A modified time code is optically imaged on the film itself, and the DTS processor uses this to synchronize the soundtrack audio which is recorded in a compressed form on standard CD-ROM media (1.5 megabits/second). The timecode modifications allow identifying data that ensures that a certain film's soundtrack will only run with that film. Release-current "trailer" soundtracks are also recorded on most film DTS disks and also on separate trailer-only disks. DTS processors can hold 2 or 3 CDs to allow for 2-disk soundtracks and/or trailer disks.

DTS's main competitors in multichannel audio are Dolby Digital and SDDS. Only Dolby Digital and DTS are used on DVDs and implemented in home theater hardware. In home theater applications, DTS can use lower data rates of approximately 800 kilobits/second or less.

DTS is an enhanced copy (and, according to some movie industry insiders, a hacking) of a French patent called LC Concept first used in 1990 for the movie Cyrano de Bergerac.

DTS was first shown in the cinema with the release of Jurassic Park in 1993.

DTS as a codec

DTS is also the name often used for the 'Coherent Acoustics' codec which is used on DVDs, CDDAs and in wave files. This system uses a similar codec but does not require separate DTS CD-ROM media.

DTS variants

In addtion to the stadard 5.1 channel DTS Sourround codec, the company has several other technologies in its product range designed to compete with similar systems from Dolby Labs. The primary new technologies are:

• DTS-ES - Designed using technology from Dolby and more or less identical in practical use to Dolby Digital EX. DTS-ES contains extra information for a rear-center channel speaker (or two rear-center speakers playing in mono with 7.1 home theater systems) that can be utilized with the proper equipment. Home theater recievers and theatrical sound processers that are compatible with the ES codec can recognize "flags" built into the coding and "un-fold" the rear-center sound from data that would otherwise be sent to rear sourround speakers. DTS ES is backward compatible with standard DTS setups, so with non-ES equipment which does not recognize the flags or with ES enabled equipment that lack the extra speaker connections, sound plays back in 5.1 as if it were standard DTS.

• DTS NEO:6 - Neo:6, like Dolby's Pro-Logic IIx system, can take stereo and even some mono and multi-channel (5.1 or fewer channels) surround tracks and somewhat arbitrarily up-convert them into a 6.1/7.1 channel sourround configuration.

• DTS 96/24 - Mainly an upconversion system, DTS 96/24 can take audio sampled at lower rates (such as 16-bit PCM audio from CDs) and upconvert the sound, using the processor's on-board Digital to Analog converters, to 96Khz/24-bit multi-channel sound for added clarity and depth.

• DTS Interactive - DTS audio designed mainly for gaming, it is output in realtime and does not suffer from problems such as compression related degredation that in-game Dolby soundtracks sometimes do.

See also

• Home cinema
• Codec
• AC3
• Coherent Acoustics
• Dolby vs DTS

External links

• DTS technologies