Perhaps the most controversial question asked in the context of DVDs is: does DTS sound better than Dolby Digital? As in so many debates, there is the strong position and the weak one. The strong position is that, yes, of course DTS sounds better. The weak one comes from those who have listened to both and, often shamefacedly, admit that they can't tell any difference.
Naturally, DTS advocates are in the winning position because they can say that they have heard a difference. The poor old Dolby Digital defenders look like they have cloth ears. But before we delve too deeply into the debate, let's look at what the two formats are, and where they came from.
Neither was developed for DVD. Both were intended to provide 5.1 discrete channels of digital sound in cinemas on 35mm film while remaining fully compatible with standard equipment. Dolby placed its digital sound track as optical marking on the edge of the film, between the sprocket holes. This left Dolby with a bandwidth of around 400 kilobits per second. Six channels of uncompressed CD-quality digital audio requires ten times this capacity, so Dolby developed AC-3, an MPEG-type 'lossy' audio compression system.
