Nowadays satellite TV receivers are capable of delivering Dolby Digital Surround Sound. The receivers are fitted with decoders that sense the audio data and transmit that to a TV set or to a home theatre system. This feature enables the viewer of a satellite television to enjoy cinematic sound in their living room.

Dolby digital is a technology for compressing audio data. The technology has been developed by Dolby Laboratories that is based in San Francisco, California. The compression technology has been developed especially for movies to add thrills and excitement. The sound compression technology has six sound channels. The six channels are Front Left, Front Right, Rear Left, Rear Right, Center channel and a mono channel. The mono channel is basically a low frequency sound channel, which can be delivered by a subwoofer. The first Hollywood movie to get this sound technology is "Batman Return".

This brilliant audio compression technology has many names. Some of them are AC-3 or audio codec 3, ATSC A/52 and DD-the short form of this sound technology. AC-3 is also known in various names such as Acoustic Coder 3 or Advanced Codec 3. AC-3 is even capable of supporting audio sampling rates of up to forty-eight kilohertz (KHz). Dolby digital even includes plenty of other common technologies such as Dolby Digital 5.1 Creator, Dolby Digital Stereo Creator, Dolby Digital Recording, Dolby Digital EX, Dolby Digital Surround EX and Dolby Digital Cinema.

The satellite TV receivers are now equipped with built in Dolby Digital decoders. The job of these decoders is to sense the audio date from an audio-visual file and transmit that to the television set. In order to get dramatic sound effect, it is always recommended to use a home theatre system. A home theater system is an electronic device that consists of an AV receiver, five speakers and a subwoofer. Simply connect your satellite TV receiver with the AV receiver of your home theatre and you can enjoy cinematic sound right in your living room. The AV receiver of a home theatre device is basically a powerful amplifier that is capable of producing huge sound.

For the purpose of seamless transmission of this sound the receivers are equipped with Toslink optical digital output. This technology has been invented by a leading Japanese Electronics giant Toshiba for smother transmission of Dolby Digital Surround Sound. It is an optical fiber connection system that is produced by using plastic optical fiber. This amazing sound output system has been added to the receivers for the perfect audio-visual entertainment.

You can get the Dolby Digital Surround Sound feature on almost every satellite TV receiver model. The service providers have done this to meet the ever growing needs and demand of high quality TV entertainment. They know that everyone simply cannot afford expensive feature rich receivers. For this reason, they have added this feature on their less expensive satellite receiver models. Now you too can have Dolby Digital home entertainment without going for an expensive receiver model.