DTV Speak

Watching regular television with a stunning set of speakers is thrilling enough, but imagine the feeling of listening to sound the same way you would in a mastering studio. It’s no dream with the advent of Blu-ray technology. These tiny little discs, besides packing higher-definition video than you’ve ever seen, also feature lossless audio options. Television speakers are too muted to capture the difference, but on external speakers the effect is stunning. You’ll also need a Blu-ray player that supports at least one of the new uncompressed audio formats. When purchasing a disc, make sure that it features one of the following audio tracks for best results:PCM (Pulse-code Modulation)/Linear PCM: PCM is a mandatory audio codec on Blu-ray players, but this track takes up the most space on the disc, so studios are beginning to replace it with one of the two other options. If you see an Uncompressed audio track listed, that’s the same thing.Dolby TrueHD: In this option, the audio is compressed, but with no loss in sound quality. DTS-HD Master Audio: This audio track features two parallel tracks, a high-resolution core track and a lossless Master Audio track. While it still takes up less space than PCM, it also requires a higher-powered (and higher-priced) player.With one of these options, your speakers will truly be reaching their full potentialand you’ll be experiencing sound like you’ve never heard before.