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CES 2008: Dolby Laboratories
Posted January 8, 2008 03:19 AM by PeteR
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I sat with Craig Eggars, Senior Manager at Dolby Laboratories today. Craig was excited about Blu-ray disc and the next generation of audio technologies associated with it, such as Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus.
At the Dolby booth here in CES, a wide variety of Dolby technologies were on display beneath a full-sized version of Bumblebee from Transformers. Blu-ray displays were everywhere, playing clips from some of the biggest hit films of the past year with Dolby TrueHD soundtracks. Craig discussed how Sony requested TrueHD on the Blu-ray disc of Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds: Live at Radio City: even on a BD50, there wasn't enough room for a 5.1 24-bit PCM @96kHz track without serious compromises to the video quality. Using TrueHD cut the required storage space for audio nearly in half, without sacrificing any of the high quality lossless audio and video Blu-ray owners have come to expect.
Another interesting “bit” of information was that Dolby Plus on Blu-ray (used for discs with 7.1 soundtracks) actually encodes 9 channels in the bitstream. Embedded is a 5.1 optimized mix, and then if the user is able to take advantage of 7.1 the surround back channels are added, with different L+R surround channels substituted. This approach lets the listener get the full soundtrack in either 5.1 or 7.1 setups.
Unfortunately, other than the upcoming Celine Dion: A New Day... Live in Las Vegas, Craig was unable to discuss any upcoming titles in TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus. He also stressed that consumers like us are the biggest driving force in getting what we want as far as audio goes on Blu-ray…so don't be afraid to tell the studios! I also asked him about comments and questions about why certain titles were encoded at a certain bit resolution, or used Dialog Normalization or were in TrueHD in some territories and not others. Craig was careful to emphasize that it is up to individual studios, not Dolby, to encode their titles. Other than providing guidelines and technical support, Dolby leaves it in the hands of the content owners in how they present their product to us. He again underscored that it up to us to let the studios know what we want and what we don't.
The new technology Craig was most excited about is Dolby Volume. While it is not Blu-ray specific, it can be used for any playback through a receiver. Using a prototype Onkyo receiver (modified TX-NR905) and a Panasonic DMP-BD10, he demonstrated how various sources can have wildly different playback levels. Dolby Volume divides the signal into 40 bands and analyzes the gain, leveling out the sound between sources without affecting dynamic range or clarity, something older systems like dbx tried to do but introduced artifacts like “breathing” or “pumping”.
Another advantage of Dolby Volume is the ability to maintain clarity of the soundtrack no matter the volume level. Analyzing the volume level set by the listener, it brings up quieter sounds that would be otherwise inaudible at low levels. It also enhances the surround immersion normally lost at low level listening. Dolby Volume is optional, with different preset levels available to the consumer. It can be used on any input source: be it BD, DVD, Satellite/Cable, iPod, XM/Sirius and so on. Dolby Volume will be available later this year.
Finally, I attended a demo in their Home Theater room. Various clips of films and concerts were shown in High Definition, including one from Transformers. Interestingly enough, it was a PlayStation 3 running the demo (make that what you will).
I would like to thank Craig Eggars, Joshua Gershman, and the entire staff at the Dolby booth for a entertaining and interesting visit.
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Source: Blu-ray.com |
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richard lichtenfelt
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Jan 08, 2008
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Dolby Volume has got me listening to their news.
I wanna know more.
Was the Transformers demo being played in the PS3 a blu-ray? |
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GasCat
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Jan 08, 2008
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"Dolby Volume will be available later this year."
Isn't this already possible today without Dolby? |
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kiko
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Jan 08, 2008
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They were using a PS3 even if it can't bitstream new codec ? :P Does that mean that internal decoding is good enough for Dolby to promote it as a Demo ?  |
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CptGreedle
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Jan 08, 2008
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Good article. Dolby rocks! |
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Magic
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Jan 08, 2008
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Great article. I am interested to experience the benefit of Dolby Volume.
Interesting note about Transformers being played on the PS3.... |
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little_boy_blu
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Jan 08, 2008
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interesting tid-bit about the ps3 and transformers  |
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Guinness7
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Jan 08, 2008
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Really learned a lot about what dolby is doing and how they do it. Nice to hear they are really into it. |
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Wolfie
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Jan 08, 2008
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C'mon, Paramount, post your acceptance of Blu-ray, bring out "Transformers" in glorious Blu and I personally will quit calling you "SubPar-amount" and dub you "AbovePar-amount"
Wolfie |
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MrPickle
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Jan 08, 2008
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could of been a video file on the ps3 on not an actual disc |
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Bombthroat
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Jan 08, 2008
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Did you happen to find out if the Transformers you saw in their home theater booth was using Dolby TrueHD for it's audio? |
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