Neural Surround: what is it?

Neural Surround: what is it?

The founders of Neural Surround decided that there were too many competing 5.1 audio formats available so they wanted to do something about it. They did. Neural Surround material was originally recorded as a 5.1 signal. By taking those musical signals and digitally encoding them using a proprietary process, you end up with a 2-channel signal while retaining all of the surround information as an embedded watermark. This allows that music encoded with Neural Surround to be put onto any type of media from an iPod to a cassette tape or broadcast over XM. Because it is a stereo signal, it will play in any system but only as 2-channel. However, if you have a receiver that will decode Neural Surround, like the Yamaha receivers, then you will get the original 5.1 surround sound with no loss of quality. More and more material will be available encoded with Neural Surround. This process gives you a discrete channel for each speaker making it a phenomenal experience to listen to. Neural decoding in the receivers themselves will take a normal stereo signal and enhance it to give you up to 7.1 channels of discrete surround sound generally much better than conventional ProLogic processing. Just listen and you will hear the difference. Push the Auto Decoder button on the remote repeatedly until Neural Surround is selected to turn on this processing.

Neural Surround is currently best known for providing the surround codec for XMHD, but their partnership with THX?will see them expanding their technology to 50 FM?radio stations, internet audio and gaming. Neural Surround itself is also updating its surround algorithms to improve their quality. Neural Surround Neural Surround(TM), a proprietary audio format that embeds the rich envelopment and discrete image detail of surround sound and is 100% compatible with stereo content. Neural Surround Neural Surround?, a proprietary audio format that embeds the rich envelopment and discrete image detail of surround sound and is 100% compatible with stereo content. Sirius-Ready A Sirius-Ready audio system lets you access your favorite SIRIUS Satellite Radio entertainment, including 100% commercial-free music, plus sports, uncensored talk, comedy, exclusive entertainment, world-class news and more, directly through your audio system with the use of an optional SIRIUS ConnectT Home Tuner kit.

Neural Surround processing encompasses several types of processing. First, it can act similarly to Dolby's Pro Logic processing in that it can take a standard stereo signal and process it into 5.1 or 7.1 channels, creating a faux-surround mix where none existed. Neural Surround™ technology in 2006 exceeded 60% market share in just one year with its adoption into the world’s leading receiver manufacturers. A live musical event mixed in 5.1 can be “Downmixed” to a stereo signal, broadcasted over an analog FM or digital radio channel. Neural surround's primary selling point is that it is the codec being used by XM for the XMHD channels which offer full 5.1 surround. Currently there are only two XMHD channels, XM 76, 'Fine Tuning', a free form music channel, and XM 113, 'XM Pops', a classical pops channel.