Encoders and decoders support numerous channel combinations, and stereo, four-channel, and four-channel+LFE soundtracks have been released commercially on DVD, CD, and Laserdisc.

One of the DTS Inc.'s initial investors was film director Steven Spielberg, who felt that theatrical sound formats up until the company's founding were no longer state of the art, and as a result were no longer optimal for use on projects where quality sound reproduction was of the utmost importance.

[10] Phorus, a subsidiary of DTS, Inc., is a Los Angeles-based technology group dedicated to wireless audio for connected devices.

Each DTS CD-ROM contains a DOS program that the processor uses to play back the soundtrack, allowing system improvements or bug fixes to be added easily.

The .1 LFE subwoofer track is mixed into the discrete surround channels on the disc and recovered via low-pass filters in the theater.

[13][14] In contrast, Dolby Digital (AC-3) is based on the modified discrete cosine transform (MDCT) compression algorithm.

[20] Sony's PlayStation 3 and Microsoft's Xbox 360 are capable of DTS decoding and output via TOSLINK or HDMI as LPCM.

DTS audio is stored on a separate set of CD-ROM media, with greater storage capacity that affords the potential to deliver greater audio fidelity and is not subject to the usual wear and damage suffered by the film print during the normal course of the movie's theatrical screening.

Disregarding the separate CD-ROM assembly as a potential point of failure, the DTS audiopath is comparatively impervious to film degradation, unless the film-printed timecode is completely destroyed.

However, in program material available to home consumers (DVD, broadcast, and subscription digital TV), neither AC-3 nor DTS typically run at their highest allowed bitrate.

This was done to make room for more audio tracks and content to reduce costs of spreading extra material on multiple discs.

Conversely, DTS proponents claim that the extra bits give higher fidelity and more dynamic range, providing a richer and more lifelike sound.

But no conclusion can be drawn from their respective bitrates, as each codec relies on different coding tools and syntax to compress audio.

[citation needed] In addition to the standard 5.1-channel DTS Surround codec, the company has several other technologies in its product range designed to compete with similar systems from Dolby Labs.

This is a process designed specifically for playback in motion picture theaters equipped with 70 mm film projection and 6-track surround sound.

Theaters with 70 mm DTS frequently install two time code readers for greater reliability.

DTS 96/24, introduced in May 2001[27][non-primary source needed], allows the delivery of 5.1 channels of 24-bit, 96 kHz audio and high quality video on the DVD-Video format.

DTS-HD High Resolution Audio is selected as an optional surround sound format for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD, with constant bit rates up to 6.0 Mbit/s and 3.0 Mbit/s, respectively.

DTS-HD High Resolution Audio is implemented as a core DTS stream plus an extension containing the two additional channels plus details to enable 96/24 sound reproduction.

DTS-HD Master Audio is selected as an optional surround sound format for Blu-ray, where it has been limited to a maximum of 8 discrete channels.

DTS-HD Master Audio and Dolby TrueHD are the only technologies that deliver compressed lossless surround sound for these disc formats.

(DTS Coherent Acoustics' coding system was selected as mandatory audio technology for Blu-ray Discs.

)[30] For each speaker, DTS:X allows the "location" (direction from the listener) of "objects" (audio tracks) to be specified as polar coordinates.

The audio processor is then responsible for dynamically rendering sound output depending on the number and position of speakers available.

There is no other differences than the added support for more channels, nor does it exist a Pro-variant of a DTS:X soundtrack - it is merely to be more convenient in large cinemas.

[35][36] DTS Virtual:X creates "phantom" surround or height speakers using psychoacoustic processing of existing soundtracks (including, if needed, the creation of height channels) to allow systems with a reduced number of physical speakers (such as TV soundbars) to provide a more "immersive" experience.

[38] DTS Headphone:X is a spatial audio technology, sometimes referred to as DTS Headphone:X "v2.0" or even "v2.0 7.1",[39] if the technology is to be licensed out to companies and not implemented by DTS themselves (through 1st party applications such as DTS Sound Unbound and others), where usually on non-PC devices such as video game consoles can still provide the technology, using multi-channel Dolby Digital bitstreams, usually over a separate optical SPD/F that contain metadata which is then processed by an external headphone decoder, as seen in the Arctis Pro headphone variants by SteelSeries, and several other companies like headphone systems by Turtle Beach with the Elite2+SuperAmp combination, specifically the one for PlayStation and not Xbox, as in Xbox there is the potential for using the Windows Spatial Audio API which can be set up in apps like DTS Sound Unbound, avoiding the original audio format to be processed by a dedicated device, to get the effects of spatial audio through the use of sound objects rather than channels, and placing them where they would naturally occur in a 3D space,[40] but is also compatible with stereo PCM tracks, and can be encoded on top of a 2-channel lossy DTS bitstream that reproduces 12 channels of spatial audio, sometimes called surround sound, using Head-related transfer function to allow for any pair of stereo headphones to be used.

[41][42] The head related transfer function algorithm used here is developed by DTS and includes compensation for room cues such as reflection and delay by mapping the acoustic characteristic of the original mixing studio, or other professional audio techniques such as dynamic room correction, loudness equation, and a 360° sense of sound, like "Dolby Atmos for Headphones" as a very close reference and its main competitor.

[47] Unlike competitors such as Sonos or SoundTouch from Bose, Play-Fi is an open standard[citation needed] and has been adopted by a wide range of brands including Anthem, Arcam, Audiolab, Definitive Technology, Hewlett-Packard, Integra, Klipsch, MartinLogan, McIntosh, Onkyo, Paradigm, Philips, Pioneer, Polk Audio, Rotel, Sonus Faber, Soundcast and Wren.

The Play-Fi app supports streaming from the user's device, DLNA servers,[48] via AirPlay[49] and from online streaming services including Spotify, Pandora Radio, Amazon Prime Music, iHeart Radio, Rhapsody, SiriusXM, Tidal, Qobuz, KKBox, QQ Music, and Juke.