Is Warner changing to DTS-HD Master Audio too?

[Stephan.klose]

I just received my copy of "Watchmen" and noticed that it contains a DTS HD MA Soundtrack.
I thought Warner had a contract with Dolby Labs?
This is only the second time, that I know of, that Warner used a DTS HD Track on one of their Discs. The first one being the German BD of "Surveillance" (Great track there too btw..)

Does anyone know? Are they going DTS now?

[ghebert]

I would hope so. Here's hoping Watchmen is a taste of good things to come. No more 16 bit Dolby TrueHD...only 24bit DTS HD MA.

[syncguy]

It is a very good outcome if Warner also considers the results of the DTS/Dolby poll.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by Stephan.klose

I just received my copy of "Watchmen" and noticed that it contains a DTS HD MA Soundtrack.
I thought Warner had a contract with Dolby Labs?
This is only the second time, that I know of, that Warner used a DTS HD Track on one of their Discs. The first one being the German BD of "Surveillance" (Great track there too btw..)

Does anyone know? Are they going DTS now?

Acutally, New Line titles are Warner titles too. They have all had DTS HD treatment... but, more to the point...

I have a feeling that the industry is moving towards DTS HD as a standard. Sony Entertainment engineers and insiders have been watching our "Should Sony Switch From TrueHD to DTS HD" thread for the poll results. And the numbers have spoken. Likewise, I bet other studio insiders have been tipped off about this poll as well and have discussed it at great length in their board rooms.

Besides, when it comes right down to it (despite the fact that all lossless codecs SHOULD sound the same), there are a number of people who express that they have put titles back on the shelf because it contained a TrueHD track instead of DTS HD or PCM. I am one of those. With volume matching, EVERY TrueHD track aside from The Dark Knight sounds a bit bland to me, whereas EVERY DTS HD track sparks with exubrent life. Many "experts" have told me that it's the mixes I prefer and not the encodes. To that I can only say "whatever" since it happens everytime. And, they also tell me that it is all in my head. To that I can only say, "maybe, but that's the way it is and that's the way I like it, so I will continue to make judgements based on my own personal experience."

So... in conlusion... DTS HD MA FOR THE WIN!!!

[davcole]

What will be interesting to see is if both Warner and Sony increase the bit-depth to 24 for their DTSMA releases. I've stated in the previous thread my belief that it's about bandwidth savings. Since the DTS legacy track is built into the DTSMA bitstream, it doesn't require a separate legacy track, therefore savings on bandwidth.

For a company like Sony that puts multiple lossless tracks, this could be a big savings and for a company like Warner that likely internationally releases multiple lossless tracks, it would also be a savings.

[Stephan.klose]

Originally Posted by davcole

What will be interesting to see is if both Warner and Sony increase the bit-depth to 24 for their DTSMA releases. I've stated in the previous thread my belief that it's about bandwidth savings. Since the DTS legacy track is built into the DTSMA bitstream, it doesn't require a separate legacy track, therefore savings on bandwidth.

For a company like Sony that puts multiple lossless tracks, this could be a big savings and for a company like Warner that likely internationally releases multiple lossless tracks, it would also be a savings.

Actually Sony is currently the only one that puts out Lossless tracks in the 3 or 4 most common languages. All Warner Titles I own (many German and British ones among them ) only contain a True HD Track for English. All the other Tracks are Simple DD 5.1

[demiscy]

Doesnt Battlestar Galactica also have DTS HD MA ?

[davcole]

Thanks Stephan for clearing that up. I was assuming they may have used multiple lossless tracks for their international releases.

[ClaytonMG]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

Acutally, New Line titles are Warner titles too. They have all had DTS HD treatment... but, more to the point...

I have a feeling that the industry is moving towards DTS HD as a standard. Sony Entertainment engineers and insiders have been watching our "Should Sony Switch From TrueHD to DTS HD" thread for the poll results. And the numbers have spoken. Likewise, I bet other studio insiders have been tipped off about this poll as well and have discussed it at great length in their board rooms.

