Dolby Withdraws Upmixing Restrictions
Dolby has until recently restricted upmixing of non-native Dolby content using their Dolby Surround Upmixer (DSU) technologies. What is an up-mixer I hear you ask?
An up-mixer takes an audio signal (like 2CH stereo) and processes it to utilize all of the speakers in your setup (I.E. 5.1 or 7.1 or 7.1.4 for immersive audio formats like Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and Auro3D). The upmixer uses complicated algorithms to extract audio information in the audio signal so that the audio sounds as if was mixed for multichannel audio.
The original communication sent out to all Dolby licensees indicated that:
- Native Dolby Atmos content shall NOT be up-mixed, surround or height virtualized by any 3rd party competitor up mixer (I.E. DTS or Auro-3D).
- Channel-Based DD/DD+, Dolby TrueHD 5.1 and 7.1 codecs shall not be height virtualized by any 3rd party up mixer (I.E. DTS). (This implies height virtualization without height speakers. DTS has this capability but Auro-3D does not).
Apparently this restriction has been long considered an unfair and restrictive practice by licensees, industry partners and users. As a result it was brought to the attention of the European Commission.
Dolby has now announced the reversal of their upmixing restriction on their website.
“Effective immediately, Dolby is withdrawing all limitations (including limitations contained in Dolby licenses) on the use of OEM (first-party) and third-party post-processing technologies (including upmixers and virtualisers) on audio decoded from Dolby formats (including Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, and Dolby Atmos) on AVRs, sound bars and TVs.”
– Dolby Labs
Xperia, owners of DTS, have also issued a letter to all of their licensees confirming the removal of these restrictions.
For the consumer this means that Dolby will NOT be restricting their CODEC’s for upmixing going forward nor will they be restricting their signals from being upmixed on competitor upmixers. This means you can use the DSU, DTS:X or Auromatic upmixers for 2CH, or 5.1CH Dolby Digital or DTS source material to virtualize height channels. This will allow you to always engage your height channels regardless of the type of playback source material.
See my post here on audio formats.
