Dolby licenses new PC surround sound processors to four key motherboard makers

[SynthDude2001]

I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in the Motherboards forum, but I figured it would probably get more exposure here.

Dolby Laboratories has announced that four leading motherboard manufacturers have become licensees for the Dolby® PC Entertainment Experience.

Motherboards developed and marketed under this licensing programme must meet Dolby?s testing and audio specifications to ensure they meet the surround sound standards demands. Two Dolby options are available for motherboards, with different target audiences and logos: Designed for Dolby® Master Studio or Designed for Dolby® Home Theater logos.

The four companies signing up so far are Abit, ASUSTek, Gigabyte, and MSI, and the differences between the two board types are (in Dolby?s own words):

Designed for Dolby Master Studio
?PCs built with Designed for Dolby Master Studio motherboards are capable of delivering the ultimate set of Dolby audio presentation capabilities, designed to bring your entertainment to life. Amaze your family and friends with 7.1 channels of surround sound, delivering the most natural and engrossing Dolby entertainment experience possible from DVD movies, music, games, and TV. Dolby Master Studio merges advanced audio rendering with flexible controls and powerful digital signal processing to give you the power to tailor the listening experience to your media, mood, listening environment, and audience. Designed for Dolby Master Studio motherboards feature support for Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Digital Live, Dolby Pro Logic® IIx, Dolby Headphone, and Dolby Virtual Speaker technologies.?

Designed for Dolby Home Theater
?PCs built with Designed for Dolby Home Theater motherboards are capable of delivering a true home theatre surround sound experience that places you, your family, and friends right in the middle of the action. Dolby Home Theater PCs can also immerse you in music or game play. Powerful and advanced digital signal processing technologies provide the flexibility to re-create the experience that best fits your media, mood, listening environment, and audience. Transform the playback of all stereo content into vivid surround sound. Supports up to seven speakers for a more natural and realistic listening experience. Dolby Home Theater technologies also support Dolby personal surround sound, so you can experience all of your entertainment in surround sound over two speakers or any set of headphones. Designed for Dolby Home Theater motherboards feature support for Dolby Digital Live, Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Headphone, and Dolby Virtual Speaker technologies.

Source (originally seen on the AVS Forum)

I personally think this is great news...I hope that A64 motherboards using these chips show up within the next few months, which is about when I plan to finally upgrade from my Athlon XP...

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Cool idea, but seems kind of redundant to me... if you care about all this, wont you have a receiver that will do all this anyway?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Well, my understanding is that it's a means of getting a Dolby Digital (or similar) signal out to a receiver, where it would then be decoded. Basically the same thing that Soundstorm does (i.e. real-time DD encoding) so you can push 5.1+ surround sound for games over a digital connection (whereas now it would just be PCM stereo unless you have Soundstorm or the Hitec X-Mystique card).

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

My $25 AV-710 can send a DD signal out to my receiver. (when the source is DD already)

I still don't really understand how soundstorm etc. produce a 5.1 DD signal from games that don't have a 5.1 DD track... does it just take the 5.1 info from the game and encode it to DD 5.1?

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
My $25 AV-710 can send a DD signal out to my receiver.

Yes, but only if you already have an encoded DD signal. Any sound card with a digital output can do that.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Alright, I was fixing that already

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
I still don't really understand how soundstorm etc. produce a 5.1 DD signal from games that don't have a 5.1 DD track... does it just take the 5.1 info from the game and encode it to DD 5.1?

Yes.

(And it wouldn't be possible AFAIK for a game to have a DD 5.1 "track" anyway, since game sound is dynamic...)

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

What's the point of that when you can run the analog signals right to your receiver? (ok, less cords I guess and you don't have to deal with the DACs on the soundcard or the crossover issues)

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
What's the point of that when you can run the analog signals right to your receiver? (ok, less cords I guess and you don't have to deal with the DACs on the soundcard or the crossover issues)

Yeah, that's basically it. When I use the DD encoding (hooking up my computer to someone's receiver at a LAN party usually), it's great to be able to connect just one optical cable for the sound. I realize not all people think the real-time encoding is useful, but I for one enjoy having the option.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

Yeah, it's a cool idea. I don't hook up with analog in addition to digital because of all the cables it would take. I like my nifty optical cable

I just use 7 channel stereo usually (or logic 7 or some dolby pro logic sort of thing) to get it on all speakers and I don't really miss the true surround stuff anymore :Q.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: YOyoYOhowsDAjello
Yeah, it's a cool idea. I don't hook up with analog in addition to digital because of all the cables it would take. I like my nifty optical cable

I just use 7 channel stereo usually (or logic 7 or some dolby pro logic sort of thing) to get it on all speakers and I don't really miss the true surround stuff anymore :Q.

lies :Q

At one LAN party I went to a few months back, when I hooked my video card up to an HDTV and Soundstorm to the receiver via optical cable, we did lots of gaming...It was unreal - as if Doom 3 weren't scary enough normally. True surround sound just adds to the experience.

Edit: I've also been meaning to bring my computer to a friend's house and do some gaming on his $2500 speaker set that he got for his 19th birthday (or 18th, I forget). I have a feeling I'll never want to leave

 

[ViRGE]

FYI, this isn't really a technology licensing program, it's a certification program. Dolby's not giving the members any hardware, rather they are giving the members the Dolby stamp of approval to put on their boxes if their products meet the requirements set forth under the program. Additionally, reading through the release I see nothing that indicates DICE is required, rather I'm guessing that support for these technologies means that the boards can either decode or pass-through the appropriate signal as necessary. Creative has a similar program with the THX certification; their newer Audigies are THX certified even though it simply means they meet the THX group's standards, there are no new features.

 

[SynthDude2001]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
FYI, this isn't really a technology licensing program, it's a certification program. Dolby's not giving the members any hardware, rather they are giving the members the Dolby stamp of approval to put on their boxes if their products meet the requirements set forth under the program. Additionally, reading through the release I see nothing that indicates DICE is required, rather I'm guessing that support for these technologies means that the boards can either decode or pass-through the appropriate signal as necessary. Creative has a similar program with the THX certification; their newer Audigies are THX certified even though it simply means they meet the THX group's standards, there are no new features.

Oh...I suppose I completely misunderstood it then? :brokenheart:

I was so hopeful too...

 

[DaveSimmons]

Yeah, I read this as just a label like THX for the DVD decoder software included for the onbaord audio to output via the analog channels.

This doesn't meantion anything about real-time encoding.