DTS Acquires Lowry Digital Images (1 Viewer)

[JackKay]

A rather interesting business acquisition.

"DTS (Digital Theater Systems, Inc.) (NASDAQ: DTSI) today announced that it has acquired Lowry Digital Images (LDI), a privately held company and a leader in image restoration and enhancement. This transaction substantially extends DTS’ business to include image technology and services that support content creation and delivery in both the theatrical and consumer markets."

Here's the complete dts press release:

http://www.dtsonline.com/company/pre...cID=1&yID=2005

 

[Patrick McCart]

"Interesting" is correct. I don't think any DVD's with LDI restorations have DTS (although, the James Bond "Ultimate Editions" will have LDI masters, as well as DTS on all but the first few films).

 

[Joel Fontenot]

So, does this mean that when the inevitable HD-DVD's of the Indiana Jones and Star Wars trilogies come out, after having been re-restored yet again for Hi-Def at Lowry, they will finally include DTS tracks too...?

 

[James_L]

won't happen lucas wants his precious THX dolby Digital tracks on his discs, there is no THX DTS.

 

[david*mt]

I thought that DTS was mandatory on HD-DVD.

 

[Rob T]

For some studios, at the very least, it will be.
But Lucas may have enough power to have it excluded on them.

 

[TravisR]

Why would it be mandatory to have DTS on a HD-disc?

For example, if they release Citizen Kane will it have to have a mono DTS track?

 

[JeremyErwin]

What's Lucas's beef with dts, anyway?

 

[Chris Will]

There is no such thing as THX DD. THX is not a sound system or format, it is a set of standards. Those standers apply to both DD and DTS if they wish to be THX certified. I have plenty of DVDs that have both DTS and THX certification so therefore the DTS tracks on those disk are theoretically THX DTS (if that is what you are referring too). When you see THX surround EX on a receiver (which you will only see on a THX certified receiver) it is just a marketing gimmick and it is just the same old DD EX track. Yes it is true that DD and THX (or Lucas) have long standing partnership and that is why he chooses to not have DTS tracks on his DVDs and he claims that there is no room with the commentary track on the disk. THX and DD have worked hard to push the boundaries of sound in film and he just doesn't want to step on there toes by throwing another companies format on there. It is just a courtesy thing. At least that is the way I understand it. Please, just remember that THX is just a set of standards and DTS can benefit from it just as much as DD can.

 

[Ray H]

Does that really matter? There have been THX-approved released featuring DTS.

 

[greg_t]

Add to that THX certified laserdiscs with DTS tracks and the THX Ultimate Demo DVD which also had DTS sound.

 

[Chris Will]

Totally forgot about that DVD. It is still one of my favorite demos when friends come over.

 

[Joe Schwartz]

It's mandatory for HD-DVD players to support DTS, but it's not mandatory for HD-DVD discs to be encoded with DTS.

 

[Patrick McCart]

What is there to complain about Lucas' preferece of DD 5.1 EX?

The sound mixes on THX 1138 and the Star Wars films are excellent (even with editing flaws in the SW trilogy). Even the 2.0 surround track on American Graffiti is better than a lot of full 5.1 tracks on DVD.

 

[Hector.B]

The truth is that Spielberg won't let Lucas use DTS.
If that's a fact...am I lying?

 

[JeremyErwin]

Disowned the Indiana Jones movies, has he?

 

[david*mt]

Well it says here that DTS is mandatory for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray but that DTS HD is optional or am I reading it wrong?

http://www.dtsonline.com/consumer/dtshd.php

 

[Grant H]

Nothin' wrong with DTS mono. I'd take it over DD mono any day.

As far as Lucas goes, I see no reason why he'd deny DTS on a HD format, especially if Blu-Ray gets Star Wars. As long as there's plenty of space, why not?

It's not like all the Star Wars films haven't been released theatrically with DTS. I certainly preferred my DTS screenings of AOTC over the THX DD-EX screenings that had sound dropouts at every reel change.

Back to the topic, it is indeed very interesting.

 

[Paul_Stachniak]

DTS is awesome. Go DTS.

 

[Felix Martinez]

Well, this is going to wander into "Audio-Land" for a moment, but here I go, as quickly as possible, and then we'll get back to the Lowry acquisition...

DTS-HD is the company's recently-announced lossless option (i.e. like MLP lossless compression for DVD-Audio). Since the DTS format is totally scalable, the "HD" lossless audio info is an added extension to the DTS stream that can still be played as standard DTS by older DTS-capable players and receivers. Just like the 96/24 DTS stream on some DVD-Audio discs can be decoded by non-DTS 96/24 players and receivers. It's an extension to the DTS core. Also just like DTS-ES and DTS 6.1 before that.

So...my guess is that the DTS core data stream is mandatory, and the extensions are optional for HD-DVD.

Now, back to Lowry. I think what is really interesting is that DTS just jumped into the visual side of things with this acquisition. I'm curious to see the results and where they go from here.

Cheers,