The sound technology that you use in your home theater system has a significant impact on the quality of your audio experience. Not all surround sound technology is the same. If you aren’t using technology compatible with the latest and greatest upgrades to Blu-Ray, gaming, and entertainment hardware, you could be missing out on everything your home theater system has to offer.

Get More from Your Blu-Ray Disks

In the battle between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray, the jury of the consumer has voted unanimously for the latter. The benefit to Blu-Ray disks lies not only in their higher quality visuals, but to their sound quality as well. Most Blu-Rays now come with standard compatibility with DTS audio, enabling them to support a virtually unlimited number of discrete surround sound channels.

• According to a press release from Ecoustics: “The only audio solution to provide up to lossless operation and backwards compatibility in a single bit stream, DTS-HD provides the highest quality audio performance available in the new format standards, while still being capable of playback in legacy equipment.”

Amp Up Your Gaming Experience

Besides watching (and listening to) movies augmented by advanced sound technology, there is another reason tricking out your home theater system to fully take advantage of the best surround sound available: gaming.

If you’re playing any of the most popular games on the market – from Assassin’s Creed III to Bio Shock Infinite – you have the potential to unlock the superior audio experience provided by DTS sound technologies. Both the PS3 and Xbox360 are fully capable of DTS decoding and output to your surround sound system.

• If you prefer gaming on your PC as opposed to your gaming console, you can still achieve HD-quality sound playback with technologies like SRS Audio Essentials. This audio technology – compatible with most popular music players – provides three-dimensional surround sound to heighten the PC gaming experience.

Hear More Music – And Less Static

Remember the old commercial: “Is it Live, or is it Memorex”? Just because Memorex has gone the way of the dodo doesn’t mean you can access live-quality musical entertainment directly through your home theater system. Coldplay, Mumford & Sons, Peter Frampton, and many other top names in the music industry are releasing live concert recordings with DTS-HD Master Audio encoding.

• Once again, if your home theater technology isn’t up to the task of effectively translating DTS encoding to your surround sound system, you’re missing out on everything DTS-HD has to offer.

With a home theater system equipped with DTS high definition audio technology, you become immersed in the experience of whatever’s on your screen. Whether you’re gunning down bad guys or singing along to your favorite concert, the experience is infinitely improved when your surround sound system is equipped with the right audio technology. Hooking up your surround sound system doesn’t have to be a pain when you have the right equipment. By tricking out your home theater, you can make sure that your audio technology enhances- rather than distracts from – your viewing and listening experience.