There are many who've spent thousands on a killer digital surround sound system to achieve the ultimate cinematic experience in the comfort of their living room. Yet, one of the most important steps to getting the best sound quality possible is so often overlooked, and it can make the difference between night and day when it comes to audio.
The DVD format is capable of holding several audio soundtracks at once, which is beneficial for the various kinds of home theater setups in the marketplace. While Dolby Digital and DTS capable receivers have become common in home theater setups, there are still several Dolby Pro-Logic receivers in service. Even worse, there are still those that forego surround sound and stick with good old TV sound. This is important to know because not all sound formats are optimized for your playback hardware. For those DVDs that carry multiple audio streams, bypassing any audio selection puts you at the whim of whatever the disc default is... and the default is sometimes good ol' 2-channel stereo.
When a DVD is first loaded, a menu screen will usually appear. What the screen looks like will be themed to fit the movie. Some menu's use a simple still image in the background with text choices, others are animated and use icons, while some are a combination of the two. There are some discs that do not default to a main menu, but rather start at the beginning of the movie. These few and far between discs are usually older DVD releases or bargain-bin selections. Hit the MENU key on your DVD player remote, and a menu will most likely appear.
One of the more common mistakes that users make is selecting the "play movie" button without navigating the other options in the menu. While many of the options presented are just bonus features or behind the scenes footage, other options can determine whether or not you hear the movie in 5.1 digital audio or plain stereo. These important options are commonly labeled "Setup", "Audio Options", "Language", etc. Every menu screen will use different text or icons, so be sure to navigate the menu choices thoroughly.
The Common Formats
Some DVDs may only present one audio choice in a given language, while others will present several. Many DVD titles present two choices, but there are some discs that contain three. So what should be selected when there are three choices in English? If the language is the same, the difference will be in the audio format. Below are the most common:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - This format is the defacto standard for DVD movies, and will be the most common option. In many cases, this will be the only choice on many different titles since it can be easily down-mixed into two channels for playback on TV sound systems or older analog audio systems. Major blockbuster hits may use the format Dolby Digital Surround EX in place of Dolby Digital 5.1.
Dolby Digital 2.0 (aka Dolby Surround 2.0) - Down-mixed Dolby Digital 5.1 signals offer poor audio performance on older stereo gear or Pro-Logic receivers. The presence of a Dolby Digital 2.0 signal is an optimized audio track designed for playback on analog components, and in turn will sound better than Dolby Digital 5.1 signals on these systems.
DTS - DTS is a 5.1 digital audio track similar to Dolby Digital 5.1, but is only playable on systems setup to decode DTS signals. While this used to be prohibitive in the early days of DVD and digital home theater systems, most receivers sold in the last 3-4 years have an on-board DTS decoder. DTS is believed to provide higher quality audio than Dolby Digital 5.1. Major blockbuster hits may use the DTS-ES format in place of DTS.
Selecting A Format
When selecting which audio format to listen to, don't choose based on what is believed to be the best sounding format, but on your playback hardware. Choosing the right format for your system will result in better sound quality.
Digital surround sound owners capable of playing DTS signals should choose DTS if the format is present, but this will only be available on select titles. Otherwise, choose Dolby Digital 5.1. It's important that your DVD is connected to the receiver using a digital or 5.1 connection to actually listen to digital surround sound.
Those who listen to movies using the TV speakers or a Dolby Pro-Logic receiver will actually get better sound quality by selecting the Dolby Digital 2.0 option. The 2.0 format is optimized for playback on analog systems. Most newer DVDs default to Dolby Digital 5.1, so it's important to check the settings before playback.
Getting the best sound always entails a little bit of effort, but doing so will provide you with the best presentation of the film, as well as provide value for those who have invested serious money in a digital surround system. Make every film the best it can be.
