Your chance to put your questions to DTS – and win a prize!

[Joe Cox]

We've lined-up an interview with Anthony Wilkins, DTS’s Director of Marketing, Europe, for Thursday next week.

We thought we'd throw it open to the great and the good of the Whathifi.com Forums to come-up with the questions. Yep, it's your chance to grill the powers that be at DTS and get answers to those nagging questions about the world of digital surround sound...

Why the various codecs for DTS on Blu-ray? Should there be a clearer explanation of DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD Core? Why don't we see more DTS soundtracks on games?

Whatever you might have on your mind, now's the chance to let us know and in have your question put to DTS.

DTS Europe has kindly agreed to supply a small prize for the best question, so get your thinking hats on and add your questions to this thread before midnight on Wednesday 13th August...

 

[JoelSim]

What is DTS?

 

[Clare Newsome]

I'll kick off (and not even expect a prize

)

Are they charging outrageously high licensing fees to makers of Blu-ray players? I'm just struggling to understand why so many high-profile BD players are coming out without DTS HD Master Audio decoding....

 

[Clare Newsome]

JoelSim:What is DTS?

DTS info here....

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Joe Cox:
We've lined-up an interview with Anthony Wilkins, DTS's Director of Marketing, Europe, for Thursday next week.

We thought we'd throw it open to the great and the good of the Whathifi.com Forums to come-up with the questions. Yep, it's your chance to grill the powers that be at DTS and get answers to those nagging questions about the world of digital surround sound...

Why the various codecs for DTS on Blu-ray? Should there be a clearer explanation of DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD Core? Why don't we see more DTS soundtracks on games?

Whatever you might have on your mind, now's the chance to let us know and in have your question put to DTS.

DTS Europe has kindly agreed to supply a small prize for the best question, so get your thinking hats on and add your questions to this thread before midnight on Wednesday 13th August...

Is there a way that you can prove that DTS gives a better sound than Dolby Digital?

 

[matengawhat]

isn't this just another case of a dual format, DTS and Dolby Digital - why do we need both? If there was only one surely this would make our AV processors cheaper as not have to pay license fees for both?

 

[timwileman]

does that cost of HDMI leads make any differnece to the sound quality that DTS provides to speakers?

whats his view on the above, could be interesting!

 

[matengawhat]

HDMI audio is of a lower standard compared with optical and coaxial due to the very high jitter created by the HDMI communication so are you working on a better way to transfer the sound and is HDMI going to be a short lived half way solution?

 

[Anonymous]

Why isn't there a DTS sountrack option on all DVD's or HD discs?

Phil

 

[Andy Grange]

Are there any audio restrictions on certain movies (with regards to how the audio was originally captured when filming) that prevent some movies from having DTS-HD Master Audio?

As a follow on question:

Do you envisage a time after DTS-HD Master Audio where you are unable to improve on the aforementioned format bearing the previous question in mind, or do you think the recording and capture of sound by the industry will have to evolve to sustain new levels of audio formats in the future?

 

[Anonymous]

Confusion about the next generation HD movie discs and audio CODECs. Unlike the video CODECs used on both formats, the new audio CODECs are lossless which simply means without loss, or identical to the original. The three lossless CODECs supported by both formats are LPCM, Dolby TrueHD and DTS HD MA.

My question is, if they are lossless than what is the difference?

 

[radovantz]

DTS - Digital Theatre System (system is too general term)

I prefer to call it Digital Theatre Sound

 

[Anonymous]

Is DTS ever likely to be transmitted for Sky viewers?

 

[radovantz]

I prefer "Dolby Digital" to be appeared in my receiver's screen rather than just short "DTS". But I was once switched to dts while watching Terminator 3, it sound much2 more better..

Is there any dts-certified speakers anyway?

Would dts produce full 7.1 channel format in future?

 

[Anonymous]

is it worth spend £150 on hdmi cable or will £50 cable do same job?

