Wootton Bassett, Mar. 15, 2001 -- Asian broadcasters are voicing support for Dolby Digital in the digital television standard for Hong Kong. Responses to the consultation paper published by the Government Information Technology and Broadcasting Bureau in Hong Kong on digital terrestrial television standards have now been submitted, and the consultation document recommends Dolby Digital as the audio carrier. No responses questioned the choice of Dolby Digital over MPEG audio.

Star TV and Pacific Satellite in particular were strongly in favour of Dolby Digital (AC-3):

We support the adoption of the DVB-T with Dolby AC-3 as the audio coding standard. We believe the quality of sound from Dolby AC-3 will enhance viewers’ enjoyment as it provides 5.1 channels of high-quality audio surround sound. We would also like to point out that both Australia and Singapore have committed to using Dolby AC-3 with their DVB-T transmission format. (Star TV).

We suggest adopting Dolby AC-3 as the audio encoding standard. First of all, it is not wise to require that the audio signals are encoded in both Dolby AC-3 and MPEG-2 formats, as it is costly to the operator. More importantly, it occupies more bandwidth, which ultimately will not benefit a lot of users. AC-3 is recognised as providing better sound quality than MPEG-2. Therefore, the latter shall not be considered. (Pacific Satellite International).

In addition, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry in Hong Kong also expressed a preference for Dolby Digital as part of a DVB DTV system.

"This is another big vote of confidence in Dolby Digital (AC-3) as the preferred audio for DTV systems," said Dolby’s Tony Spath, Marketing Director, Technology. "Where people have a choice, it is great to see them looking to the future of audio and choosing a format that will allow them to start today with stereo and go through to 5.1 when they are ready." All consumer Dolby Digital decoders can receive a mono, stereo, or 5.1 signal and output the decoded audio through whatever number of speakers the consumer has connected, without having to upgrade any software.

About Dolby Digital
Dolby Digital, with its 5.1 separate channels, is now the backbone of the rapidly growing home theatre trend. For DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), Dolby Digital is a standard audio format worldwide, meaning every DVD player in the world can decode it. Dolby Digital is a fully approved audio format for DVB, as well as the audio format for the ATSC digital television standard, and the digital cable standard SCTE.

About Dolby Laboratories
Dolby Laboratories is the developer of signal processing systems used worldwide in applications that include motion picture sound, consumer entertainment products and media, broadcasting, and music recording. Based in San Francisco with European headquarters in England, the privately held company also has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Shanghai, Beijing, and Tokyo. For more information about Dolby Laboratories or Dolby technologies, please visit www.dolby.com.