August 17, 2007 at 4:49 am #25281
    aquadevante
    Guest
    @

    …digital TV, or is it still NICAM stereo? For instance, I know TV shows like Heroes and Lost are filmed in Dolby Surround 5:1 and Dolby Digital respectively, as are many films. Can these original audio formats be received within digital broadcasts (e.g. Freeview), or is even Freeview still broadcast in NICAM 2-way stereo?

    I own a Panasonic Dolby Pro-Logic widescreen set, so is capable of decoding Dolby signals from DVDs. I can also recieve digital broadcasts through my Sagem Freeview set-top box.

    If it’s still NICAM then am just wondering whether I need to buy a sound decoder/processor in order to receive proper Dolby Surround or Digital audio for television broadcasts.

    Thanks for your help

    ** PS – am a UK viewer, so it’s all PAL and not NTSC **

    November 17, 2011 at 11:18 am #116218
    bluey
    Participant
    @bluey
    aquadevante;16857 wrote:
    …digital TV, or is it still NICAM stereo? For instance, I know TV shows like Heroes and Lost are filmed in Dolby Surround 5:1 and Dolby Digital respectively, as are many films. Can these original audio formats be received within digital broadcasts (e.g. Freeview), or is even Freeview still broadcast in NICAM 2-way stereo?

    I own a Panasonic Dolby Pro-Logic widescreen set, so is capable of decoding Dolby signals from DVDs. I can also recieve digital broadcasts through my Sagem Freeview set-top box.

    If it’s still NICAM then am just wondering whether I need to buy a sound decoder/processor in order to receive proper Dolby Surround or Digital audio for television broadcasts.

    Thanks for your help

    ** PS – am a UK viewer, so it’s all PAL and not NTSC **

    You are basically the same as us in Oz. Nearly all commercial production studios don’t use Dolby Digital or DTS. Technology has moved on, however the audio is re-encoded into Dolby Digital 5.1 for TV. Just to confuse matters there are new standards for domestic, the common being DTS HD MA and Dolby TrueHD, but they are not used for freeview (free to air) due to them taking to much space and are used with Blu-ray. NICAM is not used for Digital TV. Your TV will most probably have an optical output (like the DVD players), or if you are using a set top box it will most certainly have an optical output the same as DVD (official name is TOSLink). Not all TV is broadcast in Surround, but most modern TV and films are.

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