Dolby Digital Plus

Great news for audiophiles: Dolby recently demoed their upcoming audio format, Dolby Digital Plus. This new technology has been shown to allow for a data rate of 6 Mbps through 13.1 discrete channels! For comparison, the current technology, Dolby Digital, only allows for a data rate of 640 kbps and 5.1 discrete channels. In essence, we're getting nearly 10 times the bandwidth and nearly 3 times the immersion with Plus. It will be used as the standard audio format for HD-DVD and possibly Blu-Ray as well, so the technology should be in homes within a couple years.

This step up for Dolby has a great side benefit, too. They are now taking Dolby Digital (regular kind without the fancy "Plus") to a new home. Your home, in fact! Now you can create surround soundtracks for your home movies with a new product called Dolby Digital 5.1 Creator. I can't wait to get my hands on this...