1.
Dolby Laboratories
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Dolby Laboratories, Inc. is an American company specializing in audio noise reduction and audio encoding/compression. Dolby licenses its technologies to consumer electronics manufacturers, Dolby Labs was founded by American Ray Dolby in the United Kingdom in 1965. He moved the company to the United States in 1967, the first product Dolby Labs produced was the Dolby 301 unit which incorporated Type A Dolby Noise Reduction, a compander based noise reduction system. These units were intended for use in recording studios. Dolby was persuaded by Henry Kloss of KLH to manufacture a version of his noise reduction. Dolby worked more on companding systems and introduced Type B in 1968, Dolby also sought to improve film sound. As the corporations history explains, Upon investigation, Dolby found that many of the limitations in optical sound stemmed directly from its high background noise. The first film with Dolby sound was A Clockwork Orange, which used Dolby noise reduction on all pre-mixes and masters, callan was the first film with a Dolby-encoded optical soundtrack. In 1975, Dolby released Dolby Stereo, which included a reduction system in addition to more audio channels. The first film with a Dolby-encoded stereo optical soundtrack was Lisztomania, the first true LCRS soundtrack was encoded on the movie A Star Is Born in 1976. In less than ten years,6,000 cinemas worldwide were equipped to use Dolby Stereo sound, Dolby developed a digital surround sound compression scheme for the cinema. Dolby Stereo Digital was first featured on the 1992 film Batman Returns, Dolby Digital is now found in the HDTV standard of the United States, DVD players, and many satellite-TV and cable-TV receivers. Dolby developed a digital surround sound compression scheme for TV series The Simpsons, on February 17,2005, the company became public, offering its shares on the New York Stock Exchange, under the symbol DLB. On March 15,2005, Dolby celebrated its fortieth anniversary at the ShoWest 2005 Festival in San Francisco, on January 8,2007, Dolby announced the arrival of Dolby Volume at the International Consumer Electronics Show. It enables users to maintain a steady volume while switching through channels or program elements, on June 18,2010, Dolby introduced Dolby Surround 7.1, and set up theaters worldwide with 7.1 surround speaker setups to deliver theatrical 7.1 surround sound. The first film to be released with this format was Pixars Toy Story 3 which was followed by 50 releases using the format. As of April 2012, there are 3,600 Dolby Surround 7.1 movie theaters, in April 2012, Dolby introduced its Dolby Atmos, a new cinematic technology adding overhead sound, first applied in Pixars motion picture Brave. In July 2014, Dolby Laboratories announced plans to bring Atmos to home theater, the first television show to use the technology on disc was Game of Thrones
2.
Dolby Stereo
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Dolby Stereo is Dolby Laboratories trademark for its various stereo sound formats. Of the two, Dolby SVA was by far the more significant, as it brought high-quality stereo sound within the reach of virtually every cinema. Except in large cities, most movie theaters did not have facilities for playing back magnetic soundtracks, Dolby SVA provided a method for putting high-quality stereo soundtracks on optical sound prints. This yielded a total of four channels, as in the 4-track magnetic system. Dolby also incorporated its A-Type noise reduction into the Dolby Stereo system, Dolby Labs original involvement in movie sound was when film studios used Dolby A type noise reduction on studio magnetic film recordings. This led to a proposal from Dolby that A type noise reduction be applied to the soundtrack on release prints. At that time there was renewed interest in improving the quality of optical soundtracks, in particular, the infamous Academy curve was still in use. It involved a drastic roll-off in the response of the theater system with the intention of reducing the audibility of noise. Dolby proposed replacing the Academy curve with Dolby A type noise reduction on the track, starting with the 1974 film Callan, ten films were released with a Dolby encoded mono soundtrack. Theaters were equipped with a Dolby A type noise reduction module and it created a new international standard for cinema sound. Though the system worked well, theater owners were reluctant to invest in the technology until stereo was added to the mix, G. Frayne of Westrex had proposed a similar system to the SMPTE in 1955. E. Uhlig in a paper presented to the SMPTE in 1972, there was one problem left to solve, the absence of a center channel, regarded as essential to lock screen-center dialogue to the middle of the screen. Uhlig discussed this issue in a follow-up paper, instead he suggested feeding a center-channel speaker with a simple mix of the left and right channels, however, this is not entirely satisfactory as it degrades the stereo separation. At this time Dolby joined forces with Kodak in developing this system, the matrix decoder originally employed for this used the Sansui QS matrix under license. This system was used for the 1975 Ken Russell film Lisztomania, Dolby Stereo, as this 4-channel system was now branded, was first used in 1976s A Star is Born. From spring 1979 onward, a new custom matrix replaced the Sansui QS matrix and it was first used in that years Hair and Hurricane. At first Dolby Stereo equipment was installed mainly in larger theaters already equipped with amplifiers and speakers for CinemaScope 4-track stereo. But the success of 1977s Star Wars, which used the 4-channel system to great effect, the success of Dolby Stereo resulted in the final demise of magnetic stereo on 35mm release prints
3.
Lossy compression
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In information technology, lossy compression or irreversible compression is the class of data encoding methods that uses inexact approximations and partial data discarding to represent the content. These techniques are used to reduce data size for storage, handling, different versions of the photo of the cat above show how higher degrees of approximation create coarser images as more details are removed. This is opposed to data compression which does not degrade the data. The amount of data reduction possible using lossy compression is often higher than through lossless techniques. Well-designed lossy compression technology often reduces file sizes significantly before degradation is noticed by the end-user, even when noticeable by the user, further data reduction may be desirable. Lossy compression is most commonly used to compress multimedia data, especially in such as streaming media. By contrast, lossless compression is required for text and data files, such as bank records. A picture, for example, is converted to a file by considering it to be an array of dots and specifying the color. If the picture contains an area of the color, it can be compressed without loss by saying 200 red dots instead of red dot. The original data contains an amount of information, and there is a lower limit to the size of file that can carry all the information. Basic information theory says there is an absolute limit in reducing the size of this data. When data is compressed, its entropy increases, and it cannot increase indefinitely, as an intuitive example, most people know that a compressed ZIP file is smaller than the original file, but repeatedly compressing the same file will not reduce the size to nothing. Most compression algorithms can recognize when further compression would be pointless, in many cases, files or data streams contain more information than is needed for a particular purpose. Developing lossy compression techniques as closely matched to human perception as possible is a complex task, the terms irreversible and reversible are preferred over lossy and lossless respectively for some applications, such as medical image compression, to circumvent the negative implications of loss. The type and amount of loss can affect the utility of the images, artifacts or undesirable effects of compression may be clearly discernible yet the result still useful for the intended purpose. Or lossy compressed images may be visually lossless, or in the case of medical images and this is because uncompressed audio can only reduce file size by lowering bit rate or depth, whereas compressing audio can reduce size while maintaining bit rate and depth. This compression becomes a loss of the least significant data. From this point of view, perceptual encoding is not essentially about discarding data, green, and 50 pixels of blue vs. red, which are proportional to human sensitivity to each component
4.
DVD
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DVD is a digital optical disc storage format invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. The medium can store any kind of data and is widely used for software. DVDs offer higher capacity than compact discs while having the same dimensions. Pre-recorded DVDs are mass-produced using molding machines that physically stamp data onto the DVD, such discs are a form of DVD-ROM because data can only be read and not written or erased. Blank recordable DVD discs can be recorded using a DVD recorder. Rewritable DVDs can be recorded and erased many times, DVDs containing other types of information may be referred to as DVD data discs. The OED also states that in 1995, The companies said the name of the format will simply be DVD. Toshiba had been using the name ‘digital video disk’, but that was switched to ‘digital versatile disk’ after computer companies complained that it left out their applications, Digital versatile disc is the explanation provided in a DVD Forum Primer from 2000 and in the DVD Forums mission statement. There were several formats developed for recording video on optical discs before the DVD, Optical recording technology was invented by David Paul Gregg and James Russell in 1958 and first patented in 1961. A consumer optical disc data format known as LaserDisc was developed in the United States and it used much larger discs than the later formats. CD Video used analog video encoding on optical discs matching the established standard 120 mm size of audio CDs, Video CD became one of the first formats for distributing digitally encoded films in this format, in 1993. In the same year, two new optical disc formats were being developed. By the time of the launches for both formats in January 1995, the MMCD nomenclature had been dropped, and Philips and Sony were referring to their format as Digital Video Disc. Representatives from the SD camp asked IBM for advice on the system to use for their disc. Alan E. Bell, a researcher from IBMs Almaden Research Center, got that request and this group was referred to as the Technical Working Group, or TWG. On August 14,1995, an ad hoc group formed from five computer companies issued a release stating that they would only accept a single format. The TWG voted to both formats unless the two camps agreed on a single, converged standard. They recruited Lou Gerstner, president of IBM, to pressure the executives of the warring factions, as a result, the DVD specification provided a storage capacity of 4.7 GB for a single-layered, single-sided disc and 8.5 GB for a dual-layered, single-sided disc
5.
Blu-ray
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Blu-ray or Blu-ray Disc is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was designed to supersede the DVD format, in that it is capable of storing high-definition, the plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Conventional Blu-ray Disc discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the standard for feature-length video discs. Triple-layer discs and quadruple layers are available for BD-XL re-writer drives, the name Blu-ray refers to the blue laser used to read the disc, which allows information to be stored at a greater density than is possible with the longer-wavelength red laser used for DVDs. The main application of Blu-ray is as a medium for video material such as films and physical distribution of video games for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4. Besides the hardware specifications, Blu-ray is associated with a set of multimedia formats, high-definition video may be stored on Blu-ray discs with up to 2160p resolution, at up to 60 frames per second. DVD discs had been limited to a resolution of 480p or 576p. The BD format was developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association, a group representing makers of consumer electronics, computer hardware, Sony unveiled the first Blu-ray disc prototypes in October 2000, and the first prototype player was released in April 2003 in Japan. Afterwards, it continued to be developed until its release in June 2006. During the high definition disc format war, Blu-ray Disc competed with the HD DVD format. Toshiba, the company that supported HD DVD, conceded in February 2008. According to Media Research, high-definition software sales in the US were slower in the first two years than DVD software sales, Blu-ray faces competition from video on demand and the continued sale of DVDs. As of January 2016, 44% of U. S. broadband households had a Blu-ray player, the information density of the DVD format was limited by the wavelength of the laser diodes used. Following protracted development, blue laser diodes operating at 405 nanometers became available on a production basis, Sony started two projects in collaboration with Philips applying the new diodes, UDO, and DVR Blue, a format of rewritable discs that would eventually become Blu-ray Disc. The core technologies of the formats are similar, the first DVR Blue prototypes were unveiled at the CEATEC exhibition in October 2000 by Sony. A trademark for the Blue Disc logo was filed February 9,2001, on February 19,2002, the project was officially announced as Blu-ray Disc, and Blu-ray Disc Founders was founded by the nine initial members. The first consumer device arrived in stores on April 10,2003, the Sony BDZ-S77, but there was no standard for prerecorded video, and no movies were released for this player. On October 4,2004, the name Blu-ray Disc Founders was officially changed to the Blu-ray Disc Association, the Blu-ray Disc physical specifications were completed in 2004
6.
Batman Returns
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Batman Returns is a 1992 American superhero film, directed and produced by Tim Burton, based on the DC Comics character Batman. It is the installment of Warner Bros. initial Batman film series. The film introduces the characters of Max Shreck, a business tycoon who teams up with the Penguin to take over Gotham City. Burton originally did not want to direct another Batman film because of his mixed emotions toward the film in 1989. Warner Bros. developed a script with writer Sam Hamm which had the Penguin, Burton agreed to return after they granted him more creative control and replaced Hamm with Daniel Waters. Wesley Strick did a rewrite, removing the characters of Harvey Dent and Robin. Annette Bening was originally cast as Catwoman but became pregnant and was replaced with Pfeiffer, filming for Batman Returns started in June 1991 at Warner Bros. Batman Returns was released on June 19,1992, the film was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup, as well as two BAFTA awards. Batman Returnss budget was $80 million and it grossed $266.8 million worldwide, on a snowy Christmas night, Tucker and Esther Cobblepot throw their deformed infant child Oswald into Gotham River, fearing he would become a menace to society after attacking their pet cat. His crib floats to a zoo and is found by a flock of penguins who raise him as one of their own. 33 years later, three years after the defeat of the Joker, during the lighting of Gotham Citys Christmas tree, a former sideshow freak, Cobblepot explains his desire to become a respected citizen of Gotham and blackmails Shreck into helping him. Meanwhile, Shrecks secretary, Selina Kyle, inadvertently discovers her bosss plan to illegally monopolize Gothams supply of electricity, to protect his secrets, Shreck pushes her out of his office window. Falling through several canopies, Kyle miraculously survives but lies unconscious in an alley, a group of cats swarm around her and she suddenly regains consciousness. Shreck arranges for one of Cobblepots men to kidnap the Mayors infant son, as a reward, Cobblepot is given access to the Gotham City Archives, where he learns his real name, and that he is the last surviving member of his family. Meanwhile, the Mayor, persuaded by Wayne, refuses to give Shreck a construction permit for his power plant, Cobblepot orders his gang to attack downtown Gotham, ruining the Mayors reputation and giving Shreck the opportunity to propose Cobblepot as a replacement. Batman confronts Cobblepot, but Catwoman appears while firebombing Shrecks department store, after a fight in which Batman knocks her off a building, Catwoman survives by landing in a truck full of kitty litter. While traversing the rooftops to find the Ice Princess, Penguins goons disassemble the Batmobile, distracted by Catwoman, Batman is unable to stop Cobblepot from attacking the Princess using a swarm of captive bats. She falls to her death before Batman tries to save her, when Catwoman rejects Cobblepots amorous advances, he responds by attacking her with his motorized helicopter umbrella
7.
