LD players with optical out; no AC3 rf; no DD?

Posted by Mike Silentwriter on September 26, 1998 at 01:22:46:

In Reply to: LD players with optical out; no AC3 rf; no DD? posted by SMR [WizOp] on September 25, 1998 at 20:09:05:

"Although it may seem DTS discs are more convenient, they do have their dangers, if you use the digital output with no DTS decoder you'll hear full-scale digital noise (nasty) and neither do they have an alternative digital soundtrack. Also, if supplementary materials are to be included (running commentaries etc.), there can be no matrix soundtrack at all - this is why Signature versions of Universal titles are released in Dolby Digital."

-Stuart

We shouldn't really care anyway if there is another digital track anyway when purchasing a DTS disc. The whole reason for getting the disc in the first place is...obviously for DTS. I think anyone is more than willing to live temporarily with the analogue tracks since they are discrete and are still significantly superior to VHS hi-fi stereo.

Now if we pretended that DTS was the only multi-channel system available, the philosophy behind it all is that people will eventually upgrade to DTS anyway. Using the analogue channels in the short run is a small sacrifice to have waiting for one's upgrade to glorious multi-channel sound. Take the Dolby Digital discs for example. People use the PCM tracks for a short time until they upgrade to a DD decoder. Once they get the DD decoder, guaranteed that 99% of the time they will never listen to the PCM track again, and to me that is a wasted amount of space that could have been used for multi-channel sound.
That is why I don't understand why people care so much about the fact that they can only listen to analogue L/R for the time being on the DTS disc. It is there to use temporary, or for other lesser quality uses. I really wish they would put DTS and DD on the same disc. I believe that most people who own laserdiscs buy it for the best quality (don't bring DVD into this issue - were talking about laser owners before DVD was available - but can still be applied to now), and that's why I also believe it gives people the motive to buy a DTS or DD decoder. Therefore, in a logical sense, I would really prefer to have DTS and DD on the same disc. I would be willing to sacrifice audio commentary, because most people will just listen to it once and that's it. Then again, in a dream world why don't we have DTS, DD, and audio commentary on the same disc b/c everyone has some kind of decoder. But I guess in this realistic world when people can be so bloody unknowledgable, ignorant and SLOW to new technology (not to sound mean), it wouldn't be 100% possible.

I just thought I'd add my $0.02 to the issue.

-Mike

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