Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 4, 2008. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
Dolby Laboratories, Inc. announced that Dolby® Digital Plus and Dolby Digital are being used for France’s new terrestrial high-definition television platform, Télévision Numérique Terrestre HD (TNT HD), which launched this week.
The first services available on TNT HD include popular channels such as TF1 HD, France 2 HD, ARTE HD, Canal+ HD and M6 HD. Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital Audio allow viewers to watch broadcasts in 5.1-channel surround sound and stereo.
Dolby Digital Plus is an advanced audio system based on Dolby Digital technology. The system was developed specifically to adapt to the changing requirements of future entertainment services while retaining backward compatibility with today’s Dolby Digital 5.1-channel home-cinema systems.
“HD is synonymous with improved high-definition sound,” said Jean-Pierre Lacotte, President of the HD Forum, France. “Everyone has a right to good sound—especially customers who have invested in home-cinema systems.
This new TNT HD service offers excellent HD pictures plus matching 5.1 sound.”
The performance and flexibility of Dolby Digital Plus are ideal for bandwidth-constrained environments such as terrestrial broadcasting. Broadcasters can deliver excellent quality while retaining the option of decoding Dolby Digital broadcast bitstreams for compatibility with existing broadcast services.
“TF1 is proud to launch HD over terrestrial television, and as a provider of three channels over a 24 Mbit/s multiplex, the Dolby codecs are essential for conserving scarce bandwidth resources in this constrained environment,” said Gilles Maugars, CTO of TF1’s Technology and IT division. “That is precisely why TF1 HD will use Dolby Digital and Dolby Digital Plus to encode its soundtracks, since their efficiency will allow TF1 HD to broadcast 5.1 sound.”
“We worked very closely with broadcasters in France as they prepared to launch their new HD services,” explained Tony Spath, Vice President, International Broadcast at Dolby Laboratories. “The launch of TNT HD is an important step forward, as it brings one of Europe’s first major terrestrial HD platforms into operation—and it is also the first major broadcasting facility to rely on Dolby Digital Plus.”
Dolby Digital Plus and Dolby Digital were developed to provide consistent and predictable results across the consumer-television broadcast chain: ensuring an excellent experience for consumers while providing broadcasters with a highly efficient solution. The French HD Forum specifications require that, from December
2008, all HD-ready television sets sold in France must also include Dolby Digital Plus and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio, further strengthening the impact of surround sound. Dolby recently announced its new Dolby Pulse technology, which is based on the HE-AAC audio codec standard. The Forum has also recommended Dolby technology to broadcasters for transmission because it is compatible with their production processes.
HDTV sets from a wide range of manufacturers are already available in France with these technologies built in, as is a new generation of set-top boxes that allow French consumers to access the new TNT HD services.
