err questions....... 1. What the hell is the difference between DTS and Dolby Digital Surround? 2. Why doesnt the DTS ever come on? Is it only rigged for certain movies? 3. Which is better...... An optical connection or straight A/V (red, blcak, and yellow plugs) ??? 4. Why do I have to turn the volume on my amp up almost halfway (Its a 100 W Technics) in order to hear a movie? Thanks for any help......
I'll try to keep this short and sweet... 1. DTS and DD (or AC-3) are two competing 5.1 surround technologies. They are pretty much the same; they really only differ in the audio codec and bitrate. AC-3 was the technology picked as part of the DVD video specification, so ALL DVD discs have a DD soundtrack (although this may be misleading, it might be an older Dolby Stereo soundtrack in DD format)...DTS soundtracks are optional, but even those have AC-3 soundtracks. Some swear that DTS sounds better due to it's higher bitrate, but to be honest, I couldn't tell the difference if my life depended on it...its just a matter of preference, I guess. 2. Just because you have a DTS disc, though, doesn't mean that you can play it. You also have to have a DVD player that can play them (most do nowadays), as well as a DTS decoder. In addition, you might have to enable DTS in your player for it to work properly... 3. This depends. If your DVD player has a better D/A converter than your receiver, you may want to connect to your preamp's analog inputs using standard RCA cables (I do). For decoding a digital soundtrack, however you have to connect digitally. There's really no difference in the end. They're the same bits; any interference or noise in the line will not affect playback because its going to be taken out when its decoded. Some say that's not the case and prefer the optical outputs, since electromagnetic fields don't disturb the signal... *If you have a decoder built into your player, you can also connect directly to your analog inputs on the amp, but there is a greater chance of interference here...just keep the cables as short as possible... 4. I noticed this too a long time ago, but really don't give it much thought anymore...that's a good question. My guess is the output on DVD soundtracks is of a lower voltage than a CD player... Anyway, hope this helps... For more you might check out "How Stuff Works". Great site...
