DTS

DTS has been a cinema sound format since the analogue era, when its soundtrack arrived on separate discs synchronised to a timecode track on the film print. That history is why the name is familiar to anyone who ran 35mm.

In digital cinema its significance is DTS:X, an object-based immersive format that competes with Dolby Atmos. Object-based means sounds are positioned in space and rendered to whatever speaker layout the room actually has, rather than mixed to fixed channels — which is why an immersive installation needs far more speakers and far more amplification than a 5.1 room.

For an exhibitor the choice between immersive formats is mostly a question of what the titles you book are mixed in and what your integrator supports. It is a capital decision with a long tail, and worth asking about speaker count and amplifier capacity before the room is specified rather than after.

Filmgrail has no commercial relationship with DTS and this listing is not an endorsement. It is here because a cinema evaluating its supply chain should be able to see the whole of it in one place. Details change — check anything decision-critical with the supplier.