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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?"
13 discrete speakers and a subwoofer?
Coming to a home near me?
Rrrriiiiight.
See, I have what we call "2.0 surround sound". It "surrounds" me from both corners of my living room.
Because ears gain perception based on direction. The more directions a sound can come from, the more immersive the experience for the end user. Thats why when The latest action is at the cinema you **feel** it, yet when playing it on your PSP you watch it.
that said, anything over 7.1 Is a bit of overkill
If you sell it, some rapper/actor/athlete will buy it.
At least, not if my wife has anything to say about it.
I,
Can hear it now. Channel 11 has the whiny kid positioned about five feet ahead of me to the left and channel 8 has the mumbling of the jerks who refuse to stop talking to my direct rear.
Perhaps we can get some 13.1 sensurround where a Dolby foot in tune with nothing constantly kicks the back of your recliner as well.
---- Go ahead, mod me down, I'll just post it again and you lose your mod points.
More speakers in home theatre set ups will just waste money and space. Sound can be easily projected with as few as 4 well-placed speakers (plus one subwoofer), and its a great deal easier to set up. I can safely guarantee that 99% of homes with 13 speakers will have them placed wrong.
Badass Resumes
While 13.1 may be appealing to people who need to have the next greatest thing, this will be useless for any significant market. How many home theaters have the correct shape, paneling, furniture placement, and size to take advantage of the acoustical advantages of so many channels? Even at 5.1 channels, I can tell that the acoustic signature in the seat next to me is different -- and less perfect. How will this change with 13.1?
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
The only reason you really have that many speakers in a movie theater is because, well...it's big! I think 10 speakers is really the max for a home theater, and even that for the people who can devote a room to just a theater. My perfect sound setup would be a center, 2 front, 2 mid, 2 back, 1 directly behind, and 1 pointing down from the cieling. So that gives you pretty much full surround sound, as not much tends to happen below people in movies.
For the average joe though I think 7.1 is pretty good, considering most people tend to get the cheapest speakers they can get, usually those ones that come with the theater packages, $199 for 7 speakers. I think the amount of speakers is less important than quality. I would rather be stuck in stereo with two very high quality speakers, than surround sound with 7 crappy ones.
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
No kidding.
You could overcome some of the wires with a wireless or IR set-up, but where and for what you need all these audio drivers is beyond me.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
If I'm going to go for overkill, I'm going all the way.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
Sound tech 1:"Okay everyone, sound check!"
Sound tech 2:"Cue Leonard Nimoy"
Sound tech 3(quietly):"Leonard Nimoy!? Why?"
(LN):"Because he grew up a few blocks from here!"
It's small part of the Boston Museum of Science's Omnitheater sound check, and they even put lights on each channel's speakers behind the screen so you can see them as each channel is "checked". Then they do a driver through Boston traffic with an omnimax camera on the bumper of a car. And speed it up at least 2x. Even the most die-hard Boston taxi driver will grip his seat :-) Oh, and yes, Nimoy narrates the whole intro.
Then you do a helicopter trip over parts of New England, coming into a harbor in Maine...then on the docks. Ahhh, peaceful, quiet, much better you think.
"Hey CHaaaalie. They folks whanaaah seeah lobstah!" And then you get presented with a live lobster...full screen width, up close and personal, an inch or two from the lens, complete with squishy/squeeky noises :-)
Please help metamoderate.
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
Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the fucking vanguard of audio in this country. Stereo was the system to own. Then the other guy came out with an 6 speaker system. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called 5.1 surround. That's five speakers and a subwoofer. For Bass. But you know what happened next? Shut up, I'm telling you what happened - the bastards went to 8 speakers. Now we're standing around with our cocks in our hands, selling five speakers and a subwoofer. Surround sound or no, suddenly we're the chumps. Well, fuck it. We're going to 14 speakers.
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James M. Kilts CEO and President, The Dolby Corporation
http://www.physics.mcgill.ca/~arobic/funny/Gill
Top 10 Reasons To Procrastinate
10.
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
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)
Eh, the article wasn't duped enough. I missed it.
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.
Yup....I switched all my speaker wire to CAT5 plenum cable a couple of years ago...just opened up the wire ends...stripped the individual wires inside, and twisted all the stripped wires together for negative, and all the solid colored wires for positive.
I did one speaker at a time...and could definitely tell the difference....but, get the plenum coated CAT5...something about the dielectric property or shielding? I did this a year or two ago...can't remember all I read about it...but, it works.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
13.1 is just silly for a single listener. The speaker system in a theater is doing a different job - it can't be set up with just one sweet spot, because there are people spread out over a huge area in the room. In your living room, you only need the sound to be right in one place. It's entirely possible a 5.1 system does a better job for one listener than a 13.1 in a theater.
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.