DTS Audio – Don’t Just Listen, Experience
Unless you
haven’t been at a movie theater in the last few years and have zero interest
in today’s audio entertainment, chances are that you already heard of the
DTS technology (Digital Home Theater). DTS was first introduced in 1993 with
the introduction of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster Jurassic Park. JP was the
first movie to ever use the Digital Home Theater format, in fact DTS was born
with the movie it self. Since, this technology changed forever the sound experienced
in movie theaters. The successful introduction of Jurassic Park in 1993 attracted
many film markers to use the Digital Theater Sound in their work and with
time became a theater audio standard preferred by audiences.
Being already popular among DVD Home Theater owners, DTS entertainment expanded
their horizon and focused on DVD Audio and 5.1 Music discs. In this article
we look at two of DTS’s Audio Formats.
DTS DVD-AUDIO Discs
Pretty much like the introduction of DVD Video, offering by far superior quality
to traditional VHS tapes; DVD-A (Audio) is an outstanding innovation over
an ordinary musical CD.
Like a DVD Video disc, DVD-A (Audio) holds up to seven times the capacity
of a standard CD making it possible to use very little audio compression for
optimal audio output.
Because of Space/Compression limitations on ordinary audio CDs, they only
come encoded in two-channel stereo. With the use of a DVD disc, DTS Entertainment
has the possibility on offering music in a full surround environment (5.1,
6.1 ES) and/or in Stereo.
Of course these are not the only features of DVD-A. One of the most exciting
is the possibility of including information on each disc. Each DVD-Audio disc
includes menu screens to access features and options. Like with DVD Movies,
with some titles you can now read artist biographies, commentaries, lyrics,
video clips and much more.
DTS DVD-A Discs are compatible with all the DVD players on today’s market.
Because DTS-DVD-A Discs also feature a Dolby stereo environment, you don’t
even have to have a DTS decoder to enjoy them. DTS DVD-A’s are ranging around
25$ per album.
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Features
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- DVD-Audio improves
upon CD, just like DVD-Video over VHS
- Better sound
quality, plus 5.1 surround, plus video extras
- MLP tracks
require DVD-Audio player & receiver w/6 inputs
- DTS/DD tracks
play on regular DVD players w/Digital Out
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DTS 5.1
Music discs
DTS 5.1 Music discs
are another interesting offering from DTS Entertainment, this time on standard
compact discs. DTS 5.1 CDs are re-mixed into a 5.1 channel surround from the
original masters to provide a more realistic music experience. Instead of
the traditional 2 Channel Stereo mode provided from standard audio discs,
DTS 5.1 discs enhances the audio and mixes it in the 5 main speakers and subwoofer
resulting in a richer and more realistic sound experience.
Connecting the digital output from a CD player, DVD player, CD-ROM drive or
DVD-ROM drive to a 5.1 DTS decoder can play all DTS-encoded Music CDs. To
date there are over 115 DTS 5.1 Audio Compact discs available for sale with
new titles scheduled to come every month. Like for DVD-A’s, prices are currently
ranging around 25$ per album.
Summation
DTS Entertainment
has done a great work with their DTS 5.1 Audio and DVD-AUDIO products. Why
stay old fashioned when there is an open world for improvements to be made.
For true music fans out here, DTS’s 5.1 Audio discs are without doubts something
to recommend. After listening to 5.1 Discs for a while, I can predict that
most wouldn’t feel very comfortable getting back to their standard compact
discs; it’s a totally different experience.
DVD-A is another interesting audio solution that is expanding every day. Featuring
full menus and giving record companies the opportunity to include artists
biographies, lyrics, comments and even video clips is quite innovative for
what was expected to be a music album just a few years ago.
These CDs are playing in the 25$ range, that’s a high price to pay for a music
album if we compare it to the traditional compact disc. Of course, as already
stated, both of these formats are by far superior to the standard audio cd's
we are used to. If you are an avid music lover and want to not only hear,
but experience the music, DTS’s Audio is the way to go.
We would like to thank DTS Entertainment for providing us with sample audio
media to conduct this article. Stay tuned for more DTS related work in the
near future. 
