DTS Is A Confusing Mess
Dear Gary:
I found the Blu-ray™ player announcements at CES 2009 to only add to the confusion among those who want to buy and/or upgrade.
Why?
Some of the announcements at CES were about Blu-ray players that sport DTS-HD Master Audio™ Essential but not the other DTS-HD whatever? Am I confused? Do you gain one and lose the other? What is this all about?
Is there not a player to decode and offer all sound formats? Will there ever be such a thing?
Look, I've worked on 60 to 70 motion pictures and thousands of commercials and corporate and industrial videos, and I have had an HDTV for over seven years. I also purchased the Sony BDP-S1 upon its original release in December of 2006. So, if I find this baffling, what about the rest of the world?
DTS’ Web site should answer everything.
It explains nothing.
Adding to that, the DTS site has a chart that does not accurately reflect the Blu-ray players that support this or that version of whatever it is that they are DTS’ing us with (several players that do have some variation are not acknowledged as existing on the DTS site).
Just when you thought that the people that make and market this stuff were going to get it together, they jump backwards.
This leaves me with the question, “Why DTS-HD Master Audio Essential?”
If the only difference is that it is not inclusive of DTS Neo:6, why is “Essential” needed at all?
And why would these newer players announced at 2009 CES only support DTS-HD Master Audio Essential rather than DTS-HD Master Audio?
Is this not greater confusion for the consumer?
Phil Smoot
editorgary@widescreenreview.com
Editor-In-Chief and Publisher Gary Reber Comments:
I’m not quite sure what you are asking. I take it that you would like to know the difference between DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD Master Audio Essential. Since DTS-HD Master Audio is all-inclusive of the legacy DTS codecs, the simplest explanation is to list what DTS-HD Master Audio Essential does NOT do: BD - DTS Neo:6. See http://www.dts.com/Technology/At_A_Glance.aspx.
If you are asking if DTS-HD Master Audio Essential will decode DTS-HD High Resolution Audio and DTS Express (for secondary audio), it does, as well as up to 7.1 discrete channels. DTS, on their Web site, has a chart on another page that shows all of their codecs in the Blu-ray specification. Please note that not all players show all of the logos for all of the DTS codecs that DTS-HD Master Audio decoders can handle.
I understand that DTS is in the process of revising their site and plans to reinforce the DTS-HD Master Audio all-inclusive message. Also, at http://www.dts.com/Technology/DTS-HD_Master_Audio.aspx there is a room layout and loudspeaker setup, which shows the optimum setup for a 7.1-channel standard loudspeaker system, which is the layout that I have advocated using for over ten years and is the layout used in the mastering of 7.1 soundtracks.
Some of the Blu-ray Disc™ players are using early generation ICs that were not able to decode the full suite of DTS-HD Master Audio. They were able to decode DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio––the important or essential parts of the new codec. Rather than restrict these products to simply streaming out DTS-HD, it was decided to badge them as DTS-HD Master Audio Essential.
DTS’ rationale was that most consumers purchasing these Blu-ray Disc players probably have an AVR that can decode most or all of the legacy DTS streams.
I hope this helps.
You can E-mail Widescreen Review @ editorgary@widescreenreview.com