• Dolby Digital plus uses a higher bit rate and more efficient compression - technically, it also allows for 7.1 discrete channels (even if the majority of movies are probably still mixed for 5.1).
• Dolby Digital Plus Home Theater is a software program developed by Dolby Laboratories Inc. The most common release is 7.5.1.1, with over 98% of all installations currently using this version. It adds registry entry for the current user which will allow the program to automatically start each time it is rebooted.

What Are Dolby Digital and DTS? Both Dolby and DTS offer surround sound codecs for 5.1, 6.1 (rare), and 7.1 setups, where the first number indicates the number of small surround speakers and the “.1” is a separate channel for a subwoofer.

If you're 'that person' who wants the best movie experience possible, with the best image quality and sound available today, there's only one theater that you should be going to.

It's a Dolby Cinema at AMC.

And no, this is not an advertisement. After raving about the Dolby Cinema experience to my friends for the past year, I got a chance to go behind the scenes at AMC Burbank 16, just north of LA, to show you what makes this experience special.

You can't find them everywhere, but there will be 50 of these theaters in the US by the end of the year, and 50 more worldwide, though none yet are planned for the UK or Australia. So what makes them special?

Firstly, you're getting 500 times the contrast ratio compared to a standard movie projection system, pure black levels, an expanded color gamut and twice the brightness. This is all thanks to a dual-4K Christie laser projection system, designed to support films that have been optimized and color graded for Dolby Vision HDR.

The majority of the movies are 2D, so you're really getting the truest image quality. It's up to studios to produce Dolby-optimized 3D versions of their movies, with 'Rogue One: A Star Wars Story' only the second film, behind 'The Jungle Book,' that will have 3D showings at some Dolby Cinema at AMC theaters.

The second piece to this is Dolby Atmos sound system. The best way I can describe it is to call it 3D sound that moves around you. It's a reference-quality surround sound technology from Dolby that renders audio objects in real time and supports up to 128 tracks. You can clearly hear individual elements, like a bird flying around the entire room in a scene set in a rainforest, and it's amazing.

Dolby Atmos has some serious firepower: five in-screen speakers, 48 surround sound speakers and four ceiling-mounted subwoofers. Want more? The reclining leather chairs have transducers in them, so you'll feel a deep rumble directly in your seat when there's a loud explosion or a crash of lighting. It's the definitive movie-going experience right now.

A standard movie ticket today costs around $15 for a prime time showing -- it's not cheap these days. A Dolby Cinema ticket will run you $20 (about £15 or AU$25), but it's worth it to me. Go and check it out for yourself. You can thank me later.

If you're in the US, find out if there's one near you at the Dolby Cinema at AMC page.

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Dolby Digital Plus surround sound is an improvement on the super-popular Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital EX system. Dolby Digital Plus improves on Dolby Digital and EX by

• Increasing the bit rate: Dolby Digital Plus can be encoded with up to 6144 Kbps (kilobits per second) of data, where Dolby Digital tops out at 640 Kbps. (448 Kbps is the maximum from current formats, however.) All else being equal, higher bit rates mean better sound quality because the audio signals need to be compressed less.

• Improving the encoding: Dolby Digital Plus does a better job of encoding (or digitizing and compressing) sound. Therefore, at a given bit rate, you get better sound quality. Combine this with the vastly increased bit rate of Dolby Digital Plus, and you get great sound!

• Adding more channels: Dolby Digital Plus can provide up to 13.1 discrete channels of sound (14 total speakers, including the subwoofer). You can really envelop yourself in the action with 14 speakers!

• Providing backward compatibility: Dolby Digital Plus decoders can automatically downconvert your sound to the older Dolby Digital formats. So you can play Dolby Digital Plus programs on your older system without having to buy new hardware. And when you do upgrade, you gain all the advantages just mentioned.

One drawback of Dolby Digital Plus is that the very high bit rates it supports overwhelm the digital audio connections that are traditionally used to connect DVD players or set-top boxes to your receiver. If all you have on your receiver is coaxial or optical digital connections, you’ll still be able to listen to Dolby Digital Plus, but you’ll have to get by with using analog audio connections or by letting your DVD player downconvert to 640 Kbps Dolby Digital.

If you have a newer receiver with an HDMI 1.3 connection, you won’t have this restriction and will get the full Dolby Digital Plus experience because the decoded signals can be carried as multichannel PCM over these high-bandwidth interfaces without sonic compromise.

Some receivers have HDMI connections but still can’t handle Dolby Digital Plus — you’ll need a receiver with HDMI 1.3 capabilities and an internal Dolby Digital Plus decoding capability. If your receiver doesn’t have these capabilities, it won’t keep you from enjoying the benefits of Dolby Digital Plus, but you’ll need to use a set of analog connections or configure your receiver to send the Dolby Digital Plus signal as linear PCM instead of as a bitstream.

Dolby Digital Plus is an optional format for Blu-ray discs, so any Blu-ray disc player should support Dolby Digital Plus, though not all discs will use the format. Dolby Digital Plus may also be used for other HDTV content — and may end up being encoded in a lot of the HDTV shows you get from your cable, satellite, or other TV service provider.