We started a new series on the blog last week, Understanding Home Theater Sound Types. If you’re new to all this (or even if you could just use a refresher), make sure you read that post before this one. We covered some of the basic terminology, plus two classic surround sound formats, Dolby Digital and DTS.
This week, we at Experience Audio Video want to help you understand two more formats that do something called upmixing.
What Is Upmixing?
Upmixing isn’t an everyday word, so we’ll start with a quick explanation. Some video/audio formats, like CDs, DVDs and Blu-Rays produced commercially by large entertainment companies, are encoded with multichannel audio in one or more of a number of formats (like Dolby Digital or Atmos). Provided your system is compatible with the format the media is encoded with, you’ll receive sweet surround sound naturally.
But not everything you might want to watch or listen to is formatted in surround sound. Much recorded music is stereo encoded, and some video sources may also provide stereo audio only.
Upmixing, then, is the process of reading a stereo audio source and converting it on the fly to utilize the additional channels in a home theater system.
There are two leading types of upmixing formats/algorithms: Dolby Pro Logic II and DTS Neo:6.
Dolby Pro Logic II
One of the two main formats or methods for upmixing stereo audio to a multichannel matrix, Dolby Pro Logic II can decode recordings encoded as stereo and upmix them to a 5.1-channel multichannel matrix, giving you “faux surround” sound.
DTS Neo:6
DTS Neo:6 does essentially the same thing as the previous type, potentially with better audio mapping (more realistic “faux surround”).
Understand that this isn’t standalone tech: your system needs to be able to process true surround formats, too. But upmixing capability is a nice addition to a home theater system.