SurCode Dolby ProLogic II and licensing

[Bob Gruen]

Has anyone on the forum worked with SurCode's Dolby PL II encoder? If so how well did it do the encoding?

I read that the original ProLogic encoding is basically license free, meaning anyone can use it. Is this true for PLII? (I did an internet search and came up dry.)

Thanks,

Bob

 

[Noiz2]

Bob,

Good question. The deal seems to be that the "matrix" encoding that is used in Dolby Pro logic XXX and is also the same as the Dolby Stereo (4.1 Surround) used in 35mm Optical tracks is beyond patent protection. That does not mean the license is free. What you get with the license is the ability (and requirement) to use the Dolby name. So you can encode material with Dolby ProLogic or any of it's compatible variations (SRS, Super Stereo,...) but you cant say that it's Dolby ProLogic. You can't even say it's ProLogic since that is a tradmark. Since SurCode is naming Dolby they must have licensed the technology from Dolby and you probably get some sort of license as a owner of the product. You should check, but I'm guessing you get a video only license. You can go to Dolby's site and get all kinds of info and there is a link to put legal questions to them. I did this for an ebay listing once (about an encoding box, I wanted to know if I could use it if I bought it) and they sent back a pretty quick responce. It was even semi readable. They basically said I could use the box but could not put the Dolby name on anything with out buying a license.