We just heard back from Vudu and there's good news. Unlike any other implementation before it, Vudu on the LG BD390 will bitstream Dolby Digital Plus via the HDMI 1.3 port to your AVR. In addition, if you prefer LPCM the BD390 can decode the Dolby Digital Plus track in the Vudu stream as well. This is much better than the LG HDTVs or even the Vudu box itself, which were only capable of re-encoding the stream down to old school Dolby Digital before delivering it to the receiver. We were also directed to this FAQ on Vudu's site which includes all the bit rates for various quality video; interestingly it looks like you need between 4.5 and 9 Mbps of throughput to enjoy moves in HDX quality.

In what is hopefully one of many new announcements about Windows 7 leading up to its launch, Microsoft has added support for Dolby Digital Plus in most versions of Windows 7. This is good news indeed, as the Plus version of Dolby Digital not only supports higher bit rates than the classic Dolby Digital, but it also offers better sound quality than its older brother at the same bit rate -- it is not lossless like Dolby TrueHD though. The other key reason why this is essential to Windows 7 from the Media Center perspective is because premium content providers around the world use it (like France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom). Dolby also confirmed that this support includes Extenders for Media Center which makes it all the more useful.

With AV software and hardware alike carrying at least one Dolby logo, not to mention the presence of that same branding on big screen cinema, Dolby is truly a household name. If you ask people exactly what Dolby does, however, you're likely to get a pretty fuzzy picture, which isn't too surprising -- the brand is so prevalent in the media space that it's kind of like asking a fish to describe what water feels like. So when Dolby invited us to spend a day with them to talk about their current goings-on in home theater, we just couldn't pass up the opportunity.

To get a look behind the familiar logo, we spent a day at Dolby's lab in San Francisco. During our time there we talked about TrueHD, Digital Plus, Dolby Volume, the new Pro Logic IIz, and even got a short peek at some current research efforts. It was a fast run over a lot of ground, for sure!

Ok, we've seen multiroom setups, mostly from IPTV providers, and tru2way has had a limited rollout so far, but Time Warner Cable and Motorola are teaming up to be the first to bring the two together in customers homes. Follow Me TV is already available on FiOS, but the Dolby Digital Plus-supporting DCX3400-M DVR we saw at CES in '08 and DXC-3200M set-top box will make it happen on cable, shifting high definition video around the house via Multimedia over Coaxial Alliance (MoCA) connections. Hopefully tru2way's interoperability lets customers choose what equipment makes up their home video network, not just the cable company, but we should find out more after launch later this year.

You know those four French national channels that decided to recently made the leap to high-def? Yeah, well those four are the first HD terrestrial TV channels to implement Dolby Digital Plus. In fact, both Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital were chosen by those broadcasters for the Television Numerique Terrestre platform, and viewers tuning into TF1 HD, France 2 HD, ARTE HD, Canal+ HD and M6 HD will be able to listen to 5.1-channels of audio so long as they have the requisite decoding equipment. Interestingly enough, the French HD forum specification "requires that by December 2008 HD-ready TVs for sale in France must include Dolby Digital Plus and High Efficiency AAC (HE AAC) audio." Atta way to be proactive, France!

When we last heard from XStreamHD, the company had grand plans on streaming movies via satellite to some boxes with great looking specs, Michael Douglas and a non-functional CES booth that failed to impress. Now we see that the company has licensed ARC audio processing for Dolby Digital Plus decoding, which presumably would come in handy -- if there were any content to decode. To be fair, there's still time for XStreamHD to meet its long-ago promised Q4 2008 release, but absent any of the "latest content from leading studios" the only audio that will get decoded is the sound of one hand clapping.

With HD DVD and Blu-ray also came the ultimate audio options in a time when convenience trumps quality in most of the audio world. While SACD and DVD-Audio are all but a bust, audiophiles can turn to HD DVD and Blu-ray for the ultimate audio experience. But even if you aren't an audiophile, it's still worth it to many to take advantage of the master quality audio available on the HD discs that you've already paid for. Unfortunately, it isn't as easy as it used to be, and after realzing how much confusion there was surrounding these next-gen codecs, we decided to try to help clear up the confusion. So if you want to know how to take advantage of everything on the discs you already own, but don't know why Toslink doesn't cut it anymore (and what's so special about about HDMI 1.3), then read on, will ya?

Pioneer is expanding its CES lineup with four new audio-video receivers, one of which supports the new high-definition audio codecs found in Blu-ray and HD DVD. The VSX-518-K, VSX-818V-K, VSX-918V-K, and VSX-1018TXH-K A/V receivers all feature Multi-Channel Acoustic Calibration with an included microphone for tweaking acoustics in the room, three 1080p-capable component inputs, and Auto Level Control for equalizing volume between sources. The VSX-518-K, 818V, and 918V all feature P.H.A.T (Pioneer Hybrid Amplifier Technology) power sources and support for WMA9 Pro over 5.1 channels, with the 518 dropping support for XM and Sirius satellite, iPod, and HDMI inputs. The big news is the VSX-1018TXH-K, with its support for 130 watts over 7.1 channels using a Direct Energy power supply, HDMI upscaling to 1080p, six digital inputs, and support for the lossy Dolby Digital Plus and DTS-HD High Resolution, and lossless Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio codecs. The VSX-518-K is priced at $199, the VSX-818V-K at $249, the VSX-918V-K at $349, all releasing in April, and the VSX-1018TXH-K will come to market in June for $599.

Moto's VP was just saying that MPEG4 would take over cable too, and so it begins with its first MPEG4 STB. This new lineup of cable set-top boxes will have all the bells and whistles including; MPEG2, MPEG4, OCAP, CableCARD, MoCA and most interestingly Dolby Digital Plus -- you know the new codec commonly used on HD DVDs. We can see where this is headed already, first we'll see these new boxes in the wild and before you know it new channels will require the latest hardware -- sound familiar? It should, it's how the satellite providers did it. In the long run this will help cable bring us more HD, but considering cable co's are footing the bill for all these boxes, we'd suspect the MPEG4 rollout will take much much longer than it did for either DirecTV or Dish.

[Via Mediaexperiences2go.com]

We gave this a go some time ago, but compared to the job Hi-Def Digest did, ours is pathetic. Not only do they go into detail about what every audio format available for both HD disc formats is all about, but they go on to give examples of discs that include them, and to top it all off, how to enjoy them. It's more complicated than you think because not every player or connection method supports every audio format. To be honest it's far more complicated than it should be and we wonder how anyone could make heads or tails of this mess without being very dedicated. Lucky for us, Joshua Zyber is up to the challenge and his article should help clear things up for just about everyone.