Topic: Dolby TrueHD

[Touti]

How does TrueHD compare to DD 5.1 and/or DTS 5.1 ?  Is it time for me to start looking at a sound system upgrade ?

Hope not, I haven't even paid my TV yet !

[RossRoy]

TrueHD is lossless. So 1:1 fidelity reproduction on what the sound engineer intended. Granted, the lossy DD and DTS have matured and sound engineers are probably now very good at optimizing, but I'm guessing TrueHD still inches ahead.

That being said, the only true answer you can get would be your ears. Some people will claim TrueHD is to audio what sliced bread was to bread, yet others just don't hear any difference. It all depends on your hearing (and the quality of the sound system). I haven't sampled any TrueHD stream personally, but if the difference between DD and DTS 5.1 is anywhere near what it going from MP3(lossy) to FLAC(lossless), you'd be in for a treat!

[Najemikon]

Was there a conversation on here before where someone said they couldn't hear the difference between 5.1 and DTS? Personally I can hear a huge difference and would love to upgrade my sound to handle TrueHD. As I mentioned before, I can't hook up my Bluray to my DVD surround system, apart from auxillary phono, so I get a stereo output that to be honest, the amp does a brilliant job of spreading out. It sounds impressive, but it doesn't sound right.

[Touti]

It could have been me Jon, I'm not sure.  Personally the difference I even noticed between DD 5.1 and DTS is that DTS seems to be louder but I don't really see a difference in quality.  Maybe my system is just not setup right.........or my old ears can't take more than DD 5.1

[lyonsden5]

For me there is a big difference. The HD sound field is much larger and spacious than a standard 5.1 mix. Also the loud parts don't sound forced, the sound just gets louder. I find myself turning my head sometimes to see what was making a noise and quickly realize it's just a surround channel.  That's something I haven't done for 20 years since I got my first "Dolby surround" system. I do not regret upgrading my system a few months ago.

When I upgraded my amp I did not do the speakers so I still only have enough for a 5.1 setup. I imagine 7.1 mix would sound awesome.

Is it time for you to upgrade? Hard to say. It's never too early to start looking though. 

[madacid]

dts 5.1 on DVD is not so much ahead from dd5.1 als dts on laserdiscs, because dts on dts is only the "small" dts bandwidth.

7.1 is btw. a bit "larger than live" because the most films are max. 5.1 (or smaller) in it's master-recordings
even the SDDS-recorded films are the "wrong" 7.1 speaker-sets (5 front speaker, and not 5 rear/surround speakers *g*)

unfortunatly bluray-sound is not that dynamical than in cinema (intentional compartibility-post-production to homecinema)

[Taro]

There's definitely a big difference between lossy audio (Dolby Digital, DTS, etc) and lossless audio (Dolby True HD and DTS HD MA). I noticed that dialogue is much clearer on lossless audio, sound effects (including ambient noise) are much better defined and LFE has more oomph.

Whenever I watch a Blu-ray that has lossy audio only, I notice I need to crank up the audio volume to approximate the power of the lossless codecs but even by doing that, the clarity remains a notch under lossless audio.

For reference, the setup I use is:
- BD player: PS3
- receiver: Onkyo TX-SR607 (decodes lossless codecs and supports up to 7.1ch)
- speakers: B&W M-1 in a 5.1 configuration
- subwoofer: B&W ASW608

[DonnieDarko]

I agree with Taro, dialogue is crisper and clearer and some effects come out much better with TrueHD

Donnie