Movie Sound Technology Imbedded In Your Home Theatre Set Up

For any movie buff out there, the thrills and the spills of the latest Hollywood blockbuster film is enough to keep you on the edge of your seat. But the technology behind what makes the sights and the sounds of an unforgettable movie theatre experience has been slowly moving out of the movie theatres and into homes. Let’s take a look at some of the best movie sound technology that has made the leap into home theatre set ups that anyone can now enjoy.

For many years, the idea that you would be able to replicate a cinema in your home would have been an unattainable dream, but thanks to some of the most innovative products, equipment and entertainment manufacturers out there, it is now possible to create a home theatre system that can beat any cinema experience shy of a full-size IMAX theatre.

Multiple Speaker Systems 

Theatres have used multiple speaker systems to bring you thundering bass, shimmering highs and cutting mid-tones to theatre audiences around the world, and by doing this set in motion a few different standards by which many cinemas still rely on.

One of the biggest known theatre audio standards these days is Dolby Digital, which was created by the Dolby organisation to help introduce a standard of theatre audio across the board, to help directors give their full theatre experience as it was intended to theatre-goers no matter which cinema you went to.

Dolby Digital Standards

Dolby Digital is the name given to the compression technology that the Dolby created to allow multiple audio channels to be fed to specific speakers in order to replicate how a movie was recorded and follows what is being done or said on screen.

Dolby Digital and Dolby Surround EX, the cinema version of its surround sound system is now used in many home theatre systems, Blu-ray players and other digital devices to bring a greater bitrate of audio. It was first used in conjunction with Lucas film THX to make up the audio on the modern Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and was later used to re-encode the re-mastered Star Wars Blu-Ray.

The THX Standard Experience

THX is another theatre-grade audio specialist that licenses some of its technology to be used in consumer-grade equipment such as televisions, home cinema speakers and amplifiers. THX became popular through its innovative designs as well as its own compression techniques that rely on different codecs than used with Dolby Digital.

THX now has its badge on hundreds of different home theatre systems which allows anyone who watches a THX encoded film at home to enjoy it exactly how it sounded at the cinema, provided you have the correct multiple-speaker surround sound setup that is compatible with THX.

THX is seen as a quality-assurance system that allows consumers to purchase home cinema systems that will be compatible with certain standards of audio quality, speaker arrangements and amplifier settings needed to watch and enjoy a high quality audio experience.

THX standard goes much further to display whether a DVD or speaker setup is compatible, for the THX certification in theatres, each cinema needs to have a specifically designed theatre, with things like floorboards, audio muting, soundproofing, echo, wash and even building materials taken into account to provide the perfect setting to replicate the original soundtrack.

DTS – Digital Theatre System

DTS is another cinema audio system that is similar to Dolby Digital, it is an audio compression standard that allows cinemas, consumers and equipment to meet the standards necessary to playback media in the way the director intended.

DTS, or Digital Theatre System has had a range of different standards, ranging from 2.1 audio right up to 8.1, 10.2 and bigger speaker arrangements. Many people use its DTS 5.1 system in their surround sound amplifier and speaker distribution amp as it is one of the most popular standards to date.

DTS have launched DTS-HD Master Audio which allows for a nearly infinite number of discreet speaker channels to be added to a mix and is now making that standard in custom theatres around the world.

The Future Is Bright for Home Theatre

These standards, whilst tested at the latest theatres, always make it to the home theatre after a few years. By the time they reach our homes, the systems have been specially redesigned for home theatres so we can have the same kind of sound at home.

It’s important to note that the more speakers you add to your system doesn’t equate to the better quality, but if you use one of these three popular standards when purchasing your home theatre audio equipment, you really can’t go wrong!

Why Do You Need To Buy A Curved TV?

With the addition of a multitude of new technologies to the media industry in recent years, some technologies have been and gone, whilst others are here to stay. It is still undetermined whether 3D TV is a technology that will last the coming 10 years, so with the advent of curved UHD TV screens coming onto the market, what’s all the fuss about, and why do you need to buy a curved TV?

