HTF HD-DVD Review: We Were Soldiers (1 Viewer)

[Michael Osadciw]

Guys

This is my understanding of DTS terminology:

DTS = 754kbps

DTS-HD = 1536MBPS (original legacy DTS before they slashed the bitrate in half)

DTS-HD MASTER AUDIO = their lossless audio compression

I'm not even sure if DTS knows for sure what name is for what...press has been so mixed on naming their options. DTS-HD used to mean lossless...and their website has a pamplet on that hinting at that...but since the original announcement things have changed and I can't seem to find any other info from them (maybe I'll call). I think they renamed 1536kbps to DTS-HD because of Dolby's "upgraded" lossy compression Dolby Digital Plus.

If this is the case, FYI, then DTS-HD at 1536Mbps is fine transferring over S/PDIF (Coax or optical). That is the "legacy" bitrate before DVD really put the pressure on them to slash the bitrate or risk disappearing entirely.

Pat, for your comparison of the full-bitrate DTS soundtrack vs. the Dolby Digital Plus option, I think it would be more fair to use the decoders and Digital-to-Analogue Converters (DACs) in the Toshiba. There are too many variables that come into play if you don't do this - the sound will change no matter what.

If you send out the DTS audio to the Denon receiver (that most likely uses better DACs than the Toshiba) that'll change the sound right away even if both codecs sounded identical. Plus, the cables you use from the 5.1 channel outputs will alter the sound too...and what is the quality of everything before the outputs of the Toshiba on the other side of that 5.1 panel? That may or may not give DD+ an advantage.

If you process everything inside the Toshiba, at least you know the only thing that is changing is the audio codec. All else is the same.

Mike

 

[AlexBC]

Excellent post Michael, you summarized it pretty nice ; )

 

[DaViD Boulet]

I think that DTS-HD, even when lossy, allows for improvement beyond conventional DTS (similar to the way DD+ is lossy but improved over conventional DD beyond simply adding more bit-rate).

When HD DVD players emerge with full DTS-HD decoding as they have now for DD+, one will be able to do a real apples-apples comparison of the soundtracks by using the players internal decoders to extract both codecs to LPCM and then either compare both via the analog outputs of the player or via multi-channel LPCM over HDMI.

Given how much BETTER DD+ sounds than DD on DVD, I'm pretty excited about our audio future...

 

[Michael Osadciw]

Hi David

DTS-HD (lossy 1536Mbps) will sound a bit better than half bitrate DTS and better than Dolby Digital.

Actaully, I'm not so sure DTS @ half bitrate sounded better than Dolby Digital but it was different, that is for sure. One thing that I don't like is that high frequencies were rolled off significantly and are preserved with Dolby Digital. But I'm not going to go in depth with this 'cause it has been countless of times.

I'm surprised that I didn't find Dolby Digital Plus a remarkable improvement over Dolby Digital 448. There was a slight difference...soundstage widened ever so slightly and voices had slightly better ambience around it...note I say slightly...it's somewhat like the improvements of going from half-bitrate to full bitrate DTS...possibly just a bit better...can't tell for sure without the same source.

As I've mentioned in other posts, the comparison from DD to DD+ still requires one to "really listen hard" to notice the differences. If a consumer has to study the treble, bass, and midrange separately without immediately noticing it then I don't consider it a great improvement.

I've ranted on and on about the benefits of uncompressed 5.1 PCM on Blu-ray only because it does NOT take an audiophile or a techofile like us to notice the difference. Plop anyone down in the seat and do the demonstration and the advantages are very very noticable.

Those of you who haven't experienced this yet, I highly recommend you do so to hear what you've been missing.

Mike

 

[AndreGB]

Mike, as far and DD+ and DTS fullbitrate are concerned, I think big differences are associated to the master quality more than to the codec degradation.