MD: DTS and THX
This is a little off topic (so what else is new?). I'm interested in your opinions of the quality of DTS and THX. DTS (Digital Theater Sound) is Spielberg's standard and involves special decoding as I am sure most of you know. While THX is belongs to Lucasfilms and is a standard rather than specifically encoded information. There is now also THX-EX which adds an addition matrixed surround speaker and can be set up with a separate 2 channel amp as 7.1 sound (I've never heard this set up yet). I don't see a mass growth of DTS even though the price of receivers which have DTS decoders keeps dropping and the number of units with them increasing. I only have a few DVDs that are DTS encoded and have not been personally blown away by their sound. I am actually more impressed with THX (I have a THX certified receiver). I still find it amazing that the defunct quadraphonic sound of the 70's has found a rebirth since the advent of the home theater. To get on topic. What do you see the future of MDLP as? This is just my humble opinion, but outside of Japan I really don't think it will catch on. It's a matter of too little too late. To me MDLP seems to be a desperate attempt by Sony to compete with the extremely long playing time of an MP3 CD or player. There has been enough criticism (unjustified in my humble opinion) the loss of sound quality do to ATRAC as it is. To further increase that loss seems pointless to me. I wonder if MD would have stood a better chance if Sony had "gotten it right" the first time around and not released the Mini Disc until it had the quality of at least their ATRAC version 3.5. Sony is one of the biggest marketers of planned obsolescence. When they first came out with their original Beta Cam (which was a record only system-you had to use a separate VCR to be able to play the tapes) auto focus was already popular on the 2 piece VHS cameras. But Sony intentionally left it off of their first version. I guessed correctly that when they introduced their second version a year later it included this feature at no additional cost. I'm not a big fan of Sony. I am frankly resentful of how they grabbed a major portion of the US music and film industry. I realize that the greed of the American industry had something to do with allowing that to happen though. What really bothers me is that Sony is not capable of making better music or movies than Americans are. They still use all of our American talent. They just own the company. If Sony had to depend upon it's own talent to create they would have been out of business in a week. Unlike the auto industry where the Japanese "killed" the US in quality, (the US has been spending years trying to catch up to the Japanese) the Japanese do not have the creative talent of Hollywood. While I am on the subject, do you realize how much revenue and jobs (not so much the high end/high paying directing, writing and acting as the poor technical people like electricians) the US is losing to Canada because of the tax breaks that the Canadian government gives US companies to produce their programs and films in Canada. It's too bad that it is the "little people" being hurt by this. Canada has lost hundreds of their most talented actors to the US over the years and lost the taxes they could have collected from their incomes. So if Canada had started it's own Hollywood with their own companies and started getting talented American actors to move to Canada from the US, that would be justified. But they are using our talent and high pay people. An actor can afford to spend months making a movie in Canada and coming back to the states to be with their family as often as they want. But the production people can't afford to do that. And I don't think Canada wants them to. They want to use American companies to gain employment for Canadian production people. Wiseguy, Millennium, Highlander (when they weren't in France), The X Files (until their 4th season when they began shooting in LA) and dozens of other "American" TV shows are filmed in Canada. Just my ten cents (inflation). Larry - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: MD: DTS and THX
Whoa there cowboy To get on topic. What do you see the future of MDLP as? This is just my humble opinion, but outside of Japan I really don't think it will catch on. It's a matter of too little too late. To me MDLP seems to be a desperate attempt by Sony to compete with the extremely long playing time of an MP3 CD or player. First off. MDLP is what long play was to home vcr's. Nobody ever raved about it, but eventually we all ended up using it. Recording 8 hours of video on a 4 hour tape? Pretty cool. Same with MDLP, people want more music together with less space. It will make it big, especially for MD enthusiasts and people who want practical solutions. And besides, MDLP remains an option, not a must have. And so what if an MP3 cd player can play 10 hours of music? It can't record music by itself, and