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Wolfson Microelectronics plc announced the release of its new HD Audio product line for PCs and laptops. Wolfson's latest innovative technology brings exceptional High Definition (HD) Audio performance to PCs and laptops, modernizing a sector of the consumer electronics market where audio quality has often been overlooked. Wolfson's innovative new multi-channel HD Audio devices, the WM8850 and WM8860 deliver the best audio experience available in the PC market, enabling consumers, as well as music industry professionals, including producers, musicians and DJs, to experience audio through their PC or laptop as never before.

We've recently bench tested the HDMI and analog outputs of several Blu-ray players and noticed not all DVD/BD source devices handle 0dBFS in a similar matter. Our research thus far has revealed that there really is no standard 0dBFS reference level used in DVD / BD players. Some players will scale a 0dBFS signal back before summing it so the subwoofer output will not distort under this test condition while others will not. According to THX there does seem to be more care taken with multi channel movie mixes than music mixes to avoid this problem. At this point, we will adhere to the Dolby recommendation of testing at -20dBFS levels when evaluating the multi channel performance of DVD / BD players analog outputs. We do plan on investigating this topic further both with recording engineers and our own empirical measurements of source material to get a better picture on how this affects real world applications.

THX Ltd. today introduced THX Media Director, formerly codenamed “Blackbird,” to simplify home theater set-up and operation. THX Media Director will enable movies, music and other digital media to communicate picture and sound settings directly to consumer electronics devices, dynamically configuring them for the best playback experience.

Imagine, if you can, going to Paris to see the Mona Lisa. You wait in line for hours only to come to what appears to be a postcard of the Mona Lisa placed where the original had been. You ask the museum staff what happened to the original and you are told that this representation is what is required for the commercial success of the painting. Totally disgusted, you walk out with a severe case of what I call Compression Depression. The music industry as of late seems to be no different as they pump up the output levels and lay on the compression to play into the LOUDER is better mentality.

Craig Eggers is interviewed by our own Gene DellaSala to discuss the next generation AV receivers and HD/Blu-ray DVD players which enable the user to have an experience in the home that is equivalent to the studio masters. Dolby discusses the upcoming Audioholics State of the CE Union event where Dolby and AIX Records will be doing an impressive 7.1 demo. Craig also clears up some misconceptions about Dolby TrueHD.

Craig Eggers talks to us about Dolby Labs new technologies that are part of the high definition audio and video formats hitting the consumer electronics market including Dolby TrueHD and Dolby Volume.

By: Chris Tham This is part one of a set of articles exploring some common myths and…

When our friends at DTS offered to fly me to San Francisco to cover a seminar they were putting together, I was intrigued. From it's somewhat generic sounding title I was at a loss to figure out how this seminar presentation would play out.

I first became aware of this issue back in the early 90's when I was testing a DAC that used a Burr-Brown Digital Filter and D/A Converter. I observed that the 1kHz square wave test from CBS CD1 test disc was being clipped. I knew that the analog low pass filter had plenty of headroom, so I decided to contact Burr-Brown and speak to an applications engineer. When I explained to the applications engineer exactly what I was observing he remarked that this test went over the 0 dBFS limit and was clipped by the digital filter.