35 mm film
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35 mm film is the film gauge most commonly used for motion pictures and chemical still photography. The name of the gauge refers to the width of the photographic film, the standard negative pulldown for movies is four perforations per frame along both edges, which results in 16 frames per foot of film. For still photography, the frame has eight perforations on each side. This resulted in cameras, projectors, and other equipment having to be calibrated to each gauge, the 35 mm width, originally specified as 1.375 inches, was introduced in 1892 by William Dickson and Thomas Edison, using film stock supplied by George Eastman. The gauge has been versatile in application, Eastman Kodak, Fujifilm and Agfa-Gevaert are some companies which offered 35 mm films. Today Kodak is the last remaining manufacturer of motion picture film and it is difficult to compare the quality of film to digital media but a good estimate would be about 20.8 million total pixels would equal one 35 millimeter high quality color frame of film. In 1880, George Eastman began to manufacture gelatin dry plates in Rochester. Along with W. H. Walker, Eastman invented a holder for a roll of picture-carrying gelatin layer coated paper, hannibal Goodwins invention of nitrocellulose film base in 1887 was the first transparent, flexible film. With the advent of film, Thomas Alva Edison quickly set out on his invention, the Kinetoscope. The Kinetoscope was a loop system intended for one-person viewing. Edison, along with assistant W. K. L. Dickson, followed that up with the Kinetophone, beginning in March 1892, Eastman and then, from April 1893 into 1896, New Yorks Blair Camera Co. supplied Edison with film stock. Edisons aperture defined a single frame of film at 4 perforations high, a court judgment in March 1902 invalidated Edisons claim, allowing any producer or distributor to use the Edison 35 mm film design without license. Filmmakers were already doing so in Britain and Europe, where Edison had failed to file patents, at the time, film stock was usually supplied unperforated and punched by the filmmaker to their standards with perforation equipment. A variation developed by the Lumière Brothers used a circular perforation on each side of the frame towards the middle of the horizontal axis.33 aspect ratio. Spehr describes the importance of these developments, The early acceptance of 35 mm as a standard had momentous impact on the development and spread of cinema. The film format was introduced into still photography as early as 1913 but first became popular with the launch of the Leica camera, created by Oskar Barnack in 1925. The costly image-forming silver compounds in a film stocks emulsion meant from the start that 35 mm filmmaking was to be a hobby with a high barrier to entry for the public at large. Furthermore, the film base of all early film stock was highly flammable
8.
Release print
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A release print is a copy of a film that is provided to a movie theater for exhibition. Workprints, sometimes called cutting copies, are, like rush prints and they are used for editing before the negative itself is conformed, or cut to match the edited workprint. A Showprint is a high quality projection print made for screening at special events such as gala premieres. As a showprint is at least two generations closer to the camera negative than a typical release print, the definition and saturation in the projected image is significantly higher. Showprints have been referred to as EKs, since Showprint is a tradename of DeLuxe. In short, a release print is three generations removed from the cut camera negative. This procedure eliminates at least one generation of analogue duplication and usually results in a significant higher quality of release prints, as of March 2015, Eastman Kodak is the only remaining manufacturer of colour release print stock in the world. Along with Kodak, ORWO of Germany also sells black-and-white print stock, the person operating the printer on which the release print is struck must take several factors into consideration in order to achieve accurate color. At the theater, release prints are projected through an aperture plate, sometimes a hard matte is used in printing to ensure that only the area of the frame shot in the camera that is intended to be projected is actually present on the release print. The audience may be confused when significant action appears on the edges of the picture. Director Brad Bird expressed frustration at this practice, which some theaters applied to his film The Incredibles, for example, in the United States, it is not unusual for each one to cost around $1,500 to print and ship to theaters around the country. The cost of a print is determined primarily by its length, the type of print stock used. Laser subtitling release prints of foreign language films adds significantly to the cost per print, due to the fear of piracy, distributors try to ensure that prints are returned and destroyed after the movies theatrical run is complete. A significant number of films have been preserved this way, via prints eventually being donated to film archives, the polyester film base is often recycled. EKs are even more expensive as they are almost completely made by hand, perhaps only five EKs will be made of a widely distributed feature, compared to thousands of standard prints. They are intended primarily for first-run and Academy-consideration theatrical runs in Los Angeles and this accounts for two of the typically five produced. Two EKs are usually reserved for the films producer, the remaining EK is usually archived by the films distributor. SFIFF, Brad Birds State of Cinema Address
9.
Charge-coupled device
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A charge-coupled device is a device for the movement of electrical charge, usually from within the device to an area where the charge can be manipulated, for example conversion into a digital value. This is achieved by shifting the signals between stages within the one at a time. CCDs move charge between capacitive bins in the device, with the shift allowing for the transfer of charge between bins, in recent years CCD has become a major technology for digital imaging. In a CCD image sensor, pixels are represented by p-doped metal-oxide-semiconductors capacitors, the charge-coupled device was invented in 1969 at AT&T Bell Labs by Willard Boyle and George E. Smith. The lab was working on bubble memory when Boyle and Smith conceived of the design of what they termed, in their notebook. The device could be used as a shift register, the essence of the design was the ability to transfer charge along the surface of a semiconductor from one storage capacitor to the next. The concept was similar in principle to the device, which was developed at Philips Research Labs during the late 1960s. The first patent on the application of CCDs to imaging was assigned to Michael Tompsett, the initial paper describing the concept listed possible uses as a memory, a delay line, and an imaging device. The first experimental device demonstrating the principle was a row of closely spaced metal squares on a silicon surface electrically accessed by wire bonds. The first working CCD made with integrated circuit technology was a simple 8-bit shift register and this device had input and output circuits and was used to demonstrate its use as a shift register and as a crude eight pixel linear imaging device. Development of the device progressed at a rapid rate, by 1971, Bell researchers led by Michael Tompsett were able to capture images with simple linear devices. Several companies, including Fairchild Semiconductor, RCA and Texas Instruments, picked up on the invention, fairchilds effort, led by ex-Bell researcher Gil Amelio, was the first with commercial devices, and by 1974 had a linear 500-element device and a 2-D100 x 100 pixel device. Steven Sasson, an engineer working for Kodak, invented the first digital still camera using a Fairchild 100 x 100 CCD in 1975. The first KH-11 KENNAN reconnaissance satellite equipped with charge-coupled device array technology for imaging was launched in December 1976, under the leadership of Kazuo Iwama, Sony also started a large development effort on CCDs involving a significant investment. Eventually, Sony managed to mass-produce CCDs for their camcorders, before this happened, Iwama died in August 1982, subsequently, a CCD chip was placed on his tombstone to acknowledge his contribution. He was also awarded the 2012 IEEE Edison Medal For pioneering contributions to imaging devices including CCD Imagers, cameras, in a CCD for capturing images, there is a photoactive region, and a transmission region made out of a shift register. An image is projected through a lens onto the capacitor array, once the array has been exposed to the image, a control circuit causes each capacitor to transfer its contents to its neighbor. The last capacitor in the array dumps its charge into a charge amplifier, by repeating this process, the controlling circuit converts the entire contents of the array in the semiconductor to a sequence of voltages
10.
Projector
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A projector or image projector is an optical device that projects an image onto a surface, commonly a projection screen. Most projectors create an image by shining a light through a transparent lens. A virtual retinal display, or retinal projector, is a projector that projects an image directly on the retina instead of using a projection screen. The most common type of projector used today is called a video projector. Video projectors are digital replacements for earlier types of such as slide projectors. These earlier types of projectors were replaced with digital video projectors throughout the 1990s and early 2000s. The newest types of projectors are handheld projectors that use lasers or LEDs to project images and their projections are hard to see if there is too much ambient light. Movie theaters used a type of projector called a movie projector, spectators not always provided the details needed to differentiate between for instance a shadow play and a lantern projection. Many did not understand the nature of what they had seen, projections were often presented or perceived as magic or even as religious experiences, with most projectionists unwilling to share their secrets. Shadow play usually does not involve a projection device, but can be seen as a first step in the development of projectors. It evolved into more refined forms of puppetry in Asia. Projectors share a history with cameras in the camera obscura. The oldest known record of this principle is a description by Han Chinese philosopher Mozi, Mozi correctly asserted that the camera obscura image is inverted because light travels in straight lines from its source. In the 11th century Arab physicist Ibn al-Haytham described experiments with light through an opening in a darkened room. The use of a lens in the opening of a wall or closed window shutter of a room has been traced back to circa 1550. The shared history of camera and projector basically split with the introduction of the lantern in the later half of the 17th century. The camera obscura device would mostly live on as an aid in the form of tents. The oldest known objects that can project images are Chinese magic mirrors, the origins of these mirrors have been traced back to the Chinese Han dynasty and are also found in Japan. The mirrors were cast in bronze with a pattern embossed at the back, the pattern seen on the back of the mirror is seen in a projection when light is reflected from the polished front onto a wall or other surface
11.
Sony Dynamic Digital Sound
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Sony Dynamic Digital Sound is a cinema sound system developed by Sony. Compressed digital sound information is recorded on outer edges of the 35 mm film release print. The system supports up to eight independent channels of sound, five front channels, the eight channel arrangement is similar to large format film magnetic sound formats like Cinerama and Cinemiracle. The five front channels are useful for very large cinema auditoriums where the distance between center and left/right channels may be considerable. SDDS decoders provide the ability to downmix to fewer channels if required, although originally slated to premier with Hook, the SDDS project was delayed and instead premiered on June 17,1993, with the Arnold Schwarzenegger film Last Action Hero. Since then, over 1,400 movies have been mixed in Sony Dynamic Digital Sound, green came to mind because the key to imprinting the 8 micrometre data bits was to use a green laser. Initial development efforts were conducted for Sonys Columbia Pictures Sound Department under contract with Semetex Corp. of Torrance, California, at Semetex, the SDDS Chief Architect was Jaye Waas and the Chief Optical Engineer was Mark Waring. Clocking and guide tracks were placed on side of the film near the sprockets. The prototype sound camera imprinted the Digital audio and Analog audio at speed, a companion digital reader was designed to form a complete system. After Sony received the prototype they enlarged the data bits from the original 8 micron size and moved the data locations, the redundancy allows data to be recovered substantially intact even in the presence of a film splice. The SDDS development took just 11 months from concept to working sound camera, when it came time for deployment, since Sony also owned the Sony Theatres chain, it was able use SDDS in its own theatres. And via its highly successful Columbia/Tristar Studios arm, it was able to use SDDS as the exclusive digital soundtrack on its titles. In addition, in the days of the megaplex explosion. This gave SDDS a much needed, albeit artificial, kick-start, more than likely it would have garnered far less penetration had Sony not controlled both a theatre chain and a film studio. SDDS was consistently the least popular of the three competing digital sound formats, the two being Dolby Digital and DTS. Along with being the most expensive to install, there were reliability issues with SDDS. Due to the change from the placement to the very edges of the film stock. As with other sound formats any failure of the digital track could result in a drop-out of the digital format
12.
