Dolby® Digital Plus extends the capabilities of Dolby Digital, optimizing sound quality and efficiency for a richer, more compelling audio experience.
Delivers scalable sound, optimizing quality and efficiency for available bandwidth
Supports a wide range of existing and emerging home theater, broadcast, streamed content, and mobile applications
Provides up to 7.1 channels of surround sound for a more involving experience and dramatic special effects
Includes compatibility with millions of existing playback systems
Dolby Digital Plus is a versatile digital audio coding technology that extends the capabilities of Dolby Digital. Dolby Digital Plus delivers up to 7.1 channels of surround sound, with scalable sound delivery and a wide range of bit rates ensuring optimized sound quality and efficiency for the available bandwidth. These advances are just a few reasons why Dolby Digital Plus delivers a more enveloping audio experience for existing and emerging applications, including new digital broadcast TV formats, Internet-delivered audio, and high-definition video discs.
Dolby Digital Plus for Home Theater
Dolby Digital Plus takes the home theater surround sound experience to the next level by enabling Blu-ray Disc™ and other digital formats to deliver more channels, less compression, and higher data rates.
Dolby Digital Plus also supports secondary audio applications for interactive BonusView content on Blu-ray Disc.
Why Dolby
With more channels, less compression, and higher bit rates, Dolby Digital Plus helps equipment manufacturers and content producers differentiate their products by delivering a sound experience that some reviewers have described as being “virtually transparent” to the original source.
Delivers up to 7.1 channels of surround sound from Blu-ray Disc players
Enables up to 13.1 channels of dynamic sound to support new and emerging content delivery formats
Supports interactive Blu-ray Disc features: BonusView, an embedded picture-in-picture option that mixes multichannel secondary audio and video content, and BD-Live, which displays content streamed from the Internet
Allows single-cable connection and full application of the A/V receiver’s digital signal processor (DSP) postprocessing and bass management via HDMI™ 1.3 data transport
Includes complete metadata support and backward compatibility with existing home theaters
Channels: 1.0 to 7.1, discrete
Data rate: 32 kbps–6 Mbps, scalable; typical range on HD optical discs is 768 kbps–1.5 Mbps
Supports Dolby metadata: Yes
Connections: S/PDIF, HDMI, IEEE 1394
Mixing/streaming capabilities: Yes
Backward Compatibility: Yes; S/PDIF to legacy A/V receivers (640 kbps data rate)
Connector Signal Types
Line output: Two-, six-, and eight-channel analog
S/PDIF: Two-channel PCM and Dolby Digital
HDMI 1.1/HDMI 1.2: Two-, six-, and eight-channel PCM and Dolby Digital
HDMI 1.3: Two-, six-, and eight-channel PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby TrueHD bitstreams
Dolby Metadata Parameters
Professional metadata parameters are only carried in the Dolby® E bitstream and are used to configure a downstream decoder. Consumer parameters are carried in the Dolby E, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby Digital bitstreams, and are used by the consumer’s decoder.
Extended bitstream information parameters are in italics.
|
Metadata Parameter
|
Professional
|
Consumer
|
| Program configuration |
x
|
|
| Program description text |
x
|
|
| Dialogue level |
|
x
|
| Channel mode |
|
x
|
| LFE channel |
|
x
|
| Bitstream mode |
|
x
|
| Line mode compression |
|
x
|
| RF mode compression |
|
x
|
| RF overmodulation protection |
|
x
|
| Center downmix level |
|
x
|
| Surround downmix level |
|
x
|
| Dolby Surround mode |
|
x
|
| Audio production information |
|
x
|
| Mix level |
|
x
|
| Room type |
|
x
|
| Copyright bit |
|
x
|
| Original bitstream |
|
x
|
|
Preferred stereo downmix
|
|
x
|
|
Lt/Rt Center downmix level
|
|
x
|
|
Lt/Rt surround downmix level
|
|
x
|
|
Lo/Ro Center downmix level
|
|
x
|
|
Lo/Ro surround downmix level
|
|
x
|
|
Dolby Surround EX mode
|
|
x
|
|
A/D converter type
|
|
x
|
| DC filter |
x
|
|
| Lowpass filter |
x
|
|
| LFE lowpass filter |
x
|
|
| Surround 3 dB attenuation |
x
|
|
| Surround phase shift |
x
|
|
Special Parameters
There are other professional parameters included in the Dolby E bitstream that are not under direct user control, such as timecode and pitch shift.
Dolby Digital Plus
Dolby Digital Plus is a highly sophisticated and versatile audio codec based on Dolby Digital and designed specifically to adapt to the changing demands of future audio, video delivery, and audio storage systems while simultaneously retaining backwards compatibility with the existing Dolby Digital 5.1-channel home theater systems in use today.