What's the different between DTS and DOLBY?

Question

What's the different between DTS and DOLBY?

Answer 1

That's a good question!  There is not a lot of difference at all, actually.  DTS uses some lower tones to produce an overall 'better' sound but if you check with any audiophile, there really isn't a notable difference.  HERE'S THE LOW DOWN, THOUGH!!  Dolby Digital has something that DTS lacks...noise suppression.  Have you ever been watching a movie with your surround going and had to change the volume constantly because when there is speech or light sounds, you can barely hear them then suddenly there's action with a crash or bang and it's so loud you wake up the neighbors?  This struggle can really ruin a movie.  Dolby Digital will actually take these louder noises and compress them down a bit so the extreme loudness is suppressed and you are able to leave the volume at a suitable level for listening to speech without having to worry about adjusting it when something starts to happen!

Answer 2

Without going into confusing technical specs simply there are basically three formats on the market right now that are of significance. Dolby Pro-Logic, Dolby Digital and DTS. (THX is another but best left off for now).

-Dolby Pro-Logic. is probably the oldest of the true audio decoding schemes. Also known as Dolby Surround, this audio format takes a normal stereo 2 channel signal and splits it to include the center and surround channels. Because of the backward compatibility with original two channel sound, Dolby Pro-Logic is the most widely used but the least powerful of all the surround sound decoding methods.

-Dolby Digital 5.1 is an audio format that has become more popular with the coming of DVD. This offers any number of dedicated channels up to five main channels and one low frequency effect channel.

-DTS is a competitor of Dolby Digital. It also offers a five channel plus low frequency effect channel, but it is not compatible with the Dolby Digital soundtrack.

Dolby Digital or DTS can both sound excellent or bad depending on the quality of the soundtrack.

One interesting side note, Dolby Digital includes a signal compression feature for late night viewing that DTS does not. This allows you to hear dialog and quiet scenes at their normal volume while louder scenes are suppressed.

Answer 3

Some good info in some of the answers, but if you want a really good article on Dolby Digital (DD) and DTS see the one at the link. The article goes into exhaustive detail.

DTS and DD are two of three multichannel digital audio formats used commercially in films (The third SDDS is not used much in North America amd not at all in the home venue).

Here is a quote from the referenced article that addresses how both (actually all three) encoding schemes work:

"Dolby Digital, SDDS and DTS (the consumer version) all use 'lossy compression' data reduction systems, utilising 'perceptual coding' to reduce the data needed to accurately reproduce 5 full-bandwidth audio channels (up to 7 in SDDS and DTS's case) plus a limited-bandwidth bass-only channel. Unlike conventional data compression schemes, which allow the retrieval of 100% of stored data upon decoding, 'lossy compression' schemes 'throw away' some data, which cannot subsequently be retrieved. Perceptual coding lies at the heart of all three systems, ensuring that only the 'right' information is discarded. Using a theoretical model of the auditory system, all three perceptual coding systems use a technique called 'acoustic masking'. Acoustic masking exploits our inability to detect quiet sounds while louder sounds are produced at a similar frequency. The louder sounds generate a 'noise mask' capable of completely obscuring quieter sounds around the same frequency: frequencies above these louder sounds are masked more effectively than frequencies below. Because we can't hear these quieter sounds, they can be removed from the original signal without making an audible difference to the listener."

Here's a quote that -- arguably -- puts the differences in perspective:

"Dolby Digital and DTS Digital Surround were created with completely different design objectives in mind.

DTS was designed to offer multiple channels of higher-than-CD resolution audio within the bandwidth constraints of the Compact Disc system, using a combination of signal-redundancy coding (ADPCM) to reduce bandwidth and perceptual coding to increase the perceived resolution of the coded signal.

Dolby Digital's primary objective was to dramatically reduce the bandwidth needed to reproduce multi-channel audio (preferably to 320kbps or below) without significantly altering the quality of the original linear PCM signal.

DTS's compression is accomplished primarily through the use of sub-band ADPCM compression, while Dolby Digital's compression is primarily the result of aggressive psychoacoustic coding and hybrid forward/backward-adaptive bit-allocation.

Given that DTS was designed without many of the limitations imposed on Dolby's system, the fact that Dolby Digital and DTS Digital Surround are so often compared with one another is a tribute to the perceptual coding expertise of Dolby Laboratories."

A second quote addresses which is better.

"Any argument for or against a particular system must be based on competing coding schemas. DTS's supporters claim that it is superior to Dolby's system because it uses a higher bitrate and less aggressive compression scheme. These two facts are essentially irrelevant in determining whether DTS is 'better' than Dolby Digital: neither automatically equates to higher sound quality. The quality of both systems stands or falls on the effectiveness of their respective compression and perceptual coding systems. Both systems use extremely effective coding systems. As both systems are based on completely different technologies, and rely on human perception, there is no technical or scientific means to determine which is 'better'."

Note that both Dolby Digital and DTS are simply one of a variety of standards from each organization. Further, each can be available in diffferent versions based on bit rate. In fact DTS in it's original 1509kbps was justifiably considered superior to Dolby Digital, but in recent years (to save space on DVDs for extras and higher video bitrates) DTS has generally been used at 754kbps, which has largely erased the advantage over Dolby Digital.

Finally, some people think THX is an other compression scheme but actually it is a set of standards for hardware and room setup that define the basis for good audio and video both in commercial cinemas and home theaters.

Read the article ... well worth the time and effort.

Answer 4

Hmm..I was gonna say DTS is just a competior but i learned somthing today too:D  

EDIT:AHHHHH Now I Don't Know What To Beleive.....

Answer 5

Post above is completely wrong. DTS is a superior encoding. Why... bit rate and Htz.

DTS tracks can ***(depending on the audio engineer that encoded the track)*** have a higher bit rate then Dolby Digital. DTS is known amongst most audiophiles as the superior encoding if utilized to its full potential. Most of the audiophiles I affiliate with are snobbish enough to not even watch a movie that does not contain a DTS track. It can be heard in the listening and thats reason enough to believe it. But I also provided a source to reference. Even though DD is much more of an industry standard, DTS is far superior if it has been engineered well (A bad audio track is a bad audio track no matter what the formatting). I'm a firm believer in DTS  and their future products (DTS HD) are much more promising then anything Dolby Digtial is handing out.

In addition noise suppresion is done by your Amplifier usually called "night mode". It will compress the range so the highs and lows are in a smaller spectrum to not create such abusive lows and highs that distrub the other rooms.