Your browser is out-of-date!

Update your browser to view this website correctly. Update my browser now

×

DTS Sees Wide DTS-HD Compatibility With Home-Theater Systems

Calabasas, Calif. — Consumers who stream CinemaNow movies encoded with multichannel DTS-HD soundtracks through select Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players will be able to decode the soundtracks through a variety of new and legacy A/V receivers, soundbars and HTiBs, DTS said.

DTS-HD streams, optimized for streaming services, can be output by the TVs as a DTS Digital Surround soundtrack to a connected AVR, soundbar or HTiB. The soundtracks can then be transferred from the Samsung TVs to compatible audio products via the TVs’ optical digital output or an HDMI output incorporating audio return channel (ARC) technology.

The Samsung Blu-ray players offer a similar capability.

CinemaNow earlier this week announced plans to stream DTS-HD titles. Select Samsung TVs and Blu-ray players are the first video components to be compatible with the soundtracks.

The Samsung TVs also incorporate DTS 2.0+Digital Out, which converts two-channel and 5.1 content to DTS Digital Surround for decoding by audio systems. Other DTS technologies in the TVs deliver front-rendered surround sound and add depth to sound.

Select new Panasonic TVs also feature DTS 2.0+Digital Out but do not yet decode the CinemaNow DTS-HD streams, DTS said. “The CinemaNow app on Samsung’s smart TV platform is the first to offer the DTS-HD option,” a DTS spokesman said. “CinemaNow on other platforms still doesn’t offer DTS-HD as an option.”

With DTS-HD, streaming services can deliver multichannel audio at data rates up to 512Kbps. If the stream is received at the TV at 512Kbps via a good network connection, then the sound quality will be “nearly indistinguishable” from lossless PCM soundtracks and from soundtracks encoded in lossless codecs, DTS said. Cinema Now’s audio data rate was unavailable.

Surround sound is available through a growing number of video-streaming and video-download services accessible through broadband-equipped home-theater systems. The Vudu streaming and download service, for example, delivers some of its HD movies in 5.1 and 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus, according to Dolby Laboratories.  Netflix, CinemaNow, Amazon Instant Video and HBO Go deliver select titles in 5.1 Dolby Digital Plus

Featured

Close