Alas, we don’t have any pictures or video to archive our visit with DTS. The situation was that they invited us up to their suite for a demonstration on how DTS audio is encoded on discs using their DTS-MA encoding suite. We also had the opportunity to hear some “killer” audio samples.
While we were there, the folks at DTS treated us to pizza, beverages and fine hospitality. I wish to thank Michael Gilardi and Molly Kronberg (to name a few) for inviting us to this very personal presentation.
The DTS presentation was primarily a demonstration of the workings of their latest encoding software, which looked extremely efficient and virtually idiot proof given the complexity of options available. They started out with a slideshow primer on all of the various flavors of DTS used for home video, inclusive of the familiar 1509 kbps and 754 kbps varieties used on standard DVDs as well as the latest formats, represented in the extremes by the lossless DTS HD MA and by the very low bitrate variant (cannot remember the name) that is intended for applications such as secondary audio streams on Blu-Ray supplements.
We saw them do an encode from eight PCM files to a DTS-HD MA file with a DTS 1509 kbps core in real time, which was literally just a matter of a few minutes. They also demonstrated some of the features of the encoding software ranging from the obvious (selecting DTS "flavor", bitrates, and number of channels) to the more esoteric (specifying downmix parameters, isolating channels for monitoring before and after encoding).
The presentation was capped by a clip from the BD of Shoot 'em Up which sported a tear your head off DTS-HD MA track with lots of high volume activity in all 7.1 channels.
-Ken McAlinden, HTF
I've seen so many DTS demo rooms over the years that I wasn't too excited about their presentation. However, seeing how the tracks are actually encoded and the process was quite interesting. DTS spent a couple days getting the room set up and it provided an incredible soundstage. That clip of "Shoot 'em Up" convinced me to buy the disc, and I hope DTS puts that on next years demo disc. I've been a fan of DTS for years and they only continue to impress me with their encodes; now I have a working knowledge on what goes on behind the curtain.
Thanks to everyone at DTS for the demos and the nice spread!
-Pat Wahlquist, HTF
-Brendan Surpless
HighDefDiscNews.com
QUICK NAVIGATION LINKS
HOME OUR PRESENTATION ROOM ALLUMINATION FILMWORKS
SUMMIT ENTERTAINMENT FOX DIGITAL COPY (PART 1)
FOX DIGITAL COPY (PART 2) SONY ED BEGLEY JR. (PART ONE)
ED BEGLEY JR. (PART 2) THE “305” GUYS CLASSIC TV PANEL (PART 1)
CLASSIC TV PANEL (PART 2) CLASSIC TV PANEL (PART 3) PANASONIC PHL
HENRY JAGLOM DTS PARTIES AND PEOPLE
All photos taken and used with permission from Samuel Posten. Visit his website on
NAVESINK.NET and to see additional photos from this event be sure to check out
his flickr page.
Nobody beats DTS on hospitality at EMA or CES. Molly and her crew really set the standard in terms of treating visitors with consideration. The DTS folks were actually very interested in what we had to say about DTS and sound quality.
The other posts have covered the technical side of the DTS presentation in detail. All I can add is that it made me wish I was back in film school again so I could do a DTS soundtrack on my film projects. And those were the days of 16mm and Nagra recorders.
-Andrew Melomet, HTF
DTS has always been gracious to the Home Theater Forum members and this meeting was no different. Inside the Palms on the 29th floor of the hotel tower, DTS greeted us inside one of the rooms converted into their demo room and waiting area. The DTS staff- Laurie Castonguay, Molly Kronberg, Ronny Katz, Michael Galardi and Jake Ramirez were there to sit and talk to all of us before giving us their demo. The staff were very hospitable and had pizza, a variety of refreshments from soda to beer, even little things like setting out mini candybars. All to make us feel welcome.
As we were all waiting to enter the demo room, we were getting to know the DTS staff better, and they were getting to know us. Conversations ranged from movies to finding out about our careers. The staff were fascinated that even though we all shared the same interest in movies and home theater, that there was such a wide range of people and how all different we all were. Soon after we were brought into an adjoining room where their home theater setup was. A group of about twelve sat in and listened to one of the staff members describing all the different modes of DTS- DTS Express, DTS Digital Surround, DTS HD High Resolution and DTS HD Master Audio.
DTS Express, which is used in commentaries, in which we were shown an example from the Blu-ray of "Jumper" Probably the best presentation from most of our members was a computer program we were shown called the encoding suite. Which can help you with whatever system you have, either a 2.1, 5.1 or 7.1 and still keep it sounding the same. A very impressive program for any serious home theater enthusiasts. Lastly we were shown a gun battle scene from the movie "Shoot em' Up" which really shown their system off with all the flying bullets.
The DTS staff are always very nice and always make us feel welcome.
I Even had to go back the next day to personally thank them and spend an hour with them talking with them more.
-John Steffens, HTF
I also want to specifically call out and thank DTS for providing beer, wine, other beverages and snacks. And pizza. It was either delicious foresight or a happy accident that the pizza was warm from having recently arrived from La Famiglia, too. Either way, thank you.
-Paul Suarez, HTF
