Looking for answers and comments about sound and visual
08-02-04, 06:36 AM
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Looking for answers and comments about sound and visual
Hi ! I am a rookie who just start collecting DVD titiles. Questions start coming up in my mind once I know more about DVD technology and I am not if anyone has done this sort of comparison or not but I just post out anyway.
As far as I know, DTS offers higher data rates than Dolby Digital and hence should deliver better performance theoratically. Therefore I always choose DTS titles if available.
However, I am confused for the visual part. It seems PAL is generally better than NTSC even though NTSC performs better than PAL in some way (?). I wonder if the difference between these two is more or less sensible than the difference between DTS and Dolby Digital. Will the difference between PAL and NTSC get more significant if both under progressive scan ?
By the way, is a feature called superbit really improves the quality whether in PAL or NTSC ? Can it enhance the performance even if the movie is already under progressive scan ? The reason I ask is because it is much harder to get a superbit DVD in PAL than in NTSC and if it will not improve much then I only need to get a DVD player with progressive scan function and worry about superbit no more. Oh and I almost forget - is prgressive really that amazing ?
I found it much harder to analyze and understand the visual part than the sound part because the concepts and formats are much more and complex.
Although it only seems to be a decision making between sound and visual, the questions above really affect which region of titles I am going after since some DVDs has DTS only in region 1. Please remeber to mention the equipments which make you think one is better than the other.
P.S. I know the best way is to backup the sound and visual separately but it is just too costly and time consumable. Besides, I think I will never keep the original ones anymore but the copies instead since the only value left is cover and case ...
As far as I know, DTS offers higher data rates than Dolby Digital and hence should deliver better performance theoratically. Therefore I always choose DTS titles if available.
However, I am confused for the visual part. It seems PAL is generally better than NTSC even though NTSC performs better than PAL in some way (?). I wonder if the difference between these two is more or less sensible than the difference between DTS and Dolby Digital. Will the difference between PAL and NTSC get more significant if both under progressive scan ?
By the way, is a feature called superbit really improves the quality whether in PAL or NTSC ? Can it enhance the performance even if the movie is already under progressive scan ? The reason I ask is because it is much harder to get a superbit DVD in PAL than in NTSC and if it will not improve much then I only need to get a DVD player with progressive scan function and worry about superbit no more. Oh and I almost forget - is prgressive really that amazing ?
I found it much harder to analyze and understand the visual part than the sound part because the concepts and formats are much more and complex.
Although it only seems to be a decision making between sound and visual, the questions above really affect which region of titles I am going after since some DVDs has DTS only in region 1. Please remeber to mention the equipments which make you think one is better than the other.
P.S. I know the best way is to backup the sound and visual separately but it is just too costly and time consumable. Besides, I think I will never keep the original ones anymore but the copies instead since the only value left is cover and case ...
08-02-04, 03:46 PM
#2
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I hope I don't kill this thread before it even gets started.
I have heard both good and bad DD and DTS audio tracks. IMHO it is very subjective based on equipment and the mastering of the disc.
As far as video I cannot comment on a format (PAL) that I do not use or have access to. As to whether or not progressive is better, that again depends on the equipment and the source material.
Best of luck.
I have heard both good and bad DD and DTS audio tracks. IMHO it is very subjective based on equipment and the mastering of the disc.
As far as video I cannot comment on a format (PAL) that I do not use or have access to. As to whether or not progressive is better, that again depends on the equipment and the source material.
Best of luck.
08-02-04, 08:22 PM
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Bad about DTS while comparing to DD ? Well that's news for me ...
It is true that source material is very important as I have heard someone talked about how one movie in one region is better that in other regions too many times and we just cannot do anything with it.
However, we can at least decide what equipments to use in afordable range. Hence if appropriate equipments are being used i.e. DVD player and TV which supports progressive scan, does it really work better ? Or even though it still depends on brand of products ?
As I mentioned before, there are some movies that just don't have DTS or superbit or any other kind of advanced technology in some regions and since I get the chance to access both PAL and NTSC formats I found some movies such as Jurassic Park which has DTS only in NTSC format.
So the question is, with appropriate equipments, is it easier to distinguish the difference between DD and DTS or PAL and NTSC ? Or should I put it this way, how good the equipments have to be to distinguish the difference between DD and DTS and the different between PAL and NTSC in order to make final decision ?
It is true that source material is very important as I have heard someone talked about how one movie in one region is better that in other regions too many times and we just cannot do anything with it.
However, we can at least decide what equipments to use in afordable range. Hence if appropriate equipments are being used i.e. DVD player and TV which supports progressive scan, does it really work better ? Or even though it still depends on brand of products ?
As I mentioned before, there are some movies that just don't have DTS or superbit or any other kind of advanced technology in some regions and since I get the chance to access both PAL and NTSC formats I found some movies such as Jurassic Park which has DTS only in NTSC format.
So the question is, with appropriate equipments, is it easier to distinguish the difference between DD and DTS or PAL and NTSC ? Or should I put it this way, how good the equipments have to be to distinguish the difference between DD and DTS and the different between PAL and NTSC in order to make final decision ?
08-02-04, 09:17 PM
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Unless I missed it there's one thing you're overlooking. You say you have the ability to watch both PAL and NTSC sources but you don't say if either one of them is getting converted in order to display it. In other words you might have a region free DVD player that also converts PAL to NTSC or NTSC to PAL before its sent to either a PAL or NTSC display. This conversion will skew any results you're asking for unless you have a display that will show either PAL or NTSC without any conversion being done. The only true test would be to take a PAL release and play it back on a PAL player on a PAL display. Then take the same release as a NTSC version and do the same only with NTSC done the entire chain without conversion. Only then can you truly make an objective opinion based on which looks better to you.
For audio it's never an all or nothing answer. Because of the sound mix you could easily have a DD track that is better than the DTS track or vis versa. You really need to listen to each mix and decide which one is better for each release because you just can't make a blanket statement that one is better than the other.
For audio it's never an all or nothing answer. Because of the sound mix you could easily have a DD track that is better than the DTS track or vis versa. You really need to listen to each mix and decide which one is better for each release because you just can't make a blanket statement that one is better than the other.
08-03-04, 02:34 AM
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The TV I have can display both NTSC and PAL but I am not sure about the DVD player ... I thought it will works fine as long as TV is able to display both format without considering the DVD player but it looks like I was wrong.
So it seems the format and performance really depend on equipments a lot since most people only have either PAL or NTSC system.
If I am only talking about particular cases such as action movies, the catalogue I am most interested in, what audio in general is better ? Or does it still depend on lots of factors such as the sound mix, source of material, and the equipments ?
So it seems the format and performance really depend on equipments a lot since most people only have either PAL or NTSC system.
If I am only talking about particular cases such as action movies, the catalogue I am most interested in, what audio in general is better ? Or does it still depend on lots of factors such as the sound mix, source of material, and the equipments ?
