What Is Surround Sound?

Surround sound refers to the use of multiple audio tracks to envelop the
movie watching or music listening audience, making them feel like they're in
the middle of the action or concert. The surround sound movie soundtrack
allows the audience to hear sounds coming from all around them, and plays a
large part in realizing what movie makers call "suspended disbelief".
"Suspended disbelief" is when the audience is completely captivated by the
movie experience and is no longer aware of their real-world surroundings.
True surround sound formats rely on dedicated speakers that literally and
physically surround the audience. There is one center speaker which carries
most of the dialog (since the actors usually speak while making their on-
screen appearance), and part of the soundtrack. There are left and right
front speakers that carry most of the soundtrack (music and sound effects),
and may carry parts of the dialog (when the director wants to intentionally
off-set the source of the dialog to either side, from its default dead-center
screen location). There is a pair of surround sound speakers that is placed to
the side (and slightly above) of the audience to provide the surround sound
and ambient effects. Finally, a subwoofer can be used to reproduce the low
and very low frequency effects (LFE) that come with certain movies (e.g., the
foot-stomping bass effects in "Jurassic Park" and "Godzilla").

A typical surround sound home theater system
(picture courtesy of Dolby Laboratories)
There are virtual surround sound algorithms (e.g., Sound Retrieval System
[SRS] and other proprietary algorithms) that make use of only two left and
right speakers and psycho-acoustics effects to emulate true surround sound
formats. While we think the result is a more expansive soundstage with
better ambiance, we have not heard a virtual surround sound implementation
that comes anywhere close to resembling a true surround sound system. For
the purposes of this discussion, we shall focus only on the true surround sound
formats (that is, those that rely of multiple dedicated speakers).

Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital (formerly known as Dolby AC-3, where AC-3 is short for audio
coding 3) is the de facto surround sound standard in today's home theaters.
It is the surround sound format used in thousands of movie theaters today.
And, since about the mid-1990's, it has become available for home theater use
by consumers. Today, a large percentage of the DVD-Video titles come with
Dolby Digital surround sound. Dolby Digital content first appeared on
LaserDisc, since DVDs only emerged in the Spring of 1997. (Incidentally, Hi-Fi
VHS still only supports up to Dolby Surround Pro-Logic.)

Not only is Dolby Digital the standard for DVD-Video, but it is also part of
the new High Definition TV (HDTV) standard. It is used in pay-per-view
movies and digital TV channels of digital satellite broadcasting (e.g., DIRECTV
system). Dolby Digital is the successor to Dolby Surround Pro-Logic. The
Dolby Digital surround sound format provides up to five discrete (independent)
channels (center, left, right, surround left, surround right; giving it the "5"
designation) of full frequency effects (from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz), plus an
optional sixth channel dedicated for low frequency effects (LFE), usually
reserved for the subwoofer speaker. The low frequency effects channel gives
Dolby Digital the ".1" designation. The ".1" signifies that the sixth channel is
not full frequency, as it contains only deep bass frequencies (3 Hz to 120 Hz).

Readers should note that not all Dolby Digital soundtracks have 5.1 channels
of audio. Those that are have the designation "Dolby Digital 5.1". Since
Dolby Digital is a flexible surround sound format that supports up to 5.1
channels, Dolby Digital soundtracks could have one channel of audio (mono,
designated as "Dolby Digital 1.0"), two channels of audio (stereo or Dolby
Surround Pro-Logic, designated as "Dolby Digital 2.0"), or five channels of
audio (designated as "Dolby Digital 5.0"). In fact, the Dolby Digital 2.0
soundtrack is required for all Region 1 (U.S. and Canada) DVDs. To learn more
about Dolby Digital, read this Dolby Digital reference page.


DTS Digital Surround

An alternative and competing format to Dolby Digital is DTS Digital Surround,
or just "DTS". Like Dolby Digital, DTS is another 5.1-channel surround sound
format that is available in movie theaters, and as an optional soundtrack on
some DVD-Video movies for home theater viewing. But unlike Dolby Digital,
DTS is not a standard soundtrack format for DVD-Video, and is not used by
HDTV or digital satellite broadcasting.
The primary advantage of DTS is that it offers higher data rates than
Dolby Digital, leading many home theater enthusiasts to claim that DTS is
better than Dolby Digital in sound quality. The down side is that a DTS
soundtrack uses more of the disc's data capacity due to its higher data rate.
This fact plus the fact that DTS is not a standard soundtrack format for
DVD-Video makes DTS an optional 5.1-channel surround format that is
actually available on few DVD-Video movies. There are far more DVD-Video
titles with Dolby Digital soundtracks than there are those with the DTS
surround sound format. For additional information about DTS, read this DTS
reference page.

Dolby Surround Pro-Logic
Dolby Surround Pro-Logic emerged in home theater systems in the early
1990's. It became the surround sound standard for Hi-Fi VHS, and is still
the standard for today's analog TV broadcasts, since the Dolby Surround
Pro-Logic signal can be encoded in a stereo analog signal. If you have an
"older" Dolby Surround Pro-Logic receiver, you can still enjoy movies from
DVD-Video, since all DVD-Video players down-mixes the Dolby Digital
information to the Dolby Surround Pro-Logic format, and outputs the signal as
a stereo audio pair.

