Help getting dts please

[sweetpants]

I have a receiver with Dolby Digital 5.1 and Dts decoder.

I have 2 front, 2 rear a centre speaker and a subwoofer.

I have my DVD player connected by a digital optical cable and although can get DD 5.1 fine when i choose Dts as my language setting on a DVD i get no sound out of the speakers.

Where am i going wrong?

SP

[RT]

Check your output is set to Bitstream on the player. Also, some players have a setup option to activate output of a DTS signal which is often off by default.

[MikeK]

Plus some early DVD players can't handle a DTS bitstream, they were DD only (as well as PCM/MPEG etc).

[sweetpants]

It was because I hadn't set my DVD player to Stream.

One other question though....what is the difference between Dts and DD 5.1?

SP

[ajm]

Now, that's a can of worms!

DTS uses a higher bit rate. DD say, they use better algorithms.

The 'best' DTS discs use 1500kbps. DD does 448 kbps (even reduced DTS is 750). So, if bit rate matters, then DTS is better.

However, there is more to it than that.

DTS is usually louder but once you get DD to the same level, *most* people agree that DTS sounds better, has a better soundstage etc.

With good equipment, DTS is better IMHO. On cheaper stuff, well it's impossible to tell.

Me and a friend did 'blind' tests on my equipment and his using the same film (I've got the 1500kbps dts version, they have the DD version). On my equipment, we both could tell which was DTS and which was DD almost imediately (used a SPL meter to ensure the volume was the same on both). On his system it was harder and we had to wait until specific parts of the film to determine the difference.