pctechguide.com

Digital Video Television Sound

The standard sound format for European digital television comes in the form of MPEG-2 Stereo. This system can carry two channels of CD quality digital audio. The quality of audio this delivers is little different to that possible using the NICAM Stereo Audio system for digital stereo sound with used by terrestrial analogue television broadcasts in the UK television programmes for the last few years.

As with NICAM, the MPEG-2 Stereo sound can be encoded with the 4-channel Dolby Surround audio suitable for any home Dolby Pro-Logic decoder. Unfortunately, the technology for encoding and transmitting digital surround sound – such as Dolby Digital or even MPEG-2 Multichannel – has not been included in the first generation hardware and software, and is currently incompatible with the digital television systems in use at the turn of the millennium. The official explanation as to why Dolby Digital has been excluded is because the terms of the UK Digital TV standard prevents the use of a proprietary sound system above the MPEG-2 technology used for both picture and sound data compression.

The situation is different elsewhere around the world, however, with several countries having adopted Dolby Digital as the sound format for DTV. The FCC standard for HDTV in the USA includes Dolby AC-3 audio in the specification. This allows for surround sound made up of 5.1 channels of audio, each of which can be sent to up to five separate speakers and a subwoofer.

 

Filed Under: Digital Video

Latest Articles

LCD Resolution and Scaling

LCDs follow a different set of rules than CRT displays offering advantages in terms of bulk, power consumption and flicker, as well as "perfect" geometry. They have the disadvantage of a much higher price, a poorer viewing angle and less accurate colour performance. While CRTs are … [Read More...]

SCSI External Config

This particular scanner has been shipped with a SCSI ID factory setting of 5. Since that's not going to cause any conflict with other SCSI IDs, the setting may be left as it is. … [Read More...]

HP Stream 11 – The Cheaper Answer to Chromebooks?

Microsoft probably has now found the contender with Hewlett Packard’s frontliner HP Stream 11 against Google’s Chromebooks in the cheap netbook department. For the budget conscious, they may want to take a good look at this inexpensive piece of a contender. If you only need is to access the web, … [Read More...]

Guides

Recent Posts

Windows Virtual Firewall

Windows Virtual Firewall Welcome! If you're reading this guide, you've been infected with Windows Virtual Firewall. Infections of this kind pretend … [Read More...]