Audio Video News

More than ten million owners of Sony's PlayStation 3 will get a firmware update on April 15 that may make them feel ashamed of their home audio setup.

The new software includes a codec from DTS that delivers DTS-HD Master Audio, which supports 7.1 audio channels and 96k/24-bit sound -  identical to the original studio master's high variable rates (that's up to 24.5 Mbps for Blu-ray discs).

The PS3's video quality has been high-definition from the beginning (perhaps even before many people had considered buying an HDTV), but its audio couldn't compete. Now that PS3-owners (many of them gamers, not videophiles) have access to high quality audio, will they buy the equipment they need to support it?

Odds are that many PS3 owners don't have the right hardware, receivers and loudspeakers to take advantage of DTS-HD Master Audio. Some of them might feel pretty darn bad about that, but how many of them will do something about it? -Rachel Rosmarin

DTS