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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

Showing 1 response by njonker

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.
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