Dolby Labs Working On Laptop Surround Sound

Dolby Laboratories, longtime industry leaders in theater and film audio have set their eyes on the PC entertainment side of things. The company is specifically looking into getting surround sound from a laptop or netbook. Dolby is working with various OEMs to include a number of new audio codec’s: Dolby Home Theater v3, Dolby Advanced Audio, and Dolby Headphone. All three optimize your sound for the specific laptop you’re working on, bass and high frequency boost, and do a bit of compression repair. Unlike most “enhancers”, the Dolby codec’s don’t sound like a graphic EQ, just haphazardly slapped on the signal and all the algorithms are smart enough to not mess with your uncompressed material.

Moving on to the surround sound news. First, you can get simulated surround sound on any pair of headphones. It may not sound as distinct as actual 5.1 or 7.1 headphones, but the Dolby software will recreate the full sound field with any stereo headphones. Not the best solution for the price you pay and the portability you get, you can't beat it.

Also, instead of requiring separate sound cards with multiple ports, these codec's sum the multiple channels of a surround signal to one. End result is, you can run a single cable from your PC's audio out to any surround sound receiver. Just look for the “Approved by Dolby sticker on various Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba, Acer, and Medion models in the coming year.