News from Dolby Laboratories has arrived, via EngadgetHD, that Microsoft is adding Dolby Digital Plus support within Windows 7 Home Premium, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.
Great news for those getting Windows 7 when it is released in October and especially good news for Media Center users. Why? Because many content providers and broadcasters use Dolby Digital Plus – a high-efficiency audio codec that aims to maintain the quality of Dolby Digital at a lower data rate. All while staying fully compatible with the current Dolby digital A/V receivers.
Benefits of Dolby Digital Plus according to Dolby:
- Delivers superior audio quality for a richer surround sound experience
- Enables up to 7.1 channels of theatre-quality sound
- Unlocks the full audio potential from Blu-ray Discs, HD broadcast, and streamed and downloaded media
- Ensures that you hear audio precisely as it was intended
Catch more of Brent’s reflections on tech, gadgets, software and media over at Geek Tonic.
So um… what does that actually get the user? I don’t even use Windows, so I don’t really care per se, but AFAIK even Vista didn’t include DVD playback out of the box, so “Dolby Digital” licensing for it would have been a bit pointless. Does this mean Blu-Ray playback support in the basic install or something?