The Myth - Avant Garde Collector's Edition

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 03 Nov 2005, 10:35

DTS stands for Digital Theatre System

brooce-leroy · Post by **brooce-leroy** » 03 Nov 2005, 11:37

donnarose wrote:OK, here's I go showing my ignorance : DTS means what exactly folks? Enlighten me!

I'd rather speak up and be thought an idiot than shut up and remain one!!

Are you a girl that likes HK movies?

Just seems that way going by your sig.

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 03 Nov 2005, 12:25

Haha nice one Leroy.

donnarose · Post by **donnarose** » 03 Nov 2005, 23:47

brooce-leroy wrote:
donnarose wrote:OK, here's I go showing my ignorance : DTS means what exactly folks? Enlighten me!

I'd rather speak up and be thought an idiot than shut up and remain one!!
Are you a girl that likes HK movies?

Just seems that way going by your sig.

Yup, I got hooked back when Bruce Lee was on "Green Hornet". I saw the first episode and was addicted to the series. It helped that Van Williams was cute and I was a kid, but I always thought the Chinese guy was waaaayy better than him.

So, now you know: I'm also probably old enough to be your Mom

and have been married to the same guy for 30years. Don't be fooled: I'm still young enough to play soccer every Sunday with the guys :twisted: .

brooce-leroy · Post by **brooce-leroy** » 03 Nov 2005, 23:58

Do you know Bobbi? Aka the68monkey?

donnarose · Post by **donnarose** » 04 Nov 2005, 00:39

brooce-leroy wrote:Do you know Bobbi? Aka the68monkey?

Nope. Where might I have met him?

Between that hubby of mine, work and 2 teenaged sons I don't get out much. Not even via the computer.

tom2681 · Post by **tom2681** » 04 Nov 2005, 03:20

-Do you know Bobbi? Aka the68monkey?
-Where might I have met him?

I believe that SHE was a regular at the JC forum a while back.

About DTS:
DTS stands for Digital Theater Sound. It is a sound compression/decompression system that was invented for Jurassic Park back in 1992.

But when it comes to DVD, DTS is just a codec (like MP3 or WAV).
It is one of the four codecs accepted by the DVD-Video standard.
There's DTS, Dolby Digital, Mpeg-2 and PCM (uncompressed sound).

To play DTS sound, you'll need an amplifier/decoder or a DVD-Player that can decode DTS.
Most people can't tell the difference between DTS and Dolby.
Still, DTS is less compressed than Dolby and provides better sound clarity.

There's Half-Rate DTS (768 kbits) and Full-Rate DTS (1536 kbits). The only difference between the 2 is that Half-Rate DTS sounds more muffled.

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 04 Nov 2005, 09:15

First before I verge totally off-topic... has anyone seen The Myth? I'm a sucker for S.E.s and stuff but... I prefer the film to be good aswell

(unless it's something wickedly cool like the L.E. gi-edition of a certain Korean movie - damn I forgot the name)...

Right... not to really get into this DTS vs DD thing again... but it's not universally taken that just because there IS a DTS track that it's better. Blind studies have been known to show that people prefer the soundtracks in THIS order on PROPERLY calibrated soundsystems;

Dolby Digital @ 448 kbps
DTS @ 1536 kbps
Dolby Digital @ 384 kbps
DTS @ 768 kbps

One thing to keep in mind is that DTS soundtracks usually are encoded with a higher sound level than DolbyDigital meaning that if you simpy switch between them your ears will perceive the DTS to be "clearer" and more "livid" simply because your system is putting out more oomph (I think about +2db though that may be wrong).

And just because it's less compressed doesn't mean it's better. AAC-HE at 128kbps sounds better or equal to MP3s at 192kbps...

Just like MPEG4-p10 (AVC/H264) looks just as good or better than MPEG2 at a "fraction" of the bandwidth.

Personally I'm not that found of DTS (especially in the theatre) and would really prefer DD@448 on DVDs simply because that would leave more space for video, and because the difference betweeen DD@448 and DTS-fullrate is neglicible at best. (Which you'll see in most "serious" dvd reviews thesedays I believe...)

