again?

Second Evil Dolby Person: Of course. It's all about Having the Latest. The receiver makers will help us convince them, since we all get another chunk of money out of it.

Evil Dolby Person: Yeah ... yeah ... just might work.

 

[Marshall_M]

Just me thinking out loud but wouldn't it stand to reason if you had 13 channels you could use smaller speakers and still have a very dynamic system even with less power? Maybe some coaxials from seas or tang band.

 

[EricRWem]

6.1 and 7.1 still aren't getting much support.

As overwhelmingly amazing as I'm sure this will be...it just seems like overkill to me. How would you even set it up?

Dolby is going to have a hell of a time getting mass appeal on this, yes, amazing thing.

I'm still well content at 5.1 and I consider myself an HT enthusiast. So...good luck to 'em.

Elinor's post pretty much sums it up.

 

[John Garcia]

It means CAPABLE of that, that does not mean you will see consumer products that will actually DO that (at least not any cheap ones anyway). New gear is already hitting the market as we speak that are DD+ capable. They did not release it first, it's been news for a few months.

 

[Kenneth Harden]

As someone who sells home theater gear, trust me: most people cringe about trying to get a 5.1 rig setup (running wire and such)

13.1 would be a bad idea as standard.

They can do it, sure, but they need to decide on a more basic consumer version that will always give you good results in 5.1 or something like that, then for us hardcore freaks, we can buy a bakers dozen satellites and go to town.

How many people, even on this forum, can have a properly setup 7.1 system, just because of your HT room?

 

[Jeremy Anderson]

I think people are getting too put off by DD+. It mostly just gives them the ability to use higher bitrates for Dolby Digital for use with HD format material, etc. Don't be surprised if the implementation on HD-DVD/Blu-Ray will be 640k, which will work with existing Dolby Digital receivers/decoders (and sound slightly better than the 448k tracks on most DVDs), plus additional data in the extension space for higher bitrate sound for those with DD+ decoding. Yes, it also gives them the ability to store more channels of discrete sound if they choose to... but there's no real indication of anyone using that right now and it's very likely just a move to future-proof the technology.

 

[EricRWem]

Obviously, I'd love to hear this bad boy in action under optimal conditions.

 

[Elinor]

>"How many people, even on this forum, can have a properly setup 7.1 system, just because of your HT room?"

Bingo. Open wall on one side. Never going to happen.

You're right, until we all have dedicated rooms of accommodating sizes/shapes, even 7.1 is going to be unusual.

 

[Robert_Gaither]

The problem is that a lot movies imho don't even know how to mix the 5.1 tracks correctly (why are there no ambiance in some scenes, why much the dialogue come exactly from the center when it should drift slightly from center based on where the speaking character is on the screen, etc) and now we're going to give them even more channels to mess up with? I'm game if they implement it correctly but then I'm single so I have that option.

 

[Marvin Richardson]

My setup is even worse. I'm in an apartment, with no wall on one side of the living room and a sliding glass door on the other. Its bad enough running speaker wire in front of the sliding glass door, but I have to have 5.1 at least! I don't even have a decent place to put a center rear channel!