Virtual Reality

DVD-ROM and you

As a Dolby Digital system, the most likely computing application for the MDR-DS5000 system is for the budding revolution of DVD-Video and DVD-ROM. The recent drop in price on DVD-ROM drives (less than $100 nowadays) has made them standard components on a number of mid-range and high-end systems. Of course, the number of actual DVD-ROM titles can be counted on your fingers (Baldur's Gate, Riven….hmmm). DVD movies on the other hand, are becoming incredibly abundant, and for many are the killer e-commerce app of the Internet ($10 off at DVD Express!).

Of course, one of the biggest draws of DVD Video is the use of digital 5.1 encoding. In fact, most titles today support Dolby Digital 5.1, or at least Dolby Surround. Unfortunately, no sound card out on the market today supports Dolby Digital decoding, even if they have 4 speaker, 5.1, or HRTF support. The most they'll do is offer a form of digital output via S/PDIF. With this raw feed, they'll then print "Play movies in full Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround*" on the box, only mentioning the need for an external $300 decoder in fine print on the bottom.

This is where the DS5000 comes in

With its miniscule size and headphone support, the MDR-DS5000 is the perfect PC surround sound companion. Few people have multi-speaker surround setups around their PC, but still want to take full advantage of DVD-Video. Now, with the MDR-DS5000, this is only possible if you have an optical digital output jack on your sound card. The Aureal Vortex 2 SuperQuad and Terratec DMX are among the only current cards that ship with an included optical TOSlink out. Owners of the Sound Blaster Live! and Live! Value can purchase a $54 upgrade. Everyone else is plum out of luck, even MX25-equipped MX300 or Montego 2 Quadzilla owners.

Digital Optical Cabling

Toslink Cable end

With such limited choices, making a decision wasn't too difficult. We hooked up a Vortex 2 SuperQuad and enabled the digital output. Most of the DVD packages we tried supported output to S/PDIF, and the DP-IF5000 transmitter was more than happy to decode our digital signal for output to the headphones. Within minutes of installation, we were receiving full Dolby Digital surround on the MDR-IF5000 headphones and a pair of Koss R/80s plugged into the headphone jack.