Microsoft Selects Dolby to Create Immersive Experiences on Windows 8 Tablets and PCs

[Cristian_25H]

Dolby Laboratories, Inc. today announced that Microsoft has selected Dolby Digital Plus to create the most realistic and immersive audio experiences for Windows 8 on tablets and PCs. The addition of Dolby Digital Plus enables the playback of Dolby-encoded content across a growing number of devices. Today's announcement underscores the essential role that Dolby Digital Plus plays in delivering high-quality sound for online entertainment services and personal media applications.

"Dolby's goal is to deliver the best possible entertainment experience, wherever content is delivered through broadcast, broadband, or wireless networks," said Ramzi Haidamus, Executive Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Dolby. "We are pleased to be working with Microsoft to address the growing demand for high-definition content delivered across a broad range of services and devices. Widespread availability of Dolby Digital Plus on Windows 8 will enable more people to enjoy cinematic sound anytime, anywhere, and on any device."



"With the incredible growth of online download and streaming media, particularly for video content, this agreement ensures a great audio experience for those consumers who wish to download or stream TV and movies containing Dolby Digital Plus," said Tami Reller, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, Windows and Windows Live, Microsoft. "Additionally, all of their existing and future home videos recorded with Dolby Digital Plus audio will work great on Windows 8 right out of the box."

Incorporated in more than 640 million devices, Dolby Digital Plus transforms the entertainment experience and is recognized as a standard for high-quality audio on many types of products, including smartphones, tablets, PCs, connected TVs, Blu-ray Disc players, and game consoles.

Developers will be enabled to deliver the highest level of immersive experiences and cinematic sound through Windows 8 APIs in desktop and Metro-style apps, including those developed for x86 and ARM architectures. Dolby Digital Plus 5.1-channel decoding and Dolby Digital two-channel encoding will be supported in all PCs and tablets licensed to run Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, and Windows RT editions.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Shinshin]

I guess MS doesn't want to be different than the other 600 million devices out there by licensing Dolby for its Windows 8. It did so with Windows 7 and earlier version I guess.
But as I see it now, MS should try to keep the price of the new operation system down to minimum.
If tablet prices are going to be the same as today when Windows 8 is launched, one of the two will happen:
1. Windows tablet prices will be higher than the rest.
2. Tablet prices will be competitive and the profit margin will be low or on loss.

On a side note, anyone has an idea how much does Windows 7 cost today to system builders? i.e. Dell, Hp, etc.

 

[tehehe]

This is really nothing interesting, because all it means is that now windows will have dolby decoder built in. Most of us install codec packs first thing after system install anyway and they always have dolby decoder in them. For us this will only make windows cost more to produce for no added benefit.

 

[ironwolf]

They remove DVD playback from Win8 out of the box, but add this out of the box? Makes little sense.

 

[Mussels]

this will just be the dolby software effects to make audio sound better on crap speakers, like many onboard solutions come with these days.


this also seems to add real time dolby ENcoding (not decoding), much like most onboard solutions, which helps out people playing analogue sources (EG, games) to digital decoders (SPDIF sound systems)