dolby

Do you use all seven channels on your home theater receiver?

An industry insider recently admitted to me that only 30 percent of AV receiver buyers ever bother to hook up all seven channels to their receivers. That guesstimate seems a little high to me; the standard 5.1 channel setup: Left, center, right speakers upfront, and a pair of surround speakers to the sides of the main listening position can supply a truly immersive sound experience.

Seven-channel home theater adds two more speakers, placed behind the main listening position. That's tough to accomplish in rooms where the couch or chairs are up against the rear wall. There's no "rear" there, so some folks mount the rear speakers up high, or bounce the sound off the ceiling.

Still, the rear surrounds typically contribute little, so it's pretty hard to justify the added expense and hassle of running the extra wires for a marginal sonic improvement. The one exception might apply to very large rooms where the side and rear surround speakers are further apart from each other. The extra coverage may produce a more complete sense of surround envelopment. … Read more

New Acer Blue Gemstone notebooks shave price

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Editor's note: the Acer Aspire AS5739G does not have a Blu-ray drive. The spec has been updated accordingly.)

Prices keep dropping on laptops, and Acer, as always, is right in the middle adding fuel to the budget fires. Monday, Acer announced updates to its Blue Gemstone line of multimedia laptops, with 16x9 LED-backlit displays, Dolby Home Theater surround sound systems, 802.11 b/g/n, multitouch pads, and one-touch Acer Backup Manager included in all models. The most impressive part of the announcement is the price.

The Acer Aspire AS5536 Notebook has a base model starting with a 15.… Read more

Digital cinema is looking 'Up'

I went to an opening-day screening of the new Disney/Pixar film "Up," on Friday. I had a great time and not just because of the movie. There was an interesting technology story, too.

The Camera 7 theater in the Silicon Valley city of Campbell recently installed four new digital cinema projectors. They're the best on the market today: Sony's SRXR220, which lists for about $200,000 with the usual required accessories.

Sony also has a slightly less expensive model, the SRXR210, for smaller screens. What puts these projectors ahead of the competition is their native … Read more

Dolby Pro Logic IIz: Taking a second listen

Recently, Steve Guttenberg, our resident audio guru, took a listen to the first AV receiver to offer Dolby Pro Logic IIz. And he wasn't impressed.

Pro Logic IIz is the latest surround format from Dolby Labs. This one utilizes "height speakers" placed above the left and right front-channel speakers. The configuration Guttenberg tested utilized a 7.1 configuration (a standard 5.1 setup, plus 2 height speakers), but Pro Logic IIz is designed to support 9.1 as well (7.1 plus 2). That will presumably be supported in future

According to Dolby's Web site, the advantages of Pro Logic IIz are as follows:

With Dolby Pro Logic IIz, rain in a movie now seems to be actually falling on the listener's roof, concert videos bring a more intense sense of being at the performance, and orchestral works deliver more palpable depth, power, and connection.

In games, the added dimension increases the realism and immerses players more deeply than ever in the action.

Because it processes only nondirectional sounds for the height channels, Dolby Pro Logic IIz maintains the integrity of the source mix and the effects are always appropriate to the material. The added dimension complements the sound from the rear-surround speakers, adding spaciousness while honoring the original intent of the content creator.

Alas, Guttenberg could barely hear a difference when Dolby Pro Logic IIz was engaged: "The height speakers didn't make a discernible difference. I couldn't hear them at all, so I increased the height speaker volume by 3 decibels. Still no difference."

Needless to say, Dolby and Onkyo (the maker of the TX-SR607, which is the first IIz-compatible hardware) weren't too happy with that evaluation. So, we told them we'd give it a second chance, with more ears in the room.

For Round Two, Steve Guttenberg (again), Executive Editor David Carnoy, Senior Associate Editor Matthew Moskovciak, and I crowded into the CNET audio room.… Read more

'Height' speakers elevate surround sound

Atlantic Technology's new 1400 SR-z speaker was designed with Dolby's Pro Logic IIz "height" surround processor in mind

The new speaker's compact size and shallow profile allow it to be unobtrusively mounted high on the wall above the system's front left and right main speakers. The 1400 SR-z sells for $425/pair MSRP.

The company claims that the 1400 SR-z's "voicing" and timbre will match all of Atlantic Technology's speaker systems.

Each 1400 SR-z uses a pair of 3.5-inch full-range polymer-treated cone drivers. The wedge-shaped speaker disperses sound laterally … Read more

First listen: Dolby Pro Logic IIz 'height' surround falls flat

The Dolby Web site is bubbling with excitement about its new processing trick, "With Dolby Pro Logic IIz, rain in a movie now seems to be actually falling on the listener's roof, concert videos bring a more intense sense of being at the performance, and orchestral works deliver more palpable depth, power, and connection." The "z" in Pro Logic IIz signifies the Z axis, otherwise known as height.

Sounds interesting, but when I setup and listened to the first receiver (an Onkyo TX-SR607) with Pro Logic IIz, the height speakers didn't lift my spirits.

Pro Logic IIz can, depending on the receiver's capabilities, either augment a 5.1 or 7.1 channel speaker system with two height channels. In other words, in a 5.1 channel system with Pro Logic IIz you'll have five speakers in the front of the room--left, center, right, left height, and right height--plus a surround speaker to both sides of the main listening position.

