| DTS and Dolby Get Nod For Blu-Ray, HD DVD |
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| Home Theater News Industry-Trade News | |
| Written by Jerry Del Colliano | |
| Thursday, 07 October 2004 | |
 DTS
and Dolby separately announced that they are going to be mandatory
surround sound formats on both the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats. The
surround sound format war between the two companies has been on-going
for years with Dolby being the established leader while DTS earned
marketshare in the world of DVD-Audio and especially in theatrical
releases.
With Hollywood considering new formats to deliver movies on discs with high definition video (720p or 1080i in most cases), the news now is that the audio is going to be equally high resolution and that neither of the two top formats will be left out of the specification. The winner is the consumer who can get a movie in the exact format (or who can choose the exact format) that was featured in the theatrical release from the comfort of their living room. DVD has been the single most successful format in audio-video history but like its older, more musical brother, the CD – the DVD is getting a little old for the HDTV crazy consumer market. And unlike surround sound music formats, Blu-Ray or HD-DVD are much more easily made into HDTV resolution, surround sound discs. The surround sound mixes need to be fine tuned for home use but that is a small job compared to trying to completely rethink the way a classic stereo record sounds for surround. The HDTV video element of the new discs is even easier considering that most modern films are archived on large format, digital video. Thus, to make them into HDTV versions, all a movie studio needs to do is a somewhat simple down-conversion. The process isn’t as easy as 1-2-3, but it is far easier and less political than the world of DVD-Audio or SACD. However, with even more storage capability the two new video discs offer the chance for music labels to potentially resell their music in ways not possible on the CD, DVD or DualDisc. Like this article? Bookmark and share with any of the sites below.        |
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