Dolby Laboratories enhances Dolby Digital Cinema system

Dolby Laboratories, announced today its enhanced Dolby Digital Cinema system with support for both JPEG 2000 and MPEG (MPEG-2) file formats.
Hailed as an industry first, the Dolby Digital Cinema system allows exhibitors to play back future JPEG 2000–encoded content while fulfilling the current need to present movies and alternative content in the MPEG format.
“Dolby has a long history of working closely with exhibitors and studios on innovations that are practical for today but also enable them to effectively compete in tomorrow’s marketplace,” said Tim Partridge, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Professional Division, Dolby Laboratories. “The industry is clearly moving to JPEG 2000. As it transitions, it is critical that the exhibition community has the flexibility to present content in both formats from one system without needing additional resources.”
In addition to playing feature presentations in both JPEG 2000 and MPEG formats, the enhanced Dolby Digital Cinema will enable exhibitors to present alternative content, such as prerecorded concerts and sporting events, preshow advertising, and more from the same system.
The enhanced Dolby Digital Cinema system will be on display at the ShoWest convention in Las Vegas, March 13 to 16. Dolby will ship samples of the enhanced system this quarter and will upgrade all current installations with new dual-format support by the end of 2006. The Dolby Digital Cinema system enabled for JPEG 2000 meets the requirements of Digital Cinema Initiatives, LLC (DCI) specifications. DCI was formed by the major film studios to help guide the creation of a standard digital cinema architecture. With guidance from DCI, the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) is working to establish standards that all distributors, studios, and vendors can adopt in the rollout of digital cinema presentation systems. The SMPTE is expected to publish standards beginning in Spring 2006.
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