The 7.1 system with Pro Logic IIz uses the same speaker array--plus two rear surround speakers.

Once you have a receiver equipped with Pro Logic IIz, and wall mount the height speakers three feet or higher over the main left/right speakers, you're all set. You won't have to buy specially encoded movies or music.

According to Dolby, "Pro Logic IIz identifies and decodes spatial cues that occur naturally in all content--stereo and 5.1 broadcast, music CDs, DVDs, 5.1 and 7.1 Blu-ray discs, and video games. Dolby Pro Logic IIz processes low-level, uncorrelated information--such as ambience and some amorphous effects like rain or wind--and directs it to the front height speakers."

Nice idea, did it actually work? … Read more

Dolby literally to give you more 3D

The first time I bought into this this whole digital 3D thing was a 2006 showing of "Superman Returns" on an IMAX screen. In the scene, various objects floated around the screen and seemingly, right in front of my face. For me, this was the first time 3D had lived up to its promise.

If Dolby Laboratories has anything to say about it, it won't be the last. On Tuesday, the company announced that theater exhibitors will now be able to play Dolby 3D Digital Cinema content on screen sizes of up to 70 feet (42 feet … Read more

Home theater speaker placement tips

In the beginning of recorded sound, there was mono. One speaker, period.

Mono speakers were plopped wherever it was convenient, and that was that. Consumer audio remained strictly mono until the late 1950s with the introduction of stereo tape and LPs. Now you needed two speakers.

Home theater upped the ante to 5.1 channel surround sound--five speakers, plus a subwoofer--and setup hassles were getting tricky. Dolby's Web site offers very specific requirements for the placement of the front left, center, right speakers, and the side surround speakers. 6.1 and 7.1 systems add rear surround speakers.

It's one thing to look at a diagram, but your room probably doesn't look like the diagram. Reality sets in, so very few 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 system buyers get remotely close to the recommended speaker placements.

I've seen countless 5.1 home theater in a box systems in real people's homes with all five satellite speakers clumped in a row under or over the TV. Some buyers spread the speakers out across their entertainment furniture, still with all the speakers in front, near the TV. Obviously, those people don't want to string wires across the room. I don't blame them.

On one hand it'll sound "fine," but the envelopment the film sound mixers worked so hard to achieve will be lost. Don't worry, the Dolby Police won't arrest you for improper placement and the certain destruction of the filmmaker's intent.

If you have all of your speakers sitting in a pile, but I've made you a little curious, temporarily move the surround speakers out into the room. Put 'em on something to get them off the floor: A chair, bookcase, furniture, and so on. Play a few big action flicks and see what's up with surround. It might surprise you and just maybe you'll be inspired enough to make the effort to find permanent, around the room locations for the surround speakers. Hey, in 5.1 it's only two skinny wires.… Read more

Dolby Pro Logic IIz adds vertical dimension to surround sound

Dolby has a new surround format: Pro Logic IIz.

Here we go again. Another new format with more speakers, but this time, the "surround" speakers are in the front of the room, three or four feet above the left-and right-main speakers. These height channels are designed to provide a greater sense of envelopment than previous generations of Dolby or DTS surround.

Pro Logic IIz incorporates all of the features and capabilities of Pro Logic IIx.

"Expanding on established Dolby Pro Logic II matrix-decoding innovations, Dolby Pro Logic IIz identifies and decodes spatial cues that occur naturally in all content--stereo and 5.1 broadcast, music CDs, DVDs, 5.1 and 7.1 Blu-ray Discs, and video games," the Dolby site further explains. "Dolby Pro Logic IIz processes low-level, uncorrelated information--such as ambiance and some amorphous effects like rain or wind--and directs it to the front height speakers."

You don't have to buy new, specially encoded discs to experience Pro Logic IIz, but do you really want to buy another pair of speakers, wall-mount them, and run a pair of speaker wires up your wall, to the sides of your TV?

Dolby doesn't require the height speakers to be identical to the main-left or -right speakers. Some Pro Logic IIz systems will use a total of nine speakers (five front, four rear), plus one or more subwoofers.

Onkyo's TX-SR607 ($599 MSRP) is the first receiver to feature Pro Logic IIz; the company will soon offer additional models equipped with the new Dolby processor, to be announced later this year.

Then again, Yamaha's higher-end receivers have had height, aka "Presence," channels for years. Those extra speakers supplement the sound from the front speakers with ambient effects produced by Yamaha's proprietary Cinema DSP, which provides various multichannel configurations up to 11 channels. Obviously, Dolby's Pro Logic IIz uses different technology, though the end result may be similar. … Read more

Onkyo announces 2009 AV receivers, including first receiver with Dolby ProLogic IIz

Sony and Yamaha have announced their midrange AV receiver lines, and today Onkyo announced three new AV receivers ranging in price from $300 to $600. The biggest news is that the new TX-SR607 ($600) will be the first receiver to feature Dolby ProLogic IIz sound processing, which can expand existing 7.1 soundtracks to 9.1, routing some of the audio to "front high speakers" which are positioned above your standard front speakers. Let's take a look at how all three models compare:

Onkyo TX-SR307

Key features of the Onkyo TX-SR307:

5.1 AV receiver with 65 … Read more