Extended Surround formats:

Dolby Digital EX, THX Surround EX & DTS Extended
Surround (DTS-ES)
Just when you thought 5.1-channel Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound
were enough, at the leading edge today are two new "Extended Surround"
formats, namely THX Surround EX and DTS Extended Surround (or DTS-
ES for short).

The THX Surround EX format is jointly developed by Lucasfilm THX and Dolby
Laboratories, and is the home theater version of "Dolby Digital Surround
EX", an Extended Surround sound format used by state-of-the-art movie
theaters. Lucasfilm THX licenses the THX Surround EX format for use in
receivers and preamplifiers. And as of November 2001, Dolby Laboratories
has begun to license what is THX Surround EX under its own name, Dolby
Digital EX, for consumer home theater equipment. (Since THX Surround EX
and Dolby Digital EX are equivalent, we will refer to THX Surround EX and
Dolby Digital EX interchangeably, with preference for the former since that
name has been around longer.)

THX Surround EX is the Extended Surround version of Dolby Digital 5.1, while
DTS-ES is that of DTS 5.1. The difference between the new Extended
Surround formats and their 5.1-channel surround sound counterparts is the
addition of a surround back channel, whose corresponding speaker is placed
behind the audience. This allows certain soundtrack effects to be presented
behind the audience, thereby achieving more enveloping and complete 360
surround sound. (Remember that in the 5.1-channel surround sound formats,
the surround speakers are placed one on each side of the audience - not
behind them.) Additionally, while the Extended Surround sound format calls
for one surround back channel, two surround back speakers are generally
recommended for better envelopment. Acknowledging this widely accepted
industry position, some high-end receiver manufacturers have introduced "7.1-
channel" capable receivers, with decoding and sometimes amplification for the
two extra surround back channels.

Both THX Surround EX and DTS-ES Matrix surround sound encode the
surround back channel information into the
surround left and surround right channels (similar
to the way the center channel is encoded for
Dolby Surround Pro-Logic). This cross-channel encoding is referred to as
matrix encoding, since the surround back channel is encoded and later
decoded (or derived) from those of the surround left and surround right
channels. Because of this matrix encoding scheme, the surround back channel
is not a true discrete channel and is technically considered a 5.1- channel
format. And for this reason, they are sometimes referred to as "Dolby
Digital 5.1 EX" or "DTS 5.1 ES". To refer to these matrix encoded Extended
Surround formats as 6.1-channel would be wrong. (When we use quotes, as in
the "7.1-channel" reference above, we are recognizing that it may not be a
true discrete 7.1-channel system.)

A true 6.1-channel format: DTS-ES Discrete 6.1
DTS-ES can optionally support a fully discrete surround back channel. That
is, the surround back channel has it own data stream and is truly independent
from those of the surround left and surround right channels. This true 6.1-
channel format is appropriately called DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 (in contrast to its
matrix counterpart, DTS-ES Matrix). And as with DTS-ES Matrix, this
discrete format is better realized with two surround back speakers. So our
comment above about high-end manufacturers implementing "7.1-channel"
receivers and preamplifiers for this purpose still holds true.

The Extended Surround formats are completely backwards-compatible with
their 5.1-channel counterparts. That is, THX Surround EX is backwards
compatible with Dolby Digital 5.1, and DTS-ES Matrix and DTS-ES Discrete
6.1 are backwards compatible with DTS 5.1. Additionally, DTS-ES Discrete 6.1
is backwards compatible with DTS-ES Matrix. In order to hear the matrix
Extended Surround formats, you will need a THX Surround EX, DTS-ES Matrix,
or a generic "6.1-channel" decoder in your receiver or preamplifier and use
the digital audio output of your DVD player. To hear DTS-ES Discrete 6.1,
you will need a DTS-ES Discrete 6.1 decoder in your receiver or preamplifier.
In any case, you will also need six or seven channels of amplification, and one
or two extra speakers for the surround back channel. Rest assured, you can
still use your existing (or a soon-to-be-purchased) DVD-Video player, as long
as it features Dolby Digital and DTS digital output.

Movies and DVDs featuring Extended Surround
"Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace" is the very first movie to
feature the new Dolby Digital Surround EX format (though Dolby Digital
Surround EX playback is offered only in the finest state-of-the-art movie
theaters). Even up until now, only a handful of movies have been released
with the new Dolby Digital Surround EX format. For lists of theatrical movie
titles with Dolby Digital Surround EX soundtrack, click here for previous
releases and here for upcoming releases.
Likewise, only a few DVDs released to date have either THX Surround EX or
DTS-ES. The first DVD with THX Surround EX is "Austin Powers: The Spy
Who Shagged Me", while the first with DTS-ES 6.1 Discrete is "The
Haunting". "Terminator 2: Judgment Day (Ultimate Edition)" DVD features
both THX Surround EX and DTS-ES Discrete 6.1. If you're interested in DVDs
with Extended Surround sound, our DVD New Releases and Upcoming Releases
pages designate those DVD titles that are available in either THX Surround
EX or DTS-ES.
Additional Info: Proper use and placement of surround sound speakers are key to
getting the most out of surround sound systems. For a more detailed discussion of
proper use and placement of speakers for a home theater environment, read this
authoritative guide from Dolby Laboratories.