Open Range - Dolby Digital or DTS?

Tonight I watched the DVD - "Open Range". The audio setup gave me the choice of "Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound" or "DTS 5.1 Surround Sound". I listened to DTS. Which one do you prefer and what is the difference between the two?

DTS is a competitor of Dolby Digital that supports higher bitrates (thus less "loss" in the "lossy" compression). Most people tend to prefer DTS to Dolby Digital, although there are some who argue that it's difficult to perform a fair evaluation of the two because the two versions are often mixed somewhat differently and because DTS generally adds roughly 4dB of gain (making it slightly louder than Dolby Digital, something that is often perceived as sounding "better" to the human ear/brain team). I'll often pick DTS if it's available, although I often find the differences between the two to be subtle.

I tend to use DTS too if it is on the DVD. However, I'm not sure I could tell the difference in a blind test between DTS and Dolby Digital. Like your choice of movies. Open Range is one of my favorite demo disks in particular the gunfight scene. Splintering wood, shattered glass and lots of gunshot echo. The surrounds get a real workout in that movie.

Given the option, I go with DTS over Dolby. As gonk noted, the conventional wisdom is that it's the sonically superior format because of the higher bitrate and less aggressive compression scheme. DTS is typically 754kbps but can go as high as 1509 kbps By comparison, DD 5.1 operates at 384kbps or 448kbps. With that, comes a slight edge in frequency repsonse with DTS. However, I understand the higher bit rate is a real bandwith hog and can impact available space for video and special features.

There's a great website devoted to DVD formats that has a very thorough explanation of the differences: http://www.spannerworks.net/. Here's a quote from the site that summarizes the sonic differences between the two (and may spark an interest in further reading):

"Even though there are no compelling technical grounds for believing DTS is a better system, there are times when the DTS version of a soundtrack does sound considerably better than the Dolby Digital version. This can almost certainly be attributed to the way in which the DTS version has been mastered, although the DTS system itself cannot be discounted as a contributing factor. DTS titles often utilise higher quality masters and do not require alteration for optimised downmixing. These factors alone makes DTS worthy of serious consideration from an audiophile perspective."

Spannerworks also has up to date lists of all DTS encoded movies.

- VD

Another excellent comparable scene is w/ band of Brothers in the "Bastogne" episode. The artillery bombardment scenes in the forest are very intense. I've coined it the "INCOMING!!!" scene.

Gonk, AvFan, Videodrome and RedSIinPA,

Thank you indeed for your explanations and descriptions regarding the differences of Dolby Digital and DTS. Whenever I'm in doubt, I check the Outlaw Forum for the definitive answer!

Aaron