Which is the best quality audio source for blurays ?

[dazkyl]

Which gives the highest quality sound in today's movies ?

Is it DTS , Dolby D or AC3?

Sorry , but i never really understood what's the difference between them.

All i know is that the best cinema here , in Malta is THX and DTS certified.

Also the blurays i watch varies from DTS and DOLBY , but most of them are DTS.

[oldgame]

You will hear no difference between DTS Master audio and Dolby tru-hd.
Audio only blu-rays with options you might but most people can't hear the difference.

[Blu-Dog]

PCM. The decoders (DTS, Dolby Master Audio) at the very least monkey with the volume, and are only methods for saving space. After you diddle with them, they are identical to PCM, but diddle you must.

[BIslander]

Blu-Dog has a thing about the way Dolby and DTS handle lossless data compression. (By diddling, he means you may need to adjust the volume, which nearly everyone does anyway when starting movie playback.).

At the end of the day, the quality of PCM and the decoded output of TrueHD and dts-MA is all the same. Very few discs have PCM tracks because of the space they take up.

As for the OP's actual question, DD 5.1 and DTS Surround are similar methods by two different companies which use data compression to save space on films and discs. AC3 is another name for DD 5.1. They are lossy codecs, using so much data compression that some of the original data is not restored by decoding. While not identical, it is unlikely anyone can hear a difference between the two codecs. There's a myth that DTS tracks are better, probably because they often playback louder. But, DTS superiority is really just legend.

Blu-ray Discs have more space and use lossless data compression. When decoded, TrueHD and dts-MA produce PCM identical to the original soundtrack.

Regardless, with Blu-ray, there's usually only one English soundtrack. So, it doesn't much matter which is better as you can only play the one track that the studio puts on the disc.

[timcat4843]

Originally Posted by BIslander

At the end of the day, the quality of PCM and the decoded output of TrueHD and dts-MA is all the same.

That may or may not be true, but Blu-ray disc with LPCM audio do sound better.

[BIslander]

Originally Posted by timcat4843

That may or may not be true, but Blu-ray disc with LPCM audio do sound better.

Is that based on listening to a soundtrack using PCM and a losslessly compressed version of that same soundtrack? (Not likely, as there are very few discs like that.). If you are saying you prefer movies with PCM tracks, then you are comparing soundtracks, not encoding methods.

[timcat4843]

Originally Posted by BIslander

Is that based on listening to a soundtrack using PCM and a losslessly compressed version of that same soundtrack? (Not likely, as there are very few discs like that.). If you are saying you prefer movies with PCM tracks, then you are comparing soundtracks, not encoding methods.

Find a Blu-ray disc with Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD and LPCM audio.
Select a scene on the disc to demo and play it back using each sound format.
You'll experience what I'm talking about.

[BIslander]

What discs did you use for such comparisons? Please share.

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Tapatalk

[42041]

True-HD, DTS-HD MA, and PCM - lossless, no quality loss. PCM is the raw digital audio, kind of a waste of blu-ray's capacity. The compressed formats are basically ZIP files for the PCM.
DTS, Dolby Digital AC3, DTS-HD HR - lossy perceptual compression. Quality is inevitably lost.

[punisher]

actually DD and DTS on blu ray is not the lossy DD and DTS on dvds..they run at full bit rate and are not compressed so they sound damn good for those who don't have an updated receiver with hdmi inputs

[Tech-UK]

Originally Posted by punisher

actually DD and DTS on blu ray is not the lossy DD and DTS on dvds..they run at full bit rate and are not compressed so they sound damn good for those who don't have an updated receiver with hdmi inputs

Any DD or DTS codec is a compression method. DD or DTS at full bitrate, 640kbps and 1.524Mbps respectfully are lossy compression.

[BIslander]

+1

All data compression codecs use data compression.

TrueHD and dts-MA use lossless compression, meaning everything removed in the compression step is restored in the decompression step. DD 5.1 and DTS use lossy compression, meaning some of the original data is not restored. There's less room on film strips, CDs, and DVDs than there is on BDs. So, less compression is needed with the lossy codecs on Blu-ray than those other sorts of media.

Your are correct punisher, that those higher bitrate versions of DD 5.1 and DTS used on Blu-ray sound great and I doubt many people could distinguish them from the lossless cousins. But, they do use compression.

[Petra_Kalbrain]

Here it comes...

I will admit though that I am quite surprised at how long it has taken for this to happen once again.

P.S. LPCM > DTS-HD MA > anything Dolby... to my ears anyways.

[BIslander]

And which discs with the same soundtrack encoded all three ways did you use to reach your conclusion?