Video Asylum

Posted by John C. - Aussie (i) on October 24, 2000 at 13:53:05:

In Reply to: Are movie DVD's recorded in 16 bit or 24 bit Audio? posted by HTuser on October 23, 2000 at 11:26:40:

... especially if you want to listen to music as well (we do) be careful about your choice. Quite a few processors are reputed to be great on movies & poor on music. Meridian appears to have a very good name for both. I know ours does an excellent job.

Referring to your 16 vs 24 bit question, I seem to remember reading that the major advantage of extra bits is you have more headroom so a greater potential dynamic range. As far as we are concerned the 16 bits give more than enough dynamic range for the average room so the number of bits can be a bit of a hype playing the numbers game.

Against this more bits can also give greater accuracy, particularly when bits drop off so a nominal 16 bits reduces to 13. I guess it all boils down to the accuracy of the original recording and the accuracy of the processor. A good processor, accurately translating 16 bits could well sound a lot better than a mediocre one handling 24 bits. Jitter reduction is a much more important factor to concentrate on than the number of bits.

John