Difference between 5.1 and DTS

[pulpfixtion]

Hi,
When some newer movies offer 5.1 or DTS as the sound setup.. which is best and whats the difference.
My standalone can play either so what should I go for, is DTS a newer format?

thanks

[chazzie]

First of all, let's straigten the terms up. 5.1 is just a term that indicates the number of channels, which (normally) are Front Left, Front Right, Center, Rear Left, Rear Right and an LFE. LFE stands for Low Frequency Effects channel, and is not a full channel nor the "subwoofer channel" because it's only designed to help out with the playback of bass sounds under a certain frequency, i.e. 150 Hz. If you have a digital 5.1 sound source, you'll be able to get true surround from all 5(6) speakers. What's rarely indicated on DTS audio tracks is that they are infact, 5.1. The proper name for this track is "DTS 5.1". The very same sound could also be compressed in Dolby Digital (DD) format, hence having the name "Dolby Digital 5.1". The reason why the number of channels are give in Dolby Digital is that there are a wide variety of possible number of channels, from 1 (Mono) to 6 (5.1), where as DTS almost never contain any less than 5.1 channels. The main difference between the formats is that DTS uses a much higher bitrate, around 1.5 mbit per second, where the Dolby Digital 5.1 has a max bitrate of 448 kbit per second. Depending on the source material, DTS and DD will sound better than the other, but as a rule of thumb, usually DTS are the superior soundtrack.

Hope you got your questions answered

[SLICK RICK]

chazzie,

Very informative, thanks.

SLICK RICK

[pulpfixtion]

Top quality answer! More in depth than expected

many thanks

[chazzie]

It's nice to provide someone with rich information just as I've been provided with such in my queries.

[Rogue3]

Very good answer. It's also worthy to note that most movies encoded in DTS are actually encoded at 768Kbps while others of higher quality are encoded at 1536Kbps. This is mainly because of the amount of space it takes for a full bitrate soundtrack. If you want to know the exact bitrate of a movie you are watching, play it using something like PowerDVD and choose the 'show information' option.

[chazzie]

Rouge3, I am aware of that fact, but the version DTS brags about is the one with the full bitrate rather than the half, I tried to encode the same soundtrack in both, with no noticable difference. Many musical titles uses the higher bitrate though.

[Rogue3]

Yeah, I figured you did, just thought I'd mention the difference for those that did not.

[vhelp]

hi chazzie and others..

just browsing around here.. came across this topic :P

I hate all the confusing terminalligy and stuff like that

Just to be understanding and all,
* VHS - - - what's the min and max of sound points ??

Some examples of my VHS toys include:
* Widescreen 1.78:1 "Panic Room" - - - adv. as Dolby Surround.
* Fullscreen "Tomb Raider" - - - adv as Hi Fi Stereo, then Dolby Surround.
* Widescreen "Animal House" - -- adv as Hi Fi
* Widescreen 2.35:1 "American Graffiti" - - - adv as THX

Hay, idea.. maybe someone should list all the terminalligy here for
us to see, ie those for DVD's and VHS's as posted on the package, so that
we are more educated as to what sound point they are using.

Thanks guys for this topic,
-vhelp

[psx_pirate]

just a point that should be mentioned

dts will only play on dvd players that have a dts decoder whereas dolby 5.1 will play on any player (it will be down mixed for stereo or non 5.1 players)

[flaninacupboard]

Vhelp,

wasn't sure if you were just playing or really want to know, so i'll answer anyway

VHS has two types of soundtrack on the tape. Linear stereo and HiFi stereo. I'm not too sure of the ins and outs of why there's two, and when they were implemented, but they exist.

The HiFi track is quite good quality, better than audio casette in fact!

The Dolby Surround tracks have a rear channel and a centre channel matrixed into the stereo sound, and is decoded with a Dolby Pro Logic decoder. we've had a few topics on this recently in the audio section.

The soundtracks stating they are THX just means the material has been handled to a standard specified by THX. supposedly this yields better quality, but it's never seemed to make much difference to me.

[chazzie]

In fact, VHS casettes have a Hi-Fi stereo track and a mono audio track. The stereo track is mixed into the side where the picture is stored and the mono audio is on the opposite side. The reason is because in the beginning all VHS was mono, and when they introduced stereo, they needed to keep the old VHS players compatible. (That's why some VCR's change to Mono during playback if the stereo sound is poor)

[flaninacupboard]

I figured it may have been a compatibility thing. so where/why have i heard the term linear stereo? or is linear/hifi interchangable on this one?

[chazzie]

so where/why have i heard the term linear stereo? or is linear/hifi interchangable on this one?

That I'm not to certain about, but I think that Linear Stereo and Hi-Fi is basically the same thing, the Hi-Fi track is recorded in a Linear Stereo format or something. Don't take my word on it though.

[Nello_AU]

Thanks for the very informative explanation on 5.1 and DTS. I had no idea that the bitrate were so different.

Could you tell me what the difference is between Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, (I am looking at the back cover of Lord of the Rings. the Two towers)

[Rogue3]

Thanks for the very informative explanation on 5.1 and DTS. I had no idea that the bitrate were so different.

Could you tell me what the difference is between Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dolby Digital 5.1 EX, (I am looking at the back cover of Lord of the Rings. the Two towers)

Dolby Digital 5.1 EX and DTS 5.1 ES indicate that the soundtrack will playback in full surround on a 6.1 system (front, center, right, rear right, rear center, rear left). The EX and ES indicate that it is actually a 6.1 soundtrack.

[turk690]

VHS just had one linear mono soundtrack when it first came out. To make it stereo they divided this one track into two. This is Linear Stereo, and although now stereo, since each channel now had only half the magnetic tape area compared with before each signal/noise ratio is 3dB poorer: very definitely NOT Hi-Fi so it died a natural death. (Gosh this is eons ago.) Betamax then came out with hi-fi stereo (multiplexing audio on FM carriers along with the video using the same rotary heads for NTSC, and providing two separate rotary heads for physical depth multiplex for PAL). The Betamax PAL method (using separate rotary heads) is similar to VHS Hi-Fi.

[flaninacupboard]

So if i understand correctly, the tape looks like this

|HiFi track|-------Video track-------|Mono|

or like this

|HiFi track|-------Video track-------| L|R |

and a mono only video would read the L|R as one mono track?

[turk690]

In current VHS VCRs the hi-fi stereo tracks are read and recorded by two dedicated heads spinning along with the video heads on the drum. The mono linear track has its own conventional stationary head; this head can't and doesn't read the L/R hi-fi tracks. So in a mono VCR (which has ONLY this mono audio head) all it can read, and record to, is the mono linear audio track.