Dolby 5.1 Vs. DTS 5.1

[Doug G.]

Does anybody else think Dolby 5.1 sounds kind of blah compared to DTS 5.1?

Doug

 

[weekendtoy]

Yes

 

[Marplot]

In my small sample size of ~100 releases, yes.

 

[rtbluray]

Does anybody else think Dolby 5.1 sounds kind of blah compared to DTS 5.1?

Doug

Yep, more (data) compression in Dolby for a lower quality sound.

 

[Sonik Wiz]

@Doug G. I thought this was settled at least a decade or more ago.

 

[Doug G.]

@Doug G. I thought this was settled at least a decade or more ago.

Prolly. I'm a late comer as far as modern surround is concerned.



Doug

 

[IMachine]

Cymbals and HiHats are affected the most IMHO. So…yes!

 

[ar surround]

Does anybody else think Dolby 5.1 sounds kind of blah compared to DTS 5.1?

Doug

Cymbals and HiHats are affected the most IMHO. So…yes!

Dolby 5.1 usually sounds “grizzly-sizzly” to my ears. Straight DTS sounds much, much better.

 

[cbmmm3]

when a selection offers both sound options, I always go DTS. I have noticed that Dolby seems to have a stronger lower end - which is welcome - but overall I like the sound of DTS better.

 

[Nyad]

when a selection offers both sound options, I always go DTS. I have noticed that Dolby seems to have a stronger lower end - which is welcome - but overall I like the sound of DTS better.

Funny you should mention that, yesterday on my Sony STR DN1080 flicking through the settings Dolby sounded much fuller than DTS which seems to lack body

 

[kfbkfb]

Are the DD and DTS encoders still being improved, or has their accuracy reached a plateau?

Interestingly, Dolby Labs was aggressive about getting DD moved into the list of mandatory audio options in the 625/50 european DVD spec., but seemingly not so in the case of Blu-ray, AFAIK, DTS dominates there:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=339100

Kirk Bayne

 

[4-earredwonder]

But I must add that when SONY produced a bunch of Dualdiscs in DD 5.1, I found the sound to be quite excellent even though I'm hardly a fan of ANY LOSSY CODECS, DTS 5.1, included!

 

[mandrix]

AC3 is so yesterday, man. (personal opinion of course) For recent DTS offerings I consider pretty good sound are those Rob Reed is involved in; Cyan, The Ringmaster, Chimpan A, Cursus 123, Magenta......
Dolby got into noise reduction in film and tape and enjoyed a pretty good rep. That I believe helped them a lot when they marketed their AC3 lossy encoder.
But Dolby has indeed been around for a while.
I still prefer the DTS codec over AC3 for lossy codecs. Now if we're talking MLP/TrueHD vs DTSHD, I have zero preference as they are lossless.

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

DTS has much higher bitrates, therefore the higher audio quality. But in this day and age, why not lossless?

 

[4-earredwonder]

DTS has much higher bitrates, therefore the higher audio quality. But in this day and age, why not lossless?

My sentiments, exactly! I'm currenly listening to King Crimson's FANTASTIC The Power to Believe in MLP DVD~A 5.1 48/24 with copious bonus tracks in LPCM 48/24 Stereo on the same disc which was released in A.D. 2019.....the sound is INCREDIBLE. Still remains one of my VERY FAVORITE FORMATS.

 

[mandrix]

DTS has much higher bitrates, therefore the higher audio quality. But in this day and age, why not lossless?

Hardly anyone authors DVDA these days? SACD too expensive? Sony sucks? IDK.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Hardly anyone authors DVDA these days? SACD too expensive? Sony sucks? IDK.

A true shame about DVD~A ..... DVDs are cheaper to produce unlike SACDs which now have to be pressed overseas and understand BD~As are still exorbitant to produce.

 

[mandrix]

The problem with DVDA is to author a full blown compliant DVDA you need to use Sonic, according to Neil Wilkes. That means having a dedicated XP machine.
I have discWelder running on Windows 11 but it's far from a fully capable program. I mean as far as getting the sound to a disc, some simple menu's and slides it will do the job. Good enough for an amateur hack like me but seriously limited, and each version has flaws , e.g. I've never been able to author a DVD9 on discWelder v2.06. Seems like 2.03 is the least buggy but it's not really up to Sonic standards I'm told which lets you get fully into every nook and cranny of the spec.

 

[mandrix]

A true shame about DVD~A ..... DVDs are cheaper to produce unlike SACDs which now have to be pressed overseas and understand BD~As are still exorbitant to produce.

Licensing fees, I believe are the main cost with Blu Ray. Or at least one artist said that after turning out one or two....dang it, dead brain cell...the German artist that does ambient type music..Oh bArtMan.

 

[Mr. Afternoon]

Hardly anyone authors DVDA these days? SACD too expensive? Sony sucks? IDK.

DVD-A can be authored with freeware, albeit with a tiny bit of work. No fancy menus or such.
SACD is actually not as expensive as people make it out to be.
Blu-ray still kinda costly.
IAA exists now, I guess.