Cloud-based movie library UltraViolet is to gain Dolby Digital Plus sound technology, the audio specialist said today.

The move will see DDP added to UV's Common File Format (CFF) specification, and Dolby has a development kit available to allow content providers to add DDP audio into their UV assets.

How soon - or, indeed, if - they'll do so remains to be seen. Using DDP isn't mandatory. Dolby said it is working with encoding technology suppliers to make the process as easy as possible.

Since UV stores not movies but lists of the films account holders have a licence to view, already purchased content can be upgraded automatically when content providers update their files. The process should be transparent to the user.

Another reason for using DPP: it's able to optimise the sound for the device the content is being viewed on, claimed Dolby. That's handy for a system geared towards streaming and downloading a purchased movie to multiple devices, stationary and mobile. Watching a film on a big TV shouldn't be hindered by the need to make the audio sound fine on a smartphone. ®