opinions on a couple of things.....

I'm just curious to see what some of you guys think about some of these choices you're presented with when it comes to a "home theatre experience."

First, when you have your receiver, you are given many different options as far as what kind of surround you'd like to use. You get your basic Dolby Digital and DTS choices, which, depending on the DVD, may be encoded with an -EX or -ES format. But besides that, you have your THX modes (on certain receivers), or Advanced Surround modes (television surround, games, enhanced, etc...) or your DTS-NEO 6 cinema or music options, then you also can choose Dolby Pro Logic II or IIx depending on your configuration....and the list goes on and on and on. My question is: do you prefer to listen to your movies in whatever the DVD is encoded in, without the extra enhanced surround modes, or do you choose one that sounds "better" to your ears?

Next, when it comes to anamorphic widescreen and non-anamorphic pictures, I assume we all know the difference. My question here is: Do you watch your non-anamorphic DVDs in a zoom or stretch mode, filling in the entire screen, or would you watch it with all the black bars on all 4 sides.

My preference is, with a full frame movie (The Shining, Eyes Wide Shut, etc...) I'd watch it with the bars on the left/right, as the 1.33:1 aspect ratio was intended, but a 2.35:1 or 1.85:1 movie in non-anamorphic video needs to be stretched. Although it looks a tad worse, it's better than watching it on the middle of a 52" screen! Some DVD players offer a Zoom fit or Screen fit option, and some TVs offer different zoom features. Again, I'm curious as to what your preferences are, and not really what's considered video/audio blasphemy. :) You guys are all too mature for that, so I know I'll get some great feedback.

I only ask because I recently upgraded my system (moved out of my folks house and into my kingdom of audio/video bliss) and am very curious about all these different options.

Thanks in advance for anyone's feedback!!

-Dave

On the audio question, I generally prefer DTS, but even so, and when it really comes down to the truth, I just prefer what sounds better to my ears.

On video, I really can't give a definate answer as I do not own a widescreen digital monitor. I still have to suffer with black bars on top and bottom no matter if it's in Animorphic or not. However, I have gotten so used to it over the years that I really have no complaints and prefer to see any film in its original aspect ratio, black bars or not.

Tim

Dave,

I personally try to recreate what the director's vision was. I'm with Tim on the audio, I generally choose "DTS" when available. We've discussed the whole DTS vs. Dolby Digital surround thing on the boards before, and it was decided that DTS is a little more "boomy", and or recorded a bit louder, but ultimately, like anything else, it's subjective.

As far as the aspect ratio goes, I try to keep that as raw as possible too. I don't mind the "bars" so much, but I have to say, there is something to be said for being able to completely fill your wide screen. I'm lucky enought to have a 7.1 surround system with a 12" sub in the front of the theater for the front channels, and a 10" sub in the rear for the rear channels. My 51" Sony 16:9 projection has a few modes to choose from, but I find that when I want to watch a movie, going through and changing everything on my receiver, the ratios on the TV, and everything else, it becomes a huge hassle compared to just leaving everything as is, and watching it as the director intended. :)



- Josh

Italy12: Keep in mind, not all dvd's that offer DTS and Dolby tracks are actually offering two different soundtracks. Most of the times the sound bitrate is the same for both formats on the same disc. I Used to know a page with all the discs out there and their sound bitrates. Not many dvd;s are using the full range of dts. I Would recommend a good DVD-Audio disc containing a dts track to fully understand dts's range. - EXTERNAL LINK - has a wide variety of dts recordings. Also try amazon.com
As for music converted in realtime by the amplifier in a 5channel sound enviroment, i believe its all mumbo-jumbo. Im not sattisfied with the effect. When music is intended to be heard in 5.1 its different than taking a stereo source and splitting information to five speakers.

Way back in 1975 Herbert Von Karajan recorded with the Berlin philarmonic orchestra Mozart's Requiem. It was recorded and mixed down to four channels to ensure faithfull quadraphonic reproduction of the orchestra and the Berlin hall reverb. Even with today's new technology in sound recording, nothing even comes close to the re-issued SACD of the 1975 Requiem mass, by far the best requiem recording ever.
All im saying is that the source must be as close as the playback format. Jurassic Park's was the first movie to offer digital surround and dts in theaters and its dvd came out in two versions, a dolby ver and a DTS version. They are very different.
In movies like The Mummy there is no difference whatsoever, because the dts soundtrack is a dolby digital converted one with the exact same souind bitrate and dynamic ranges.

S Coaster: thanks for the info. I am aware that is hard to come by a full bitrate DTS track here in the states. Although I do hear differences wiht 5.1 and DTS, I know it would be much more pronounced if it were a full bitrate DTS as compared to the half that we get, which I still believe, is more than a good 5.1 mix anyday. The only difficult time I had telling the difference between 5.1 and DTS was in older movies, like Planet of the Apes, which has one of the worst DTS tracks I've ever heard, and completely had no surround involvement whatsoever.

Do you happen to know the website with all of the specs for DVDs? I'd love to check it out and see what's really out there! Thanks again for the info!!

-Dave

I don't have a WS TV. Is "stretch mode" a zoom feature, chopping off parts, or does it really stretch the picture, making things look fat or skinny?

mra: a widescreen movie measuring a 2:35:1 ratio will look "stretched" if one tried to fill a standart TV screen. If u try to zoom on it to fill your screen it will resault into lower quality image. Plus you will be vieweing almost 1/3rd of the picture intended to be watched.

There is a really great website that compares widescreen vs. fullscreen: - EXTERNAL LINK - ;)

mra: S_Coaster is correct in that most zoom features crop off a certain part of your picture. Certain TVs, however, have multiple functions that let you decide how much to chop off, if any. In addition to that, some DVD players have a function that is entirely different than the zoom feature. For example, I have a Samsung DVD player that upconverts the DVD to "near hi-def" quality with something like 1080p or 1080i (I forget, but anyway...) and it has a mode, in addition to the zoom, that is called "EZ Wide" which chops off very little. With an anamorphic picture, it is not necessary to use, but with a non-anamorphic DVD or a full screen DVD, it is up to the user to see which one looks best without sacrificing a lot of the picture. The TV I have also has 5 more modes of viewing which can complicate decisions even further!! It has a FULL mode, which just stretches non-anamorphic to fill the screen, so 2.35:1 aspect ratios, which are wider and have more black bars on top and bottom, will look even more stretched, and have lots of black on top/bottom on a 16x9 TV. It also has a NATURAL function, which gives you your bars on the left/right so your picture looks exactly as it would say you were watching it on a 4:3 TV. Then there's the THEATRE WIDE 1, 2, and 3, which are all different in the the way they crop pictures and whatever! So, coming to a final decision on which one looks better, may take as long as the movie itself! :@

And S_Coaster is also absolutely correct in that a non-anamorphic picture, stretched any way you like, will never look as good as an anamorphic picture, as they are meant to fill the screen. I have, however, had a chance to view "The Black Hole" and although the version I saw was not anamorphic, when blown up with whatever zoom feature I used, it looked damn good!! I can't say the same for movies like "Armageddon (Criterion Collection)", "Event Horizon", or "Days of Thunder" which are non-anamorphic.

Good luck with your experimenting! And thanks to Michael_B2004 for the website, I'll check it out!

-Dave