Surround sound – as the basis of your home theater system – is necessary in order for you to enjoy the full theatrical experience in your home. You have the option to make your system extensive or minimal depending on the number and positioning of your speakers. The layout depends on your own needs and budget. No matter what size your surround sound system is or how much you spend on it, there are several steps you can take to ensure that you’re getting the most from your system.
Buy the Right Discs
HD-DVD, Blu-Ray, regular DVD – they’re all the same, right? Wrong. Different digital media manufacturers use a variety of audio codecs to create their discs, and not all of them will be able to fully integrate with your surround sound technology.
More than that, the more extensive your sound system is, the less likely you’ll be able to find discs that will be able to take full advantage of everything your system has to offer. You may end up watching movies in surround sound, wondering where all your sound went.
The solution, according to the experts, is to purchase your movies and videos on Blu-Ray, and make sure that they have the right audio encoding for your system: “You want to look for the DTS-HD Master Audio logo on the front/back of Blu-ray Disc boxes. This is the highest quality audio possible for a Blu-ray title. You experience the mix as heard in the studio.”
- What if your system isn’t that extensive? You can still utilize the DTS stream on your system. Every DTS stream is backward compatible meaning the 7.1 mix will be correctly mixed and distributed to your 5.1 system – no modifications needed..
Improve Your Digital Streaming
Do you stream music on Pandora? Videos on Netflix? Do you hook up your PC or laptop to your home theater system in order to view digital media on the big screen? The benefits of combining your PC and home theater are not limited to just better viewing on a better screen. You can also experience improved audio performance no matter what kind of media player you utilize.
Different media players have greater and lesser compatibility directly with your surround sound system. You may find that your iTunes performance is satisfactory, but anything you watch on YouTube has mediocre (or even terrible) sound quality.
You can improve how your video, TV, internet, and radio streams perform by installing a surround sound processing program like SRS audio lab. This type of utility transforms any type of media input into three-dimensional HD-quality surround sound, enabling you to take full advantage of your speaker system no matter what you’re listening to.
- These programs give you greater control over how audio performs on your system. Tired of commercials blasting so much louder than the program you’re watching? There’s a function to fix that.
- SRS Audio Essentials are compatible with most popular media players, as well as music, movies, games, and more.
Ever since Pink Floyd created the first surround sound concert in 1967, creating a true three-dimensional sound system has been the goal of music and entertainment fans everywhere. With just a few simple changes, you can achieve rock concert-quality sound from your home theather system.
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