Dolby Does That Vudu You Do So Well

Dolby Digital Plus hasn't gotten much attention since its debut a few years ago. But it's the best lossy surround codec from Dolby Labs, with greater efficiency, scalability, and the potential for finer-grained sound quality than its older brother Dolby Digital. Now it's finding relevance via Vudu, one of the licensed ways that IP programming is getting into TVs. The DD+ stream can also convert to old-school DD for decoding in legacy gear, but with DD+ capable surround products (most of them nowadays) you'll get near-lossless quality.

Dolby's Craig Eggers (pictured) also told us about Dolby Mobile, which should bring better-quality audio into mobile devices. Dolby Volume, the low-volume listening mode, is going into Denon receivers as well as others from Onkyo, Integra, Sherwood, HK, Anthem pre-pros, and other products from Motorola, Toshiba, and Gefen. We hadn't known that the modeling (EQ) and leveler (volume) parts could be implemented separately if the manufacturer chooses, so in the future we will be on the lookout for different DV implementations.

We had to ask about Dolby TrueHD, which seems less dominant than DTS-HD Master Audio as the lossless surround codec of choice in Blu-ray. But TrueHD is in close to 30 percent of BD releases, more than we thought. And the Dolby Pro Logic IIz height enhanced listening mode is all over the place -- most new receivers now have it.

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