In the end though, what makes this special is that they claim there's ONLY DTS on the Avant-Garde editions (which technically makes this NOT a real DVD, as DTS is not a mandatory soundtrack - they would need to tack on a MPEG2/PCM/DD2.0/DD1.0 soundtrack to qualify as a DVD-Video). So the important thing is to check that your DVD player can OUTPUT DTS (it should have the DTS logo) and that your AMP can decode DTS (it should have the DTS logo). If not, the A.G. version is probably the wrong bet.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 04 Nov 2005, 09:50

My DVD player/amp can "do" DTS (but I have to set the output to "Stream/PCM"). So thats OK then

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 04 Nov 2005, 11:17

I got this e-mail from Yes Asia today:

Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you very much for your support to YesAsia.com.

With reference to your recent order (3960749) placed on 30-Oct-05, we would
like to inform you that as confirmed by our suppliers, it is necessary for you
to possess DTS compatible equipment to play "The Myth (DTS Version) (Limited
Avant-Garde Collector's Edition)" (YesAsia Catalog No. 1004085071). If you do
not possess DTS compatible equipment, you will not be able to play the
captioned item.

Under such a situation, you are kindly requested to confirm whether you would
like to keep the captioned item in your order or replace it by any of the
below-mentioned version so that we can arrange to amend your ordering content
accordingly. For the detailed information of the other available versions
which do not require DTS compatible equipment, please kindly refer to the
following link: -

http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.as ... on-videos/
"The Myth (DTS Version) (Collector's Edition)"

http://global.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.as ... on-videos/
"The Myth (DTS Version)"

If you really need to replace your ordered version, please kindly reply this
email indicating your preferred version so that we can arrange for you
accordingly. If we do not hear from you by Nov 18, 2005, we will assume that
you would like to keep the ordered version and any claim towards a wrong
version will not be entertained.

We sincerely apologize if any inconvenience is caused. Should you have any
further inquiry, please kindly refer to our Customer Support Section at
http://yesasia.com/help/index.asp.

For better service, please kindly include this email when you reply.

Best regards,
Customer Service Department
YesAsia.com (Hong Kong) Ltd.
Within Continental US:
+1 866-440-8388 (Toll Free Phone)
+1 866-451-8388 (Toll Free Fax)
Within Hawaii: +1 888-851-8882
Within Canada: +1 866-468-0889
Outside US & Canada: +852 2522 1227(Hong Kong number)

I'm not going to bother with all the hassle - since I have DTS equipment I'll keep the version I have on order

thelostdragon · Post by **thelostdragon** » 04 Nov 2005, 19:59

I was about to post this. You beat me to it. I'll clearly chose the version for 14,99 as I'm not going to pay 15 Dollars more only so I can have a DD5.1 version without DTS. I'd rather chose to have it for a 5 Dollars less and a third disc less.

grim_tales · Post by **grim_tales** » 04 Nov 2005, 20:10

I thought they were all 3 discs?

I'm confused.
I'm not a big spender on LEs with fancy packaging so I'll keep this one

Just seems like too much hassle to change it.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 06 Nov 2005, 14:25

Is it only HK who've released this so far?

There is no 1 disc release right? I hate paying extra for extras I can't watch.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 07 Nov 2005, 19:42

Jeez the 2 disc standard version is only £8.99 from CD WOW. Nice!

I'd much prefer Full-rate DTS but don't like buying DVDs that will ONLY work on my setup. It's well dumb not to include a DD2.0 Surround track they take naff all space up.

I'll get the half-rate DTS version which also has DD5.1. Which annoys me as I'll never use the DD5.1 and no one else I know has 5.1 so a plain stereo track would be fine.

Sorry Gojensen I completely disagree, for me it's:

DTS @ 1536 kbps
DTS @ 768 kbps
Dolby Digital @ 448 kbps
Dolby Digital @ 384 kbps

Of course DTS @ 1536 kbps is technically better, it's less compressed. That's not rocket science. Sure it may not sound better (of which I disagree) though.

