DTS
®
(5.1 channels, just like DOLBY
®
Digital, but with a higher data rate,
768 to 1536 kBit/s, compared to AC-3 with up to 448 kBit/s) struck back in
1999 with DTS-ES (Extended Surround). It also uses a rear center speaker,
thereby making 6.1 surround possible. In 2001 it was further enhanced with
DTS96/24.
The THX
®
acronym seen the world over is no surround format of its own;
rather, it is a certificate awarded by the US company Lucas Film Ltd. (of Star
Wars fame). It is awarded to high-end home cinema surround components as
well as cinemas featuring strictly prescribed room acoustics. There is THX
®
Select for those products fulfilling the norm, and there is THX
®
Ultra for those
components that feature surround components of particularly high quality.
THX
®
Surround EX is the highest current surround standard. It is the result of
cooperation between LUCASFILM
®
Ltd. and DOLBY
®
Laboratories. It
supports 7.1 channels in home DVD applications: front left/right/center,
subwoofer, surround left/right as well as two (!) rear center speakers
(Surround Back). For more information, visit www.thx.com
.
SONY
®
’s answer to having a surround system with 8 separate channels is
called SDDS (SONY
®
Dynamic Digital Sound) (see www.sdds.com), but it is
exclusively used in cinemas. Therefore, there are no encoders/decoders you
can buy for home cinema applications, and no Hi-Fi receiver/amplifier or a
DVD player supports this format.
DVD-V vs. DVD-A vs. SACD
After DVD-V (Video) established itself as a standard (colloquially referred to
only as “DVD”), since 2002 the industry has also been trying to push the
DVD-A (Audio) against its staunchest opponent, SACD (Super Audio
Compact Disc) developed by SONY
®
and PHILIPS
®
.
18
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