Whats the difference between Dolby Surround, Dolby Digital 5.1, and DTS?
Dolby Surround (also Dolby Pro Logic) is the surround-sound format most commonly found on video cassettes and laser discs (and many DVDs). It refers to a nondiscrete sound format in which four channels (left, right, center, and surround) are combined into two channels and decoded back (by Pro Logic receivers) into the original four surround channels of your home-theater speaker system. Dolby Digital 5.1 is a discrete-channel surround-sound format consisting of five distinctly separate channels (left front, left rear, right front, right rear, and center), plus a subwoofer channel (the .1 in 5.1) to provide deeper, fuller bass. And while not all DVD movies offer a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack, an increasing number of them do, and you will definitely notice and appreciate the difference. (Side note: Dolby Digital AC-3, a sound process introduced in the laser disc format, translates original two-channel stereo sources into simulated 5.1-channel output. It is less frequently used on DVD.) D
