Dolby Signs Licensing Deals With Chinese Blu-ray Makers

By Greg Tarr -- TWICE, 3/20/2009

San Francisco — In a move that bodes well for the arrival of even-more-affordable Blu-ray Disc players in the near future, Dolby Labs said Thursday that it has licensed the use of its latest high-definition audio technologies (Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus) to Chinese companies manufacturing Blu-ray Disc players for the world market.

Dolby said the agreements are “an important part of Dolby’s efforts to grow the market for high-definition audio and meet the needs of Chinese manufacturers.”

Dolby audio is part of the Blu-ray Disc standard and supported by the world’s leading device makers, chip companies and content creators.

“Because Dolby’s technologies are well established in the Blu-ray Disc market, they offer Chinese manufacturers a powerful and efficient way for companies to build high-definition audio into their products,” Dolby said in a statement.

The first companies to license Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus for Blu-ray Disc players in China are TCL Technology Electronics (Huizhou) Co. Limited (TCL), MIT Technology and Lite-On IT (Lite-On).