Audio is an important factor to consider when choosing which of the competing high-def disc formats to buy into - HD DVD or Blu-ray Disc. Nick Flood explains the differences and the options
To conform to each new HD standard, movies on disc must carry audio in specific mandatory formats. However, the sound can also be enhanced from the basic minimum in various ways.
The first HD DVD players released in the USA in April, by Toshiba, look to offer considerably better support for optional sound formats than the first Blu-ray Disc player – due from Sony. The Sony will, we understand, only support the mandatory audio formats and won't even be able to play audio CDs!
To help you make your choice, we include below the best available details we can find of the audio that will be used as standard in each format and what enhancements will be available to the audiophile if hardware makers build them in.
We've also provided links that let you find out more about the different audio formats. However, we'd advise you to take care because the information about audio provided by the Blu-ray Disc camp and the HD DVD camp isn't of the highest quality. And the same is true of Dolby and DTS and of the wider web - even Wikipedia comes up short.
Blu-ray Disc mandatory
* Dolby Digital (AC3) with 5.1 channels
* DTS Digital Surround 5.1 - 5.1 channels
* Linear PCM (lossless, up to 5.1 channels with sampling rate of up to 192kHz with 24-bit resolution)
Blu-ray Disc optional
* Dolby Digital Plus (increased bitrates - 640kbps - and 7.1 channels)
* Dolby TrueHD - also known as MLP Linear PCM (lossless with up to 7.1 channels, up to 9.6Mbps)
* DTS-HD Master (formerly DTS-HD) (lossy-to-lossless with up to 7.1 channels and increased bitrates, up to 192kHz/24-bit)
HD DVD mandatory
* Dolby Digital Plus (bitrates up to 640kbps and 7.1 channels)
* Dolby TrueHD - also known as MLP Linear PCM (lossless with two channels, up to 96kHz/24-bit)
* DTS-HD (core 1.5Mbps component compatible with current DTS 5.1 decoders)
HD DVD optional
* Dolby TrueHD - also known as MLP Linear PCM (lossless with up to 7.1 channels, up to 9.6Mbps)
* DTS-HD Master (formerly DTS-HD) (lossy-to-lossless with up to 7.1 channels and increased bitrates, up to 192kHz/24-bit)
Do you know any better than us about the audio capabilities of high-def disc? And will the difference in audio support steer you towards buying into one high definition disc format rather than the other? Let us hear your comments in the HEXUS.community.