the media is bulkier and in some aspects more fragile. Besides, MD equipment looks nicer and more futuristic. Hehehe. Now for part two... There has been enough criticism (unjustified in my humble opinion) the loss of sound quality do to ATRAC as it is. To further increase that loss seems pointless to me. Most modern Minidisc players/recorders really ARE indistinguishable from ordinary cd. This has been proven in high quality testing labs. The whole MD quality versus Cd quality thing really is wearing thin. There are a few very rare cases where the atrac compression has gone bad, but they are, like I said very rare. Atrac compression compared to mp3 compression is heaven sent. Mp3 compression (anything under 160 kbps) lends itself to distorting music. This is very clear when listening to a song with very high treble sounds. The effect also known as the "bubbly" sound also gives problems. When playing mp3's through a high end system, you can clearly hear the bubbly sound in the background. This can even be heard with some commercial mp3 encoders. If you do a nice digital copy of a piece of Dance, or classical music, to minidisc, you won't hear the difference when comparing it to the original cd. That leaves room for MD technology to actually downgrade the quality of the music, thus fitting in more music on one disc. MD long play mode 2 is actually almost comparable to standard atrac, which is still pretty good quality. MD long play mode 4 does leave noticeable artefacts, but is still perfect for every day to day use. Ask yourself: Is compression quality really everything when it comes to normal use? If a person records a mp3 from his pc to MD (analogue or digital) the noise artefacts heard on the song comes from the mp3 compression. In that case MDLP 2 or MDLP 4 is perfect. Why use standard MD bit rates when a lower one will suffice without loss of quality. Also remember that unless you have a VERY expensive pair of earphones, the frequency response also affects the quality that you actually hear. Md recorders have come a long way. Look at the Sharp Mt-77 for instance. It can easily hook up with your pc, for digital mp3 to md transfers, and even allows you to label your disc's from the pc. It can basically do what most mp3 players can do, but the media is cheaper, when compared to solid state music players. I wonder if MD would have stood a better chance if Sony had "gotten it right" the first time around and not released the Mini Disc until it had the quality of at least their ATRAC version 3.5. The next step for the Minidisc market, is to start bringing out players/recorders that also uses MD High Density discs. These discs can store around 640 megabytes, while a standard MD only holds 160 megabytes. Now imagine MDLP combined with High Density minidiscs. In theory such a disc could hold 300 mins of standard atrac compression, and 1200 mins of MDLP 4 musicIn theory anyway. That will give you close to 20 hours of music. Just my 2c worth. Gerard Naude E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Always remember you're unique, just like everyone else. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: DTS and THX
Gerard Naude wrote: First off. MDLP is what long play was to home vcr's. Nobody ever raved about it, but eventually we all ended up using it. Recording 8 hours of video on a 4 hour tape? Pretty cool. Same with MDLP, people want more music together with less space. It will make it big, especially for MD enthusiasts and people who want practical solutions. Yes but some day when they finally allow the release of cheap recordable DVDs, video tapes will start to die down. Pre recorded DVDs are one of the fastest growing media ever released. Most modern Minidisc players/recorders really ARE indistinguishable from ordinary cd. I agree with you 100% TMd recorders have come a long way. Look at the Sharp Mt-77 for instance. It can easily hook up with your pc, for digital mp3 to md transfers, and even allows you to label your disc's from the pc. It can basically do what most mp3 players can do, but the media is cheaper, when compared to solid state music players. Agreed again. The next step for the Minidisc market, is to start bringing out players/recorders that also uses MD High Density discs. These discs can store around 640 megabytes, while a standard MD only holds 160 megabytes. Now imagine MDLP combined with High Density minidiscs. In theory such a disc could hold 300 mins of standard atrac compression, and 1200 mins of MDLP 4 musicIn theory anyway. That will give you close to 20 hours of music. I'm one of the strongest supports of MD and one of the oldest )partially because I am probably older than most people on this list (52). I purchased my first Sony MZ-1 less than a year after MDs first came out. I still find the quality of even the MZ-1 acceptable for use in your car for example. Regards, Larry - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: DTS and THX
