The Next Great Advance in Home Theater: Dolby TrueHD? (1 Viewer)

[Steve Tannehill]

I don't want to get into a format war, but just want to shout from the rooftops how exciting it is to be able to play bit-for-bit replicas of the studio audio master via Dolby TrueHD.

http://www.dolby.com/promo/HD/trueHD.html

I've been watching movies in high definition for almost six years now, so being able to get them on a little disc is nice, but hardly eye-opening. But after playing around with Phantom and The Perfect Storm, I am thrilled again--to be able to use my "old" A/V receiver's 5.1 discrete inputs and to be able to get this kind of incredible, lossless sound reproduction. I had not planned for this!

I'm impressed (amazed, really) that Toshiba was able to enable Dolby TrueHD 5.1 through firmware, and that they did not just make this a "new feature" of the next generation HD DVD player. While I am sure the next player will offer other improvements, Toshiba has made their first generation player one to treasure.

And to think, there are currently two more movies to watch with Dolby TrueHD, and a whole slate of new releases to come!

- Steve

 

[Paul.S]

I've been using box cover art at DVD Empire and specs at High Def Digest to see which titles have TrueHD but may be missing some. Care to make a list of 'THD' titles a part of your thread?

 

[Phil Iturralde]

Great post Steve!!! You're right! Who knew that the early HD DVD adopters would have the cutting edge of MPL lossless soundtracks available to them, for their personal enjoyment in their Home Theaters in 2006??? With the right HT setup and equipment, we can replicate the sonic environment of the Mixing Studios (which I did years ago w/Identical speakers all-around + timbre-matched Center )!!!

Listening to the only TrueHD DVD I have, "The Phantom of the Opera", I'm amazed how much detail and resolution in the sound track just opened-up! It is like the sonic screen has been lifted revealing the compressed nature of DD/DTS-5.1 vs. TrueHD!

I might get "The Perfect Storm" just to experience that TrueHD soundtrack.



NOTE:: Ken F posted @ this HTF Thread, the list those Released & Upcoming TrueHD DVDs!.

"Batman Begins" w/TrueHD, ... which would be great!

Phil

 

[Larry Sutliff]

Yup, Steve is right. The ability to play back Dolby HD is an exciting development in the world of home theater. Concert videos, if done correctly, will never be the same again. Not to mention the wonderful treasure trove of feature films that will use this feature.

I can't wait to receive my disc from Toshiba so I can upgrade.

 

[Paul.S]

Thx, Phil.

"Apparently, TrueHD and IME are going to be very popular features with these studios going forward."

Interesting if true. Par has yet to do DTHD yes? Don't wanna read too much into it but here's hoping that DTHD becomes something of a 'corporate initiative' for these studios' home vid departments in terms of release strategy. (And hopefully Par will get onboard with either this or DTS HD by the time Titanic gets released.)

 

[Bob_L]

I've been hearing the original stems on movie soundtracks for several years because a friend is an audio engineer. It's ALWAYS been heartbreaking to hear Dolby encoding sap the life out of those tracks. As soon as TrueHD became available on HD DVD I ordered an HD DVD player.

I'm REALLY looking forward to the HD DVD of "Superman:The Movie." My friend remastered the musical tracks for the 25th anniversary re-release. I've heard the uncompressed results in his studio and they are EXTRAORDINARY. When that film is released on HD DVD, everyone will be able to enjoy the original Williams-conducted performances like they've never heard them. (Of course, I'm leaping to the conclusion that they'll include the uncompressed tracks on the disk.)

 

[Jordan_E]

Ah, the very thought of Superman: The Movie in TrueHD...can only imagine the opening strains, which always gives me chills anyway, but in TrueHD?! Omg....

 

[Larry Sutliff]

I can't wait!

 

[Ed Faver]

I, too, am thrilled with TrueHD and what can be coming in the months ahead. I plugged my system for it tonight and am in the middle of Phantom as I write this. I am working on best guess with the A1's settings. Anyone have a suggestion on best settings when listening in TrueHD?

 

[Harminder]

OMG... Batman Begins... The Matrix... End of Days... all in TrueHD? SENSORY OVERLOAD I TELLS YA!

I wish M:i:III got the TrueHD treatment as well though. That would have been sweet.

 

[Steve Tannehill]

Dialogue enhancement off.

Speaker settings by SPL meter and interenal test tones.

- Steve

 

[Cees Alons]

I have a question for you, owners.
Are those HD DVDs having a TrueHD track 30Gb or 15Gb? Or is it not correlated?


Cees

 

[Ken_F]

Every HD-DVD released to date by studios uses 30Gb, except for the handful of DVD/HD-DVD combo disks, which were 15Gb on the HD-DVD side. This fall, you'll see DVD/HD-DVD combo disks with 30Gb on the HD-DVD side.

 

[Chris Rock]

How long until the debate between Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD? (grins)

Can't wait to get my player later this week.

Is it easy to do an A/B (/C?) comparison between DD, DD+ and DD TrueHD using the Toshiba player and a disc with all three soundtracks? (Phantom Of The Opera is what I have in mind)

 

[Harminder]

I was thinking the same thing LOL.

Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but since both are loseless sound formats, they should sound identical right? Just depends on which compression technique is more efficient?

 

[Steve Tannehill]

That's why I said "I don't want to get into a format war"... If we get into BD vs HD DVD vs DTHD vs DTSHD I think my head will explode.

I like DTS as much as anyone else (more, really) but lossless audio in general is a good thing. Bring it on and make the movies sound great!

- Steve

 

[Bob_L]

I've had the experience of directly comparing the DD and DTS encoding of an audio track with the original stems. DTS sounded a bit more open and detailed than the DD5.1 (even compensating for the slight increase in volume present with most DTS encodings); but the original stems were MUCH better.

I'm SO looking forward to uncompressed audio (in whatever format) becoming a standard for home theater.

 

[andy wells]

I didn't think current amps could get the benefit of TRUE-hd?

 

[Bob_L]

Most current receivers and preamps can't accept a direct HDMI input because they don't have them. (Although a few do.)

However, that is a separate issue from amplification. If a receiver or preamp has 5.1 (or 7.1) analog inputs to accept the analog-out signal from the HD DVD player, the internal (or external) amplifiers can reproduce the TrueHD content. (How do you suppose audio engineers playback the uncompressed audio they're working with while mixing the film? Conventional amplifiers.)

 

[BrettGallman]

Funny, I was just thinking that the Dobly and DTS debate is pretty much settled for now since nothing is going to come close to Dolby TrueHD.

That is, until I remembered the inevitable emergence of DTS HD.

Should the A1 be able to handle full DTS HD via another firmware update? Or will that have to wait until second generation players?