Universal to make DTS-HD MA the standard for Blu-ray

[MajorZero]

Exclusive: Universal Talks Blu-ray Audio Plans
April 30, 2008

In the waning months of Universal Studios Home Entertainment's HD DVD era, the studio had standardized the use of Dolby TrueHD audio on almost all newly announced titles. This was in stark contrast to the early Universal HD DVD days when the appearance of Dolby TrueHD was overshadowed by the heavy use of Dolby Digital Plus lossy audio.

Times has certainly changed, and now Universal is gearing up to enter the Blu-ray Disc arena for the first time on July 22. With this move from HD DVD to Blu-ray support comes many questions, including how Universal will approach audio with the expanded room a BD-50 disc offers over a 30GD dual-layered HD DVD disc.

Although Universal is remaining tight-lipped on a lot of details surrounding their Blu-ray presence that wasn't included in the press release, they were kind enough to entertain our questions about their audio approach on Blu-ray. The simple answer may surprise you. At the least, it should delight you.

The first wave of Universal Blu-ray Disc titles on July 22 are all from the Mummy franchise and were all previously released on HD DVD: The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King. All of these titles were published with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio tracks, but not Dolby TrueHD tracks.

Per Universal, all three Mummy films will include DTS-HD Master Lossless Audio. That's right, folks. Instead of lazily porting over what was already completed for HD DVD, Universal has heard your cries for lossless audio and is taking action.

Universal went on to tell us that the game plan moving forward is for DTS-HD Master Lossless to become the Blu-ray standard at the studio. Obviously there will be exceptions, but it looks like the majority of titles, and probably all new theatrical titles, will include DTS-HD.

We'll have more from Universal, including their position on U-Control appearing on Blu-ray, in the near future. Stay tuned!

Source

[DetroitSportsFan]

Excellent.

[Herr Schmidt]

Originally Posted by DetroitSportsFan

Excellent.

Yes it is

[Marcusarilius]

it's a blast to watch the studios and BD format go thru this positive transition. Universal has some of my all time favourite movies!!

[Crème Blu-ray]

Nice!

[blitz6speed]

Delicious.

[SkullPhyre]

Excellent. I love DTS-MA HD I am glad to hear this. Paramount on the other hand is going Dolby True HD. . At least they are going to start releasing titles.
Or should I say re-releasing

[Teazle]

Question.

What does Universal know that Warner doesn't?

Bill Hunt keeps saying "Ahh, these things take time; lossless will be phased in for all titles eventually etc."

WRT audio, Uni has it right from the get-go.

[Esox50]

This is great. With Universal using DTS-Master Audio on "all releases", and Paramount using Dolby TrueHD on all of their releases (except for the few that were authored last year such as Face/Off, Next), we basically have evey major studio using either PCM, Dolby TrueHD, and/or DTS-Master Audio.

Let hope they use 24 bit masters where available.

Let's also not forget that we should thank Sony Pictures, Disney Home Video, and 20th Century Fox for leading the way on the Blu-Ray format during the format war of 2007. Their shining examples of the use of PCM, Dolby TrueHd, and DTS-MA on Blu-Ray have pushed all studios to give us the best possible sound now that the format war is over. HD DVD was "good enough", with Blu-Ray we get the best.

[blitz6speed]

Warner is quickly becoming the worst studio on the blu-ray team as far as quality. They just announced Justice Leauge Season 1 with NO LOSSLESS Audio! NO SALE! Those mummys are mine day 1. Thanks universal.

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by Teazle

Question.

What does Universal know that Warner doesn't?

Bill Hunt keeps saying "Ahh, these things take time; lossless will be phased in for all titles eventually etc."

WRT audio, Uni has it right from the get-go.

Warner has been strapped with Duel format releases. They are still releasing on HD DVD right now. Soon it will be nothing but lossless bliss from Warner.

[PaulGo]

Originally Posted by SkullPhyre

Excellent. I love DTS-MA HD I am glad to hear this. Paramount on the other hand is going Dolby True HD. . At least they are going to start releasing titles.
Or should I say re-releasing

In theory both are lossless HD sound so they both should give the same sound. If both are doing what they say they are doing their should not be a difference in sound quality.

[ixlegitballinxl]

good news across the board w00t

[Anthony P]

cool

[Moviemaniack1993]

Omg I'm so excited they choose DTS-HD!! My Fox Blu-rays (especially Live Free or Die Hard) sound freakin amazing. IMO, DTS-HD is the best sound. Cannot wait for Universal releases as they have some of my all time favorite films! Jurassic Park will sound AMAZING in DTS-HD. I mean, afterall, it was the first film EVER to use DTS sound.

[SkullPhyre]

Originally Posted by PaulGo

In theory both are lossless HD sound so they both should give the same sound. If both are doing what they say they are doing their should not be a difference in sound quality.

Thier isn't but with True-HD it is always lower than DTS-MA.

[dobyblue]

What do you mean "lower"?

Anyway, this is great news - I can't wait to get hold of U-571 with dts-ma in addition to several other already release titles like Casino, Pitch Black, Backdraft, Red Dragon, Apollo 13, The Bourne Trilogy, Spy Game, 12 Monkeys, Children of Men, The Game, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Midnight Run, Sneakers, Meet Joe Black, Mallrats, The Big Lebowski, Mercury Rising, Notting Hill, The Hurricane, Smokey and the Bandit, The Last Starfighter, Patch Adams, Carlito's Way and The Kingdom.

[GarettP]

Can't wait to see Bourne's with DTSHD-MA!

Nice work Universal!

[WickyWoo]

It's the same excuse that the HD DVDers used

It's "more efficient" because it doesn't include a seperate core track, usually ignoring the issue of decoding and layering errors that DTS HDMA is prone to
HD DVD is "more efficient", because it lacks the high level information that higher bitrates can take

DTS HDMA is more efficient because it doesn't have the core track in it, but takes 3-4x the processing power....

[Marcusarilius]

Originally Posted by WickyWoo

It's the same excuse that the HD DVDers used

It's "more efficient" because it doesn't include a seperate core track, usually ignoring the issue of decoding and layering errors that DTS HDMA is prone to
HD DVD is "more efficient", because it lacks the high level information that higher bitrates can take

DTS HDMA is more efficient because it doesn't have the core track in it, but takes 3-4x the processing power....

So, please help me on this... is DTS HDMA really the superior format essentually? I'm still confused.