Dolby Home Theater v4 elevates PC audio and delivers a surround sound experience through a PC's built-in speakers, headphones, or a connected home theater.
Dolby Home Theater v4 benefits
Authentic Dolby surround sound
Dolby Home Theater v4 converts your music and other two-channel (stereo) entertainment into 5.1-channel surround sound, and 5.1-channel entertainment like movies into 7.1-channel sound.
Simplified home theater connections
The Dolby Digital Out feature in Dolby Home Theater v4 makes it easy for you to connect your PC to a home theater system.
Consistent volume levels
The Volume Leveler feature in Dolby Home Theater v4 locks in your preferred volume level for more consistent listening.
Increased dialogue clarity
Dialogue Enhancer improves the clarity of speech in your entertainment, so you can follow every word.
Distortion-free performance
Dolby Home Theater v4 optimizes audio performance for your specific PC model and lets you turn up the volume without distorting the sound.
Total audio control
A ten-band graphic equalizer in Dolby Home Theater v4 provides you with complete control over your PC's audio profile.
A powerful multimedia machine
You watch movies and TV shows on your PC. You use it to stream music. It's your game console and your video conferencing center. Yet your PC has one major flaw, and that's its sound — tinny and weak at lower volumes, buzzy and rattling when you crank it up. Dolby Home Theater v4 solves the problem of PC audio performance with a suite of technologies that finally make your PC sound like the powerful multimedia machine that it is.
Dolby pioneered high-quality audio first in the recording studio and at the movies and then in the living room. Dolby Home Theater v4 benefits from decades of experience in areas like noise reduction, speaker optimization, and surround sound. It's a complete solution and improves audio performance whether you choose to listen through your PC's built-in speakers, your favorite pair of headphones, or by connecting your PC to a home theater system.
The challenge of PC audio
Understanding how Dolby Home Theater v4 works requires understanding the problems inherent in PC audio. These originate in both the quality of the source material and the playback process.
Typical problems with sources include:
- Dull sound and unintelligible dialogue on user-generated content
- Wildly varying volume levels from one source to the next
- Content not produced in surround sound
The small speakers and underpowered amplifiers required to fit into the physical design of PCs create other problems. These include:
- Irregular frequency response with no highs or lows
- Unnatural, colored sound
- Volume levels that are typically not loud enough
- Distortion and annoying mechanical vibrations when sound is turned up
The Dolby Home Theater v4 Solution
Designed into a PC, Dolby Home Theater v4 first applies processing that fixes any problems with the source material. It then fixes playback issues by compensating for mechanical constraints of the PC itself.
Because Dolby engineers custom-tune each PC model that includes Dolby Home Theater v4, the audio processing ensures that you enjoy optimal sound for the specific combination of speakers and amplifier in your PC.
Dolby Home Theater v4 technologies:
- Use our latest and most advanced algorithms
- Draw on our extensive research into how people perceive sound
- Match human audio perception
- Are built on a common processing framework
- Work together intelligently
Looking for drivers?
Dolby doesn't have audio drivers available for download. View this list of partner sites where you can download audio drivers.
Dolby Home Theater v4 for professionals
Give consumers the high fidelity they've always wanted from their PCs. Easy to implement and integrate, Dolby Home Theater v4 technologies correct problems with source audio and optimize audio for the playback system.
Source audio fixes
Improving content quality from any source
Surround Decoder
The Surround Decoder in Dolby Home Theater v4 creates a surround sound experience by converting two-channel stereo audio into 5.1 channels and converting 5.1-channel audio into 7.1 channels.
Volume Leveler
No one enjoys unwelcome volume fluctuations. Volume Leveler maintains a user’s preferred volume across all content and applications.
Dialogue Enhancer
Dialogue Enhancer detects the presence of speech in content and applies processing so that users can hear and understand every word of dialogue.
Intelligent Equalizer
Intelligent Equalizer monitors and dynamically adjusts the timbre (tone) during playback to match the user’s chosen preset.
System enhancements
Adjusting audio for the playback system
Graphic Equalizer
Dolby Home Theater v4’s ten-band Graphic Equalizer lets consumers tailor audio to their exact specifications using high-quality general filtering.
Volume Maximizer
Useful for any type of content, Volume Maximizer boosts the audio signal by as much as 12 dB so users can turn up the volume without causing noise or clipping.
Audio Regulator
Custom-calibrated for specific PC models, Audio Regulator eliminates or reduces noise caused by the combination of overdriven speakers and amplifiers.
Surround Virtualizer
Surround Virtualizer creates a surround sound experience of stereo or multichannel content over a PC’s built-in speakers or any pair of stereo headphones.
Audio Optimizer
Audio Optimizer improves the frequency response of a PC’s built-in speakers so content sounds truer to the artist’s original intent.
Dolby Digital Output
Dolby Digital Output converts all PC audio to Dolby Digital signals, allowing users to connect a PC to their home theater system with an HDMI® or S/PDIF cable.
Customer support
Dolby business partners
Log in to the Dolby business partner portal to find tools, warranties, and policies.
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Get help with our professional products or services.
Compare Dolby Home Theater v4 Features
Dolby Home Theater v4 is one of two Dolby technology suites that are part of the Dolby PC Entertainment Experience v4. Dolby Advanced Audio v2 is designed to deliver a personal surround sound experience.
Dolby suround sound |
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Surround expansion (Surround Decoder) |
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Surround virtualizer for headphones |
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Surround virtualizer for built-in speakers |
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Dolby Digital output |
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PC Tuning and Optimization |
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Built-in speaker tuning (Audio Optimizer) |
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Built-in speaker distortion prevention (Audio Regulator) |
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Equalization |
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Graphic Equalizer |
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Intelligent Equalizer (real-time) |
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Dialogue Enhancer |
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Volume |
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Volume Leveler |
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Volume Maximizer |
Customer support
Dolby business partners
Log in to the Dolby business partner portal to find tools, warranties, and policies.
Get support
Get help with our professional products or services.
Dolby Home Theater v4 documents
Customer support
Dolby business partners
Log in to the Dolby business partner portal to find tools, warranties, and policies.
Get support
Get help with our professional products or services.