The Surrounding Sounds Of A Home Theater Package

Surround sound is another defining element in a home theater package.

Watching a movie in a surround sound environment is all together a different experience, recreating an actual movie theater's sound enhancements. As movie production studios nowadays consider the surround sound factor, most movies design their production's sound elements to be fully compatible with surround sound systems, enhancing the elements of a suspense story, or an epic action battle scene.

In the realm of home theater packages, surround sound is an integral component, complimentary to high quality television systems, ideal for a home theater package.

Most sound systems for home theater packages support the two leading types of surround sound formats; Dolby Laboratories and Digital Theater Systems. With Dolby Laboratories the Dolby Digital and the Dolby Pro Logic variations are common in home theater packages. Digital Theater Systems has produced various sound enhancements in home theater packages, bearing the DTS mark.

Between Dolby Laboratories and Digital Theater Systems, a wide array of sound options are available, the varieties sometimes induce headaches on potential home theater package "upgraders". To avoid headaches, "upgraders" are advised to know certain information about Dolby Laboratories and Digital Theater Systems' sound formats.

Most marketed DVDs are integrated with Dolby sound options, while some with DTS options. With the right kind of sound system, utilizing the right surround sound format, a home movie experience would be equal to that to a movie theater.

DTS audio is generally clearer and sharper, as DTS audio encoding uses a lesser compression ratio compared with Dolby encoding.

Though, one thing to note, DTS audio encoding isn't common on television broadcasts and on DVD integrated sound enhancements.

Within these noted elements of DTS and Dolby sound formats, most home theater package users have to decide if DTS support should be integrated into the home theater package's surround sound setup, in choosing which speaker setup to implement.


The 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 surround sound speaker setups are the most commonly used in home theater packages. In defining speaker setups, the .1 in a surround speaker setup refers to a subwoofer channel, while the number preceding the .1 refers to the number of speakers. A subwoofer channel is basically one which carries a low-frequency sound ideal for bass boost effects.

A 5.1 surround sound setup simply means 5 speakers and one subwoofer. A right, center and left front speaker setup, with left and right surround, or rear, speakers. A 6.1 surround sound setup has an added speaker which is another rear speaker. In a 7.1 surround sound setup, two channels for surround, and rear are dedicated, completing the home theater package's setup.

The mentioned surround speaker setups complement the surround sound formats, though different sound channeling splits and mixes are dependent on the type of supported sound format, be it in Dolby or in DTS.

The decision as to which speaker setup to use, with Dolby and DTS compatibility considered, now lies on home theater "upgraders".