Universal wants lossless DTS-HD MA to become Blu-ray audio standard

[rex]

The first wave of Universal Blu-ray Disc titles on July 22 are all from the Mummy franchise and were all previously released on HD DVD: The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King. All of these titles were published with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 audio tracks, but not Dolby TrueHD tracks. Per Universal, all three Mummy films will include DTS-HD Master Lossless Audio. That's right, folks. Instead of lazily porting over what was already completed for HD DVD, Universal has heard your cries for lossless audio and is taking action. Universal went on to tell us that the game plan moving forward is for DTS-HD Master Lossless to become the Blu-ray standard at the studio. Obviously there will be exceptions, but it looks like the majority of titles, and probably all new theatrical titles, will include DTS-HD.

http://www.themanroom.com/news/Exclu...dio_Plans/2651

[deacongreg]

Rex,

That is certainly great news.

[kennyt]

So do I, I hope this takes off!

[rex]

Since Paramount's new releases will all have Dolby TrueHD, this means that new releases from most major studios will now have some form of lossless audio (either DTS, Dolby, or PCM).

[kennyt]

I think that ALL Blu-ray discs need to have one lossless audio format on them, DTS HD MA seems to have the upper hand from an audio standpoint, but either will work.

I think if the discs continue to come out with only DD and DTS (lossy) Blu-ray will lose the main advantage it has once downloads go to 1080p....

[rex]

Originally Posted by kennyt

DTS HD MA seems to have the upper hand from an audio standpoint...

Since both Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA are lossless, theoretically they should both identically reproduce the original master LPCM, shouldn't they? Still, I have heard others also claim that in practice DTS-HD MA sounds better. I know that Steven Spielberg (one of the original backers of DTS) claims that audio quality is far more important than visual quality to the overall cinematic experience.