15.1 surround sound (1 Viewer)

[Alan_M]

Just looking at the Dolby.com website and noticed the
movie dubbing studio drawing.
I counted 15 speakers.
Is this doable with home equipment?
What does it take?

 

[JeremyFr]

The additional speakers you are seeing in that diagram are due to the size of the room, Multiple speakers play the same exact channel. So even though a dubbing studio and even your local cineplex may have 15 or more speakers there still only utilizing 5.1 6.1 or in rare cases 8.1 channels of audio.

 

[Alan_M]

What's the max?
8.1?

I'm designing a dedicated home theater room and I've got this vision of a circular area with an arsenal of small
speakers wrapping around it.

 

[Holger]

alan,

a circular ht? sounds interesting, a really good choice to avoid those annoying room modes (standing waves).

the most you can do at present is 6.1, if go just straight from the source (dvd), no more channels are delivered.

however, there are methods to go beyond 6.1, e.g if you use a lexicon decoder. those things are capable of *7.1* via their own developed logic7 technic (i would call it a *hybrid* format, a mix of discrete and matrix derrived channels). personally i think nothing on earth can match this format right now.

however, all the new next years (some of them do it already)receivers/pre amps will probably support the new dolby pro logic IIx format, which is also a *7.1* soundsystem.

you could theoratically have a *9.1* ht, if you would use a yamaha item with dplIIx on board and their own *dsp* programms, which uses two additional front speakers. i always found those *dsp's* to be a pain in the a**, but that is up to personal tastes.

anyway: you could have a *5.1* system with let's say three
surround speakers per side. but that would NOT mean to have a *9.1* system, because all surround speakers (per side) would deliver exactly the same signal, so in the end such a ht could be considered as a *5.1* system with an *advanced surround array* or something like that. you get the point?


regards, holger

 

[Bret Pritchett]

In actual movie theaters, SDDS (Sony Digital Dynamic Sound) claims they have 8 channel surround sound. It is:
Far left
left
center
right
Far right
surround right
surround left
subwoofer

Yes, SDDS counts the sub as an entire channel, so they can call it 8 channel, instead of 7.1

In my opinion, Dolby EX 6.1 is the best in theaters right now. 3 in front, 3 in back - it just makes sense. The "far right" and "far left" SDDS does just seams excessive - I've watched several movies in both SDDS and Dolby EX, and can not notice a differnce coming from the sound in the front.


side note - There is not a home receiver that I know of that has SDDS, I also have not seen a DVD that has SDDS format.

 

[ChrisWiggles]

To correct, SDDS utilizes a full 5.1 setup, but with added center left and right. So there is an array of 5 speakers across the screen, which helps keep the soundstage across the front coherent on VERY huge screens.

They are not "far left/right." I know yamaha and some other receivers have some effects dsp channels that they can create that are further out than the L/R main. This is not what SDDS is.

Furthermore, my understanding is that almost no movies actuall utilize all those channels. If i recall correctly, that studios just mix a 5.1 mix and encode it on all three. You'll have to look into that more though.



Dolby Digital does not do 6.1. It is only capable of providing (at this point) 5.1. EX is a matrix processing that is applied to *create* a 6th channel behind the listener for better rear coverage.

DTS for home use can do the same thing as DD EX, but is also capable of discrete 6.1 (DTS-ES discrete). There are very few titles that are encoded in 6.1 DTS-ES discrete. Still, the benefits of using EX/ES matrix processing, or other processing such as L7 processing to create a 6th channel in a 7.1 speaker array is significant.

If you go in any theater, there are many many speakers depending on the size of the auditorium. Usually there are two big arrays that wrap around the left and the right to the rear for 5.1. In a newer setup equipped with EX processing, the rear array is it's own "unit." The number of speakers has nothing to do with the number of discrete channels, or created matrix channels.

 

[Dan Hitchman]

Actually, there is a newer DTS commercial decoder that can do 10 or more discrete channels using DTS's newest codec as well as all other forms of DTS (theatrical and consumer). I think it's mainly for special venue theaters right now, but some brave and industrious sound engineer could use its enhanced channel capability for a feature film.


Dan

 

[Jeff W.]

The best you can do right now is Lord of the Rings (DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete)

You can, and most larger movie theaters do, use multiple side/back surround speakers, but they are fed the same surround channel. More speakers are simply used to fill the larger space better.

http://www.dolby.com/ht/Guide.HomeTh...0110.html#s3.4