Decoder

The sound on DVDs with home cinema surround sound is stored in a coded form on the DVD. There are different coding formats for different purposes, e. g. AC-3 to play Dolby Digital surround sound. To be able to play coded sound, the playback unit (e. g. the combination unit) must have a so-called decoder, which transforms the coded sig- nals back into music or sound.

The eBench KH 2370 combination unit has an AC-3 decod- er (for Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound signals).

Dolby Surround

Dolby Surround is an analog sound format whereby the two channels of a stereo sound signal are used to accom- modate surround sound information for other channels. With a Dolby Surround Decoder, the signals are trans- formed back into sound or music and are conducted to two additional loudspeakers, which are to be placed be- hind the listening position.

Dolby Prologic

By comparison with the Dolby surround sound format, in the case of Dolby Prologic a further channel is used in the stereo signal; this is the so-called “Center” channel. The corresponding center loudspeaker is to be placed in the centre between the stereo loudspeakers. The lowest tones are to be conducted to a low tone loudspeaker, the so-called “subwoofer”. The subwoofer can be placed at any position in the room; the reason for this is that the low tones which are emitted by the subwoofer, can scarcely be exactly located by the human ear.

Dolby Digital (5.1)

Dolby Digital, also called AC3, is a digital sound format, by which up to six separate audio channels can be transport- ed. In the case of most of the current DVDs, the sound is stored in the so-called “Dolby Digital 5.1” format; the “5” in the description “5.1” stands for three front and two back surround sound channels, the “1” for the low tone channel.

What are PAL, NTSC and SECAM?

PAL

PAL is the abbreviation for Phase Alternation Line. PAL is in Central and Western Europe (exception: France, see ab- breviation SECAM), the normal and commonly used colour television standard.

NTSC

NTSC is the abbreviation for National Television System Committee. NTSC is a colour television standard which is used, above all, in the USA and in Japan.

SECAM

SECAM is the abbreviation for the French “système en cou- leur avec mémoire”. SECAM is the normal and most com- monly used colour television standard in France and many Eastern European countries.

Audio CDs

Audio CDs only contain audio data; these are also availa- ble with 8 cm and 12 cm (diameter) formats. The playback duration of the audio data stored on them is 20 minutes (8 cm format) and 74 minutes (12 cm format) respectively. Audio data with CDA format are stored on audio CDs.

MP

MP3 describes a procedure or format to compress audio data developed by the Fraunhofer Institut. Pieces of music compressed in MP3 format only have a fraction of their original size, which allows far more music to be stored e. g. on CD-Rs/CD-RWs than on normal audio CDs, on which audio data is stored in CDA format.

JPEG

JPEG (abbreviation of Joint Photographics Expert Group) describes a commonly used graphic format developed by the same named organisation, with which picture data in coloured and grey tones is compressed.

What are folders?

In contrast to audio CDs, the titles of a CD-R/CD-RW with MP3 or JPEG files can be stored in folders, for example, to organize titles from different genres. If the MP3 files were stored in folders, then the structure of an MP3 CD can look like the following, for example:

MP3 CD

Folder

MP3 files

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KH 2370

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Kompernass KH 2370 operating instructions Secam, Mp, Jpeg