Dolby Digital vs Dolby TrueHD?

Question

I'm thinking of upgrading my receiver to have the latest surround decoding. I have a BluRay and HDDVD player with Dolby TrueHD and/or DTS-HD. But i'm wanting to know if it's worth the money. Will I really hear the difference?

Answer 1

You may, and you may not. I'd bet you won't hear any significant improvement.

Despite what Miguel35 says -- and he is theoretically correct -- in practice results with lossy audio codecs can be indistinguishable from lossless. I hasten to add that I'm not saying they are in all cases, but they can be.

The whole point of the advanced codecs is that they are close to psychacoustically optimized ... that is they lose the part of the sound that the ear can't hear and keep all that the the ear can hear.

The result is that the vast majority of listeners (I'm not going to say "all") won't hear any appreciable difference between a properly mastered high bitrate Dolby Digital+ and PCM or Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD track.

There are many out there that feel that because a spec is theoretically superior it must BE superior. Not true.

Read the article at the link ... it raises some very good points.

Answer 2

You're stirring up a hornets nest with this question.  People are going to debate this issue forever.  It's up to the consumer to decide if Dolby TrueHD sounds better.

Answer 3

The difference is day and night.  Most people haven't experienced true UNCOMPRESSED DIGITAL AUDIO because they haven't set up their equipment properly.  If your current receiver has the proper INPUTS and your HD disc players have the proper OUTPUTS, then you can take advantage of "DolbyTrueHD" (but not "DTSHD Master Audio") right now (without buying a new receiver).   Click this link to see what's going on: http://www.avtruths.com/uncompressed.htm

Answer 4

There is a very big difference IF your speakers have the detail to resolve it. Dolby True HD and dts-HD are lossless formats, meaning that there is NO loss of sound quality or detail in the compression process (more accuracy, dynamics etc..) Where Dolby and to a lesser extent dts loose detail in the compression. If the speakers in the system are of a quality to here that level of detail and if your ear is even somewhat refined you will notice a difference. If you are using small inexpensive speakers you won't.

Whether you have a 5.1 or 7.1 doesn't matter as far as the sound quality goes. That will only impact your soundstage.

Everybody is right and you will have to listen yourself to find out if it matters to you. The first time I heard Dolby True HD (At the Sony Line show in Feb 07) I couldn't  comprehend that audio got THAT good! It was a tremendous difference in an A-B comparison. HOWEVER we were listening on a Sony STRDA5200ES receiver and Wilson Audio Watt Puppies. With a system like that you can hear EVERY detail. Judge for yourself on a system like yours.

Answer 5

No do not bother yet.  Your current reciever only does 5.1 I assume.  If so you would have to get 2 more speakers for middle surround but most discs are still only 5.1 even bluray and hdvd.  I have a 7.1 reciever and both hd and bluray and I can not tell a difference.