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13.1 Surround Sound Coming to a Home near you?
An anonymous reader writes "Need to see the anatomy of a codec? Dolby Digital plus is starting to make inroads in the audio world and this article gives you the technical insight into the Enhanced AC-3 codec. Will consumers soon be getting the full 13.1 audio system that we hear in movie theaters?"
It always bothers me that most movies barely use the surround channels that are available to them. When is the last time you really heard more than a few enviromental effects during a movie, at a theater or even at home? the special setup discs and whatnot do a good job but most movies only have a few gimmicks in them that make you go "wow, where did that sound come from". Most of the sound is preatty much just in the center, right, and left channels especially any dialog. Mostly it just seems like they are just trying to up the numbers to make it seem more impressive, but i bet on most movies you would have a really hard time differentiating between 6 channels and 13, and maybe even basic stereo and surround for some movies.
"Alcohol, cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems" -Homer Simpson
lol I was thinking the same thing. I don't even want to know how much his cabling cost and the funny/sad part is you can get vastly superior cables for less $$$.
- Toby
All you need are two channels and headphones.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
I don't think the 13.1 in this story is 13.1. I think it reflects the theatres' 13.1 speaker implementation of 5.1 channel sound.
...1...2...3...
....4.....5....
SPEAKERS:
3 across the front
4 down each side
2 at the back
CHANNELS:
#s 1-5 played back over speakers like this:
4.............5
4.............5
4.............5
4.............5
This article is of course missing that no cinemas (other than IMAX which I don't know about) have 13.1 surround sound setups! Cinema formats are roughly as follows Dolby A & Dolby B - Mono, Analog, drawn on the side of the film Dolby Surround - Stereo, Analog, made to seem surround with some clever electronics. Dolby Digital - 5.1 Surround, digital data printed between the sprocket holes on the film Dolby Digital EX - 6.1 surround, same system as DD DTS - 5.1 timing signature printed on film, syncs it up with a CD or two. DTS ES - 6.1, same system SDDS - 8.1, data is on a magnetic strip on the side of the film. The vast bulk of cinemas you go to (even THX approved ones) have DD and DTS, some have SDDS and a very few have the EX and ES variants of DD. All cinemas support Dolby A, B and Surround. Bob
we already went over this
use lamp cord.
turn up the jukebox and tell me a lie
This thread got me searching;
you can find the cow one (and others) here: http://www.thx.com/trailers/
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
Even though the consumers would have 14 speakers in their livingroom, they'd still only have two ears.
I used to wonder about why you couldn't just do surround with 2 speakers, too. There are a few reasons, but I believe the primary one is how you pinpoint where sound is coming from - as your head moves around, your brain keeps track of what sounds get louder and softer and paints an aural picture based on that. Technologies have come out that create a surround stage with headphones or stereo speakers, but the illusion is destroyed as soon as you move your head.
That being said, I don't think this will catch on for a loooooong time. Even 7.1 sound, which came out a few years ago, isn't particularly widespead in home theater. The only people who will get this will be the easily suckered nutcases who blow their money on all kinds of HT gear for no reason. I absolutely cannot figure those people out. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go add three more neon lights to my case and immerse my CPU in liquid helium.
Three scalars give you triangulation, which will help you locate a specific location along TWO dimensions. This is how the "location" feature of digital cell phones works, how a surveyor's transit works, etc. For 3 dimensions, you add the "Z axis," which requires another set of points against which to triangulate. This is the point of 10.1 (which I have experienced personally) and 13.1. Current 5/7.1 systems leave the Z axis entirely out.
For that matter, why is 7.1 "better" than 5.1? Easy. Audio perception is far more directional than 5.1 can accommodate. The "mid-left" and "mid-rear" channels fill in the gaps that 5.1 leaves.
With that said, I'm quite happy to listen to South Park in 5.1 in my living room. Theatrical presentations will benefit from 7.1, and to the extent that presenters hope to achieve accurate reproduction of the original environment (so called "room shaping"), 10.1 and 13.1 are an absolute requirement. You can't reproduce the reverberations from a particular concert hall without accommodating the Z axis...
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
The only difference between PVC and plenum-rated cable is with regard to electrical/fire code compliance. Use whatever is cheapest and meets code. The advantage of plenum-rated cable when making runs through vent ducts is when your house catches fire, the burning cable jacket won't flood your house with toxic fumes by way of your HVAC system.
Have you actually taken the time to dissect a good Monster Cable?
Mind you the low end stuff (XP, 100 series, etc are all just normal cables), but the M-Series or 1000 series stuff.
Those cables are intense. The dielectric locks the individual pairs in place so that crosstalk and inductance are constant even if the cable is moved around or bent (sure it will change some, but not nearly as much as a cheaper cable will).
There is a lot of copper in those things, and everyone should agree that the more signal flow the better, especially with high power cables (i.e. speaker cables).
They also have a lifetime guarantee with no questions asked. Yes, if you read the warranty information there are caveats, but as someone who knows some pro-line Monster reps, any retailer is told by Monster to not ask any questions unless it is extremely obvious that they did something amazing stupid with the cables. A cable doesn't work, even if visibly damaged, and the retailers are supposed to grab it and pull one off the rack for you. Yes, honest retailers (hard to find nowadays I know) will do this.
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Sound having to go around your head and ears is distorted frequency wise. Your brain detects the different frequency response, as well as the different timing between the sound heard by both ears (this is phase BTW), to figure out what direction a sound is coming from including any angle of front/back as well as height information.
The brain can also distinguish very well the difference between the original sound, and reflected sounds to help determine area size and original sound source distance.
Since recorded sound does not hit you from different directions as diverse as those in nature sound from speakers will always sound different than a live experience. This is why things like fan and machine noise are ignored by most people when they are in the room, but record it and it sticks out like a sore thumb. That stuff typically is reflected willy-nilly and hits you from all angles. Since this is just background noise most people have trained themselves to tune it out unless it is really abundant. Make all that sound come from headphones, or a set of speakers that can be pinpointed by the ears and suddenly the noise is much more directional and your ears won't tune it out.
As far as 13.1 goes, there has been a 10.2 movement going on for almost a freaking decade now, lead most of that time by Tomlinson Holman. 10.2 still has such small penetration, even in actual Movie Theaters that I highly doubt 13.1 will get any penetration into the home except for those people into conspicuous consumption (look its my 3rd hummer, I park it next to my schooner), and they don't really appreciate it, they only hope others notice it.
And just because a theater has lots of speakers does not mean that they are discreet. All of the left side speakers utilize the same playback channel, the right side of course is the same. This way no matter where you sit between the front and back of the 'house' the side surround information will be the same. There are a few discreet front speakers (between 3 and 7 depending on the system) and usually 1 back channel.
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