DTS announces DTS:X – sparks object-based audio war with Dolby

One of the examples for this that DTS was touting at IBC last year was things like sports broadcasts, where you can choose your own mix of commentator, crowd, and even in some cases sound from miked up players, like the goalie or ref. You can see a screenshot of how that sort of thing might work in terms of interface at the top of my IBC report.

I would imagine that for films, it would be along very similar lines.

I found that very frustrating when I initially bought my Yamaha RX-V775 but switching on Adaptive DRC totally did the trick. It compresses the range at lower volume levels when you don't want to wake your kid and disturb the neighbours but you still benefit from a broader range when you crank it up in the middle of the day.

any modern AV receiver supports dynamic range compression, you don't need DTS:X for that

It's not unknown to have to crank up the volume to be able to make out what people are saying and then feel like the plaster is coming off the walls when something loud happens a second later.

Isn't this why you can set each Chanel Volume independently of each other? Hell my ancient (and very crappy while new) Creative DDTS-100 Decoder (7.1 DD & DTS) Decoder was able to do that much. Oddly enough after 11 odd Years... its still working just fine. No it can't do DD True HD or DTS-MA, but I also still don't have a Blueray Player either... Refusing to count the PS3 in the Corner, that is.

Besides I'm already p!55ing the Neighbors off enough already when I watch Star Wars Flicks with this System up and, running, as it is :D

One more of those things the world can do without

Or, at least, I can.

One of these days I've got to finally buckle down and build an AGC box to put at the input to the amplifier.

I do NOT appreciate having to crank up the volume to hear the dialog only to have the windows in the living room shatter when some clown on screen farts.

Believe it or not but there is a specific setting on some home AV kit that is to enable you to do just that. It's called Front Surround. And while it won't appeal to proper audiophiles/cineasts, it will appeal to those who haven't yet committed to enveloping themselves in the speaker layout (and the incidental cabling...)

So true.

2.0 system installations are frequently sub-optimal, let alone anything with more jiggly bits. Corners, angles of speakers to walls, proximity of speakers to walls/obstacles, height of the speakers (for higher frequencies) all colour the perceived sound. If you have curtains in the room, the experience will be different when they are drawn. If your mother-in-law is sitting in the corner, the experience will be affected, although that's probably not physics.

Just enjoy the story of the film/show/programme. Oh bugger, that's where they've skimped.

Huh?

"I mean, seriously, even installing a 5.1 system correctly, taking into account the room acoustics is a challenge. The rule of diminishing results certainly applies as you add more channels to a home cinema setup."

Isn't that the point of the DTS system?

You can place your channels anywhere in the room and it will model the room for you?

So if you don't have a proper listening room, you can surround yourself with X speakers and then model the room and then playback the sound?

Re: Or as old school gamers call it "A3D"

I think Aureal was a bit too far ahead of its time. Positional audio for headphones, let alone arbitrary speaker setups, was computationally intense back around 2000. The big turn off for gamers as a result was that games like Half-Life started to lag and stutter when they used positional audio. I know that was my experience when I used a Diamond A3D card with Half-Life: the frame rate dropped with it in use.