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DTS or Dolby Digital?

OK, this topic may have been beaten to death elsewhere, but I'm going to revisit. The current argument seems to be that with DVDs the bitrates of DTS and AC-3 are nearly identical, so the sound difference is minimal. Maybe back when LDs had 1.5MBs DTS soundtracks, there might have been a difference they say.

However, I find myself really enjoying the DTS soundtracks on DVDs that have them. The bass is really deep and powerful, sounds are detailed and lush, and there is no listener fatigue. Dolby Digital sounds thinner and the bass seems weaker. Am I just a fool, or do others prefer the DTS soundtrack vs. Dolby Digital?

Also, there was a fiasco with DTS pumping up the surround levels on some LDs a while back. Are DTS soundtracks now mastered with the same as the AC-3 tracks, or are they mastered differently (thus the resulting sound difference)?
jaykapur
njonker
107 posts
 
I notice that quite a few of the DTS DVD's I have actually do have the high 1.5Mb sampling rate. To me, they sound better than DD at 384K. I also have some DVD's that have both a DTS and DD soundtrack, with DTS running at lowe bit rate. It still seems DTS sounds a touch better, but not as good as high bitrate DTS.

I have the DTS version of dances with wolves, as well as the CD, MD and SACD of the soundtrack. Comparetively speaking, the MD sound is the least great, but I do not have any high end MD players, so that could have something to do with that. Next the DVD, then the CD. But, if you compare the DVD soundtrack with the SACD sound track... Wow what a difference. Again, the equipment I use for SACD playback is waay more expensive than what is used for DVD, but I sure wish the DVD sound could be as good as the SACD sound.

Whenever I have a choice with DVDs, I use DTS.

Niels.
sean
6,231 posts
 
DTS uses appr 1/4 as much compression as Dolby Digital. As such, it should sound much better, more natural and have greater impact or "slam" if the rest of the system is up to the challenge. In my opinion, there is no comparison between DTS and AC-3. The only problem is that there just isn't a ton of material available that it DTS as far as i know. Sean
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slick2
57 posts
 
DTS is better. Not much material out there. DDIGITAL sounds compressed.
abstract7
541 posts
 
I agree with the above posts. But it sounds better in ALL aspects. The low level details in DTS are just buried in DD. I wish there was more material out there on DTS.
prs123
58 posts
 
The words 'no-brainer' apply, IMHO. My spouse and I jump for joy when a DVD is DTS encoded. Very few 5.1 soundtracks are in the same galaxy sonically as DTS. For example, listen to the DTS copies of Bone Collector, U-571, Titan A.E, and.. I rest my case. We need a major drive to get more DTS titles! And while they're at it, 1.85 format enhanced for 16:9 would be nice on ALL DVD's so we wouldn't have to look at those !*&$#@ black bars. Whew! I feel much better now.
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