Surround Sound Formats

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. 

Where does the sound come from?

True surround sound formats rely on dedicated speakers that literally and physically surround the audience.  There is a center speaker which carries most of the actors dialog, 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). Then there is a pair of surround sound speakers that are placed to the side (and slightly above) 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.

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.

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, there 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". 

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.

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 Dolby Digital Surround EX format.

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.

Proper use and placement of surround sound speakers are key to getting the most out of surround sound systems.