Though we suspect this is totally normal judging by the fact that not all HD flicks available via Apple TV have 5.1 Dolby Digital surround sound, it is a wee bit disappointing. One particular tipster wrote in to express his frustration with Sony's recently launched PlayStation Video Store, noting that his HD movie rental featured only stereo sound. When contacting Sony on the matter, a Store specialist informed him that no refunds were allowed and there was no way to determine how audio was packaged prior to downloading. So yeah, if multi-channel audio is paramount, you may want to think twice about emptying your wallet in the PS Store.

If you're tight on space and scared off by the psychoacoustic trickery done by virtual surround tech in TVs and surroundbars, maybe Orbitsound's T12 soundbar / subwoofer combo will appeal to you. While it looks like a traditional surroundbar, this unit is all about creating a wide stereo image, sans rear effects. Packed in the bar are eight drivers that do the stereo magic courtesy of airSound technology and 50-Watts of power. Combined with the external, but wired subwoofer, the company claims a "substantially flat" response from 20-Hz to 25-kHz. It reminds us of Boston Acoustic's TVee Two, but wired. Processing of the two stereo inputs can set to "off," "stereo," and "extra wide" courtesy a three-way switch. And of course, there's a dock to welcome your iPod when it ventures away from the warm tube glow of Orbitsound's T6. Our advice -- if you're into stereo, get yourself two small bookshelf speakers and a receiver; if HT is your thing, go for a HTIB or surroundbar.

Rest assured, NBC isn't taking this year's Olympics broadcast lightly. After announcing that some 3,600 hours of the games would be shot (with many in HD), we've now learned that the network will be broadcasting the 5.1 surround mix and stereo mix simultaneously. According to Bob Dixon, NBC Olympics' director of sound design, 2008 marks "the first time the games will be produced totally in high-definition with 5.1 discrete channels of audio," and the plan is to send six discrete channels to those capable of receiving it and carefully downmix for those with stereo capabilities. Needless to say, there's going to be extensive work happening behind the scenes in order to pull off such a feat, and if you're the technical type, feel free to tap the read link to get a sense of just how elaborate the setup will be.

Considering that the trendy white iPod HiFi is no more, it's no surprise to see another company filling the void with a rectangular iPod speaker station of its own. The iStuff Domino 2.1 sports an eerily familiar layout, 30 total watts of amplification, a pair of two-inch wide-range drivers coupled with two three-inch magnetically shielded fiberglass cone subwoofers, an S-Video output, USB connector, 3.5-millimeter auxiliary input and RCA stereo outs. Furthermore, this unit claims to play nice with the newest family of iPods, comes with a wireless remote and can be snapped up right now for £99.99 ($204).

[Via iLounge]

Continuing its strange obsession with unveiling products by the flocks, Philips has yet again given us numerous things to juggle at once. This time around it's a trio of iPod-friendly music / AV stations, two of which also include Bluetooth support. The $199 three-piece BTM-628 iPod speaker station conveniently docks and plays your jams from either the DAP or your BT-enabled cellphone, plays back MP3 discs and CDs, shows caller ID and enables handsfree conversations, and also includes a USB port and SD / MMC slot for playing back tunes from a flash card; the BTM-630 steps it up by adding a CD writer that can create MP3 discs from music stored on flash media. The $399 DCD-778 undercabinet system touts an AM / FM tuner, DVD player, ATSC TV tuner, 8.5-inch LCD, flip-down iPod dock, and the ability to play back videos stored on your Apple. Look for these goodies as well as an iPod clock radio to land sometime this fall.

[Via T3]

If there were ever a time where we'd need to hear it before we believed it, this would be it. Tony Bongiovi, an audio engineer who's been around the block a time or two (read: he worked with Hendrix), has finally crafted the miracle chip he's been missing for decades. Dubbed the Digital Power Station (DPS, not to be confused with DSP), the microchip is described as a "very sophisticated equalizer," and while it was originally "the size of a refrigerator," he looked to Glenn Zelniker, a specialist in digital signal processing, to program a wee chip to do the same thing. The result is a dynamically programmed microchip based on an off-the-shelf DSP from Freescale Semiconductor, which is housed in special headunits (like JVC's KD-S100) and has more than "120 points of adjustment" to tune the tunes to fill each vehicle perfectly. Reportedly, the chip even turns factory speakers into high-fidelity drivers, as it calculates the dimensions of the vehicle and the abilities of the cones while outputting the audio. The JVC unit will cost "between $700 and $1,000 installed," since you'll have to schedule an appointment with your service department to get the correct software installed for your make and model, but we'd suggest a trial listen before you plunk down your one large.

[Via PhysOrg]