Page 1 of Is DTS vital on a Dolby Digital AV Receiver?

Hi, I`m looking to upgrade from a (Richer Sounds) Sherwood ProLogic AV Amp to complement a new Dansai DVD player.
There seems to be a great deal currently on discontinued Yamaha RXV 396 RDS Dolby Digital Receivers.
- The problem seems to be that they are Dolby 5.1 only, and don`t decode DTS (although have 6 channel input).
I have a few region 1 DVDs, but they all seem to have dual Dolby Digital in addition to DTS soundtracks, but I believe R1 DVDs mostly favour DTS soley
So, is DTS vital, can you live without it these days, or is it a false economy to do without in view of the ease of getting cheaper R1 DVDs?
Any advice gratefully received!
Regards
Malc

no, its not vital.

DTS is slightly better than dolby, but allmost all DVDs will have dolby if it has dts, but not all Dolby discs will have dts.

but if you are buying R1 discs, then they will have DTS (most of em), so pay the bit extra and get a dts one.

Virtually all R1 DVDs will be dual DD/DTS, rather than exclusively DTS. If so, there will be a DD version available too. This is really only the case with older discs (Saving Private Ryan, Apollo 13). Some would say that these are the DTS discs to get worked up about, because dual discs have had both audio racks shoehorned in, and therefore the quality of the DTS track is diminished, so it becomes less clear cut between DTS and DD.

If you are on a tight budget, then I would go for the 396 - at £120 (is that right?) it will be a good introduction - and, let`s face it, there are new formats coming out all the time - Prologic2, DD6.1, etc - so in a couple of years time you could chop it in for the next best thing, and you won`t have lost too much.

So, to summarise, you WON`T lose out on lovely cheap R1 discs, as they are all available in DD as well. You will lose out on the "bit extra" that DTS offers, but that`s all.

Personally, I would shop for an amp with DTS and pay that bit more.

Some DVD`s with DTS really don`t sound that different from DD, but then some others just make the film that bit extra special.

Just depends on how EXTRA you feel about it all.

The choice is yours.

Oh , by the way - but you probably know this - The amp is nothing without well sorted speakers.

Re DTS Personally I would say YES DEFINATELY YES . Well saying that, at least yes to the fact that your receiver can understand DTS then if it hasnt got an inbuilt decoder, then buy a DVD player with an inbuilt DTS decoder.
Im saying this because I absolutely love my speakers bellowing great sounds to the fact that when I know that a DTS soundtrack will enhance the film (ie Saving Private Ryan, Gladiator Etc...) I will search the web until I find the film in DTS but at the end of the day - "Its up to YOU" !!!

Get both.. all new amps out there are DTS/DD 5.1, Dolby digital owns due too Support, Skyone will soon be DD 5.1 and NOT DTS.

So TV channels will use DD 5.1 and not DTS, other then that the Savin Private ryan is really all that shines and all u will hear:)

But still get both, was considering grabbing that cheap £150 Kenwood DTS/DD 5.1 amp from Richer sounds...

But am ditching all that crap and gonna go for a high quality stereo amp:)