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.