DTS Is King! HPS-4000 Rules!
Dear Gary: I have been reading your magazine for a couple of years and I really appreciate your views on the DTS Digital Surround format. Your magazine helped me to develop a better knowledge of and a preference for DTS. I have a difficult time understanding why some people claim that Dolby Digital sounds better. I have both DTS and Dolby Digital in my system along with a LaserDisc player and a DVD player, and DTS is clearly better. I have been upset about the way DTS was presented in the theatres in the past, with a few auditoriums having only one surround channel. Time and time again I have listened to SDDS and Dolby Digital sound, and I feel that DTS has the finest resolution, especially with the surround channels. I recently had my Millennium DTS decoder upgraded to the DTS DVD standard and I look forward to experiencing DTS at a higher bit rate than LaserDisc. I hope that more studios will get involved. I am curious to find out what lies on the horizon for DTS and DVD. Is it possible to encode a Dolby Digital 5.1 channel soundtrack on the same disc? What is the maximum running time for DTS discs? Will Dolby’s 6.1 channel Digital Surround EX format be made available for the home? I would also like to add that I have always wanted to have the theatres in my area to convert to HPS-4000 sound. HPS-4000 is a phenomenal sound system that truly presents the sound in the most accurate manner. Nothing comes close. John Allen has created a reference system that reproduces nuances in the soundtrack that most people never get to hear. People are paying $8.50 and they are not getting the best. Stadium seating is nice but I want HPS-4000. They keep opening theatres yet they don’t install the best. I am requesting an expansion of HPS-4000 theatres for 1999. This is also an area where some people still don’t understand the benefits. I hope people will be willing to learn about this incredible system. Convincing people and theatre management that DTS for the home and HPS-4000 for the theatre provide and reproduce the finest sound available is difficult, especially when they have had limited or no exposure to these systems. People are afraid to try something new. I strongly suggest to anyone who hasn’t experienced them to do so immediately. Your magazine is the best in the world and I only wish it would come out every month!
David Ecker
Editor Gary Reber Comments:
Technically, a typical two-hour movie encoded at an average 4.7 Mbps data rate could be put on a DVD-9 dual-layer DVD with both high bit rate DTS Digital Surround and low bit rate Dolby Digital 5.1 discrete soundtracks (sans foreign soundtracks). The issues appears to be political, not technical, especially with the advent of DVD-18 two-sided, dual-layer DVDs. Interestingly, the theatrical motion picture divisions of the major studios have all adopted a tri-format for “A” title theatrical releases, that is, Dolby Digital, DTS Digital Sound and SDDS on the same print. Thus, playback is the choice of the exhibitor. I suspect that as DTS Digital Surround on DVD gains greater critical acclaim, the home video divisions of studios will adopt a dual-format digital soundtrack release policy. Writing letters to the presidents of home video divisions asking them to support such a dual-format policy will help to speed up the pace of adoption. In regard to the Dolby Surround EX system (see Center Back Surround letter), I suspect that by late 1999 several manufacturers will offer an add-on Dolby processor and/or introduce internal decoder circuitry in new processors to reproduce EX coding in home theatre systems equipped with a center surround amplifier and loudspeaker. Expect manufacturers to adopt THX-certification of the EX feature. I agree completely with your assessment of John Allen’s HPS-4000 as “a phenomenal sound system that truly presents the sound in the most accurate manner.” I personally find the HPS-4000 system to be the finest theatrical system I have ever experienced. While in Oahu, Hawaii in January at the opening of the new Battleship USS Missouri Memorial and the USS Arizona Memorial, I was impressed by the DTS Digital Sound motion picture presentation in the Arizona Visitor Center Theatre heard through a full-blown HPS-4000 loudspeaker system. The experience was impressively powerful and unforgettable, though the fidelity of the original dated material was not state-of-the-art. Nonetheless, the system delivered a smooth, coherent soundfield experience with superb transient response and deep bass impact.
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