On Fri, 26 Jan 2001 07:14:29 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: This is a little off topic (so what else is new?). I'm interested in your opinions of the quality of DTS and THX. DTS (Digital Theater Sound) is Spielberg's standard and involves special decoding as I am sure most of you know. While THX is belongs to Lucasfilms and is a standard rather than specifically encoded information. There is now also THX-EX which adds an addition matrixed surround speaker and can be set up with a separate 2 channel amp as 7.1 sound (I've never heard this set up yet). I don't see a mass growth of DTS even though the price of receivers which have DTS decoders keeps dropping and the number of units with them increasing. I only have a few DVDs that are DTS encoded and have not been personally blown away by their sound. I've only got one DVD with a DTS soundtrack (T2 - Ultimate Edition), and I have to say the sound is truly awesome - I guess I don't have any like for like comparisons to make, but I find the sound on this DVD significantly more jaw-dropping than any of my other DD DVDs. Having said that, I live in the UK, and it's only been quite recently that the odd R2 DVD has included a DTS soundtrack (T2 - UE is a region 1 DVD), I suspect most of my DVDs are region 2, with perhaps around 25% being region 1. I am actually more impressed with THX (I have a THX certified receiver). I know you've alluded to it, but THX is just really a certification thing, the soundtrack on DVDs will still be either DD or DTS (for the foreseaable...). THX is just a certification of the equipment you use, alluding to the quality and integrity of the kit. Neil ___ Send a cool gift with your E-Card http://www.bluemountain.com/giftcenter/ - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: DTS and THX
Neil wrote: I know you've alluded to it, but THX is just really a certification thing, the soundtrack on DVDs will still be either DD or DTS (for the foreseaable...). THX is just a certification of the equipment you use, alluding to the quality and integrity of the kit. Actually it is a little more than that. THX Select to qualify must include specific enhancements (Timbre Matching, Decorrelation, Re-EQ, etc.)" There is not THX Surround which is a combined effort of Dolby and Lucasfilms. Larry PS. I've been thinking about "Twister" and yes you are right DTS is VERY impressive when fully taken advantage of. - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
RE: MD: DTS and THX
I'm one of the strongest supports of MD and one of the oldest )partially because I am probably older than most people on this list (52). I purchased my first Sony MZ-1 less than a year after MDs first came out. I still find the quality of even the MZ-1 acceptable for use in your car for example. Power to minidisc! Hehe. Gerard Naude E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: MD: DTS and THX
From: "las" [EMAIL PROTECTED] This is a little off topic (so what else is new?). I'm interested in your opinions of the quality of DTS and THX. THX is a set of quality standards being applied to Dolby Digital 5.1 surround recordings (as well as picture transfer quality) to make certain that a particular film or soundtrack or recording or piece of electronic equipment, etc. meets a certain criterion for quality of reproduction and fidelity to the original master recording. It is Lucas' attempt to bring some sort of standardization to an industry floundering in the flood brought on by the brave new world of digital surround formats and crying out for some ordo ab chao. DTS, on the other hand, is actually a surround sound encoding system which (at one time) seemed poised for a battle royale with Dolby Digital in a format war that threatened to rival that of VHS and Beta. But, it was not to be. By the time DTS was out of the gate, Dolby Digital was already established as the dominant player in the field, and the intervening years have done nothing to diminish that. However, there are many in the pro sound industry (both music recording AND foley) who insist that DTS remains the superior format sonically. I am personally VERY impressed with the actual DTS audio recordings I have heard. However, most of them have been live recordings (such as The Eagles 'Hell Freezes Over' on cd and dvd) which use the surround channels for little more than ambience. However, if you want to hear what DTS surround is really capable of, this is a recording you OWE it to yourself to hear. http://www.dmprecords.com/CD-804.htm It is a big band sampler recorded by Tom Jung's DMP Records which places you in the perspective of the band director standing in the middle of a big band which is semi-circled around you. The effect is nothing short of stunning and the recording is absolutely pristine. Check it out. It's an AMAZING recording and worth every dime. Don - To stop getting this list send a message containing just the word "unsubscribe" to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