DTS (sound system)
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It was known as The Digital Experience until 1995. DTS licenses its technologies to consumer electronics manufacturers, in December 2016, DTS was acquired by Tessera. Work on the new format started in 1991, four years after Dolby Laboratories started work on its new codec. Encoders and decoders support numerous channel combinations, and stereo, four-channel, and four-channel+LFE soundtracks have been released commercially on DVD, CD, other, newer DTS variants are also currently available, including versions that support up to seven primary audio channels plus one LFE channel. The core stream can be decoded by any DTS decoder, even if it does not understand the new variant, a decoder which does understand the new variant decodes the core stream, and then modifies it according to the instructions contained in the extension stream. DTSs main competitors in multichannel theatrical audio are Dolby Digital and SDDS, although only Dolby Digital and DTS are used on DVDs and implemented in home theater hardware. Spielberg debuted the format with his 1993 production of Jurassic Park, in 2008, the cinema division was divested to form DTS Digital Cinema. In 2009 DTS Digital Cinema was purchased by Beaufort International Group Plc. in 2012 DTS acquired the business of SRS Labs, including over 1,000 audio patents and trademarks. In 2014 DTS acquired Manzanita Systems, a provider of MPEG software solutions for television, VOD. Phorus, a subsidiary of DTS, Inc. is a Los Angeles based technology group dedicated to wireless audio solutions for connected devices, in theatrical use, a proprietary 24-bit time code is optically imaged onto the film. An LED reader scans the timecode data from the film and sends it to the DTS processor, the multi-channel DTS audio is recorded in compressed form on standard CD-ROM media at a bitrate of 882 kbit/s. The audio compression used in the theatrical DTS system is the APT-X100 system, unlike the home version of DTS or any version of Dolby Digital, the APT-X100 system is fixed at a 4,1 compression ratio. Data reduction is accomplished via sub-band coding with linear prediction and adaptive quantization, the theatrical DTS processor acts as a transport mechanism, as it holds and reads the audio discs. The DTS time code on the 35mm print identifies the title which is matched to the individual DTS CD-ROMs. Each DTS CD-ROM contains a DOS program that the uses to play back the soundtrack. Unlike Dolby Digital and SDDS, or the version of DTS. The.1 LFE subwoofer track is mixed into the surround channels on the disc. On the consumer level, DTS is the shorthand for the DTS Coherent Acoustics codec, transportable through S/PDIF and part of the LaserDisc, DVD
13.
Dolby Atmos
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Dolby Atmos is the name of a surround sound technology announced by Dolby Laboratories in April 2012 and released in June of the same year, first utilized in Pixars Brave. The first installation was in the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, California, throughout 2012, it saw a limited release of about 25 installations worldwide, with an increase to 300 locations in 2013. There were over 2,100 locations as of February 2015, Dolby Atmos has also been adapted to a home theater format and is the audio component of Dolby Cinema. Each audio track can be assigned to a channel, the traditional format for distribution. For Dolby Atmos, the nomenclature differs slightly, a 7.1.4 Dolby Atmos system is a traditional 7.1 layout with four overhead or Dolby Atmos enabled speakers. By way of contrast, traditional multichannel technology essentially burns all the audio tracks into a fixed number of channels during post-production. This has traditionally forced the re-recording mixer to make assumptions about the environment that may not apply very well to a particular theater. The addition of audio objects allow the mixer to be creative, to bring more sounds off the screen. The first generation cinema hardware, the Dolby Atmos Cinema Processor supports up to 128 discrete audio tracks, the technology was initially created for commercial cinema applications, and was later adapted to home cinema. In addition to playing back a standard 5.1 or 7, at the end of June 2014, Dolby Labs hardware partners announced that Dolby Atmos would soon be coming to home theaters. Among them were several established manufacturers of home entertainment devices announcing new products that have now brought Dolby Atmos into home theaters across the globe. The first movie to be released on Blu-ray with Dolby Atmos was Transformers, the first video game to use Dolby Atmos was Star Wars, Battlefront. It remains to be seen if consumers are willing to embrace more speakers in a market that may demand less than believed by some of the authorities in the audio industry. Because of limited bandwidth and lack of processing power, Atmos in home theaters is not rendered the same way as in cinemas, a spatially-coded substream is added to Dolby TrueHD or Dolby Digital Plus. This substream only represents an abbreviated representation of the object-based mix and this substream does not include all 128 discrete objects separated. This is not a matrix-encoded channel, but a digital channel. Atmos in home theaters can support 24.1.10 channels, the spatial audio coding tool is applied to the cinematic object audio mix when filmmakers remix and render the TrueHD and Dolby Digital Plus soundtracks with Dolby Media Producer
14.
Subwoofer
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A subwoofer is a woofer, or a complete loudspeaker, which is dedicated to the reproduction of low-pitched audio frequencies known as bass. The typical frequency range for a subwoofer is about 20–200 Hz for consumer products, below 100 Hz for professional live sound, subwoofers are intended to augment the low frequency range of loudspeakers covering higher frequency bands. While the term subwoofer technically only refers to the driver, in common parlance. Subwoofers are made up of one or more woofers mounted in a loudspeaker enclosure—often made of wood—capable of withstanding air pressure while resisting deformation, passive subwoofers have a subwoofer driver and enclosure and they are powered by an external amplifier. Active subwoofers include a built-in amplifier, the first subwoofers were developed in the 1960s to add bass response to home stereo systems. Subwoofers came into popular consciousness in the 1970s with the introduction of Sensurround in movies such as Earthquake. During the 1990s, subwoofers also became popular in home stereo systems, custom car audio installations. By the 2000s, subwoofers became almost universal in sound reinforcement systems in nightclubs, Dones loudspeaker was marketed in the US under the trade name The Octavium from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s. The Octavium was utilized by recording artists of that era, most notably the Grateful Dead, bassist Monk Montgomery, bassist Nathan East. The Octavium speaker and Dones subwoofer technology was utilized, in a few select theaters. During the late 1960s Dones’ Octavium was favorably reviewed by publications including Hi-Fi News. Another early subwoofer enclosure made for home and studio use was the bass speaker for the Servo Statik 1 by New Technology Enterprises. In 1968, the two found outside investors and reorganized as Infinity, the subwoofer was reviewed positively in Stereophile magazines Winter 1968 issue as the SS-1 by Infinity. The SS-1 was reviewed very highly in 1970 by High Fidelity magazine, another of the early subwoofers was developed during the late 1960s by Ken Kreisel, the former president of the Miller & Kreisel Sound Corporation in Los Angeles. Infinitys full range electrostatic speaker system that was developed during the 1960s also used a woofer to cover the frequency range that its electrostatic arrays did not handle adequately. Subwoofers received a deal of publicity in 1974 with the movie Earthquake which was released in Sensurround. Four of the subwoofers were positioned in front of the audience under the film screen, powerful noise energy and loud rumbling in the range of 17 Hz to 120 Hz was generated at the level of 110–120 decibels of sound pressure level, abbreviated dB. The new low frequency entertainment method helped the film become a box office success, more Sensurround systems were assembled and installed
15.
Monaural
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Monaural or monophonic sound reproduction is intended to be heard as if it were a single channel of sound perceived as coming from one position. Monaural recordings, like stereo, customarily use multiple microphones, fed into multiple channels on a recording console, in some cases the multitrack source is mixed down to a one track tape becoming one signal. However, today monaural recordings are usually mastered to be played on stereo and multi-track formats, monaural sound has been replaced by stereo sound in most entertainment applications. However, it remains the standard for communications, telephone networks. A few FM radio stations, particularly talk radio shows, choose to broadcast in monaural, as a monaural signal has a slight advantage in signal strength over a stereophonic signal of the same power. Monaural sound is normal on, Phonograph cylinders Disc records made before 1958, such as made for playing at a speed of 78 rpm and earlier 16 2⁄3, 33 1⁄3. Some FM radio stations that broadcast only spoken word or talk radio content in order to maximize their coverage area, examples of this would be the CBC Radio One stations on the FM dial. Sometimes listeners will not be convinced that the signal is strong since there is no ST or STEREO LED lit, subcarrier signals for FM radio, which carry leased content such as background music for businesses or a radio reading service for the blind. Background music services such as Seeburg 1000, satellite broadcasts by Muzak as well as the public systems such services are intended to be used with. At various times artists have preferred to work in mono, either in recognition of the limitations of the equipment of the era or because of simple preference. Many of Stanley Kubrick and Woody Allens movies were recorded in mono because of their directors preferences, monaural LP records were eventually phased out and no longer manufactured after the early 1970s, with a few exceptions. For example, Decca UK had a few double issues until the end of 1970-the last one being Tom Joness I Who Have Nothing, during the 1960s it was common for albums to be released as both monaural LPs and stereo LPs, occasionally with slight differences between the two. This was because many people owned mono record players that were incapable of playing stereo records, on 9 September 2009, The Beatles re-released a remastered box set of their mono output spanning the Please Please Me album to The Beatles. The set, simply called The Beatles in Mono, also includes a summary of the mono singles, B-sides. Also included were five tracks originally mixed for an unissued mono Yellow Submarine EP, Bob Dylan followed suit on October 19,2010 with The Original Mono Recordings, a box set featuring the mono releases from Bob Dylan to John Wesley Harding. When the initial run of the box set sold out, no more were pressed, unlike the Beatles, sometimes mono sound or monaural can simply refer to a merged pair of stereo channels - also known as collapsed stereo or folded-down stereo. Over time some devices have used mono sound amplification circuitry with two or more speakers since it can cut the cost of the hardware, some consumer electronics with stereo RCA outputs have a microswitch in the red RCA output that disables merging of stereo sound into the white RCA output. Common devices with this are VCRs, DVD/Blu-ray players, information appliances, set-top boxes, video game consoles sometimes have male RCA ends of cables with a proprietary multi-A/V plug on the other end, which prevents automatic stereo merging unless adapters are used
16.
Stereophonic sound
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Stereophonic sound or, more commonly, stereo, is a method of sound reproduction that creates an illusion of multi-directional audible perspective. Thus the term applies to so-called quadraphonic and surround-sound systems as well as the more common two-channel. It is often contrasted with monophonic, or mono sound, where audio is heard as coming from one position, in the 2000s, stereo sound is common in entertainment systems such as broadcast radio and TV, recorded music and the cinema. The word stereophonic derives from the Greek στερεός, firm, solid + φωνή, sound, tone, voice and it was coined in 1927 by Western Electric, the signal is then reproduced over multiple loudspeakers to recreate, as closely as possible, the live sound. Secondly artificial or pan-pot stereo, in which a sound is reproduced over multiple loudspeakers. By varying the amplitude of the signal sent to each speaker an artificial direction can be suggested. The control which is used to vary this relative amplitude of the signal is known as a pan-pot, by combining multiple pan-potted mono signals together, a complete, yet entirely artificial, sound field can be created. In technical usage, true stereo sound recording and sound reproduction that uses stereographic projection to encode the relative positions of objects and events recorded. During two-channel stereo recording, two microphones are placed in strategically chosen locations relative to the source, with both recording simultaneously. The two recorded channels will be similar, but each will have distinct time-of-arrival and sound-pressure-level information, during playback, the listeners brain uses those subtle differences in timing and sound level to triangulate the positions of the recorded objects. Stereo recordings often cannot be played on systems without a significant loss of fidelity. This phenomenon is known as phase cancellation and this two-channel telephonic process was commercialized in France from 1890 to 1932 as the Théâtrophone, and in England from 1895 to 1925 as the Electrophone. Both were services available by coin-operated receivers at hotels and cafés, modern stereophonic technology was invented in the 1930s by British engineer Alan Blumlein at EMI, who patented stereo records, stereo films, and also surround sound. In early 1931, Blumlein and his wife were at a local cinema, Blumlein declared to his wife that he had found a way to make the sound follow the actor across the screen. The genesis of ideas is uncertain, but he explained them to Isaac Shoenberg in the late summer of 1931. His earliest notes on the subject are dated 25 September 1931, the application was dated 14 December 1931, and was accepted on 14 June 1933 as UK patent number 394,325. The patent covered many ideas in stereo, some of which are used today and these discs used the two walls of the groove at right angles in order to carry the two channels. Much of the development work on this system for cinematic use did not reach completion until 1935, in Blumleins short test films, his original intent of having the sound follow the actor was fully realised
17.