Besides, when it comes right down to it (despite the fact that all lossless codecs SHOULD sound the same), there are a number of people who express that they have put titles back on the shelf because it contained a TrueHD track instead of DTS HD or PCM. I am one of those. With volume matching, EVERY TrueHD track aside from The Dark Knight sounds a bit bland to me, whereas EVERY DTS HD track sparks with exubrent life. Many "experts" have told me that it's the mixes I prefer and not the encodes. To that I can only say "whatever" since it happens everytime. And, they also tell me that it is all in my head. To that I can only say, "maybe, but that's the way it is and that's the way I like it, so I will continue to make judgements based on my own personal experience."

So... in conlusion... DTS HD MA FOR THE WIN!!!

Not to get into a debate... Edward Scissorhands sounds better than any TrueHD track? Predator sounds better as well? Man... I have got to quit coming to this site...

[Kryptonic]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

Not to get into a debate... Edward Scissorhands sounds better than any TrueHD track? Predator sounds better as well? Man... I have got to quit coming to this site...

Predator sounds freaking awesome. Demo worthy, IMO. Although the funny thing about that one is the original Dolby 4.0 surround track sounds just about as good as the DTS-HD track. Of course you have to kick up the Dolby a tiny bit, but it's one of the best sounding Dolby tracks I've ever heard. It's always been my belief that a good sounding disc has more to do with the mix itself than whether it's Dolby or DTS.

[MOONPHASE]

Originally Posted by Kryptonic

Predator sounds freaking awesome. Demo worthy, IMO. Although the funny thing about that one is the original Dolby 4.0 surround track sounds just about as good as the DTS-HD track. Of course you have to kick up the Dolby a tiny bit, but it's one of the best sounding Dolby tracks I've ever heard. It's always been my belief that a good sounding disc has more to do with the mix itself than whether it's Dolby or DTS.

Some of my DTS dvds sound more cleaner then the 1,000 dvds with Dolby I own

[Canada]

Originally Posted by MOONPHASE

Some of my DTS dvds sound more cleaner then the 1,000 dvds with Dolby I own

The reason for that is because unlike Blu ray where Dolby True HD and DTS MA should theoretically sound the same all Dolby Digital 5.1 are encoded at 640 kbps, DTS is encoded at rate of 768 kbps. So higher bitrate means better sound.

[tvine2000]

Originally Posted by Kryptonic

Predator sounds freaking awesome. Demo worthy, IMO. Although the funny thing about that one is the original Dolby 4.0 surround track sounds just about as good as the DTS-HD track. Of course you have to kick up the Dolby a tiny bit, but it's one of the best sounding Dolby tracks I've ever heard. It's always been my belief that a good sounding disc has more to do with the mix itself than whether it's Dolby or DTS.

you right and i'm to glad to see someone else can see the bs here about dts vs dd.since the dd or dts tracks are done even after the music,i don't think enough time is spent mixing those tracks.most likely because they are too close to the deadline for release.

i myself have done final mixing for a mix on a cd,for my songs and i can tell you need at least 40hrs just to do a final mix.then it goes for some audio sweetling and master,a lot of things can get screwed up in the process.i don't believe dolby will let any studio go just with a dtsma track.uni and fox always have been dtsma on bd and newline,but will dd let all studios do dtsma,i think not.i haven't read anything from dolby on this subject,but i'm guessing there watching too.

[Stephan.klose]

Originally Posted by Kryptonic

Predator sounds freaking awesome. Demo worthy, IMO. Although the funny thing about that one is the original Dolby 4.0 surround track sounds just about as good as the DTS-HD track. Of course you have to kick up the Dolby a tiny bit, but it's one of the best sounding Dolby tracks I've ever heard. It's always been my belief that a good sounding disc has more to do with the mix itself than whether it's Dolby or DTS.

You are totally right! DTS tracks are known to be louder and more agressive.. It has nothing to do with the technical aspects

[BozQ]

Originally Posted by ClaytonMG

Man... I have got to quit coming to this site...

Amen to that.
I need to get a new hobby.

[mugupo]

Unlike DVD, Blu-ray has given more edge for DTS then Dolby.

