Have only ever seen it on one DVD, Predator 2.
I have this on my Sony amp but have never used it.

Funnily enough I saw Pirates of the Caribbean at my local mutliplex recently and it was shown in SDDS (which is a first!).
Sounded OK, no better or worse than cinema DD 5.1.

They have SDDS equipment in M'chester? I'm astounded. I didn't think it would make it outside of London to be Honest

The UCI at the Silverlink Retail Park in North Tyneside has it and it does sound good, but you cant tell the difference between that and DTS or Dolby when certain films dont have SDDS.

I agree with the general opinion of this thread, on the whole DTS soundtracks are clearer and more bass-y than Dolby. The DTS soundtrack on the live Peter Gabriel DVD contains (IMO) the best sound quality of any DVD I've ever heard.

However, I recently bought the Die Another Day DVD and found the DTS track very disappointing - the dialogue was buried beneath the sound effects and incidental music. I switched to the Dolby soundtrack and it was much better.

That could be right - for some films DTS might be just too big and noisy.

One of the best Dolby Digital soundtracks for me was "Dancing with Wolves" - great atmosphere at the quiet bits.

But to prove you don't need to be at the cinema, there was one episode of Bill Oddie's bird programme on BBC, which had quiet bird song in the front stage when suddenly, this slow moving diesel train slowly trundled along the horizon with the sub woofer shuddering away...

Brilliant - and that was only ProLogic!

Personally I prefer Dolby every time. I buy a lot of Region 1 discs so DTS is available on most of those, and I think it's good to have a choice. But at the end of the day, I don't think there's much the people at the Dolby Laboratories don't know about sound - they've worked with it for long enough! So I put my faith in them. THX is always an added bonus of course. That's a logo worth seeing on the front of the box!

Added advantage of Dolby of course is that it is automatically downgradeable to the spec of your decoder/amp. i.e. if the soundtrack is DD 6.1 and your decoder is DD 5.1, you still hear the movie in DD 5.1. Or if you only have a Pro-Logic decoder, you hear it in Dolby 2.0 Surround, all without tampering with the set-up. Whereas with DTS, you have to re-adjust the decoder every time, or as someone has already pointed out, you hear... SILENCE!

if im correct and im probably not. in dts all surround channels are not limited frequecny wise where as dd is? when listening to dts with full range speakers as surrounds u can definately hear much more sonic detail in the lower mid bass frequencies? this may just be me but dd sounds much more limited in vocal range in the rears.
whether it is or not dts is still my prefered choice.


ps anyone had a chance to listen properly to dts-es?

dk

biddenden_sue, one of my discs has DTS 6.1, however i only have a 5.1 setup and it plays fine

DD doesnt have a limited frequency range (there are subtle frequency differences between the two systems) - the main difference between DD and DTS is the amount of data compression used:
Dolby Digital is much more heavily compressed thatn DTS.
I have done back to back scene comparisons from a DD/DTS dvd and found that the DTS track sounds much fuller and more "open".
There are many debates about the two formats ,, just type "dolby digital vs dtd" into any search engine!

Agreed. The amount of headroom in DTS is greater allowing explosions and the like more "room" so they don't sound like they've been muffled (compressed) to keep them within the recording range.


Correct. DTS is backwards compatible with it's own equipment as is DD. Modern amps should be able to correctly identify the source type without manual selection. Also I believe DTS 6.1 is discrete seperate tracks and not matrixed like DD.

No no they're all matrix ed recordings

Sorry, but there is a discrete version with seperate non-matrixed tracks:

http://www.timefordvd.com/ref/dts-ES.shtml


THX however only guarantees that the soundtrack meets their standards and that can only be appreciated if your equipment is also THX certified. It is not a seperate multi-channel system like DD or DTS are.

Thanks for backing me up. i always thought it was tjhe case when listening but could never find out for sure.

Well, there are two types of DTS 6.1:

1. DTS ES is matrixed
2. DTS ES discrete is, well, you can guess from the description

Matt.

There is NO conclusive proof either way whether any format is better or worse than the others.

Gladiator supposedly sounds better in dts than DD - well hardly surprising given Universal/Dreamworks financial interest in DTS. Its well known that dts mixes are often cooked and are louder than DD - extra decibels does not always equate to extra quality.

I remember when the SPR DVD came out, and the dts fundamentalists were out in force, until someone pointed out that the best track for this film was the DD on the Laserdisc.

Sound is such a hugely subjective issue, dependant on the room accoustics, the speakers, the amplification, the seating position and the listening point and hearing of the viewer/listener.

Forget all this nonsense about compression rates - for all we know Dolby could merely be streets ahead in the efficiency of their codec - remember DTS have had to double their compression to make the sound format have any impact upon DVD.

Ultimately nearly every DVD that come out with dts also has a 5.1 DD track, so its not as if you have to make a choice.

Couldn't have put it better myself

[quote=Duncan Harvey]There is NO conclusive proof either way whether any format is better or worse than the others.

Gladiator supposedly sounds better in dts than DD - well hardly surprising given Universal/Dreamworks financial interest in DTS. Its well known that dts mixes are often cooked and are louder than DD - extra decibels does not always equate to extra quality.

QUOTE]

Fils don't have seperate mixes for DD and DTS - they are mixed in 5.1 (or 6.1 or whatever) and the only difference is in the encosing process.

As far as judging which is best - just use your ears!

i use DTS, its dts on terminator 3 and it almost makes me jump right out of my seat

[quote=cyberdog]
...and of course that should have read "films" and "encoding"...oops

Dolby Evaluates DTS, Parts 1&2


http://www.dolby.com/tech/mp.in.0103.DigitalVsDTS.pdf

Yes, and they've got electricity up there and everything these days....

DTS IS Well Better Than DD, it has a more powerful bass, and the overall sound is more clearer and, well, just sounds alot better

I enjoyed the report of the Dolby tests of DTS on the thread link.

A bit like asking Ford what they think of a new Vauxhall...

I found it particularly funny that they should contradict the two areas that a lot of people say DTS is better at, a more powerful bass and a much clearer top end.

All I know is that to me with my setup and listening conditions etc and a level matched source, DTS sounds better.

Have to say that's the result I get on my Sony system with DTS...