Surround Sound Formats

The arguments for and against surround as a popular domestic standard can wait for another day; this page is a simple guide to what it is and how it's done.

5.1

5.1 (pronounced five point one or just five one) has been growing in popularity through the home cinema market.

The name refers to the five, full-range channels (left, centre, right, surround left and surround right) plus one sub-bass channel (with a narrow frequency response of 5 to 125 Hz).

DVD video and audio formats use Dolby Digital to encode discrete 5.1 information into a single bitstream known as AC-3. The players then decode this bitstream.

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