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 07 Nov 2005, 19:53

Any news if the extras will have English subs?

gasteropod · Post by **gasteropod** » 07 Nov 2005, 20:07

The 2-disc is £9.99 at CD Wow

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 07 Nov 2005, 20:55

Not after the 1 pound voucher it's not

Ricochan38 · Post by **Ricochan38** » 08 Nov 2005, 09:20

bradavon wrote:Any news if the extras will have English subs?

i read on a forum, that someone from that company said that all the extra;s will have english subs

but that would be a first, so i want to wait a bit, to see if its really true..

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 08 Nov 2005, 13:25

Thanks

gojensen · Post by **gojensen** » 08 Nov 2005, 16:19

bradavon wrote:Sorry Gojensen I completely disagree

Well I'm guessing if you turned down the volume by 2dB on the DTS tracks you would rank those differently - and besides, you are not disagreeing with me... I just posted results from a report I read while back. On MY system there's little difference between DD and DTS... though I do tend to prefer DD as it usually isn't so rough/edgy in the treble.

What I find adorable is people with crappy systems, or who view dvds on their computers that rave about DVDs that SHOULD have DTS...

Because I know that a crappy system never would allow one to notice a difference...

As for the DVD's... according to my search on YesAsia there are 4 releases.
2 disc DD/DTS
2 disc full rate DTS (Avant Garde)
3 disc DD/DTS (LE)
3 disc full rate DTS (LE Avant Garde)

It would be nice to know the exact contents of the 3rd disc... maybe it's just a tacked on OST?

bradavon · Post by **bradavon** » 08 Nov 2005, 18:37

Yeah I know; very, very few computer systems can come remotely close to a proper AV setup.

The thing is I've tried many times to turn the volume up when listening to DD5.1 to compensate and DTS still sounds better.

Certainly not allows though. The Two Towers: Extended Edition sounds EXACTLY the same. I'd think we were given two DD5.1 soundtracks if my system didn't tell me otherwise.

2 disc full rate DTS (Avant Garde)

How much more is this compared with the "2 disc DD/DTS"?

Thanks btw.

gojensen wrote:It would be nice to know the exact contents of the 3rd disc... maybe it's just a tacked on OST?

Isn't it yet more extras?

sky75 · Post by **sky75** » 09 Nov 2005, 13:54

Hi all,

This is my first post here and I hope you don't mind if I jump right in and give my opinion. Personally I'm a fan of DTS and generally find that it has a clearer, sharper, cleaner and more spatial sound than Dolby Digital. Admittedly on newer DVDs the gap has become increasingly smaller and on my current set-up the difference is negligible. However, if given a choice I would choose DTS nearly every time because to my ears it sounds more pleasing and no matter how good the best Dolby digital soundtrack is they haven't managed to better DTS soundtracks (for example: Saving Private Ryan, Hero, Terminator 2, Die Another Day).

I don't know how much set-up makes a difference between the two formats but my old Sony all-in-one used to reveal a huge between DTS and Dolby Digital. While my new Pioneer DVD player and Yamaha amplifier/receiver doesn't seem to offer much sound wise between the two formats.

I would love to buy the cheaper full bit rate DTS version of the myth but I just can't afford it at the moment. Besides Jackie Chan's most recent films have been well under par (I haven't seen a new police story yet), making it an expensive risk in my opinion.

Mordib · Post by **Mordib** » 09 Nov 2005, 14:47

welcome sky75, always good to have more opinion and input on the forums, enjoy your stay

on the DTS issue, all about the transfer... i like DTS over DD5.1 on the dvds i've owned with both, maybe my budget AV kit is just crap at DD5.1... whoknows ...

right, im now going to give the thread anothe read and figure out what this 'Myth' thing in the thread title is all about

sky75 · Post by **sky75** » 10 Nov 2005, 09:51

Thank you for your kind welcome mordib... out of curiosity does your name come from the film/TV series "dune" ?

BiscLimpkit · Post by **BiscLimpkit** » 10 Nov 2005, 10:50

Yeah it does. From the latin, "Muad'Dib"

Noun, messaiah.