s/w for HD audio info? was: Why OTA HD... "gone"
 

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

See this editorial:

http://www.audioholics.com/news/edit...gDownAudio.php


nice ref, thank you. :)
(i mean, the www.audioholics.com part)

this is a very long post, so my main
question is: do you, or anyone else, know of any
pc s/w (freeware or commercial) that gives detailed
info on the 5.1 DD and/or DTS audio encoding on
recent DVD movies?

i'll repeat this question way below

fwiw, i did read the editorial (above) but think
that you are misrepresenting it

at the moment, my interest is the 5.1 sound (Dolby
and DTS) that is on DVD movies, which is a related
subject (to your thread title), so i changed the title. :)

i have two decent DVD units on my TV system;
a Panasonic DMR-ES10 DVD recorder ($180/Costco), and
a Toshiba SD-K760 player ($50/Costco)

within www.audioholics.com the ref that is
most useful to me is:
http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/...digitaldts.php
which has the title of:
"Dolby Digital vs. DTS: A Guide to the Strengths of the Formats,
dated: Tuesday, August 31 2004; Original Publish Date: August 6, 1999"

"With the birth of Dolby Surround in movie theaters, it was only
a matter of time... Enter Dolby's newest creation, Dolby Digital (DD).
For the first time, a fully discrete digital 5.1 channel surround
format was created for both the theaters and home audio marketplace.
When... DVD Working Group (DVDWG) sought the best audio coding
technology for the new format back in 1995, Dolby Labs jumped at
the opportunity. Dolby argued that its name recognition, familiarity
with the movie industry, and the choice of its system for audio coding
in the new DTV standard made it a logical choice for DVD as well.
The DVDWG agreed, and DD was selected as 1 of 2 required soundtracks,
the other being PCM, on all DVD releases in the USA. The DVDWG also
allowed for DTS and SDDS as optional soundtracks. A year after this
occurrence, Digital Theater Systems (DTS) joined... claiming its
coding method sounded better due to higher bit rates and less
compression. The DVDWG mandated that any DVD carrying a DTS
soundtrack must also contain one of two of the previously
mentioned required soundtracks."

"...DD and DTS utilize lossy data reduction algorithms, which reduce
the number of bits needed to encode an audio signal. DD compresses
a 5.1 channel surround track to 384 kbps to 448 kbps

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

(DVD Standard limited, DD has the potential of up to
640 kbps) while DTS uses much higher bit rates
up to 1.4 Mbps for CD's / LD's and 1.5 Mbps for DVD.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A higher bit rate must imply DTS will be superior sounding right?
In theory, the less compression used in the encoding process,
the more realistic the sound will be, as it will better represent
the original source. DD tends to boast that its encoding method
is more efficient than DTS and thus does not require the extra
bit rates. However, even if DD is slightly more efficient, it is
still not 1.5 / .448 = 3.35 times more efficient.. However, both
DD & DTS will boast data rates, efficiency, etc, but what actually
translates to better sound is a very ambiguous matter as there are
more factors involved here that goes beyond the scope of this article."

"Dolby Digital has "16-20 bit system; Limited to 48KHz sampling."
while DTS has "16-24 bit system, 48/96 KHz sampling rate (scalable);
limited 96/24 software available.""

my Toshiba DVD player manual states on p.26 that
"Signals of 96kHz from the COAXIAL DIGITAL AUDIO OUT
jack are depressed to 48kHz by down sampling
process when a copyright protected disc is played"

my Panasonic DVD recorder manual states on p.33 that
"PCM Down Conversion: ...signals are converted to 48/44.1...
or the disc has copy protection"

it says nothing about DTS audio possibly being downconverted

do you, or anyone else, know of any pc s/w (freeware
or commercial) that gives detailed info on the 5.1
DD and/or DTS audio encoding on recent DVD movies?

i.e. whether the sampling rate is 48, or 48/96 (scalable),
or whatever

TIA, bill


and understand that people want MORE, not better.

OTA HD will go away, at least the free kind, and will be replaced by
MORE digital channels in the same bandwidth.

HD will turn into a premium service, even OTA.

Welcome to the digital world, where they CAN do these things.