Dolby and Intel Launch High-Definition PC Audio

The audio experience, formerly a living-room-only experience through the family stereo system, is changing throughout the connected home. Today, you can listen to high-definition sound through two speakers, your multichannel home-theater setup, your headphones—and now your PC.

Dolby Laboratories and Intel announced Intel High-Definition (HD) Audio, the result of a cooperative effort to extend high-definition consumer-electronics sound to PCs. As part of the Dolby PC Entertainment Experience initiative, Dolby is launching a new Integrated Audio Codec Licensing program and a PC Logo program featuring Dolby surround-sound technologies. The Dolby Integrated Audio Codec Licensing program is designed to let PC audio codec companies develop solutions that work with Intel HD Audio, Intel's next-generation audio architecture, formerly code-named Azalia.

A key element of the Dolby PC Entertainment Experience initiative being unveiled at Intel Developer Forum (IDF) this week is the Dolby PC Logo program, which will let consumers easily select a PC with the Dolby audio technologies that best meet their entertainment needs. With the Dolby PC Entertainment Experience initiative and Intel HD Audio, PC users will have the same access and control of Dolby premier technologies as they would with home theater systems. Using HD Audio codecs that include Dolby technologies, PC manufacturers will be able to offer PCs with integrated system-wide support for Dolby Headphone, Dolby Virtual Speaker, Dolby Digital Live, and Dolby Pro Logic IIx.