CinemaNow App to Decode DTS-HD Audio at Blu-ray Quality, DTS Says
Samsung 2013 smart TVs and Blu-ray players will be the first products to offer DTS-HD surround sound for streaming content through a CinemaNow app, DTS said Tuesday. The high-definition audio format will boost the sound quality of streaming audio for movies and TV shows, bringing it up to Blu-ray levels, DTS said. The format will roll out first with Best Buy’s CinemaNow streaming video service, but will be available to other Rovi-powered services as well, Geir Skaaden, DTS senior vice president-products and platforms, told Consumer Electronics Daily, describing what he called a “major milestone” for DTS and the industry.
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According to DTS, DTS-HD is shipping on “newly produced” 2013 models of Samsung connected video products and will soon be available as a firmware update to existing 2013 Samsung products later this month. Questions to Samsung regarding a firmware release data and compatibility with previous generations of Samsung TVs weren’t answered by our deadline. Samsung TVs will incorporate audio signal processing and codec technologies from SRS Labs audio suites, DTS spokesman Michael Farino told us. Samsung’s 2013 TVs and Blu-ray players with Smart TV 2.0 software are the first to get the CinemaNow app that can render the pre-transcoded DTS-HD content from the CinemaNow library. A CinemaNow app from another TV maker “right now doesn’t support taking the DTS content,” Farino said, but DTS is working with its other partners on enabling the technology, making it a “slow process."
AV receivers currently in the market are equipped to decode the DTS-HD stream, Farino said, and the Samsung DTS-HD-equipped TVs can output audio in DTS-HD. “If you're connected to an AVR or a surround bar with a DTS decoder built in, it will decode that stream and play back over that system,” he said.
The move to high-definition surround represents a transition from “getting content out there” and making it reliable without interruptions to the next level, Skaaden said. “As the connected media experience evolves, you're seeing a much more competitive service environment,” he said. Viewers have more choice than ever with streaming content, so improved sound quality makes the “value proposition easier to understand,” he said. “With more viewing shifting from disc to digital,” providing the same audio and video experience available on Blu-ray also available on streamed content makes the digital feed “very compelling,” Skaaden said.
At launch, CinemaNow’s on-demand HD video with DTS-HD surround sound will be available on 4,000 titles, Skaaden said, enabling consumers to have a “full Blu-ray experience” as they access content online via rental or purchase. DTS-HD is a discrete 5.1-channel audio codec designed specifically for streaming services, DTS said. In addition to working with its “full range” of TV maker partners on support for DTS-HD, DTS will extend the technology to other connected devices as well, he said. He wouldn’t comment on whether DTS-HD-equipped TVs or Blu-ray players would ship from other TV vendors this year. Following its purchase last year of SRS Labs, DTS is now reaching the top 10 TV manufacturers, Skaaden said.
DTS worked with Rovi and studios to create an audio file in the DTS format, enabling a surround-sound option for the CinemaNow catalog, Skaaden said. The CinemaNow app platform was enabled by Rovi Entertainment Store, which handles video streaming for CinemaNow and other services. The benefit of working with Rovi, Skaaden said, is that “CinemaNow is only one of the outlets that Rovi supports.” The catalog will be available to any Rovi customer, which could be other retailers or online properties, he said. “The groundwork is done to be able to scale to other services in relatively rapid fashion,” he said. DTS expects to have announcements around the same library this year in other regions.
On the consumer end, high-def surround sound doesn’t affect the download time since the video portion of a file “carries so much of the payload,” Skaaden said. “Adding surround sound audio is not material to the consumer at all,” he said. Bit rates are 256 kbps or higher, which “sounds great” while being efficient, he said. For consumers without surround-sound playback systems, there’s still a benefit when listening in stereo including improvements to timbre and dialogue clarity, he said.
On whether DTS is working with soundbar makers on incorporating the technology, Skaaden said yes, but that the category is still evolving. Service providers are more focused on connected TVs but he said there’s no reason why a soundbar wouldn’t work in the same way if it could connect to the Internet.