Agreed. I typically prefer the Bluray HD mixes of movie soundtracks when comparing them to their DVD counterparts. I dont know if I would be capable of listening to a DD5.1 track on a bluray when its HD counterpart is there waiting. I would feel dirty. laugh

I believe the newer batmans and new daniel craig bond films on bluray include both the non and HD versions of the soundtrack. I believe oblivion does as well. Anyway, these are good examples of films which would have been mastered for HD sound and likely good candidates for a DD/DTS vs HD counterpart test. I mention these as they are fairly ubiquitous and anyone can run the test for themselves.

Homework assignment for everyone willing. smile

I predict in every case the HD track is prefered.

I would agree that a DVD could potentially sound even better than its Bluray version technically, but in my experience this has never been the case. I dont think DD5.1 or DTS tracks got the same "love" when the studio sound master folks make the decisions which determine the final experience. This may be less the case now with newer releases, since a DVD soundtrack is likely a lossy version of the HD counterpart, but when back catalog movies are released and remixed for HD sound on Bluray, the differences can be startling. Holy run on sentence.

Btw, a lower SPL between DTS vs DD5.1 tracks could be an artifact of a component misreading or omitting the dynamic range parameters within the soundtrack from what I understand. If one sounded louder than the other, it could also have meant that track had more dynamic compression applied by the processor or during the studio mix.

I like this exchange. smile