[Rik1138]

Originally Posted by Petra_Kalbrain

Besides, when it comes right down to it (despite the fact that all lossless codecs SHOULD sound the same), there are a number of people who express that they have put titles back on the shelf because it contained a TrueHD track instead of DTS HD or PCM. I am one of those. With volume matching, EVERY TrueHD track aside from The Dark Knight sounds a bit bland to me, whereas EVERY DTS HD track sparks with exubrent life.

The problems with comments like this are:

1- the processing of Dolby and DTS are handled separately in your receiver. You might have your Dolby decoder configured in a way that makes the sound seem 'duller'. After properly calibrating my system, I can't tell the difference between THD and DTSMA when I switch back and forth between them...

2- How many of these 'bland' TrueHD tracks have you compared, _directly_ with DTS-HDMA? You can't say they THD track on one movie doesn't sound as good as the DTS track on a completely different movie, and blame it on the audio encode. That's just stupid. You need to listen to the exact same audio track in both formats, and configure your system so both audio tracks sound the same. Then see if you still think THD sounds worse than DTSMA. There's demo and setup discs that can offer you this.

If you take a .WAV file, encode it to THD and DTSMA, and then decode back to WAV, you get a bit-for-bit perfect copy of the file.

Don't get me wrong, I prefer DTS-HDMA myself, but that's mainly because it's so much easier to work with on the production side (encodes 100s times faster than THD, there's a PC based encoder, only need to encode one stream, can easily make accommodations for seamless branching, etc...) THD really is a pain to work with. I wouldn't be surprised if that's one of the main reasons some studios are switching.

[davcole]

Originally Posted by Rik1138

Don't get me wrong, I prefer DTS-HDMA myself, but that's mainly because it's so much easier to work with on the production side (encodes 100s times faster than THD, there's a PC based encoder, only need to encode one stream, can easily make accommodations for seamless branching, etc...) THD really is a pain to work with. I wouldn't be surprised if that's one of the main reasons some studios are switching.

I'd love it if you could give us a bit more background on it's ease of implementation over TRUEHD.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Originally Posted by Rik1138

The problems with comments like this are:

1- the processing of Dolby and DTS are handled separately in your receiver. You might have your Dolby decoder configured in a way that makes the sound seem 'duller'. After properly calibrating my system, I can't tell the difference between THD and DTSMA when I switch back and forth between them...

2- How many of these 'bland' TrueHD tracks have you compared, _directly_ with DTS-HDMA? You can't say they THD track on one movie doesn't sound as good as the DTS track on a completely different movie, and blame it on the audio encode. That's just stupid. You need to listen to the exact same audio track in both formats, and configure your system so both audio tracks sound the same. Then see if you still think THD sounds worse than DTSMA. There's demo and setup discs that can offer you this.
If you take a .WAV file, encode it to THD and DTSMA, and then decode back to WAV, you get a bit-for-bit perfect copy of the file.

Don't get me wrong, I prefer DTS-HDMA myself, but that's mainly because it's so much easier to work with on the production side (encodes 100s times faster than THD, there's a PC based encoder, only need to encode one stream, can easily make accommodations for seamless branching, etc...) THD really is a pain to work with. I wouldn't be surprised if that's one of the main reasons some studios are switching.

I don't care what ANYONE says, there are many people who hear a difference when volume matching. It's not just me. I find EVERY DTS HD track more prolific than TRUEHD CRAPS... I mean, tracks!

I seriously enjoy action films with TrueHD tracks, but even the simplist of DTS HD MA tracks sound more "true to life" than the most complex TRUEHD tracks. And I'm not the only one to notice. Like I said, I acknowledge that it may just be in my head, but that's the way I, and many others, like it. So, that's the way I prefer it to be for ALL releases.

[RiseDarthVader]

Basing the entire opinion of a lossless audio codec on a placebo effect huh? While I prefer DTS HD-MA for having it's core 1.5mps track built right into it and saving space I don't like it when someone goes on about how it is better because it sounds better when clearly it cannot.