From MusicTAP:

We should have known that it was coming. We just barely get over the heartbreak of SACD and DVD-Audio, when a new DTS standard is being touted. This new standard, referred to as DTS-HD (DTS High Definition Audio), which will be able to provide 7.1 channels of music and sound. Here's the catch...it is done via Blu-Ray and/or HD-DVD media. This means that you'll need a player to translate and a new receiver to pump it out. This will eventually lead to music discs that enjoy all of this freedom. The high-end offers 24.5 Mbps bitrate potential. Imagine what Pink Floyd might sound like coming through that.

Suggested speaker arrangement (personally I always put the sub on the right):

Very interesting quote here regarding the audio portion of video discs (emphasis mine):

DTS-HD Master Audio delivers surround audio that is indistinguishable from the original soundtrack or music recording. The new high definition optical discs have far more capacity than standard DVDs. This allowed DTS to develop a surround sound format to deliver surround sound at super high bit rates - up to 24.5 Mbps on Blu-ray discs and 18.0 Mbps on HD-DVDs that are vastly superior to standard DVDs. This bit stream is so "fast" or the transfer rate is so "high" that it can deliver Lossless Audio, a "bit-for-bit" recreation of the original recording. The result is 7.1 channels of audio that are identical to the original studio master. With DTS-HD Master Audio you will experience movies and music exactly as the artist intended.

A glaring omission in the hi-rez video formats is that the sound isn't equally hi-rez. But this sounds like they might offer DTS-HD audio for video the same way many DVDs offer "plain" DTS audio today. Imagine concert films and music video collections presented this way.

Spinal Tap to be issued in DTS-HD 8.2 channel

Actually, for the Tap wouldn't that be more like 8.3???

I hate to put a damper on the enthusiasm over this, but I paid a good chunk of change for the A/V set-up I have now. What's going to be next after 7.1? Are we going to keep going up exponentially until we croak? There's going to come a time when we are going to stop somewhere because of financial issues.

Depends where the law of diminishing returns kicks in for you. 6.1 and 7.1 have been readily available for a couple of years (not in the quality they show above of course). I've heard it at friend's houses (for movies ~ nobody I know has a quality A/V setup specifically for music ) and it does make for a more complete surround experience. Front, side, back rather than just front and back. If there were well-done, hi-rez, surround audio recordings available in this format, I think I'd enjoy owning a 7.1 setup.

'Course they could also fill in the spaces between a 7.1 setup with even more speakers and there'd be more control over exactly where the sounds are placed in the recording, but for me the extra cost and awkwardness of SO many speakers dotting the room probably would overshadow the little bit of extra spatial "correctness" that's gained, at that point. But it's down to personal taste, really. Some audiophiles stopped at two speakers. (Every time we post about a new multichannel disc at ICE, someone is bound to ask if there's a stereo layer.) I'll say that 7.1 seems like the upper limit of value to me, somebody else will say 10.2 is optimal, you might say that 5.1 is plenty ...

The most promising thing about DTS-HD ~ this excites me ~ is that it's one delivery format that works the same for Blu-ray or HD-DVD. If the companies could get behind this one hi-rez audio format and attempt to piggyback it onto Joe Sixpack's love of home theatres, who knows, maybe they'd actually have a chance of restoring the old dynamic for music buyers ~ you get the "LP" for quality listening at home, you use the lower quality portable format for bringing music on the go with you. They messed up SACD and DVD-A so badly, sometimes it feels like we ended up with a world of music buyers who use the "cassette" for everything. And I really enjoy the whole ritual of owning little discs of individual albums, conceived by the artists as specific collections of songs, with the artwork and liner notes and everything (not that I can actually read the notes without a magnifying glass anymore ), putting them in a collection, picking out what to play, sitting down to listen in front of dedicated machines which are specifically for music ... the whole experience. So I'm gonna root for them to do a hi-rez format that's successful.

1. I don't know about you, but one of the reasons I've stayed with good old stereo is because I can't afford 2 truly high end speakers (& 2 channels of true high end amplification), much less 6 or now 8!

2. I was never at all fond of the sound quality of the DTS LP's. Is this any better?

This is from DTS, will Dobly also presenting a format?

