DTS MOVES THEATER SOUND TO HOUSEHOLDS.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Daily News Staff Writer

For three years, Digital Theater Systems has been one of the big producers of movie theater sound systems. Now the company is bringing its technology into the home.

Although Dolby Laboratories Inc. has been the name to beat in the multichannel home theater system market - its Dolby Digital AC-3, 5.1-channel system has been on the market about three years now - DTS officials claim their technology surpasses Dolby's and will eventually have more applications.

``It's really been part of the vision all along that we would take the tools that we supplied to the theater or artistic community and make them available to the home,'' said Bill Neighbors, president and chief operating officer of DTS. ``The idea behind this company is to be the leading supplier of digital entertainment sound - period. That's the big vision.''

In just a few years, stereos, computers and even car music systems will use the DTS system that creates six channels of crisp and clean sound, according to company officials.

``If we look down the road 10 to 15 years, the home will have digital satellite systems, digital cable, the Internet, digital videodiscs,'' Neighbors said. ``And somewhere in the house, one chip will decode all that.''

That black half-inch square chip is in a half-dozen high-end surround-sound systems that are hitting the market and appeal to ardent audiophiles willing to spend thousands of dollars on a sound system.

DTS faces a tough fight in trying to dislodge Dolby from its firm place at the top, said Al Griffin, senior editor of Home Theater.

``I would say they (at DTS) are definitely several steps further. Theirs is essentially a higher resolution system,'' Griffin said. ``But Dolby Digital is pretty much entrenched commercially at this point, and DTS has kind of an uphill battle to fight.''

More than 30 manufacturers have committed to carrying the technology, according to David DelGrosso, marketing director for DTS Technology, a subsidiary of Digital Theater Systems.

DelGrosso said DTS design also will soon appear in a receiver that will retail at about $1,500.

And in December, MCA/Universal Home Video will start releasing laserdisc movie titles that already have been on the market but will now be encoded with the DTS soundtracks.

The first titles in the catalog will be ``Jurassic Park,'' which also was the first theater movie with DTS digital sound, and ``The Shadow.''

DTS also has a series of multichannel music CDs either ready or in the works.

Conventional surround-sound systems such as Dolby Pro Logic contain four channels of sound - front left, front right, center and rear surrounds - to create a lifelike sound environment for home-movie viewing.

``What you couldn't do (before the advent of digital sound) is say, I want this sound out this rear speaker now,'' DelGrosso said.

Both Dolby Digital and DTS separate the sound among the five speakers plus a dedicated channel for a separate subwoofer - the ``.1'' in the 5.1 - that carries the rumbling lower-frequency bass sounds, creating a listening experience akin to that found at movie theaters.

Dolby Digital AC-3 sound is encoded into laserdiscs, but not on the more popular videotapes, which utilize the four-channel Dolby Surround sound.

But DTS officials say their system has several advantages over Dolby. First, the DTS sound system requires about one-fourth the digital data compression of Dolby, making for sound that is identical to the original master recordings.

DelGrosso says the DTS system can be used with a larger number of laserdisc players. With Dolby Digital, the processor must be used with a player containing a radio frequency or RF output, DelGrosso said. Only about 50,000 of these players are in use, he said.

But the DTS processor will work with laserdisc players with digital output, and these already are in more than 1.2 million households, he said.

``That's one of our biggest advantages - 1.2 million people can do this by getting one of our systems,'' DelGrosso said. ``They don't have to get a new disc player.''

Eventually, systems will carry both the Dolby and DTS chips, DelGrosso said.

But Griffin emphasizes that DTS faces an uphill marketing battle. Dolby Digital has been acknowledged to be the standard for upcoming high-definition television, and ``that pretty much solidified Dolby Digital's position in the marketplace,'' Griffin said.

In addition, Dolby will also be the standard for the upcoming digital videodisc or DVD, offering much greater clarity laserdiscs, said David Gray, vice president of Dolby Laboratory Inc.'s Hollywood film division.

``Although the DVD can carry a DTS signal, it will always carry a Dolby signal,'' Gray said.

Although Dolby has been closely watching progress at DTS, Gray believes Dolby's position is secure because its technology already is widely available and is slated for a major role in future technology.

``I hate to say we're wary, but you have to be cognizant of what competitors or potential competitors are doing. You can't operate in a vacuum,'' Gray said. ``But right now AC-3 is extremely well established,'' he said.

In the end, the competition may be good for everybody, he said.

``I think personally the consumer is the one who is going to win,'' Gray said. ``Some of this is absolutely great technology, and hopefully the consumer wants to have 5.1 channels at home, and it will be cheap enough for him to afford it.''

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2 Photos

Photo: Bill Neighbors, president of Digital Theater Systems, enjoys the home video version of his company's surround-sound technology.

Phil McCarten/Daily News