Apollo 13 is unique in that you didn't have to see the first 12 parts to fully enjoy number 13! But seriously this is a great movie whether or not you're a space cadet.

The image quality on both the Dolby Digital (Collector's Edition) and DTS versions is very good, but the DTS version is slightly "softer" - if you've seen the DVD of Air Force One you know what soft video looks like, the DTS version of Apollo 13 is NOT at that level of softness, however if you compare the Dolby Digital with the DTS version you can see some difference. The film is properly framed (matted) at it original aspect ratio of 2.35:1 and the content appears to be well balanced, a full-frame version (1.33:1) would show more picture information on the top and bottom, but the special effects shots would be pan and scan. The colors are extremely clean with vivid color saturation, excellent contrast and black level throughout the entire movie. The sharpness and detail level are very good, no film grain, motion artifacts or blurryness appear anywhere on this DVD - with the 30% increased vertical resolution 16x9 enhancement provides this is about as good as DVD can look - definitely demonstration quality.

The Dolby Digital version starts with Universal's logo. On the DTS version in addition to Universal's logo you get the opening DTS logo.

The image may appear to be almost identical, but when it come to the audio that's a completely different story. The Dolby Digital 5.1 English soundtrack is quite good, in fact if it wasn't for the DTS version you would never know how much better it can sound! The DTS version has more of a "natural" overall sound quality across the entire soundstage that the Dolby Digital soundtrack is lacking. Dialogue in both versions was clear without any harshness. However the DTS version's sound effects and directional effects placement is outstanding there is definitely some difference in the mixing between these two versions. On the DTS version the .1 (LFE) effects channel has much more depth/punch and the musical soundtrack also seems to have greater dynamic range.

French and Spanish subtitles along with a Dolby Digital 5.1 French and Spanish dub track appear on the Collector's Edition only. The DTS version contains no additional language tracks or subtitles on this disc. Also there is no Closed Captioning (CC) provided on either version. My biggest complaint about the audio on the Collector's Edition is that you can NOT select audio tracks "on-the-fly", you must go back to the main menu to make the selection, this makes listening to the commentary tracks during selected scenes more of a hassle then it needs to be.

The main menu is quite simple and easy to navigate. There is no animation to the menus on either versions. The Collector's Edition features the entire score which starts whenever the main menu is displayed. When you insert the DTS disc the main menu comes up with the Dolby Surround audio selected as the default, you actually have to select the DTS soundtrack if you want to hear it, since there are only two choices on the main menu it's a little hard to determine at first which color is the highlighted or selected color. Why the DTS DVD version doesn't default to the DTS soundtrack is a mystery to me. Once you select which soundtrack you wish to hear there doesn't seem to be any way to get back to that menu without reinserting the disc in the player.

The collector's edition disc includes a nice array of supplements: two running commentary tracks - the first by the director Ron Howard, the second by astronaut Jim Lovell and his wife Marilyn, an original documentary "Lost Moon-The Triumph of Apollo 13" (59 minutes, DD 2.0, 1.33:1), the original theatrical trailer (DD 2.0, 2.1:1. and an isolated score track. Sadly the DTS version doesn't even include a trailer.

When doing an A-B comparison between the laser disc version to the DVD it's simply no contest and reveals the limitations of laser disc image - even the DTS version DVD's image is much sharper, cleaner, has more contrast and resolution, which should come as no surprise since the DVD is also 16x9 enhanced for widescreen televisions.

FYI - Dolby Digital vs. DTS by the numbers:


The theatrical version of Dolby Digital is 16 bit resolution (as is theatrical DTS and SDDS) and runs at 320 kb/s. Dolby Digital on laser disc is 384 kb/s and Dolby Digital 5.1 on DVD is either 384 kb/s or 448 kb/s.

The theatrical version of DTS is 16 bit resolution (as is theatrical Dolby Digital and SDDS) and runs at 1.44 mb/s. DTS on consumer CD and laser disc runs at full 20 bits/44.1 kHz sampling at 1.44 mb/s (PCM's data rate). All consumer DTS DVDs are using a newer algorithm which is true 20 bits/48 kHz sampling at 1.536 mb/s (running at DVD's top audio data rate).

For comparison Laser Discs that have a Redbook PCM track (Digital Audio) has a resolution of 16bits, 44.1kHz and the bitstream is 1411 kb/s. DVD PCM track has the capability of 16bit 48kHz, 1536kb/s bitstream slightly higher resolution than standard Redbook PCM of 44.1 kHz. PCM on DVD is not limited to 48kHz, 16-bit audio, it can be up to 24-bit 96kHz.

The DVD and LD (consumer) versions of both Dolby Digital and DTS are better then their respective theatrical versions.