Backronym
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A backronym or bacronym is a specially constructed phrase that is supposed to be the source of a word that is, or is claimed to be, an acronym. Backronyms may be invented with serious or humorous intent, or may be a type of false or folk etymology, the word is a combination of backward and acronym, and has been defined as a reverse acronym. Its earliest known citation in print is as bacronym in the November 1983 edition of the Washington Post monthly neologism contest. The newspaper quoted winning reader Meredith G. Williams of Potomac, Maryland, defining it as the same as an acronym, except that the words were chosen to fit the letters. An acronym is a derived from the initial letters of the words of a phrase, For example. By contrast, a backronym is constructed by creating a new phrase to fit an existing word, name. Backronyms are also used for comedic effect, as exemplified by NASAs C. O. L. B. E. R. T. NASA named its ISS treadmill the Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill after Stephen Colbert, the backronym was a lighthearted compromise in recognition of the comedians ability to sway NASAs online vote for the naming of an ISS module. Backronyms can be constructed for educational purposes, for example to form mnemonics, an example of such a mnemonic is the Apgar score, used to assess the health of newborn babies. Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step programs use backronyms as teaching tools, similar to such as one day at a time, or Let go, let God. For example, a slip may be expanded as Sobriety Losing Its Priority, backronyms are also created as jokes or as slogans, often expressing consumer loyalties or frustration. For example, the name of the restaurant chain Arbys is a play on the letters RB, referring to the companys founders, an advertising campaign in the 1980s created a backronym with the slogan America’s Roast Beef, Yes Sir. Many companies or products have spawned multiple humorous backronyms, with positive connotations asserted by supporters or negative ones by detractors. For example, the car company Ford was said to stand for First On Race Day, by aficionados, similar backronyms have been directed against many other automakers, such as Fix It Again Tony for Fiat. Backronyms have also coined by military personnel during wartime. The backronym for Spam, Something Posing As Meat, was said to have originated from jaundiced soldiers who were sick of eating canned meat. The British contribution to the 2003 invasion of Iraq was code-named Operation Telic, backronyms are sometimes created to name laws or programs. Commentators have noted a trend among US lawmakers to devise names that form a desired acronym
18.
Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding
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Adaptive Transform Acoustic Coding is a family of proprietary audio compression algorithms developed by Sony. MiniDisc was the first commercial product to incorporate ATRAC in 1992, ATRAC allowed a relatively small disc like MiniDisc to have the same running time as CD while storing audio information with minimal loss in perceptible quality. Improvements to the codec in the form of ATRAC3, ATRAC3plus, and ATRAC Advanced Lossless followed in 1999,2002, other MiniDisc manufacturers such as Sharp and Panasonic also implemented their own versions of the ATRAC codec. Sony has all but dropped the ATRAC related codecs in the USA and Europe, however, it is being continued in Japan and various other countries. ATRACs original 292 kbit/s bitrate was designed to be close to CD quality acoustically and this is the bitrate used on original MiniDiscs. Years later ATRAC was improved and is considered better than earlier versions at similar bitrates. This is in contrast to other codecs developed on computers with no regard for the constraints of portable hardware and these trade-offs are entirely logical on DSP systems, where memory is often at a premium compared to multiplier performance. Sony Walkmans offer better battery life when playing ATRAC files as compared to MP3 files, however, as Sony only pushed ATRAC compatibility in Sony Ericsson Walkman series phones in the Japanese market, it is not supported in GSM/UMTS market phones. Sonys Xplod series of car audio CD players support ATRAC CDs, minidiscs with ATRAC format songs have, in the past, been supported on Eclipse brand car stereos. ATRAC1 was first used in Sonys own theater format SDDS system in the 1990s, SDDS uses ATRAC1 with 8 channel encoding, and with a total encoding rate over all the channels of 1168 kbit/s. Two stacked quadrature mirror filters split the signal into 3 parts,0 to 5.5125 kHz 5.5125 to 11.025 kHz 11.025 to 22.05 kHz Full stereo encoding with a rate of 292 kbit/s. High-frequency lowpass depends on the complexity of the material, some encodings have content clear up to 22.05 kHz, ATRAC1 can also be used in mono mode, doubling recording time. FFmpeg has an implementation of an ATRAC1 decoder, like ATRAC1 and MP3, ATRAC3 is also a hybrid subband-MDCT encoder, but with several differences. Unlike nearly all formats, the transform length cannot be varied to optimize coding transients. Additionally, prior to quantization, tonal components are subtracted from the signal, during decoding, they are separately reconstructed and added back to reform the original MDCT coefficients. Sony claims the advantage of ATRAC3 is its coding efficiency. However, as ATRAC is a hybrid subband-MDCT codec that is very similar to MP3. LP2 Mode This uses a 132 kbit/s data rate, the quality of which is advertised to be similar to that of MP3 encoded at a bit rate
19.
Sony
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Sony Corporation is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation that is headquartered in Kōnan, Minato, Tokyo. Its diversified business includes consumer and professional electronics, gaming, entertainment, the company is one of the leading manufacturers of electronic products for the consumer and professional markets. Sony was ranked 116th on the 2015 list of Fortune Global 500 and these make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. The group consists of Sony Corporation, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Financial Holdings and others. Sony is among the Semiconductor sales leaders by year and as of 2013, the companys current slogan is BE MOVED. Their former slogans were make. believe, like. no. other, Sony has a weak tie to the SMFG keiretsu, the successor to the Mitsui keiretsu. Sony began in the wake of World War II, in 1946, Masaru Ibuka started an electronics shop in a department store building in Tokyo. The company had $530 in capital and a total of eight employees, in the following year he was joined by his colleague, Akio Morita, and they founded a company called Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo 東京通信工業. The company built Japans first tape recorder, called the Type-G, in 1958 the company changed its name to Sony. When Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo was looking for a name to use to market themselves, they strongly considered using their initials. The primary reason they did not is that the railway company Tokyo Kyuko was known as TTK, the company occasionally used the acronym Totsuko in Japan, but during his visit to the United States, Morita discovered that Americans had trouble pronouncing that name. Another early name that was tried out for a while was Tokyo Teletech until Akio Morita discovered that there was an American company already using Teletech as a brand name, the name Sony was chosen for the brand as a mix of two words. One was the Latin word sonus, which is the root of sonic and sound, and the other was sonny, a common slang term used in 1950s America to call a boy. In the 1950s Japan sonny boys, was a word into Japanese which connoted smart and presentable young men. The first Sony-branded product, the TR-55 transistor radio, appeared in 1955, at the time of the change, it was extremely unusual for a Japanese company to use Roman letters to spell its name instead of writing it in kanji. The move was not without opposition, TTKs principal bank at the time and they pushed for a name such as Sony Electronic Industries, or Sony Teletech. Akio Morita was firm, however, as he did not want the company tied to any particular industry. Eventually, both Ibuka and Mitsui Banks chairman gave their approval, according to Schiffer, Sonys TR-63 radio cracked open the U. S. market and launched the new industry of consumer microelectronics
20.
ATSC standards
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Advanced Television Systems Committee standards are a set of standards for digital television transmission over terrestrial, cable, and satellite networks. It is largely a replacement for the analog NTSC standard, and like that standard, used mostly in the United States, other former users of NTSC, like Japan, have not used ATSC during their digital television transition. The standard is now administered by the Advanced Television Systems Committee, the standard includes a number of patented elements, and licensing is required for devices that use these parts of the standard. Key among these is the 8VSB modulation system used for over-the-air broadcasts, ATSC includes two primary high definition video formats, 1080i and 720p. It also includes standard-definition formats, although initially only HDTV services were launched in the digital format, the high-definition television standards defined by the ATSC produce wide screen 16,9 images up to 1920×1080 pixels in size – more than six times the display resolution of the earlier standard. However, many different image sizes are also supported, the reduced bandwidth requirements of lower-resolution images allow up to six standard-definition subchannels to be broadcast on a single 6 MHz TV channel. ATSC standards are marked A/x and can be downloaded for free from the ATSCs website at ATSC. org, ATSC Standard A/72 was approved in 2008 and introduces H. 264/AVC video coding to the ATSC system. ATSC supports 5. 1-channel surround sound using the Dolby Digitals AC-3 format, numerous auxiliary datacasting services can also be provided. Many aspects of ATSC are patented, including elements of the MPEG video coding, the AC-3 audio coding, the cost of patent licensing, estimated at up to $50 per digital TV receiver, has prompted complaints by manufacturers. As with other systems, ATSC depends on numerous interwoven standards, broadcasters who used ATSC and wanted to retain an analog signal were temporarily forced to broadcast on two separate channels, as the ATSC system requires the use of an entire separate channel. Channel numbers in ATSC do not correspond to RF frequency ranges, there is also a standard for distributed transmission systems, a form of single-frequency network which allows for the synchronised operation of multiple on-channel booster stations. Dolby Digital AC-3 is used as the audio codec, though it was standardized as A/52 by the ATSC and it allows the transport of up to five channels of sound with a sixth channel for low-frequency effects. In contrast, Japanese ISDB HDTV broadcasts use MPEGs Advanced Audio Coding as the audio codec, MPEG-2 audio was a contender for the ATSC standard during the DTV Grand Alliance shootout, but lost out to Dolby AC-3. The Grand Alliance issued a statement finding the MPEG-2 system to be equivalent to Dolby. Later, a story emerged that MIT had entered into an agreement with Dolby whereupon the university would be awarded a sum of money if the MPEG-2 system was rejected. Dolby also offered an incentive for Zenith to switch their vote, however, the ATSC system supports a number of different display resolutions, aspect ratios, and frame rates. The formats are listed here by resolution, form of scanning, for transport, ATSC uses the MPEG systems specification, known as an MPEG transport stream, to encapsulate data, subject to certain constraints. ATSC uses 188-byte MPEG transport stream packets to carry data, before decoding of audio and video takes place, the receiver must demodulate and apply error correction to the signal
21.
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
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Star Trek VI, The Undiscovered Country is a 1991 American science fiction film released by Paramount Pictures. It is the feature film based on Star Trek. Taking place after the events of Star Trek V, The Final Frontier, principal photography took place between April and September 1991. The production budget was smaller than anticipated because of the critical and commercial disappointment of The Final Frontier, because of a lack of sound stage space on the Paramount lot, many scenes were filmed around Hollywood. Meyer and cinematographer Hiro Narita aimed for a darker and more dramatic mood, subtly altering sets originally used for the television series Star Trek, producer Steven-Charles Jaffe led a second unit that filmed on an Alaskan glacier that stood in for a Klingon gulag. Cliff Eidelman produced the score, which is intentionally darker than previous Star Trek offerings. The film was released in North America on December 6,1991, the Undiscovered Country garnered positive reviews, with publications praising the lighthearted acting and facetious references. The film performed strongly at the box office and it posted the largest opening weekend gross of the series before going on to earn $96,888,996 worldwide. The film earned two Academy Award nominations, for Best Makeup and Best Sound Effects, and is the only Star Trek movie to win the Saturn Award for Best Science Fiction Film. A special collectors edition DVD version of the film was released in 2004, Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry died shortly before the movies premiere, just days after viewing the film. The film marked the final appearance together of the series cast. The loss of their key energy production facility and the destruction of the Klingon homeworlds ozone layer throws the Klingon Empire into turmoil, no longer able to maintain a hostile footing, the Klingons sue for peace with their longstanding enemy, the United Federation of Planets. Enterprises captain, James T. Kirk, whose son David was murdered by Klingons years earlier, opposes the negotiations, after a rendezvous between Enterprise and Gorkons battlecruiser they continue towards Earth, with the crews sharing a tense meal aboard Enterprise. Later that night, Enterprise appears to fire on the Klingon ship with a pair of photon torpedoes, during the confusion, two figures wearing Starfleet suits and gravity boots beam aboard the Klingon ship and grievously wound Gorkon before beaming away. Kirk surrenders to avoid a fight, and beams aboard the Klingon ship with Doctor Leonard McCoy to attempt to save Gorkons life, the chancellor dies, and Gorkons chief of staff, General Chang, puts Kirk and McCoy on trial for his assassination. The pair are found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment on the frozen asteroid Rura Penthe. Gorkons daughter, Azetbur, becomes the new chancellor, and continues diplomatic negotiations, for reasons of security, the conference is relocated, while several senior Starfleet officers want to rescue Kirk and McCoy, the Federation president refuses to risk full-scale war. Azetbur likewise refuses to invade Federation space, stating that only Kirk, once her betrayal is revealed, Martia transforms into Kirks double and fights him, but she is killed by the prison guards to silence any witnesses
22.
