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As asked earlier, the difference B/W DD and DTS is the compression ratio. DTS provides higher fidelity than DD because the format only uses 1/16th compression whereas DD uses 1/4th compression.


Actually, DTS tracks do use a higher bitrate than Dolby Digital - as for exact numbers, there are flavours of each and I've never really seen hard evidence (due to secrecy and closed doors in both camps) of exact numbers. Where did 1/16 and 1/4 come from? And what are those fractions of? Full 44.1K/16 PCM audio? DTS, Inc. and Dolby Labs use different models for compression - in the beginning, yes, DTS took up a lot more DVD real estate for its audio tracks, but most of what you have on the market now is the lower (some call it "half") bitrate DTS encoded audio stream. That way you don't have to give up the 4 audio programs of Director's Commentary and the 8 extra hours of footage shot "Behind the Scenes" with a DVX-100 so they can put a starburst on the front of the packaging that says "Wow! 8 Hours of Previously UNRELEASED Footage!"

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That is also why when you start a movie in DTS, you have to turn down the volume because it plays much louder.


From an engineer's standpoint, a higher resolution digital audio stream cannot play any louder than a lower resolution stream. 0dBFS is the same digital ceiling (at which clipping occurs) whether the source material is raw PCM, DD, DTS or even a Windows Media file. DTS simply cannot play louder because it is DTS. It can be compressed - which reduces dynamic range in a recording in order to make the entire recording louder on average (This is a pretty good layman's description of compression)

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The lower compression ratio as explains why earlier DVDs formatted in DTS did not include any extras due to lack of disk space, but that was years ago and things are different now.


This is pretty accurate, I'd add that DTS compression in the early days was the full bitrate flavour and dual-layer DVDs were not yet common.

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To this day, I look on the back of a DVD to see if it was formatted in DTS and if it was, it is a HUGE purchasing criteria, even if I wasn't necessarily interested in the content of the movie.


Again, something that seems odd... not to poke a thumb in your eye, but I've never picked up a book and decided to read it based on the fact it was typeset in Caslon on Weyerhauser Cougar Opaque stock. For me, I guess the medium isn't the message, the message is the message.

Bren R.