Surround Sound Secrets

Multichannel audio is the name for a variety of techniques for expanding and enriching the sound of audio playback by recording additional sound channels that can be reproduced on additional speakers. Surround sound refers to the application of multichannel audio to channels "surrounding" the audience (generally some combination of left surround, right surround, and back surround) as opposed to "screen channels" (center, [front] left, and [front] right).

Surround sound systems are used in cinema sound systems, home entertainment systems such as "home theater" systems, video arcade games, computer games, technical theatre, and a growing number of other applications.

Consumer surround sound formats include sound on Video DVDs and HDTV broadcasts encoded as Dolby Digital or DTS; the competing DVD-Audio (DVD-A) and Super Audio CD (SACD) formats; and MP3 Surround.

Theatrical film 5.1 surround formats include Dolby Digital, DTS, and Sony Dynamic Digital Sound (SDDS).

Surround sound hardware is mostly used by big-budget movie productions and sophisticated video games. However, some consumer camcorders (particularly DVD-R based models from Sony) have surround sound capability either built-in or available as an add-on. Some consumer electronic devices (AV receivers, stereos, and computer soundcards) have digital signal processors or digital audio processors built into them to simulate surround sound from stereo sources.

Reference: Wikipedia

*The AV Receiver