LaserDisc
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LaserDisc is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as MCA DiscoVision in North America in 1978. It was not a format in Europe and Australia when first released but was popular in the 1990s. Its superior video and audio quality made it a choice among videophiles. The technologies and concepts behind LaserDisc were the foundation for later optical disc formats including Compact Disc, DVD, Optical video recording technology, using a transparent disc, was invented by David Paul Gregg and James Russell in 1958. The Gregg patents were purchased by MCA in 1968, by 1969, Philips had developed a videodisc in reflective mode, which has advantages over the transparent mode. MCA and Philips then decided to combine their efforts and first publicly demonstrated the video disc in 1972. LaserDisc was first available on the market, in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 15,1978, Philips produced the players while MCA produced the discs. The Philips-MCA cooperation was not successful, and discontinued after a few years, several of the scientists responsible for the early research founded Optical Disc Corporation. In 1979, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago opened its Newspaper exhibit which used interactive LaserDiscs to allow visitors to search for the front page of any Chicago Tribune newspaper and this was a very early example of public access to electronically stored information in a museum. The first LaserDisc title marketed in North America was the MCA DiscoVision release of Jaws in 1978, the last title released in North America was Paramounts Bringing Out the Dead in 2000. The last Japanese released movie was the Hong Kong film Tokyo Raiders from Golden Harvest, a dozen or so more titles continued to be released in Japan, until the end of 2001. Production of LaserDisc players continued until January 14,2009, when Pioneer stopped making them and it was estimated that in 1998, LaserDisc players were in approximately 2% of U. S. households. By comparison, in 1999, players were in 10% of Japanese households, LaserDisc was released on June 10,1981 in Japan, and a total of 3.6 million LaserDisc players were sold there. A total of 16.8 million LaserDisc players were sold worldwide, by the early 2000s, LaserDisc was completely replaced by DVD in the North American retail marketplace, as neither players nor software were then produced. Players were still exported to North America from Japan until the end of 2001, the format has retained some popularity among American collectors, and to a greater degree in Japan, where the format was better supported and more prevalent during its life. In Europe, LaserDisc always remained an obscure format and it was chosen by the British Broadcasting Corporation for the BBC Domesday Project in the mid-1980s, a school-based project to commemorate 900 years since the original Domesday Book in England. From 1991 up until the early 2000s, the BBC also used LaserDisc technology to play out the channel idents, the standard home video LaserDisc was 30 cm in diameter and made up of two single-sided aluminum discs layered in plastic. Although appearing similar to compact discs or DVDs, LaserDiscs used analog video stored in the domain with analog FM stereo sound
23.
Clear and Present Danger (film)
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Clear and Present Danger is a 1994 American spy thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce and based on Tom Clancys novel of the same name. It was preceded by the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October and it is the last film version of Clancys novels to feature Harrison Ford as Ryan and James Earl Jones as Vice Admiral James Greer, as well as the final installment directed by Noyce. The film premiered in theaters in the United States on August 3,1994, a U. S. Coast Guard patrol boat stops a suspicious yacht, discovering that an American businessman and his family have been murdered. The murdered man is a friend of the President. President Bennett learns that the man was murdered because of his ties to a drug cartel, having skimmed over $650 million from it. Seeking to keep Ryan out of the loop, Cutter turns to the CIAs Deputy Director for Operations Bob Ritter, Ritter assembles a black operations team with the help of John Clark. The team inserts itself in Colombia, with Clark running the logistics, through a contact, Cortez discovers FBI Director Emil Jacobs is visiting Colombia to negotiate with Colombias attorney general concerning the frozen money. Cortez has Jacobs ambushed and killed, engineering it so that suspicion will fall on Escobedo, Cortez brokers a deal with Cutter. In exchange, Cutter will shut down all operations in Colombia, Cutter agrees and orders Ritter to get rid of all evidence of their operations and cut off the troops in Colombia from all support. Ryan is told about the meeting between Cutter and Cortez and he hacks Ritters computer and discovers the conspiracy unfolding in Colombia. The black-ops team is ambushed in Colombia, as Ryan arrives and finds Clark and they fly to where the soldiers were attacked and find the squads sniper, Chavez, who tells them two of his unit members have been captured and the rest are dead. Ryan visits Escobedos mansion and tells him what Cortez has been doing, enraged, Escobedo accuses Cortez of treachery. One of Cortezs men kills Escobedo and his henchmen, but is shot by Chávez, Ryan, Clark and Chávez rescue the prisoners, kill Cortez, and escape. Ryan confronts the President and tells him he intends to inform the Congressional Oversight Committee about the conspiracy despite the damage it could do to his career and he walks out of the Oval Office and begins his testimony to Congress. John Milius says he wrote the first draft and later wrote the sequence where Jack Ryan is ambushed in SUVs and he says the original ending had Cortez come to Washington to kill the national security adviser, only to then be killed in a mugging by drug addicts. The films musical score was composed by James Horner, milan Records released an album featuring selections from the score on August 2,1994. An expanded two-disc collectors edition was released in 2013 by specialty label Intrada Records, the new version now includes the complete score by Horner, remixed from the original scoring master tapes with cues appearing in the same order as they appear in the film. The film received reviews from critics
24.
Home cinema
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In the 1980s, home cinemas typically consisted of a movie pre-recorded on a LaserDisc or VHS tape, a LaserDisc or VHS player, and a heavy, bulky large-screen cathode ray tube TV set. Whether home cinema enthusiasts have a stereo set-up or a 5, in the 1950s, playing home movies became popular in the United States with middle class and upper-class families as Kodak 8 mm film projector equipment became more affordable. The development of audio systems and later LaserDisc in the 1980s created a new paradigm for home video, as it enabled movie enthusiasts to add better sound. In the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, a home cinema in the United States would have a LaserDisc or VHS player playing a movie. Some people used expensive front projectors in a viewing room. During the 1990s, watching movies on VHS at home became a leisure activity. In the 2010s, affordable large HDTV flatscreen TVs, high resolution video projectors, 3D television technology, in the 2000s, the term home cinema encompasses a range of systems meant for movie playback at home. 3D-TV-enabled home theaters make use of 3D TV sets/projectors and Blu-ray 3D players in which the viewers wear 3D-glasses, enabling them to see 3D content. Home theater designs and layouts are a choice and the type of home cinema a user can set up depends on her/his budget. Finally a set of speakers, at least two, are needed but more common are anywhere from six to eight with a subwoofer for bass or low-frequency effects. In the 2010s, many home cinema enthusiasts aim to replicate, to the degree that is possible, to do so, many home cinema buffs purchase higher quality components than used for everyday television viewing on a relatively small TV with only built-in speakers. As of 2016, home cinema enthusiasts using Smart Blu-ray players may also watch DVDs of TV shows, as well, with a Smart player, a user may be able to stream movies, TV shows and other content over the Internet. Many 2016-era DVD players and Blu-ray players also have inputs which allow users to view digital photos, video and audio input devices, One or more video/audio sources. High resolution movie media formats such as Blu-ray discs are normally preferred, some home theaters include a HTPC with a media center software application to act as the main library for video and music content using a 10-foot user interface and remote control. In 2016, some of the more-expensive Blu-ray players can stream movies, the user selects the input at this point before it is forwarded to the output stage. Some AV receivers enable the viewer to use a control to select which input device or source to use. Audio output, Systems consist of preamplifiers, power amplifiers and two or more loudspeakers mounted in speaker enclosures, the audio system requires at least a stereo power amplifier and two speakers, for stereo sound, most systems have multi-channel surround sound power amplifier and six or more speakers. Some users have 7.1 Surround Sound and it is possible to have up to 11 speakers with additional subwoofers
25.
True Lies
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It is a loose remake of the 1991 French comedy film La Totale. The film follows U. S. government agent Harry Tasker, for her performance, Curtis won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and the Saturn Award for Best Actress, while Cameron won the Saturn Award for Best Director. The film ultimately grossed $378 million worldwide at the box-office and was nominated at the Academy Awards and BAFTAs in the Best Visual Effect category. Harry suspects that antiques dealer Juno Skinner has ties to Aziz, though the initial investigation proves fruitless, Aziz correctly identifies Harry as a spy and tries to kill him. Harry kills two of Azizs men and pursues the leader through the streets of Washington, D. C. as a result, Harry misses the birthday party that Helen and Dana had arranged for him. Harry heads to Helens office the day to surprise her for lunch. He uses Omega Sector resources to learn that Simon is a car salesman. While masked, Harry and a team of agents kidnap Helen while she is at Simons trailer, using a voice masking device, Harry interrogates Helen and learns that, due to his constant absence, she is desperately seeking adventure. Harry thus arranges for Helen to participate in a spy mission. The figure turns out to be Harry, who hopes to surprise Helen, however, things take a turn for the worse when Azizs men burst in, kidnap the couple, and take them to an island in the Florida Keys. He then orders the couple to be tortured, Harry reveals his life to an understandably shocked Helen. The couple stage an escape, Harry fighting off Azizs men with an improvised flamethrower, Aziz preps one of the warheads to detonate in ninety minutes, and loads the rest onto trucks to be taken elsewhere. During the ensuing chaos, Helen is captured by Juno and taken with the convoy on the Overseas Highway, having tracked Harry via Helens tracker, he is rescued by agents led by Gib and together they begin pursuit the convoy, sending two Harrier Jump Jets. The jets destroy part of the bridge to cut off the escape route. Upon safely returning to the mainland, they learn that Aziz and his men have control of a Miami skyscraper via helicopter and have kidnapped Dana. Harry commandeers one of the jets to rescue his daughter, faisal poses as part of a news team requested by Aziz, providing enough distraction for Dana to steal the ignition key and flee the room. Aziz chases Dana onto a crane when Harry arrives. Harry is able to rescue Dana while he and Aziz struggle in the cockpit, Aziz becomes ensnared on the end of one of the planes missiles, which Harry fires at the passing terrorist helicopter — destroying it and the remaining bomb on board
26.
Stargate (film)
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Stargate is a 1994 American French science fiction adventure film released through Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Carolco Pictures. Created by Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich, the film is the first release in the Stargate franchise, directed by Roland Emmerich, the film stars Kurt Russell, James Spader, Jaye Davidson, Alexis Cruz, Mili Avital, and Viveca Lindfors. The plot centers on the premise of a Stargate, an ancient ring-shaped device that creates a wormhole enabling travel to a similar device elsewhere in the universe, the films central plot explores the theory of extraterrestrial beings having an influence upon human civilization. The film had a mixed critical reception, earning both praise and criticism for its atmosphere, story, characters, and graphic content. Nevertheless, Stargate became a success worldwide. Devlin and Emmerich gave the rights to the franchise to MGM when they were working on their 1996 film Independence Day, and MGM retains the domestic television rights. Egyptologist and linguist Daniel Jackson, Ph. D. is invited by Catherine Langford to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs on cover stones that her father had unearthed in Giza, Egypt in 1928. Jackson is taken to a U. S. Air Force installation, Jackson determines that the hieroglyphs refer to a stargate which uses constellations as spatial coordinates. On this revelation, Jackson is shown that the base has this Stargate and they use Jacksons coordinates to align the Stargates metal ring with markings along its outside, and once all seven are locked in, a wormhole opens, connecting the Stargate with a distant planet. Jackson joins ONeil and other soldiers as they pass through the wormhole, on the arid desert planet, they find themselves in a pyramid-like structure. Jackson locates the Stargate and its controls, but lacks the coordinates to return home, ONeil orders some men to stay behind to guard the Stargate. Nearby, they discover a tribe of humans working to mine a mineral from the planet. Jackson is able to communicate with them as they speak a variation of Ancient Egyptian, the tribes chieftain Kasuf presents Jackson with his daughter Shauri as a gift, and though Jackson initially refuses her, he becomes romantically attached to her. ONeil befriends the teenaged boy Skaara and his friends, in part because Skaara reminds him of his long-deceased son, Ra enslaved these humans and brought some to this planet through the Stargate to mine the mineral that is used in the alien technology. The humans on Earth revolted, overthrew Ras overseers, and buried the Stargate to prevent its use, Ra forbade the humans in the tribe from becoming literate, fearing another revolt. During this investigation, Jackson comes across a cartouche containing six of the seven symbols for the Stargate and that night, Ras ship lands atop the pyramid structure, and ONeils men there are captured or killed by Ras soldiers. When Jackson, ONeil, and the men return, they end up in a firefight against Ras soldiers. Jackson is killed and the others captured, Ra places Jacksons body in a sarcophagus-like device that regenerates him
27.
