The Creative DDTS100 decoder

[CommanderBubba]

I recently bought a Creative Decoder (DDTS100), which is a Dolby Digital EX/ Surround Pro Logic II / DTS-ES / DTS:Neo6 receiver and decoder box that you can hook up your DVD player, satellite receiver, VCR, stereo, computer, etc. to (it has 7 inputs, 3 standard coax/RCA analog stereo, 3 optical digital, and one optical coaxial) and connect to your computer surround sound speaker system.

I decided I'd pay the slightly hefty price because I had a spare set of pretty good Creative speakers, and the whole rig is only $225 Canadian including the speakers (compare to $300 for an OK but not fabulous Home Theatre-In-A-Box system ).

Well, let me just say, I'm quite impressed with the results, and I discovered how cool the Dolby Pro Logic II actually is. This unit works great for the DVDs I've tried it with, and it would support GameCube, X-Box, etc. if I owned those (but I don't). Watching CSI was pretty neat too with the HIFI surround sound being converted into multichannel.

But the REAL cool thing was when I hooked up my Sega CD to it and popped SNATCHER in. I also tried it out with Sonic CD. Why those two? Well, Snatcher used Roland Surround for the audio. Sonic CD has a Q-sound surround soundtrack. The result: Imagine the opening to Snatcher in what felt like full-blown movie surround. AND, the dialogue in the opening narration was routed through the center channel, with the music playing on the other 4, like in a movie. It was amazing, crystal clear... And on top of it all, the decoder also took the in-game mono dialogue and split that from the Genesis music, and played the voices through the center and the OST through the surround speakers. Sonic CD's audio field was simply awesome too, even better than before.

Next up I want to try out some other games... But suffice it to say, any games (e.g. Playstation or modern games) with "Dolby Surround" sound will be quite amazing, I'm sure. It really breathes new life into something when the audio's not coming out of some crappy old TV's broken speaker 🙂

SO: if you're into audio toys, and thinking of a home theatre setup, I'd go to Creative's web site and buy the combo where you get the THX 6-channel or 7-channel speakers and the DDTS-100 decoder. You might pay a little bit more than for a Home Theatre in a Box unit at the local stereo store, but let me tell you, the sound you'll get will compare with a very expensive full-sized home theatre system.

 

[it290]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I have a cheezy surround setup in my game room, but I tend to leave it in stereo mode for everything save newer games and DVD's. Just sounds cleaner in my opinion.

I love the intro to Snatcher though, it's so cinematic and the funky music and dialogue is just pimpinly' awesome.

 

[Berty]

I took my Saturn into the recording studios at work and played X Men vS SF on a big ass Sony Wega tele. At the studios there are a set of Genelic 3 ways worth about $12000AUD. I got the stereo input of the Saturn, ran it into ProTools and set up an LS Matrix.

I panned left and righ as normal and sent the signal to the genelics. Then set up another 4 mono channels. Got the left and right and panned them both to the right and put the left channel out of phase. then got the left and right and panned them left and put the right channel out of phase and ran both of these signals to the rear speakers (left and right repsectively), and voila we had an anolgue 4.1 thanks to Q Sound and its phase magic!

What I am trying to get at, is that if you have a PC with a multi-out soundcard, and a copy of ProTools or Nuendo you can do the same thing at home without all of the expensive gear. This trick also works for Dolby II.

I learnt this trick when i was working on sound design for film. We had this big black box which was called a Dolby Box and it did the same thing (but for about $1000). The guys that worked their showed me how to do exactly the same thing using a $40 6 channel mixer

 

[CommanderBubba]

I suppose that's true. But I'm not an engineer, dammit, I'm a geek and that's not the same thing 😛

heheheh...

Also an update to the info I posed before: the system also has dynamic range control, optical inputs, digital coax inputs, and multiple headphone outputs, and a remote. Standard retail price is US $129 I believe.

Of course, what you're saying is still true. If you think about the untapped capabilities of our PC's and Mac's.... For example, everyone that has a half-decent sound card could use their computer as a digital audio recorder, and re-master analogue recordings with software. A few years back such capabilities were unheard of, and now everyone's machine can do it without a second thought.

 

[M3d10n]

True. Even this on-board sound card of mine supports 32-bit @ 96Khz. And it was the cheapest mobo I could find.