DTS is an audio codec technology developed by Digital Theater System. DTS are the main competitor to Dolby's sound codec. The latest domestic offering by both companies is high definition audio codec. The name of the technologies are,

• DTS-HD Master Audio
• Dolby TrueHD

The primary properties of high definition surround sound are,

• 7.1 channels of sound
• Lossless audio

DTS-HD has been designed for usage on Blu-ray and HD-DVD discs. Therefore, do not expect your bog standard DVD player and disc to be supporting HD audio codec.

What lossless audio refers to is a true presentation of a movie's/tv series original sound master track. To support the bit-to-bit mastertrack, DTS-HD is capable of supporting 24-bit audio depth.

To support DTS-HD you'll need a receiver which supports it, and a DTS-HD encoded bluray / HD-DVD disc. If you attempt to play a DTS-HD encoded disc on a receiver that only supports DTS, then that's all it will play.

A DTS-HD encoded disc will contain a DTS and DTS-HD stream. However, your standard DTS receiver may get a boast in data rate quality, in comparison to playing a standard encoded disc.