Forrest Gump
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Forrest Gump is a 1994 American comedy-drama film based on the 1986 novel of the same name by Winston Groom. The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Tom Hanks, Robin Wright, Gary Sinise, Mykelti Williamson, the film differs substantially from Winston Grooms novel, including Gumps personality and several events that were depicted. Principal photography took place in late 1993, mainly in Georgia, North Carolina, extensive visual effects were used to incorporate the protagonist into archived footage and to develop other scenes. A comprehensive soundtrack was featured in the film, using music intended to pinpoint specific time periods portrayed on screen and its commercial release made it a top-selling soundtrack, selling over twelve million copies worldwide. In 1995 it won the Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director for Robert Zemeckis, Best Actor for Tom Hanks, Best Adapted Screenplay for Eric Roth, Best Visual Effects, and Best Film Editing. It also garnered other awards and nominations, including Golden Globes, Peoples Choice Awards. Since the films release varying interpretations have made of the films protagonist. In 1996, a restaurant, Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. The scene of Gump running across the country is referred to when real-life people attempt the feat. In 2011, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. The plot is delivered in a number of flashbacks in the narrative of Forrest Gump as he sits at a bus stop with a suitcase full of mementos in Savannah. He initiates conversation with a stranger and recalls his childhood in Greenbow, Forrest is raised by a single mother who runs a bed and breakfast for travelling folk including at one point a young Elvis Presley, and has to wear leg braces to fix a crooked back. Despite having a diminished intellect, Forrest is admitted to school after his mother agrees to have sex with the principal. On his first day of school, Forrest meets Jenny Curran, the children bond, finding in each other a confidante and kindred spirit. With Jennys encouragement, Forrest runs away from a group of bullies, struggling until his leg braces break off and he features in the Stand in the Schoolhouse Door and listens to George Wallace. He then meets President John F. Kennedy as a member of the NCAA All-American team and they are sent to Vietnam under Lieutenant Dan Taylor. After four months of patrolling in rain, Bubba is killed during their first encounter, Lieutenant Dan sustains major injuries and loses both his legs. Forrest is wounded in the buttocks while saving members of his platoon—including Lieutenant Dan—and is awarded the Medal of Honor, while recovering from his wounds, Forrest discovers an aptitude for ping-pong, eventually playing against the Chinese in ping-pong diplomacy
28.
Interview with the Vampire (film)
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Interview with the Vampire is a 1994 American drama horror film directed by Neil Jordan, based on the 1976 novel Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, and starring Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. The film focuses on Lestat and Louis, beginning with Louiss transformation into a vampire by Lestat in 1791, the film chronicles their time together, and their turning of a twelve-year-old girl, Claudia, into a vampire. The narrative is framed by an interview, in which Louis tells his story to a San Francisco reporter. The supporting cast features Christian Slater, Kirsten Dunst, Antonio Banderas, the film was released in November 1994 to generally positive reviews, and received Oscar nominations for Best Art Direction and Best Original Score. Kirsten Dunst was also nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film, in modern-day San Francisco, reporter Daniel Molloy interviews Louis de Pointe du Lac, who claims to be a vampire. Louis describes his life as a wealthy plantation owner in 1791 Louisiana. He had lost the will to live following the death of his wife and infant child, Lestat senses Louis dissatisfaction with life and offers to turn him into a vampire, to which Louis accepts prior to being transformed. But while Lestat revels in the hunt and killing of humans, Louis resists killing them and he is disgusted by Lestats pleasure in killing and comes to suffer tremendously as a vampire. Wandering the streets of New Orleans, amid an outbreak of plague, Louis can resist his hunger no more, to entice Louis to stay with him, Lestat makes the girl into their vampire daughter, naming her Claudia. Louis has a love for Claudia, but to Lestat, she is a pupil. As thirty years pass, Claudia matures psychologically but still remains a girl in appearance. When she finally realizes that she will never grow old, she is furious with Lestat and she tricks Lestat into drinking the dead blood of twin boys that she killed by overdosing them with laudanum and she slits his throat. With Louiss help, she dumps Lestats body in a swamp, however, Lestat returns on the night of their departure, having drunk the blood of swamp creatures to survive. Lestat attacks them, but Louis sets him on fire and, in the chaos, they are able to escape. After traveling around Europe and the Mediterranean, Louis and Claudia settle harmoniously in Paris, Louis encounters vampires Santiago and Armand by chance. On their way out of the theater, Santiago reads Louis mind and suspects that Louis, Louis is tempted to remain with Armand and learn from him in a way he could never have done with Lestat. Claudia demands that Louis turn a woman, Madeleine, to be her new protector and companion. The Parisian vampires abduct all three and punish them for Lestats murder, imprisoning Louis in a coffin, and trapping Claudia
29.
Dolby Pro Logic
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Dolby Pro Logic is a surround sound processing technology developed by Dolby Laboratories, designed to decode soundtracks encoded with Dolby Surround. Dolby Stereo was originally developed by Dolby in 1976 for analog cinema sound systems, the format was adapted for home use in 1982 as Dolby Surround when HiFi capable consumer VCRs were introduced, it was then replaced by the newer and improved Pro-Logic system in 1987. Therefore, the term Dolby Surround can be used to describe the technology or matrix-encoded soundtrack, whereas Pro Logic refers to the decoding technology. The two technologies are mostly identical but a change in marketing was needed so as not to confuse cinema stereo which is at least four channels of audio with home stereo which is only two, Dolby Surround/Pro Logic is based on matrix technology. When a Dolby Surround soundtrack is created, four channels of sound are matrix-encoded into a stereo sound track. The centre channel is encoded by placing it equally in the left and right channels, one of the first was the MSP400 surround sound receiver and amplifier by RCA for their high-end Dimensia brand. It was released in 1987 for the Digital Command Component System, Dolby Surround is the earliest consumer version of Dolbys multichannel analog film sound decoding format Dolby Stereo. It was introduced to the public in 1982 during the home video recording formats were introducing Stereo. The term Dolby Surround is used so as not to confuse theater surround with home stereo, the term also applies to the encoding of material in this sound format. It was capable of decoding Dolby Stereo stereo tracks to 3.0 channels, in 1987 the decoding technology was updated and renamed Dolby Pro Logic. A Pro Logic decoder/processor unfolds the sound into the original 4.0 surround—left and right, center, a Pro-Logic decoder also uses Steering Logic, which drives amplifiers, to raise or lower the output volume of each channel based on the current dominant sound direction. For example, while a signal is played, the strong correlation to the center channel triggers the output volume of the left, right. This increases the channel separation achievable, to around 30 decibels between channels, by careful tuning of the response of the amplifiers, the total amount of signal energy remains constant and is unaffected by the operation of the channel steering. Dolby Surround and Dolby Pro Logic decoders are similar in principle, the terms Dolby Stereo, Dolby Surround and Lt/Rt are all used to describe soundtracks that are matrix-encoded using this technique. In 2000, Dolby introduced Dolby Pro Logic II, an implementation of Dolby Pro Logic created by Jim Fosgate. DPL II processes any high quality stereo signal source into five separate full frequency channels, Dolby Pro Logic II also decodes 5 channels from stereo signals encoded in traditional four-channel Dolby Surround. DPL II implements greatly enhanced steering compared to DPL, and as a result, DPL II forgoes this type of processing and replaces it with simple servo circuits used to derive five channels. It identifies spatial cues in low-level, uncorrelated information, such as ambience and effects like rain or wind in the side and rear surround channels, the channels it adds are matrixed, not discrete
30.
Surround channels
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Surround channels are audio channels in surround sound multichannel audio. They primarily serve to deliver ambience and diffuse sounds in a film or music soundtrack, Dolby Stereo was the first standard cinema sound system using a single matrixed mono rear channel. Dolby Surround was the first home system to use a rear channel. Often dipole speakers are used to do this, especially in small or home theater applications where an array of speakers as in a movie theater is not practical or possible. A common misconception is that surround channels are rear channels, however, when only two speakers are used, they are meant to be placed on the side walls at 90-110 degrees relative to the screen. Surround speakers are placed above the ears and are not angled towards the listener. In cinema setups, many more than two surround speakers are used, being placed along the side walls and along the back wall. For music surround channel information is intended to be more direct as in a soundstage there would be noise from all around. For this reason surround speakers should not be set up to be strictly diffuse, optimally there should be discrete surround channels for diffuse and direct effects. This is part of the design for Tomlinson Holmans 10.2 surround sound, for movies surround channel information is usually more diffuse ambient noise. Some surround sound such as Dolby Digital EX and Pro Logic IIx incorporate a third or even fourth surround channel. These channels are matrixed from the surround channels, they are not discrete. Some matrix encoding surround sound systems use a single back center channel surround or a back left, often the standard surround channels are misconceived to be rear channels when they are in fact meant to be placed at 90-120 degrees. In commercial cinema, where there is an area to cover. Theater auditoria are often lined with all along the side. This is to increase the size of the listening area
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5.1 surround sound
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5.1 surround sound is the common name for six channel surround sound audio systems. 5.1 is the most commonly used layout in home cinema and it uses five full bandwidth channels and one low-frequency effects channel. Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic II, DTS, SDDS,5.1 is also the standard surround sound audio component of digital broadcast and music. All 5.1 systems use the same channels and configuration, having a front left and right. A prototype for five-channel surround sound, then dubbed quintaphonic sound, was used in the 1975 film Tommy,5.1 dates back to 1976 when Dolby Labs modified the track usage of the six analogue magnetic soundtracks on Todd-AO70 mm film prints. The Dolby application of optical matrix encoding in 1976 did not use split surrounds, dolbys first use of split surrounds was with 70mm film, which received wide release in 1979 with Apocalypse Now. When digital sound was applied to 35 mm release prints, starting with Batman Returns in 1992, the ability to provide 5.1 sound had been one of the key reasons for using 70 mm for prestige screenings. The provision of 5.1 digital sound on 35 mm significantly reduced the use of the very expensive 70 mm format. Digital sound and the 5.1 format were introduced in 1990, by KODAK and Optical Radiation Corporation, with releases of Days of Thunder and The Doors using the CDS format. 5.1 digital surround in the forms of Dolby Digital AC3 and DTS, started appearing on several mid 90s Laserdisc releases, with among the earliest being Clear and Present Danger and Jurassic Park. Many DVD releases have Dolby Digital tracks up to 5.1 channels, in addition, some DVDs have DTS tracks with most being 5.1 channel mixes. Blu-ray and Digital cinema both have eight-channel capability which can be used to provide either 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound,7.1 is an extension of 5.1 that uses four surround zones, two at the sides and two at the back. A system of digital 5.1 surround sound hsd also been used in 1987 at the Parisian cabaret the Moulin Rouge, created by French engineer Dominique Bertrand. To achieve such a system in 1985 a dedicated mixing console had to be designed in cooperation with Solid State Logic, based on their 5000 series, respectively, A left, B right, C centre, D left rear, E right rear, F bass. The same engineer had already developed a similar 3.1 system in 1973, the order of channels in a 5.1 file is different across file formats. The order in WAV files is Front Left, Front Right, Center, LFE, Surround Left, regarding music, the main goal of 5.1 surround sound is a proper localization and equability of all acoustic sources for a centered positioned audience. Therefore, ideally five matched speakers should be used, for play-back of 5. 5° for movies ±30° for music, surround ±110°7.1 surround sound Ambisonics Timeline of audio formats 5.1 surroud sound demo files
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Surround sound
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Surround sound is a technique for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with additional audio channels from speakers that surround the listener. Its first application was in movie theaters, prior to surround sound, standard theater sound systems had three screen channels of sound, emitted by loudspeakers located only in front of the audience, at the left, center, and right. Surround sound adds one or more channels from loudspeakers behind the listener, the most common surround sound specification, the ITUs 5. The technique enhances the perception of sound spatialization by exploiting sound localization, typically this is achieved by using multiple discrete audio channels routed to an array of loudspeakers. There are various surround sound based formats and techniques, varying in reproduction and recording methods along with the number, multichannel audio techniques may be used to reproduce contents as varied as music, speech, natural or synthetic sounds for cinema, television, broadcasting, or computers. The narrative space is also a content that can be enhanced through multichannel techniques, for example, an exhibition may be enhanced with topical ambient sound of water, birds, train or machine noise. Topical natural sounds may also be used in educational applications, other fields of application include video game consoles, personal computers and other platforms. In such applications, the content would typically be synthetic noise produced by the device in interaction with its user. Significant work has also been done using surround sound for enhanced situation awareness in military, other commercial formats include the competing DVD-Audio and Super Audio CD formats, and MP3 Surround. Cinema 5.1 surround formats include Dolby Digital and DTS, most surround sound recordings are created by film production companies or video game producers, however some consumer camcorders have such capability either built-in or available separately. Surround sound technologies can also be used in music to new methods of artistic expression. After the failure of quadraphonic audio in the 1970s, multichannel music has slowly been reintroduced since 1999 with the help of SACD, some AV receivers, stereophonic systems, and computer soundcards contain integral digital signal processors and/or digital audio processors to simulate surround sound from a stereophonic source. The control device they had made, the Azimuth Co-ordinator, is now displayed at Londons Victoria and Albert Museum, the first documented use of surround sound was in 1940, for the Disney studios animated film Fantasia. The initial multichannel audio application was called Fantasound, comprising three audio channels and speakers, the sound was diffused throughout the cinema, controlled by an engineer using some 54 loudspeakers. The surround sound was achieved using the sum and the difference of the phase of the sound, however, this experimental use of surround sound was excluded from the film in later showings. In 1952, surround sound successfully reappeared with the film This is Cinerama, using discrete seven-channel sound, Sound designers commonly regard this as the origin of the concept of surround sound. The program was popular, and Jacobs and Belson were invited to reproduce it at the 1958 World Expo in Brussels, there are also many other composers that created ground-breaking surround sound works in the same time period. In 1978, a concept devised by Max Bell for Dolby Laboratories called split surround was tested with the movie Superman
33.
