DTS Rebuttal To Sound And Vision Editorial
We [DTS] have received quite a lot of mail concerning the September 1999 Sound and Vision editorial that accuses DTS of providing ""a disservice to the industry"". This writer's main contention was that DTS is not a valuable technology because there are a lot less DTS-encoded DVDs on the market, than there are titles with Dolby Digital soundtracks. The following rebuttal will appear in the October issue of Sound and Vision, and was created simply to help this writer expand his vision of how DTS fits into the overall surround sound picture. Sound And Vision (September 99) Re: DTS has done a disservice to the industry... Dear Bob, With all due respect, the high volume of titles in the market with Dolby Digital soundtracks, is hardly an indictment against DTS for two sensible reasons: 1. DTS is not competing with Dolby. Every receiver and DVD player that has DTS capability, also includes Dolby Digital.... and nobody has ever been asked to give up DD in favor of DTS. Instead, the primary mission at DTS is simply to augment the inherent value of a 5.1-channel playback system. And from the thousands of letters that we have received, we have already successfully enhanced many people's home entertainment experience. 2. ""Dolby Digital"" is not synonymous with 5.1 audio. Of the 3,200 DD titles that you refer to, approx. 2,800 of them are merely stereo (or even mono) soundtracks... not discrete 5.1 masters. This is not a defense for our admittedly slow-growing catalog of DVD titles. But it is a significant example of how different these two audio formats really are. We applaud the market penetration of Dolby Digital, but we are also proud to be the ""alternative"" format. And DTS will remain dedicated to delivering the finest multi-channel sound possible on DVD-Video... as evidenced by the Eagles: Hell Freezes Over DVD, which has become the #1-selling music DVD in the industry, largely because of the DTS-exclusive 5.1 soundtrack (the first of many to come). For anyone who feels that the DTS DVD movie catalog is building too slowly, we certainly agree... and we are working with the studios every day to accelerate this process. At the same time, the expanding catalog of DTS 5.1 Music CDs has surpassed 100 titles, and represents the only high-resolution 5.1 music software in the world. And before you counter that DVD-Audio is right around the corner, I must remind you that those discs will not play on existing DVD-Video players... but DTS 5.1 Music CDs do! If you are one of the few magazine critics who actually owns a 5.1 home theatre in your living room, I highly recommend that you to take home this month's release of Sting: Ten Summoner's Tales on a DTS-encoded 5.1 Music CD. People who dismiss ""quality"" in favor of ""quantity"", without actually experiencing both choices... are simply providing a ""disservice"" to themselves. Kind regards, \David DelGrosso DTS Director of Marketing