What do you need to view high audio quality content on popular OTT platforms? Amazon Prime Video is another name that supports the Dolby tech.
It comes with support for Dolby Digital Plus and even Dolby Atmos. Netflix supports the 5.1 surround sound setup we discussed earlier. All in all, I would say, Dolby Atmos is winning this war against DTS:X as it’s widely available to general users through cinema halls and online streaming services. As for online streaming services, Netflix or Prime Video don’t support DTS:X but it may change in the future. Nowadays, affordable soundbars and speakers are also coming with DTS:X support but they are actually using DTS’ new Virtual:X tech that aims to simulate multi-dimensional sound without requiring overhead speakers or a multi-channel system. You need to buy the special audio system that comes with DTS:X support. The heavy-duty job of creating multi-directional sound is done by its object processor. However, DTS does not require users to have overhead speakers or height channels. Moving to DTS:X, it’s also a surround sound tech that creates an object-based sound environment. Thus, it can offer better audio quality even if the bit rate is low. the on-paper superiority of DTS is challenged by Dolby as it claims that its audio compression technology is more efficient than that of DTS. Things like signal-to-noise ratio and dynamic range are also factored in. If you are talking about audio quality then bit-rate is just one metric that helps you determine the quality of the audio. So do we finally have a winner? Not really. This is the top-notch, lossless audio offering by DTS.įrom the looks of it, DTS seems to be winning the DTS Digital Surround vs Dolby Digital battle.
This is the cutting-edge, lossless audio standard and is available on Blu-ray players where you have ample free space.ĭTS-HD Master Audio : Maximum bit-rate of 24.5Mbps in a 7.1 surround sound system. Mostly found on DVDs.ĭTS-HD High Resolution : Maximum bit rate of up to 6Mbps in a 7.1 surround sound system.ĭolby TrueHD : Maximum bit rate of 18Mbps in a 7.1 surround sound system. It’s the most common one and is found on CDs and DVDs (up to 778Kbps).ĭolby Digital Plus : Maximum bit-rate of 1.7Mbps in a 7.1 surround sound system. One thing to note is that Netflix can move up to 768kbps with Dolby Atmos mix.ĭTS Digital Surround : Maximum bitrate of 1.5Mbps in a 5.1 surround sound system. The most common one is found on online streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and more. Here’s a look at the popular audio standards offered by both technologies:ĭolby Digital: Maximum bitrate of 640Kbps (Blu-ray Discs) and 448Kbps (DVD) in a 5.1 surround sound system.
Compression level is another point that is considered. As a rule of thumb, if the audio has a higher bitrate, it will have a better sound quality and audio transparency. To put things into perspective, a high bitrate is one of the factors that is considered while determining the audio quality. The 6.1 setup involves the addition of only a single back speaker.īut some people regard DTS better than Dolby Atmos because it offers a higher bit-rate (640 kilobits as compared to 1.5 megabits in DTS). As for the 7.1 speaker scenario, two more speakers are added to the back of the room. The position of the subwoofer doesn’t need to be specific. In the case of the 5.1 setup, one speaker is placed in the center in front of the viewer, the other two speakers are placed at a 60-degree angle on both left and right sides, and the remaining two speakers are positioned at a 120-degree angle on left and right sides. The position of these speakers is critical in creating the surround sound effect.
That said, both Dolby Digital and DTS support 7.1 speaker set ups and 6.1 speaker set up as well. On the other hand, DTS uses the Adaptive Differential Pulse-Code Modulation (ADPCM) algorithm to bring down the audio file size.īoth make use of the 5.1 surround sound setup, where five are speakers and one is a subwoofer.
Dolby Digital encodes audio in the AC-3 format and it uses Modified Discrete Cosine Transform (MDCT) algorithm to compress audio and reduce the audio footprint. Dolby Digital vs DTS: What are the differences?īoth Dolby Digital and DTS use audio compressing tech to reduce unnecessary audio data while providing high-fidelity audio output.