 

[Anonymous]

What is the be-all and end-all DTS statement as to where exactly in the room one should place speakers for their 7.1 system? And will DTS be the people to pick up the ball and make sure the various parties concerned from the mixing desk through to final amplification can all agree on one fixed standard???

As some people may or may not be aware there are several possible 7-speaker configurations essentially all starting with the classic 5.1 LCR, RL, RR and sub to then include 2 front effects speakers, or a central rear and a height channel, or two backs and swing back the sides, or two backs and different angles for the sides, or a front height and a rear centre.

What worries me is that we are already buying Blu-Rays in 7.1 without an industry-wide consensus on where exactly these speakers should be placed to enable us at home to replicate exactly what the sound engineer was trying to achieve in the studio.

Finally, and being a bit greedy with my questions I know, but if it becomes agreed that nobody can agree (lol), and we do end up with these mixed up layouts. What is DTS' opinion on EQing inside the amp to make the choice of mixing layout used match the mixing layout in the Home Cinema? i.e. the mixing desk layout (e.g. 7.1 with backs and sides at 60deg sections) is coded onto the soundtrack, and the AVR is equipped with an option for the user to inform the AVR which layout they have used in the menu system on first install. The AVR then re-EQ's the signal if the two layouts are different. Obviously the immediate flaw here is putting the entire soundtrack through a 50p chip in an AVR, but if the industry cannot agree one layout what option is left?

Sorry for turning that into a massive rant/question session!

 

[Anonymous]

My questions are:

1) Dolby can be seen as the technology enabler (the provider of discreet surround sound) and THX as applying a set of criteria to equipment with the aim of reproducing the cinema experience regardless of environment. Where do DTS sit in this landscape?

2) I have heard DTS described as the equivalent of a loudness control. How would DTS counter this?

 

[Anonymous]

How are the sound and picture synchronised? With film, it's physically locked since both picture and sound are on the same reel of film, but since we've gone over to digital storage, there seem to have been a lot more sync problems creeping in - I'm wondering if the audio and video streams have sync markers that could be used to detect and perhaps fix problems, or is it just a 'spray and pray' approach where you try to start both streams at the same time and hope that the hardware and software designers, editors, and (if all else fails) divine intervention will keep them in sync a few hours later?

And how does the sound work with 24p/ non 24p playback, which - if I've understood correctly - may run through the video stream at a slightly different rate?

Finally, is anything actually using 7.1 yet? All the bluray disks I've got so far are still 5.1 as far as I can tell.

 

[Anonymous]

I much prefer the DTS sound over the Dolby Digital sound (I have yet to sample the delights of HD)

Why is it that while Dolby Digital soundtracks seem to be on every released DVD, DTS seems to be on fewer and fewer?

A simple question I know, but its something that annoys me!

 

[Alantiggger]

DTS gives a nicer sound than Dolby Digital in almost every movie I have watched. It is a far more ''open'' sound, I would say more ''spacial'' ... the sound is far more clear to listened to in my opinion.

What I cannot yet understand is why more movies do not have it.

My burning question is this ; why is it that although as I have stated as to how good I think DTS is, why is it that on the ''XXX Special Edition'' it really, really sucks ?

most interested to finding this out, Alan.

 

[Anonymous]

Can you Explain DTS in Detail and explain why its the best format to use.

To tell the truth im really confused about all the sound formats and cant see any Difference from any of them, If someone was to blind fold me and asked me what sound format was being used it would be impossible for me to tell.

Maybe you could explain to me why DTS is so much better

Isnt the sound all down to the Receiver thats used ?

 

[Joe Cox]

Thanks for all the questions - some good ones here. Keep 'em coming...

 

[timwileman]

do DTS and Dolby headhunt each others staff?

 

[Anonymous]

Even though DTS is renowned for it's high sound quality, it's not to be found on every DVD.
What are you going to do now and in the future to turn this trend?

 

[matengawhat]

How did the meeting go? - when will the report be ready to read online or is it being saved for the magazine?