DTS announced that its DTS Coherent Acoustics coding system has been selected as mandatory audio technology for both Blu-ray and HD-DVD, the two next-generation high-definition disc formats for home video. Encompassing higher data rates, lossless operation, and additional channels, DTS's extension technologies—identified as DTS++—have also been approved as optional features on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc. DTS++ is also the only lossless audio technology selected for both disc formats. A DTS decoder will be built into every next-generation player that incorporates Blu-ray or HD-DVD.
DTS Coherent Acoustics, first introduced into the market in 1996, was designed to be both extensible and backward compatible based on its core + extension structure. Subsequent extensions to the original 5.1-channel format were an additional discrete channel for 6.1-channel audio (DTS-ES), and a 96KHz sampling rate for high-resolution audio (DTS 96/24). Now, with the extra space and bandwidth afforded by Blu-ray and HD-DVD, DTS audio tracks can be encoded at data rates greater than 1.5Mbps—all the way to fully lossless operation, meaning that the soundtrack is bit-for-bit identical to the master.
