Best 5.1 DVDs?

[Rob Not Bob]

Hey, there,

Through circumstances I still haven't figured out, I somehow managed to win a home theatre system at work. This 5.1 surround business is still new and exciting to me, and I was wondering if people could reccommend which DVDs make the most cool usage of 5.1 . Movies or concert films are both of interest.

[Jaimoe]

Do you have a DTS option? DTS is normally better than 5.1, although both use 5 speakers.

Anyway, some of the best sounding movies I've ever heard are:

The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy, extended verions - DTS 6.1

The Kids Are Alright - DTS

Led Zeppelin - DTS (the double disc concert release from three years ago)

Monterey Pop Criterion Collection - DTS

Star Wars - both series are in 5.1 EX

Any Pixar movie, particularily Finding Nemo or The Incredibles

My Morning Jacket "Okonokos" - 5.1

[Rob Not Bob]

I wasn't sure what the difference between 5.1 and DTS, but yes, it does have both options. Thanks for your help ... what exactly makes it better?

[Jaimoe]

DTS uses more bits and generally offers better audio, although 5.1 EX is a rival and is just as good. 5.1 is excellent too, but not as explosive and lags a bit with fidelity, especially in older movies.

[Mr. Photogeek]

I agree with all the ones Jaimoe said...I'd add off the top of my head:

The Matrix (any of the shoot-outs are killer)

Gladiator

Jurrasic Park

[Jaimoe]

I think another thing you have to know is that not all 5.1 and DTS audio sound better than the original audio track. Movies done in mono will often sound better in mono. You can't always force 5.1 into an original 2-channel stereo movie and make it sound good either. However, all DVD's offer audio options, so you can test the theory yourself.

[Booche]

I love Yoshimi in 5 pt one.

[The Chameleon]

Grateful Dead- Closing of the Winterland 1978

[Jaimoe]

Grateful Dead- Closing of the Winterland 1978

Excellent use of DTS!

[Ms.Huxtable]

One of the most memorable 5.1 surround sound expereinces I've had at home was watching the Band of Brothers DVD set. The bullets sounded like they were coming from behind me and it was just so realistic and frightening.

Oh and THE BEST expereince is The Beatles Love. Crank that ma fucker.

[AD]

Oh and THE BEST expereince is The Beatles Love. Crank that ma fucker.

your edit beat me to that in seconds!!

[Jaimoe]

I concur with Ms Hux regarding Band Of Brothers. Intense and exciting use of DTS and it rivals or beats any war feature film.

[Esau.]

Also check out on some of the torrent sites for some live shows that people have made into 5.1/DTS. There are some really good fan made DTS recordings out there.

I found this one a couple years back and the difference is amazing. Of course, I wouldn't say its equal to studio release quality, but it does surpass most other SBD and AUD recordings I have. Some folks do some amazing things with this stuff.

Grateful Dead

Hampton Coliseum

Hampton, VA

October 9, 1989

DTS-Audio-CD 5.1 Mix

Front Left Left Channel SBD: PCM (analog out) > DAT

Front Right Right Channel SBD: PCM (analog out) > DAT

Center Mono Mix -5db SBD: PCM (analog out) > DAT

Surround Left Left Channel FOB: Schoeps CMC641 > DAT

Surround Right Right Channel FOB: Schoeps CMC641 > DAT

Sub/LFE Mono Mix -4db SBD: PCM (analog out) > DAT

http://www.phishhook.com/view/details.php?recID=5376425

[Rob Not Bob]

Weird thing is the system I got (Sony Dream System) says specifically it does *not* play DVD-Audio ... disappointing, but I couldn't beat the price.

[Kanada Kev]

was that the system that BestBuy was selling cheap a couple of weeks ago??? $249 instead of $499 or something?

I ordered one, but was disappointed when I found out that only the European versions of the model were able to play DIVX files! FUCK.

I promptly returned it. Other than that, it was a great little system for a smaller room.

[Rob Not Bob]

Not sure, could be ... as I said, I won it, so I didn't have to pay for it, and so far it sounds great in our living room, plus it plays all the discs I need it to play.

[Kanada Kev]

Right on. You probably got one of the higher grade dream systems. Good stuff. Can't beat the price when you win one!

[Rob Not Bob]

I know I started this thread, but just wanted to say that the Marillion concert DVD Marbles On The Road plus Blackhawk Down are both proving to have awesome surround sound.

[Kanada Kev]

I've got a bunch of albums that have been encoded in DTS 5.1 and some original Quad mixes that have been transferred to DTS. You just burn them to a CD and play them on a DTS capable player (like your new DVD machine). If you're interested, let me know and I can send you a bunch of them on a couple of DVDs.

[Rob Not Bob]

I've got a bunch of albums that have been encoded in DTS 5.1 and some original Quad mixes that have been transferred to DTS. You just burn them to a CD and play them on a DTS capable player (like your new DVD machine). If you're interested, let me know and I can send you a bunch of them on a couple of DVDs.

Sounds cool, I will e-mail my home address.

[richbass]

Check out the new STS9 DVD, its seriously amazing in 5.1, now all you gotta do is groove.

[larry_llama]

Kev, what quad mixes do you have? I was just coming in here to offer up a dark side quad for testing purposes... but you probably already have that...

[CyberHippie]

Darkside in quad DTS is one of the most magical things I've heard, it's literally like puring liquid candy into your ears. I also have Wish You Were Here, Nashville Skyline and Allmans at the Fillmore in DTS. Actually I think I have a Beatles album too.

DTS surround is a great way to listen to music.

I wish I could find the Dead mixes, I think there is a DTS for Working mans dead, and American Beauty.

I have a Dave Matthews and Friends show that someone mixed into dts quad. It was pretty good, but I really had to tweak my surround settings to get it to sound half decent.

--edit--

I just found Headhunter and Graceland! Definitely look forward to listening to these two in surround. I anticipate Chameleon blowing my mind!

Edited April 26, 2007 by Guest

[Kanada Kev]

Headhunter is AWESOME in quad!!!

DTS and Quad are different. True QUAD was utilized in the 70s to record certain albums. Actually, it was a mixing format. Often the quad mixes of albums differed slightly from their stereo counterparts. You needed a special receiver and speaker setup to enjoy the full effect. Four sources for sound separated from 2 tracks.

DTS is a way of mixing 6 discrete channels (l,r, rl, rr, centre, sub) Some are done at the mixing level from the master multi-track recordings. A lot of people are making their own 5.1 mixes with computer software. Many of these sound like shit, but a lot are pretty damn good. THey are done from stereo sources and not "true" 5.1 mixes.

I didn't get a chance to compile a list of the ones I have, but I'll try again tonight when i'm at home.

The Grateful Dead mixes you are talking about are another type of 5.1 mix called DVD AUDIO. With DVD AUDIO there is NO compression. DTS, however, has compression elements introduced to the mix (kind of like comparing an MP3 to FLAC) Workingman's and American Beauty are INCREDIBLE. It's like the band is playing right in front of you. Each player getting their own speaker in front with crazy rhythm and fill coming in at you from all sides.

You have to make sure that your DVD player can play DTS (all new ones do know) otherwise the DTS CDs sound like static

Edited April 26, 2007 by Guest

[larry_llama]

Here's a question... is there a way to convert dts encoded data to ac-3 encoding? I suppose DTS is the norm for these quad rips because the compression quality is better for music than ac-3?

The reason I ask is that my current receiver only understands pcm and ac-3, and my dvd player doesn't have a built-in decoder.

I suppose the computer can do the DTS decoding work though so maybe it's a non-issue