So, you’ve discovered just how realistic and enthralling it can be to watch your favourite team demolish their opponents (or at the very least, eke out a respectable away point) in glorious high definition.
It doesn’t end there. You can do so much more to create, right there in your lounge, a convincing sense of being right there in the stadium. What you may not have realised is, that if you fulfil your TV’s potential by feeding it a broadcast HD signal, you can at the same time experience a superior soundtrack – so you’ll really feel you’re in the heart of the action.
When Sky broadcasts live football action on HD, it also includes a Dolby Digital soundtrack. If you add a Samsung home theatre system like the HT-BD1255, you’ll get the big match experience with a huge bonus – full surround sound.
Dolby Digital 5.1 is a complete surround sound format that is broadcast with some programmes on Sky HD. It has sound for front left, centre and right speakers, as well as rear left and right channels. The ‘.1’ is for a subwoofer, where all the bass frequencies go.
Get your home theatre system into place, and it’s easy to set up: simply take an optical digital cable (best to buy a dedicated one of these; you’ll get a good one for about £30) and connect it to the optical output on your Sky HD box.
Connect the other end to the optical input on your Samsung home theatre system. You’ll already have your Sky box connected to your TV via an HDMI cable, so away you go.
Glorious football in scintillating high definition – enhanced still further by the 3D sonic experience of surround sound. It’s like the cinema, only better.
Now you’ve got the whole system in place, you’re ready to enjoy the beautiful game to the full. Remember, your DVD and Blu-ray discs all have surround sound on them that will be automatically decoded by the home theatre’s main unit and played through all the surround speakers. Your DVDs will all have Dolby Digital soundtracks (sometimes also DTS sound), and your Blu-ray discs contain sound formats that are even better – such as Dolby True HD and DTS HD Master Audio.
But what if you’re watching a broadcast programme that isn’t delivering Dolby Digital? Have no fear: your Samsung home theatre can take an ordinary stereo signal and apply Dolby Pro Logic II to it, turning it into a convincing approximation of full surround sound.