Center channel
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Center channel refers to an audio channel common to many surround sound formats. It is the channel that is mostly, or fully, dedicated to the reproduction of the dialogue of an audiovisual program. The speaker connected to the channel are placed in the center of and behind the perforated projection screen. In many home surround sound units, the channel is positioned above or below the video screen. The center channel also anchors the field, eliminating phantom images such as those that plagued quadraphonic sound if the speakers were not precisely placed. The center channel eliminates the need of creating a center with left. The center channel provides image stabling effects and is considered the most important channel for film production, post-war stereo sound in theaters initially came from separate magnetic film reproducers synchronised to the picture, but in the 1950s systems using magnetic stripes on the film itself came into use. Cinemascope used four tracks, and the subsequent Todd-AO 70mm system used six. Unfortunately these magnetic systems were not only expensive, but were also unreliable and so were little used. Dolby Stereo was introduced by Dolby Laboratories in 1975 and it divided the existing soundtrack area of a 35mm film print into two, allowing a two-channel recording. Each of these two channels used Dolby A type noise reduction, Dolby Pro Logic is the name used for the Dolby Stereo matrix when used in home theater systems. It may also raise the volume level of the center channel. DTS, X processing may include Dialog Control, the ability to isolate,6.1 channel surround systems such as Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Digital EX and DTS-ES use a single rear surround channel in addition to the traditional left and right surround channels
34.
Star Wars
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Star Wars is an American epic space opera franchise, centered on a film series created by George Lucas. It depicts the adventures of characters a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The franchise began in 1977 with the release of the film Star Wars and it was followed by the successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, these three films constitute the original Star Wars trilogy. A prequel trilogy was released between 1999 and 2005, which received mixed-to-negative reactions, a sequel trilogy began in 2015 with the release of Star Wars, The Force Awakens. All seven films were nominated for Academy Awards and have been successes, with a combined box office revenue of over $7.5 billion. Spin-off films include Star Wars, The Clone Wars and Rogue One, Star Wars also holds a Guinness World Records title for the Most successful film merchandising franchise. In 2015, the value of the Star Wars franchise was estimated at USD $42 billion. In 2012, The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm for $4.06 billion and earned the rights to all subsequent Star Wars films. Walt Disney Studios owns digital distribution rights to all the Star Wars films, the events depicted in the Star Wars franchise take place in an unnamed fictional galaxy at an undetermined point in the distant past. Many species of creatures are depicted. Robotic droids are also commonplace and are built to serve their owners. Space travel is common, and many planets in the galaxy are members of a single galactic government. In the prequel trilogy, this is depicted in the form of the Galactic Republic, at the end of the trilogy and throughout the original trilogy. Preceding and during the trilogy, this government is the New Republic. One of the prominent elements of Star Wars is the Force and it is described in the first produced film as an energy field created by all living things surrounds us, penetrates us, binds the galaxy together. While the Force can be used for good, known as the side, it also has a dark side that, when pursued, imbues users with hatred, aggression. The sequel trilogy introduces the Knights of Ren, an order of practitioners of the side of the Force aligned with the First Order. The first film in the series, Star Wars, was released on May 25,1977 and this was followed by two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back, released on May 21,1980, and Return of the Jedi, released on May 25,1983
35.
Skywalker Sound
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Skywalker Sound is the sound effects, sound editing, sound design, sound mixing and music recording division of George Lucas Lucas Digital motion picture group. Its main facilities are located at Skywalker Ranch in Lucas Valley, near Nicasio and it began as Sprocket Systems in San Anselmo, California and its name officially changed to Skywalker Sound in 1987 after the company moved to Skywalker Ranch. While located in San Anselmo, Sprocket Systems came into contact with the residents from time to time. For instance, Kentfield resident Pat Welsh was discovered while shopping at a camera store, during the sound recording of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Harrison Ford could be spied practicing his bullwhip technique in the parking lot. Sprocket Systems moved from San Anselmo following a flood in January 1982. Its staff of designers and re-recording mixers have either won or been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Sound. Mixing stages, editorial services and scoring stages are all located in a central Tech Building, with dining areas and living quarters in the vicinity but separate from the main work area. E. Dennie Thorpe for example started on Apocalypse Now as a sound editor at the Saul Zaentz Film Center before working there. Sprocket Systems was a sound editing, sound FX, sound design, in 1987, the crew moved to the Skywalker Ranch, and changed the name to Skywalker Sound. Their scoring stage records and mixes music ranging from solo pieces to works using full 130-piece orchestras. Each year, they work on 20 to 30 different films, theyve won a total of 18 Academy Awards
36.
Lucasfilm Ltd.
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LLC is an American film and television production company based in the Letterman Digital Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The studio is best known for creating and producing the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, as well as its leadership in developing special effects, sound and computer animation for film. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971 in San Rafael, California, the Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 at a valuation of $4.06 billion. Lucasfilm was founded by filmmaker George Lucas in 1971, and incorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. on September 12,1977, on July 8,2005, Lucasfilms marketing, online, and licensing units moved into the new Letterman Digital Arts Center located in the Presidio in San Francisco. It shares the complex with Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm had planned an expansion at Skywalker Ranch in Marin County, California, but shelved the plan in 2012 due to opposition from neighbors. However, it plans to expand elsewhere. Skywalker Sound remains the only Lucasfilm division based at Skywalker Ranch, in January 2012, Lucas announced his retirement from producing large-scale blockbuster films and instead re-focusing his career on smaller, independently budgeted features. She would in June 2013 and is now chairperson of Lucasfilm, on September 5,2012, Micheline Chau, who served as president and COO of Lucasfilm for two decades, announced that she was retiring. With her departure, senior executives for each of the Lucasfilm divisions will report directly to Kathleen Kennedy, Chau was credited with keeping the Lucasfilm and Star Wars brands strong, especially through animation spin-offs and licensing initiatives. Lucas told Iger he was considering retirement and planned to sell the company, on October 30,2012, Disney announced a deal to acquire Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion, with approximately half in cash and half in shares of Disney stock. Kathleen Kennedy, co-chairman of Lucasfilm, became president of Lucasfilm, additionally she serves as the brand manager for Star Wars, working directly with Disneys global lines of business to build, further integrate, and maximize the value of this global franchise. Kennedy serves as producer on new Star Wars feature films, with George Lucas originally announced as serving as creative consultant, the company also announced the future release of new Star Wars films, starting with Star Wars, The Force Awakens in 2015. Disney also acquired Lucasfilms portfolio of entertainment technologies, the intent was for Lucasfilm employees to remain in their current locations. Star Wars merchandising would begin under Disney in the fiscal year 2014, starting with Star Wars Rebels, certain products will be co-branded with the Disney brand, akin to what Disney has done with Pixar. On December 4,2012, the Disney-Lucasfilm merger was approved by the Federal Trade Commission, on December 18,2012, Lucasfilm Ltd. was reincorporated as Lucasfilm Ltd. LLC, and on December 21,2012, the deal was announced to be completed, in April 2013, the development arm of the LucasArts division was closed down and most of its staff was laid off. However, LucasArts remained open with a staff of fewer than ten employees so it could retain its function as a video game licensor. On May 6,2013, Disney announced a deal with Electronic Arts to produce Star Wars games for the core gaming market
37.
S/PDIF
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S/PDIF is a type of digital audio interconnect used in consumer audio equipment to output audio over reasonably short distances. The signal is transmitted over either a cable with RCA connectors or a fibre optic cable with TOSLINK connectors. S/PDIF interconnects components in home theatres and other digital high-fidelity systems, S/PDIF is based on the AES3 interconnect standard. S/PDIF is a link layer protocol as well a set of physical layer specifications for carrying digital audio signals between devices and components over either optical or electrical cable. The name stands for Sony/Philips Digital Interconnect Format but is known as Sony/Philips Digital Interface. Sony and Philips were the designers of S/PDIF. S/PDIF is standardized in IEC60958 as IEC60958 type II, a common use for the S/PDIF interface is to carry compressed digital audio for surround sound as defined by the standard IEC61937. This mode is used to connect the output of a DVD player or computer, via optical or coax, another common use is to carry two channels of uncompressed digital audio from a CD player to an amplifying receiver. S/PDIF was developed at the time as the main standard, AES3. The RCA connectors are typically colour-coded orange to differentiate from other RCA connector uses such as composite video, the cable was also changed from 110 Ω balanced twisted pair to 75 Ω coaxial cable, using RCA jacks. Signals transmitted over consumer-grade TOSLINK connections are identical in content to those transmitted over coaxial connectors, though TOSLINK S/PDIF commonly exhibits higher jitter. S/PDIF is used to digital signals of a number of formats, the most common being the 48 kHz sample rate format. In order to both systems, as well as others that might be needed, the format has no defined data rate. Instead, the data is sent using biphase mark code, which has one or two transitions for every bit, allowing the original word clock to be extracted from the signal itself. S/PDIF is meant to be used for transmitting 20-bit audio data streams plus other related information, to transmit sources with less than 20 bits of sample accuracy, the superfluous bits will be set to zero. S/PDIF can also transport 24-bit samples by way of four bits, however, not all equipment supports this. With one exception, S/PDIF protocol is identical to AES3, the channel status bit differs in S/PDIF. There is one channel status bit in each subframe, making 384 bits in each audio block, the meaning of the channel status bits is completely different between AES3 and S/PDIF
38.
Pulse-code modulation
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Pulse-code modulation is a method used to digitally represent sampled analog signals. It is the form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony. In a PCM stream, the amplitude of the signal is sampled regularly at uniform intervals. Linear pulse-code modulation is a type of PCM where the quantization levels are linearly uniform. This is in contrast to PCM encodings where quantization levels vary as a function of amplitude, though PCM is a more general term, it is often used to describe data encoded as LPCM. Early electrical communications started to sample signals in order to interlace samples from multiple telegraphy sources, the American inventor Moses G. Farmer conveyed telegraph time-division multiplexing as early as 1853. Electrical engineer W. M. Miner, in 1903, used an electro-mechanical commutator for time-division multiplexing multiple telegraph signals and he obtained intelligible speech from channels sampled at a rate above 3500–4300 Hz, lower rates proved unsatisfactory. This was TDM, but pulse-amplitude modulation rather than PCM, in 1920 the Bartlane cable picture transmission system, named after its inventors Harry G. Bartholomew and Maynard D. In 1926, Paul M. Rainey of Western Electric patented a machine which transmitted its signal using 5-bit PCM. The machine did not go into production, british engineer Alec Reeves, unaware of previous work, conceived the use of PCM for voice communication in 1937 while working for International Telephone and Telegraph in France. He described the theory and advantages, but no practical application resulted, Reeves filed for a French patent in 1938, and his US patent was granted in 1943. By this time Reeves had started working at the Telecommunications Research Establishment, the first transmission of speech by digital techniques, the SIGSALY encryption equipment, conveyed high-level Allied communications during World War II. In 1943 the Bell Labs researchers who designed the SIGSALY system became aware of the use of PCM binary coding as already proposed by Alec Reeves. In 1949 for the Canadian Navys DATAR system, Ferranti Canada built a working PCM radio system that was able to transmit digitized radar data over long distances, PCM in the late 1940s and early 1950s used a cathode-ray coding tube with a plate electrode having encoding perforations. The plate collected or passed the beam, producing current variations in binary code, rather than natural binary, the grid of Goodalls later tube was perforated to produce a glitch-free Gray code, and produced all bits simultaneously by using a fan beam instead of a scanning beam. Patent 2,801,281 filed in 1946 and 1952, another patent by the same title was filed by John R. Pierce in 1945, and issued in 1948, U. S. The three of them published The Philosophy of PCM in 1948, PCM is the method of encoding generally used for uncompressed audio, although there are other methods such as pulse-density modulation. The 4ESS switch introduced time-division switching into the US telephone system in 1976, LPCM is used for the lossless encoding of audio data in the Compact disc Red Book standard, introduced in 1982
39.