Well, one of the simplest benefits of curved TV is that the viewing space for those that have a front and centre seat improve dramatically. Sitting at an optimal distance, your eyes blend into what is on the screen and not the screen itself. This gives the viewer a fantastic immersive experience that no flat panel televisions can reproduce.

The advantages of curved TV screens are clear due to the way the human eyes work. When a screen is concave around your field of vision, the lines blur on the screen and the screen seems to wrap around your head. When this is done with the right lighting conditions and the right sized screen, there is simply nothing that can better this experience other than being in the film yourself.

A More Comfortable Viewing Experience

Curved TVs and especially curved 3D TVs due to their shape are able to deliver images and pictures that are more comfortable to view than a traditional television. Many people feel that because of the curved display that mimics the curve of your eyes, it feels easier to watch and doesn’t result in tired eyes after prolonged periods of time.

As well as these benefits, many people understand why a curved TV makes sense for them. As well as looking good in the centre of a room, curved televisions work perfectly well in the corners of rooms as well. They lend to being able to be placed anywhere in the house, without it looking out of place. Due to its curved nature, it resembles less a flat screen television and more of a work of art.

Improved Contrast to the Corners

Often you will find that the contrast viewed on a curved television screen is greater than that of a flat panel television. Because the screen is curved, you are receiving more light and more contrasting light directly to your eyes as the panel wraps around your field of vision.

Flat panel televisions often suffer from poor contrast around the exterior of the screen, but by having a curved display, these corners seem bright because they are closer to your eyes, giving you a wonderfully rich contrast and colour range that looks completely different from a standard flat panel display.

A Wider Field Of View

Curved television screens also have the great ability to give you a wider field of view that you would traditionally expect from a flat panel television. Due to the fact that the panel is curved in a concave way with the corners towards you and the centre bending furthest from you, your vision is tricked into thinking your television is actually larger than it is, and with a wider field of view you can get away with a smaller set.

Some of the best improvements in television make us feel more immersed in what we are watching on the screen. We have had a number of immersive like additions to television technology such as mood lighting from behind the television, as well as the introduction of 3D and UHD TV.

Curved displays are set to be a popular choice for movie buffs and gamers alike, so with all of these benefits added up, isn’t it about time you went with the curve?

WHY 4K Televisions Are So Popular

4K televisions are becoming increasingly popular nowadays. After a proper home theatre installation, with speaker calibration and a fantastic environment to watch, the viewing experience can be unmatched. 

With an 80-inch screen and quadruple the image quality of full HD, anything's watchable as long as you're not going over it repeatedly. There's 4K TV and there's 8K TV, both of which make up the Ultra-High Definition standard. Both are capable of playing videos at 24, 25, 50, 60 or 120 frames per second. 4K TV sets are now available from most TV manufacturers.  

So what's 4K? Well, after what's been said above, it shows that the potential image clarity is more fine and greater texture is visible. But that's just for starters. Now you've probably heard of Ultra High Definition. Technically, this term is actually a derivation of the 4K digital cinema standard. Multiplexes show images in 4096 X 2160 4K resolution. The new ultra HD consumer format has a lower resolution of 3840 X 2160 which is why a few brands prefer to use ultra HD or UHD instead of 4K.

The high pixel density of a 4K panel enables you to lose the grid-like structure of the image, meaning that you can watch a much larger screen from the seating position as you current full HD panel. This is one of the reasons you should purchase one of the 4k's, so to speak.

The first wave of 4K UHD TV's were really large. 84-inch panels were launched by Sony and LG. When that happened, prices were really high and since then, the prices have fallen dramatically which allows customers to move towards their dream of getting one. You'll now find a 4K TV for less than a $1000 and we encourage you to fit in good processing electronics behind the panel for a better picture.  

4K Ultra HD is a much more intimate viewing experience than full HD. Pretty soon, 8K will be coming along to change things dramatically. It will deliver 16 times the definition of 4K and comprise 33 million pixels. Currently, nothing like that exists in the market and Japan has said that it intends to commercialize this technology.

If you're concerned about whether you should get a 4K television or wait for an 8K to arrive, the thing to keep in mind is that 4K should last even when an 8K is out. It’s just like that. So you needn’t worry if you can buy one or not. 

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