Blu-ray audio rates overkill?

[stonesfan129]

Originally Posted by JohnAV

There is very few people that think DD5.1 is good enough. It just lacks the dynamics of say a DTS-HD-MA track. Go listen to Red with the cheap BD that offered DD 5.1 and the special edition using DTS-HD-5.1.



Even the Apple TV offers DD5.1 as the lesser choice compared to multi-ch PCM.

Years ago I created my own test disc using a Blu-ray that had a PCM 5.1 track. I took the PCM 5.1 track and converted it to three different DD 5.1 tracks (640, 448 and 384) and compared them. 640 sounded transparent to the PCM track to me. 448 was pretty good too. I don't think it's worth spending hundreds or thousands of dollars for what may amount to a minor difference in lossless over lossy. Use some of those old Harry Potter Blu-rays as a test disc. That should have a nice dynamic soundtrack and I know the first five movies offered a PCM 5.1 track and a DD 5.1 track. Dolby vs DTS, well now you're getting into a difference of mastering, not lossless vs lossy. Everybody says they hear the difference, then they do a blind test and find that they can't.