5.1 or DTS?
 

My g/f has just bought me a home cinema system (Sony DAV-DZ100), so I set it up and stick in Saving Private Ryan.
Anyway, I go to the audio set-up and the options are 5.1 Surround and DTS Surround.
What is the difference? and which one is best?
I haven't really got a clue, so any info would be much appreciated!

There are several formats for surround sound for home use and then the theaters have competing formats as well.

a gent writes up a decent PDF about the technical differences:

DTS vs. Dolby Digital 5.1

Cnet's breakout explanation of DTS vs DD

Thanks. It says DTS has better sound quality than Dolby, and I chose Dolby!
I'm gonna watch it again now to see if the difference is that noticeable.

DTS is the master track recording of the movie, 5.1 cuts some stuff out. atleast that is how i understand it.

DTS give better/louder bass sound to me. 5.1 means a 5 speaker, 1 sub woofer setup. One speaker (center channel) either on top or bottom of TV, two to the left and right of TV, two more to the left and right behind the viewer and finally one power sub (booming low bass), usually close to the corner (~ foot away) or off to the side.

From what I've been told by our audio engineers here they are all basically the same but slightly different.

Even when you go to the movies, there is Sony's version SDDS, Dolby Digital, and DTS.

I have an older amplifier that only has DD5.1 but my DVD player does decode DTS. I have a friend who had the same setup as me until his amp blew and listening to his there was no noticeable difference in sound quality or discrete speaker sounds.

Since I live in close quarters (apartment) there's really not audible differences you can tell without turning the volume up to room rocking levels.

as some of your amps will decode dts it also depends on the dvd if dts is included so mostly it would be dolby 5.1