What Do The Dolby Numbers Mean?

Dolby 7.1 Must Be Newer Than 5.1, But Is It Better?

A reader wrote and asked me for some advice regarding a sound card.

Q: Paul — My son has been pestering me to buy “Audigy sound” for his computer. He is very much involved in some kind of online gaming world  and he says he needs this for better results. I have asked him to explain to me how this Audigy will make things better, but all I have been able to really grasp is that the item he wants is “Dolby 7.1”.

I am reluctant to purchase this additional item as only two Christmases ago Santa took special pains to make sure that my son’s computer could play all the latest games. I have checked, and his PC has Dolby 5.1.

Can you tell me why my son thinks he needs Dolby 7.1 to play today’s games?

A: First of all, a disclaimer: I am by no means an audiophile. I will do my best to provide a solid, computer geek answer (but I will also ask my more knowledgeable readers to assist and/or correct me) but I won’t dare get involved in parenting advice. I’ll try to be brief.

Audigy is a model name (a family of products) of Creative Labs—  a company practically synonymous with computer sound cards .. and it’s the company responsible for me becoming a tech, as they forced me to learn about IRQ’s and memory address spaces back in the early days.

Dolby is a audio format known for “noise” reduction, compression, and the ability to separate out discrete “channels” — which gives us the ability to create “surround sound” environments. It is this latter where the Dolby numbers come in.

The numbers represent the number of “channels” available. A “5.1” is a six channel ability and a 7.1 is an eight channel. The first number is ‘normal’ channels and the 1 is for a special, bass-heavy “sub-woofer” (designed to add psychological effect to thunder, and .. explosions).

The “channels” are assigned to an area — center, left front, right front, left rear, and right rear, and are intended to go to corresponding speakers. A “5.1” configuration is shown here.

In gaming, this can aid the player when audible clues are provided by the game designers.. for instance, stealthy footsteps may be sent to the left rear speaker, but not to any of the other speakers, and this could alert the player that an enemy is behind him (and to the left)… and it will probably be his only clue, before the enemy strikes.

A “7.1 configuration” allows the addition of two more speakers, as shown below.

What should be obvious now is that you need speakers (6, or 8) physically placed to take advantage of these “channels”. If all you have is two rinky-dink little PC speakers that came free with your system, or built into your monitor.. well, you really aren’t going to notice any difference between plain-old stereo, 5.1, or 7.1 .. so you need..

.. as I have written and explained to Santa a few times now.

Okay, maybe you won’t need an ultra-deluxe get-up like the GigaWorks, but you will need a really high-quality set of headphones, or a multi-speaker + sub-woofer speaker set.. and you’ll need 7 normal + 1 sub-woofer to make an upgrade from 5.1 to 7.1 really pay off.

Perhaps, instead of a new sound card, you might consider, instead, a “gaming speaker” setup to take full advantage of the 5.1 you already have, like the Logitech G51 Surround set.

Today’s free link: for those who found my explanation of Dolby inadequate or confusing, click here for the Wikipedia page which describes “Hertz” and “bit rate” and “lossy” and junk like that much better than I did.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Leopard wins title of "best"

You might be aware of the long-running debate known as Mac vs. PC (personified by Justin Long + John Hodgman on the humorous “I’m a Mac” commercials). And you may be aware that there’s a debate whether XP isn’t a better OS than Vista. And, you may be aware that there’s a free OS, known as Linux, which has a few proponents who claim theirs is the best.

Which one’s the best? There’s an awful lot of opinions out there (and if you agree with mine, you’re really smart!), but has anyone every done a true, impartial test to determine which one really is the safest/fastest/most features/cost-effective/easy-to-use operating system today? Well yes, someone has– and the latest comes from PC Magazine‘s March issue.
[Yes, PCMag has long been accused of being a Microsoft puppet and/or shill. Look at the name, though: it’s “PC”, not “Mac Magazine” (and, yes, there’s one of those, too). But how do you write about personal computers and NOT write about Microsoft? Hmm?]

The article compares Mac OS 10.5.1 (the latest “Leopard”), Windows XP SP2, Vista, and Ubuntu 7.10 , and it compares them in these areas:
*Price
*Installation (ease)
*GUI (the graphical ‘look’)
*Bundled Software
*3rd Party Software
*Drivers/Hardware
*Networking
*Security

As you might expect, each OS won some categories, and lost in others; for example, Ubuntu is free, so it will clearly win the Price category, and since it doesn’t have a huge budget for graphic artists (and Linux folk aren’t afraid of the command line) it loses the GUI category. To see the results chart, click here.

The scores in each category were totaled to produce a winner, and the “Microsoft shill”, PC Magazine, proclaims Leopard the winner. (And, perhaps more interestingly, XP and Vista tied.)

My two cents: There are a few flaws in this comparison ‘test’ that shouldn’t be overlooked.
*Vista was tested before Service Pack 1
*The first three categories are largely non-factors: Price and Installation are largely irrelevant to most people. Most people buy a new computer, not an OS Install CD/DVD. And a GUI is a GUI– how pretty it looks has nothing to do with your computer’s operation.

I believe the most important factors are Security and 3rd Party Software.. followed by Drivers/Hardware.
In Security: Leopard wins.. not because its armor plating is more bulletproof, but because less than 3% of the world’s computers are running it and so hackers ignore it.
In Drivers/Hardware: XP SP2 wins.. but time will move Vista ahead as more drivers get written and pass MS’s WHQL.
In the all-important 3rd-Party Software category: XP SP2 wins.. but again, time will move Vista into the lead.

So clearly PC Magazine is wrong. XP SP2 is the better OS.. for now.

How can I say that? Games, baby. Games. There aren’t any for Macs.
And of course.. other programs. Walk into a store that sells software some time and look at the size of the Mac section and then the size of the PC titles. That tells you all you need to know.

OS’s and you: But which one is best for YOU? I agree totally with the author of the article in PC Mag (Eric Griffith): it depends on what you use your computer for.
If all you do is surf the Web, and you’re on a budget, Ubuntu is probably your best choice. If you’re a cutting-edge gamer, you probably will have to struggle with Vista for Direct X 10 titles. If you’re a network admin.. Red Hat is probably your OS (are you ready for Server 2008?).

But the fact remains, the OS you use will be the one that came with your computer. And as I mentioned in “Mac Myths“, which brand you decide to buy will probably be decided by which ‘camp’ you joined.. way back in the early days.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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