Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Dolby Headphone

This is topic Dolby Headphone in forum The Afterlife at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-28-2003, 10:24 PM:

Dolby has a new stereo encoding method that claims to give you the illusion of 5 channel surround while wearing a pair of crusty ol' headphones. I downloaded the Dolby headphone trailer and listened to it with headphones. It sounds unimpressive, and certainly NOTHING like true multichannel sound. Just normal stereo.

You can file this one under "Pseudo Gimmick" along with Q-Sound.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 07-29-2003, 01:45 AM:

Where can that trailer be downloaded?

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-29-2003, 01:54 AM:

http://www.cinenow.com/fr/vobtrailer.php3/id,33/

You will need to demux it and listen to the AC3 file, or play the VOB file on your software DVD player.

Posted by Michael Schaffer (Member # 1204) on 07-29-2003, 02:27 AM:

It didn`t play in PowerDVD, but Windows Media Player worked. The effect is indeed not very strong. The trailer is a bit lame too. But I have to grant them that the "woush" sounds seem to be located somehow behind the head.

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 07-29-2003, 05:11 AM:

Dolby Headphone is nothing new. It's been around for a few years. Basicly its a DSP mode that decodes all 5.1 channels, than time delays each channel to create the illusion that the sound is coming from whichever speaker the director intended. This illusion is refered to as binaural. A good place to experience binaural sound is Disneyland's "Great Moments with Mister Lincoln".

Binaural isn't perfect. Because the shape of our heads varies, the sound "placement" is not always the same for each person. Appearently, Dolby has decided that because of this, the center chanel information will pass through the dsp unafected, while the rest of the chanels (effects and such) will be placed inside the binaural sound field.

Dolby Headphone DSP is avialable on some recievers, portable dvd players and dvd computer software. You can also experience Dolby Headphone as a separate audio track on select DVDs.
-Pearl Harbor
-T2 (new metal case edition)

Learn more about binaural here .

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 07-29-2003, 04:48 PM:

Sony Dolby Digital Headphones