PS3 Slim supports high-end audio bitstreaming

The Playstation 3 is one of the most popular Blu-ray Disc players on the market, mostly because it pulls double-duty as a game console. However, it still lacks a few key aspects that make it a really good home theater device. Mainly, it doesn't bitstream Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD Master Audio codecs, and its internal decoding was prone to distortion and garbling the audio of those codecs. If you want to watch your Blu-ray Discs with the most advanced audio tracks available, you're out of luck if you have a PS3.

Sony's new PS3 Slim, the smaller Playstation 3 the company announced this week, corrects that oversight. According to EngadgetHD, the new console can bitstream Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio tracks straight to a receiver. It's a small addition, but one that should be welcome among home theater enthusiasts. Since the PS3 Slim will have the same $299 price tag as the PS3, it could become the newest most-popular-Blu-ray-player.

— Will Greenwald

California declares July 1, 2009 "DTS 7.1 Day"

Happy DTS 7.1 Day! If you're a resident of the Golden State (and more specifically, the SoCal community of Agoura Hills), then today is a day to celebrate DTS 7.1 surround. Agoura Hills mayor Denis Weber and California 41st District assemblywoman Julia Brownley have proclaimed that July 1st, 2009, is "DTS 7.1 Day."

What does this mean? Well, it means DTS put up a nice web site highlighting the day and that Fred Willard will be in some more comedy sketches, but besides that, it doesn't mean a whole lot.

While DTS has been saying that the California Assembly has recognized today as "DTS 7.1 Day," it's basically just the work of the aforementioned mayor and assemblywoman. Don't expect Governor Schwarzenegger to make a statewide declaration of the day, or for everyone from Napa to San Diego to celebrate 7.1 surround. It doesn't really represent anything at all.

Besides DTS 7.1 Day, July 1 distinguishes itself as Canada Day, Tartan Day in New Zealand and Australia, and the halfway mark for leap years. Of course, none of these celebrations really involve surround sound.

— Will Greenwald

Onkyo announces new budget-priced HTiBs

Onkyo has introduced two new home-theaters-in-a-box, budget-priced for consumers looking to get a full-featured surround sound system for less than $600.

The HT-S5200 features a 1200-watt 7.1-channel receiver (at 130 watts per channel) with Onkyo Micro Fiber satellite speakers and a 10-inch, 290-watt subwoofer to give it plenty of thumb for its $599 MSRP. It offers Audyssey 2EQ room correction, Audyssey Dynamic Volume and EQ for keeping music even and balanced, and Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES Discrete/Matrix processing for handling surround sound. It also sports a built-in iPod dock and charging station, always a nice touch.

For less than two-thirds the suggested price of the HT-S5200, the 5.1-channel HT-S3200 offers a more modest feature set at a much more modest price tag. It puts out 110 watts per channel and its 8-inch subwoofer is powered by the receiver, which uses DTS and Dolby Digital surround processing. It will retail for about $379.

They're not high-tech room-shakers, but at those price points they're certainly tempting for anyone looking to dip their toe into a surround sound home theater system.

— Will Greenwald

DTS and Linear Acoustics Getting Olympic Gold

DTS better book some tickets to Beijing. First class, all the way. NBC just selected Linear Acoustics to supply its UPMAX:neo mixers which feature DTS surround sound technology for the 2008 Summer Olympics, beginning 8/8/08. This follows NBC's commitment to provide high-def coverage of the entire Olympic experience, and it just makes sense that the sound will be 5.1.

DTS Ditching Theaters, Staying Home

If you ever doubted how important the home theater market is, take a gander at this news flash. DTS, a leading innovator in surround sound, is ditching the movie business and concentrating solely on the home theater biz. They've officially sold their Digital Cinema business to Beaufort California, Inc. This news follows the earlier sale of Digital Images last month. Surprisingly, neither sale was for outrageous amounts: $7.5 million for the Digital Image business, and only $3.3 mill for the Cinema division. Here's what the CEO of DTS had to say about the sale.

DTS-HD Master Audio Sets the Standard

Universal Studios has leaked news that's music to the ears of anyone with, well, ears. Following their commitment to Blu-ray, they're also making a commitment to use one of the best audio formats available for home consumers. Their first Blu-ray DVDs, The Mummy and its sequels are due to be released on July 22nd, complete with DTS-HD Master Audio sound - a lossless format. From the DTS website, "DTS-HD Master Audio™ delivers sound that is bit-for-bit identical to the studio master. DTS-HD Master Audio can provide up to 7.1 audio channels at a 96 kHz sampling frequency / 24-bit depth, or 5.1 audio channels at 192 kHz. The DTS-HD Master Audio bit stream also contains the DTS 1.5 Mbps core for backwards compatibility with existing DTS-enabled home theater systems, and delivery of 5.1 channels of sound at more than twice the resolution found on most standard DVDs." The expanded storage capacities of Blu-ray discs allows room for this lossless format. Dolby Digital and standard DTS are both lossy compressed formats, and when Universal was using HD DVD, it used Dolby's TrueHD which took up less space on the smaller 30GB HD DVD real estate. What does this mean for you?

PS3 even more the Blu-ray player to own

Thanks to Sony, April 15 will be slightly less painful for 10 million people this year. Of course, I’m talking about the upcoming rollout of a new firmware that will allow PS3 owners to finally experience DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks. Up until now, the PS3 has only supported Dolby’s TrueHD, meaning that films like I, Robot, Independence Day, the Die Hard collection, Fantastic Four, and anything from Fox and New Line (who exclusively use the DTS-HD MA format on their Blu-ray releases), could only be heard in their far more lossy Dolby Digital versions.