Decoder; Dolby Surround; Dolby Prologic; Dolby Digital (5.1) - Silvercrest KH 6508 Operating Instructions Manual

This contrasts with the "Progressive Scan" format where
all lines are shown each time, i.e. 60 frames or full pic-
tures per second. This increases the over-all quality of
the picture so that still pictures and text appear to be
signifi cantly sharper.

Decoder

The sound on DVDs featuring home cinema surround
sound is stored in a coded form on the DVD. There are
diff erent coding formats for diff erent purposes, e.g. AC-3
to reproduce Dolby Digital surround sound.
To reproduce coded sound the playback units (e.g. DVD
Player) or the connected audio components (e.g. sur-
round-sound units) must feature a so-called decoder to
transform the coded signals into sound and music.
The Silvercrest KH 6508/KH6509 DVD-Player features an
AC-3 decoder (for Dolby Digital 5.1 surround-sound sig-
nals).

Dolby Surround

Dolby Surround is an analog sound signal that uses the
two channels of a stereo sound signal to accommodate
stereo sound information for another channel. A Dolby
surround-sound decoder transforms the sound/music sig-
nals and conducts them to two additional loudspeakers
set up behind the listening point.

Dolby Prologic

Compared with the Dolby surround-sound format, Dolby
Prologic uses another channel in the stereo signal, the co-
called "Centre" channel. The corresponding centre speaker
is positioned in the centre between the stereo speakers.
The lowest sounds are supplied to a base speaker that
is known as a "subwoofer". The subwoofer can be posi-
tioned at any point within a room. This is because the
bass sounds reproduced by the subwoofer can hardly
be accurately localised by the human ear.
Dolby Digital (.)
Dolby Digital, also known as AC3, is a digital sound for-
mat for up to six separate audio channels. Most current
DVDs store the sound in the so-called "Dolby Digital 5.1"
format where the "5" stands for the three front and two
rear surround-sound channels, and the "1" for the bass
channel.

DTS

DTS stands for "Digital Theatre System" and defi nes one
of the most common surround-sound formats for DVDs.
As is the case with Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS uses three front
and two rear surround-sound channels, as well as a bass
channel.

What are PAL, NTSC and SECAM?

PAL
PAL is the abbreviation of "Phase Alternation Line". PAL
is the customary and most wide spread colour television
standard in central and western Europe (with the excep-
tion of France; see "SECAM").
NTSC
NTSC stands for "National Television System Committee"
and is the colour television standard used primarily in
the USA and Japan.
SECAM
NTSC stands for "National Television System Committee"
and is the colour television standard used primarily in
the USA and Japan.

Audio-CDs

Audio-CDs only hold audio data. They are likewise avail-
able in the 8 cm and 12 cm formats (diameter). Playback
duration for their stored audio data is 20 minutes (8 cm
format) and 74 minutes (12 cm format). Audio-CDs hold
audio data in CDA format.
MP
MP3 defi nes a process or format for the compression of
audio data developed by the Fraunhofer Institute. Music
compressed in the MP3 format take up only a fraction
of the original storage space so that far more music can
be stored than on, for instance, CD-Rs/CD-RWs than on
the normal commercial audio-CDs storing audio data in
CDA format.

WMA

WMA ("Windows® Media Audio") is a fi le format for audio
data developed by Microsoft®.
Silvercrest KH 6508/KH 6509 