PCs Advance Home Theater Experience with Dolby’s Latest PC Audio Technologies

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE:DLB) today unveiled two important advancements in PC audio technology with its third generation Dolby^® PC Entertainment Experience Program. New Audio Optimization and High-Frequency Enhancer technologies help to recreate the cinema and home theater experience on PCs like Acer^® Aspire^® Gemstone Blue series notebooks for consumers. Dolby fine-tunes these notebooks to optimize and customize parameters for enhanced audio quality.

“In 2007, Acer led the PC trend as the world’s first manufacturer to offer Dolby Home Theater for virtual surround sound across a full line of consumer notebooks”

As part of the new Dolby Home Theater^® v3 and Dolby Advanced Audio technology suites, these new offerings help PC makers optimize the listening experience for their customers—whether through built-in speakers or an external surround sound system with up to 7.1 channels.

The Audio Optimization technology makes great sounding notebook PCs sound even better by correcting frequency response issues commonly associated with laptop computers. High-Frequency Enhancer synthesizes and boosts speaker high frequencies by reintroducing those lost during encoding at typical user bit rates—a common occurrence in highly compressed music or movie files. High-Frequency Enhancer reproduces audio closer to that of the original content with no audible artifacts or side effects.

“Dolby’s uncompromising approach to providing the best possible audio technology is well suited to Acer’s innovation in their line of multimedia PCs,” said Francois Modarresse, Vice President Marketing Planning at Dolby Laboratories. “We are proud to have worked closely with Acer in enhancing their Gemstone Blue series consumer PCs with these new technologies, as it allows their users to enjoy music, movies, and games in a simple and elegant way.”

“In 2007, Acer led the PC trend as the world’s first manufacturer to offer Dolby Home Theater for virtual surround sound across a full line of consumer notebooks,” said Campbell Kan, Vice President, Mobile Computing Business Unit, Acer Inc. “Today, we are once again the first in the industry to feature the Dolby Home Theater v3 suite in our Aspire Gemstone Blue series notebooks. All Acer products are designed with the goal of improving people’s life through technology. We welcome Dolby’s audio technology advancements that further enhance the user experience.”

The new Dolby PC Entertainment Experience Program offers two levels: Dolby Home Theater v3, a premium set of technologies and Dolby Advanced Audio, the mainstream offering. Dolby Home Theater v3 includes an advanced set of audio tools so that listeners can enjoy a cinema-style, surround sound experience through a variety of output options, including the built-in PC speakers, external surround sound speakers or any set of headphones. Dolby Advanced Audio is a suite of technologies specifically designed to adjust and tune audio output through the built-in PC speakers to provide the best possible listening experience.

In addition to Dolby Audio Optimization and Dolby High-Frequency Enhancer, Dolby Home Theater v3 offers the following:

Dolby Pro Logic^® IIx creates a vivid 7.1-channel surround sound experience from any stereo (two-channel), 5.1, or 6.1 movie, music, TV, or game audio source
Dolby Headphone enables personal surround sound using any set of headphones
Sound Space Expander produces a wide stereo image and in the process improves the separation of instruments without diminishing the center of the mix
Natural Bass provides up to an octave of downward extension in the bass response of most speakers and headphones
Dolby Digital Live converts any audio signal from a PC or game console into Dolby Digital for easy connection to home theater systems through a single digital cable

The Dolby Advanced Audio suite offers High-Frequency Enhancer, Audio Optimization, Natural Bass, and Dolby Headphone.

About Dolby Laboratories

Dolby Laboratories (NYSE:DLB) is the global leader in technologies that are essential elements in the best entertainment experiences. Founded in 1965 and best known for high-quality audio and surround sound, Dolby creates innovations that enrich entertainment at the movies, at home, or on the go. Visit www.dolby.com for more information.

Certain statements in this press release, including statements regarding the performance and capabilities of Dolby’s PC Entertainment Experience Program and next generations of Dolby Home Theater and Dolby Advanced Audio technologies and Acer’s new PCs, the potential benefits that manufacturers and consumers may derive from the incorporation of these Dolby technologies into PCs, and the anticipated market acceptance of updates to Dolby's PC Entertainment Experience Program and Acer’s new PCs, are "forward-looking statements" that are subject to risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations. The following important factors, without limitation, could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements: risks associated with building system integrators; customer and consumer acceptance of and demand for PCs with high-quality sound capabilities in general, and for Dolby Home Theater and Dolby Advanced Audio technologies in particular; risks associated with successfully incorporating Dolby technologies into PCs; rapid changes in technical requirements for the PC sound technology market and for high-quality audio technologies generally; risks associated with having Dolby technologies adopted as industry-standard technologies; competition risks; and other risks detailed in Dolby's Securities and Exchange Commission filings and reports, including the risks identified under the section captioned "Risk Factors" in its most recent Periodic Report on Form 10-Q or 10-K. Dolby disclaims any obligation to update information contained in these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

Dolby, Dolby Home Theater, Pro Logic, and the double-D symbol are registered trademarks of Dolby Laboratories. Acer and Aspire are registered trademarks of Acer, Inc. S09/21275 DLB-G