Again, how about straight pcm with the highest possible bit rate? We shouldn't need any sort of compression on hd or blu ray!

Last year I invested about $2.5K in a new Denon reciever and universal DVD player so I will sit out this latest hardware war for awhile.

Once Denon does make a true HD-DVD/Blu-Ray universal player that better be backward compatible with SACD/DVDA, then I'll re-do my system again.

Yes, Dolby ended up making an HD format too. Fortunately it's transparent to the end user ... every HD video player which supports one audio format also supports the other, and Blu-ray can carry either, so the competition isn't really relevant to the consumer.

Now I'm just waiting for the music companies to wake up and actually use this format for AUDIO ONLY RELEASES.

Meanwhile, here's more news from the DTS-HD front:

http://www.dailytech.com/PlayStation+3+ ... e11447.htm



PlayStation 3 to Support DTS-HD Master Audio

Marcus Yam (Blog) - April 10, 2008 9:20 PM

Further cementing its reputation for being the most capable and versatile Blu-ray Disc player on the market, an upcoming PlayStation 3 firmware update will introduce DTS-HD Master Audio and DTS-HD High Resolution Audio support to the console.

“PS3 was designed to enable delivery of new and improved technologies like DTS-HD Master Audio,” said Teiji Yutaka, SVP of Software Platform Development at SCE. “So we are delighted to be able to offer this capability to PS3 users.”

Like PCM and Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA can deliver audio presentation that are bit-for-bit identical to the original studio master. According to the press release, DTS-HD MA has the capacity to deliver audio at the incredibly high variable rate of 24.5 Mbps on Blu-ray disc, a rate significantly higher than standard DVDs. DTS-HD MA also offers 7.1 audio channels at 96k sampling frequency/24 bit depths.

Although DTS-HD MA isn’t as commonly used in high-definition movies as Dolby’s TrueHD scheme, the added support from PlayStation 3 could change things. Fox Home Entertainment has been one of the strongest supporters of the DTS format, releasing such titles as Live Free or Die Hard and Juno with DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtracks.

Should 50 GB be insufficient room for a lossless audio track, the option exists for DTS-HD High Resolution Audio lossy track which streams audio at a high constant bit rate of 6.0 Mbps on Blu-ray discs, and is also capable of up to 7.1 audio channels at 96k sampling frequency/24 bit depth resolution.

“We are extremely pleased that Sony Computer Entertainment is adding the full spectrum premium DTS-HD Master Audio codec into the PS3 so that more than 10 million owners of one of the best selling computer entertainment systems can have the best sounding, most efficient and flexible audio technology available as well,” said Brian Towne, SVP and GM Consumer Division at DTS. “DTS-HD Master Audio is fast becoming the must-have feature for high definition entertainment enthusiasts.”

The PS3 firmware, numbered version 2.30, is slated for release on April 15. The new firmware will also enable access to a newly renovated PlayStation Store.

This all sounds suspiciously like the old Steve Martin bit about "googlephonics" where he ends up with an infinite amount of speakers in a room because more keeps being better. When does it all end?

I did end up buying a Sony PS3 for Blu-ray since I last posted back in March 2007. Hard to believe a year went by.

The Sony PS3 turns out to be a great piece of machinery. It does Blu-ray and DVD really well. It is 2,0 profile (BD Live) and now will have the latest greatest audio codec DTS-HD Master Audio!!!

The only thing I haven't done with my system is incorporate 7.1 sound. I have no place for rear speakers. I prefer speakers on the side of the listening area anyway.

My system is actually 5.2 since I do have 2 subwoofers. One on the left and one on the right.

I can envision a system with a single, ring-like speaker that encircles the listener.

The next step after that: a room-sized speaker that you sit inside, with sound coming at you from all directions.

Didnt't there used to be a chair like Ven described - it was sort of egg-shaped, and I think it was only stereo, but it provided an essentially isolated listening environment. I had a hearing test once in a chair like that.

I vaguely remember a quad chair in the days of quad vinyl.

Add an orgasmatron to the chair and now we're talking!

I'd never leave the house.