HDMI
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HDMI is a digital replacement for analog video standards. HDMI implements the EIA/CEA-861 standards, which video formats and waveforms, transport of compressed, uncompressed, and LPCM audio, auxiliary data. CEA-861 signals carried by HDMI are electrically compatible with the CEA-861 signals used by the visual interface. No signal conversion is necessary, nor is there a loss of quality when a DVI-to-HDMI adapter is used. The CEC capability allows HDMI devices to each other when necessary. Several versions of HDMI have been developed and deployed since initial release of the technology but all use the same cable and connector. Other than improved audio and video capacity, performance, resolution and color spaces, newer versions have optional advanced features such as 3D, Ethernet data connection, production of consumer HDMI products started in late 2003. In Europe either DVI-HDCP or HDMI is included in the HD ready in-store labeling specification for TV sets for HDTV, HDMI began to appear on consumer HDTV camcorders and digital still cameras in 2006. As of January 6,2015, over 4 billion HDMI devices have been sold, the HDMI founders are Hitachi, Panasonic, Philips, Silicon Image, Sony, Thomson, RCA and Toshiba. Digital Content Protection, LLC provides HDCP for HDMI, HDMI has the support of motion picture producers Fox, Universal, Warner Bros. and Disney, along with system operators DirecTV, EchoStar and CableLabs. The HDMI founders began development on HDMI1.0 on April 16,2002, at the time, DVI-HDCP and DVI-HDTV were being used on HDTVs. HDMI1.0 was designed to improve on DVI-HDTV by using a connector and adding audio capability and enhanced YCbCr capability. The first Authorized Testing Center, which tests HDMI products, was opened by Silicon Image on June 23,2003, in California, the first ATC in Japan was opened by Panasonic on May 1,2004, in Osaka. The first ATC in Europe was opened by Philips on May 25,2005, in Caen, the first ATC in China was opened by Silicon Image on November 21,2005, in Shenzhen. The first ATC in India was opened by Philips on June 12,2008, the HDMI website contains a list of all the ATCs. According to In-Stat, the number of HDMI devices sold was 5 million in 2004,17.4 million in 2005,63 million in 2006, and 143 million in 2007. HDMI has become the de facto standard for HDTVs, and according to In-Stat, In-Stat has estimated that 229 million HDMI devices were sold in 2008. On April 8,2008 there were over 850 consumer electronics, on January 7,2009, HDMI Licensing, LLC announced that HDMI had reached an installed base of over 600 million HDMI devices
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SoundStorm
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SoundStorm is a brand by Nvidia regarding to a SIP block integrating 5.1 surround sound technology found on the die of their nForce and nForce2 chipsets for x86 CPUs. It is also the name of a certification to be obtained by Nvidia when complying with their specifications, the SoundStorm certification ensured that many manufacturers produced solutions with high quality sound output. To achieve SoundStorm certification, a motherboard had to use the nForce or nForce2 chipsets and it was also necessary to meet certain sound quality levels as tested by Dolby Digital sound labs. At the time SoundStorm was the only available solution capable of outputting Dolby Digital Live, the SoundStorm SIP block is said to consist of a series of fixed-function and general-purpose processing units providing a combined total of reportedly 4 billion operations per second. A fully programmable, Motorola 56300-based digital signal processor is provided for effects processing, the DSP on the APU was normally driven by code largely derived from the 3D audio middleware company Sensaura. The Sensaura middleware was used by the Windows drivers of nearly every sound card. Unlike the usual software implementations of the Sensaura code, the SoundStorm solution ran the same code on a hardware DSP and it was also capable of realtime Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding. Compared to other solutions of the day, the difference in CPU usage when running popular multimedia applications was as much as 10-20%. While the Audigy offers similar performance, it does so at a higher price point. After the demise of SoundStorm, codec chips such as the Realtek 850 have become standard integrated audio solutions, as such, the quality of the device drivers is very important to ensure reasonably low host processor usage, without audio quality issues. Since the SoundStorm solution was a general-purpose DSP where code was uploaded to the card by the drivers at boot time. However, it meant that it was not possible to create third-party device drivers for the SoundStorm. Linux drivers for the SoundStorm actually talk directly to the codec, bypassing the APU completely and doing all audio calculations on the CPU. Reportedly SoundStorm development was funded by Microsoft for use in the Xbox gaming console. At time of writing reportedly a second generation chip has been developed and it is hinted SoundStorm may make return to the PC scene, possibly as part of a multimedia graphics card, along the lines of the original NV1 card, rather than as a discrete or onboard solution. While there did appear to be plans for a product at one point. Nvidia decided the cost of including the SoundStorm SIP block on the dies of their chipsets was too high and was not included in nForce3, other manufacturers have since produced standalone sound cards based on C-Media chips such as the CMI8788 which also provide Dolby Digital and DTS encoding features. These manufacturers include Turtle Beach and Auzentech, a software alternative is redocneXk, which provides real-time AC3 encoding comparable to SoundStorm or Creatives Audigy2 and later sound cards
41.
Xbox (console)
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The Xbox is a home video game console and the first installment in the Xbox series of consoles manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15,2001, in North America, followed by Australia, Europe and it was Microsofts first foray into the gaming console market. The sixth-generation console competed with Sonys PlayStation 2 and the Nintendo GameCube and it was also the first console produced by an American company since the Atari Jaguar ceased production in 1996. Announced in 2000, The Xbox, graphically powerful compared to its rivals and it was also noted for its PC-like size and weight, and was the first console to feature a built-in hard disk. In November 2002, Microsoft launched Xbox Live, an online gaming service that enabled subscribers to download new content. Unlike other online services from Sega and Sony, Xbox Live had support in the console design through an integrated Ethernet port. The service gave Microsoft an early foothold in online gaming and would help the Xbox become a relevant competitor to other sixth-generation consoles, the popularity of blockbuster titles such as Halo 2 contributed to the popularity of online console gaming, and in particular first-person shooters. Despite this and being in position, ahead of Nintendos GameCube. Xboxs successor, the Xbox 360, was launched in November 2005, the Xbox was soon discontinued beginning with Microsofts worst-performing market, Japan, in 2005. Other countries would follow suit in 2006, the last Xbox game in Europe was Xiaolin Showdown released in June 2007, and the last game in North America was Madden NFL09 released in August 2008. Support for out-of-warranty Xbox consoles was discontinued on March 2,2009, support for Xbox Live on the console ended on April 15,2010. The team hoped to create a console to compete with Sonys upcoming PlayStation 2, the team approached Ed Fries, the leader of Microsofts game publishing business at the time, and pitched their DirectX Box console based on the DirectX graphics technology developed by Berkes team. Fries decided to support the idea of creating a Windows DirectX based console. During development, the original DirectXbox name was shortened to Xbox, Microsofts marketing department did not like the Xbox name, and suggested many alternatives. During focus testing, the Xbox name was left on the list of names to demonstrate how unpopular the Xbox name would be with consumers. However, consumer testing revealed that Xbox was preferred by far over the suggested names. It was Microsofts first video game console after collaborating with Sega to port Windows CE to the Dreamcast console, Microsoft repeatedly delayed the console, which was first mentioned publicly in late 1999 during interviews with Microsofts then-CEO Bill Gates. Gates stated that “we want Xbox to be the platform of choice for the best and most creative game developers in the world. ”The Xbox was officially announced at the Game Developers Conference on March 10,2000, audiences were impressed by the consoles technology
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NForce2
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The nForce2 chipset was released by Nvidia in July 2002 as a refresh to the original nForce product offering. The nForce2 chipset was a platform for motherboards supporting AMDs Socket A CPUs along with DDR SDRAM, there were variations of the chipset including one with and one without an integrated GeForce4 MX graphics processor. The nForce2 features two different southbridges, the MCP and the MCP-T, the two differ only in audio and Ethernet integration. For audio, both MCP units were connected to a codec chip, such as a Realtek ALC650. With the MCP, this codec provided all software-driven audio duties, the nForce2 chipset was remarkable for its advanced memory controller. It introduced a memory interface to the mainstream market, doubling theoretical bandwidth. This was deemed necessary for the nForce2 IGP, with its GeForce4 MX-class integrated graphics and it was also important not to divert bandwidth, by sharing memory bandwidth with the most powerful IGP produced for Socket A, from the rest of the system. As a result, the second 64bit memory channel between the bridge and the memory was almost exclusively available for the GPU. In dual-channel configurations of the nForce2 without IGP, the Athlon XP only showed gains of 5% at most in memory bandwidth intensive applications. Comparatively, in dual-channel configurations with IGP graphics, performance was equivalent to dedicated GeForce 2 MX cards employing 64bit DDR memory or 128bit SDR memory. Among various fixes and refinements compared to the original nForce, nForce2 featured a fixed PCI/AGP clock, i. e. PCI, as a result, the nForce2 platform was known for its ease in overclocking AMD processors, and was a favorite for years with the overclocking community. It was also known that the chipset gave best performance with FSB and memory running synchronized, in 2003, Nvidia released a refreshed nForce2, called nForce2 Ultra 400. The nForce2 Ultra 400 and nForce2400 represented official support for a 200 MHz FSB and PC-3200 DDR SDRAM, Ultra 400 offered dual-channel support, while the plain 400 was single-channel PC-3200-capable. The new chipset again was partnered with several different southbridges, including one with and one without SoundStorm, in 2004 three new southbridges were introduced, MCP-S integrated Serial ATA, MCP-RAID had additional RAID-functions and MCP-Gb featured Gigabit Ethernet. These newer southbridges did not integrate the SoundStorm unit nor the dual-Ethernet capabilities of the MCP-T, the SoundStorm audio system was one of the first consumer computer audio products to offer real time Dolby Digital 5.1 encoding. This meant that one could play games or music and output them as a 5.1 stream digitally to an external decoding speaker system. This solves a problem with most digital sound solutions of having to hook up both digital and analog connections at the same time so you can have surround sound in both games and movies. Only recently has Dolby Digital live allowed competitors such as Creatives x-fi line up to real time DD5.1 encoding
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Realtek
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Realtek Semiconductor Corp. is a fabless semiconductor company situated in the Hsinchu Science Park, Hsinchu, Taiwan. It was founded in October 1987 and subsequently listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in 1998, as of 2015, Realtek employs 2,500 people, of whom 78% work in research and development. Multimedia IC products include LCD Monitor Controllers, LCD TV Controllers, as of 2013 the ALC892 HD Audio codec and RTL8111 Gigabit Ethernet chip have become particular OEM favorites, offering low prices and basic feature-sets. RTL8139-based NICs are dubbed crab cards in Taiwan, alluding to the appearance of the Realtek logo. The increasing popularity of HD media players in 2009 led to the entry of Realtek into that market, the first series, the 1xx3 models sold at a lower price than similar quality chipsets of Realteks competitors. Realtek produced three versions of Realtek 1xx3 and several minor variations. The three major 1xx3 chipset versions all featured the same chip in terms of support and performance. HD Audio support in the 1xx3 improved through the life with several revisions. The DD and CC versions of the chipset both added full 7.1 HD-audio support to the chipset, the 1073 players all built on a common SDK provided by Realtek. This meant that they were all similar in performance and interface. It also meant that producing these players was very easy for manufacturers, all they had to do was create the hardware, key players from the Realtek 1073 era were the original Xtreamer, the Asus O. PlayHD, ACRyan PlayOn and the Mede8er MED500X. Manufacturers released hundreds of Realtek 1073 players, in early 2011 Realtek released series 1xx5, including the 1055, and 1185. These are the successors to the 1073 series, all three chips ran at 500Mhz which provided a small performance increase. Otherwise, the offered the same comprehensive format support as the previous generation. All chips ran the same Realtek SDK4 Casablanca, which offered improved user-experience from the stock SDK, as with the later version of the 1xx8 chipset, full 7.1 HD-audio downmix and passthrough are supported in the 1xx5. Realtek released the next generation of its chipsets, the 1xx6 series 1186 and these ran at 750Mhz, supported HDMI1.4, were capable of 3D including 3D ISO, and were able to dual-boot into Android. Key 1186 players include the Mede8er X3D Series, Xtreamer Prodigy 3D, List of Taiwanese companies Network interface card Sound card RTL8139 Official website List of products using Realtek chipsets
