HD audios are a result of the HD era where we are at. When it comes to the conventional audio which we have now,the stereo,5.1 DD,DTS etc are still digital and are still widely used as a preferred medium in most of the cinemas and the dvd world wide. So if you need to enjoy 5.1 surround sound at your home,you need to have a set of 5 speaker+a sub woofer connected to a AVR(audio/video receiver)which can decode the sound from your dvd and reproduce the 5.1 and transfer it to the speaker using DAC(digital to analogue conversion). But formats like Dolby digital,DTS still use lossy compression due to space restrictions on a DVD which can only hold upto 4.7gb in case of a DVD5 and around 8.5 GB in case of a DVD9.
There was strong need of a technology which will provide more fidelity in terms of video and audio and thus formats like HD DVD and BLU-RAY came into existence.Then Bluray officially won the format war against HD DVD as toshiba withdrew its HD DVD sector. A bluray on a single layer can offer you 25 GB and on a dual layer 50 Gb which is huge and 10 times that of a conventional DVD. This inturn allows you store High definition video and audio in it. To store Hi def video and audio ,you would obviously need more space which the bluray gives you. Because the movies you watch in bluray are mostly full HD and they occupy a lot of space,A movie would easily take 25 to 45 GB depending upon the content and additional features that they put in.
Now you dont have any problems with the bluray since you have a PS3,So forget this.
To match the hidef standards,DOLBY and DTS labs came with their high end audio formats to provide the high fidelity audio with out any compression applied.So HD audio is uncompressed and lossless and gives you a very vivid experience. In the HD formats you have the Dolby tru Hd and the DTS HD master audio which can give audio bandwidth of upto 24.5 MBPS which is like 20 times of the existing ones. They would just sound like the original studio master when they are recorded,provided you have the equipment to take it on.
Since you have a PS3 and the PS3 is capable of decoding all the HD audio formats,you would now need a latest gen AVR which can actually decode the HD audios from the PS3 and make it audible through the speakers. This particular setup is going to cost you more than a conventional HTIB which will only take to a entry level world of 5.1 but still satisfies you.
Now as i mentioned in the earlier post,if you want the best of the best experience when playing games and watching bluray movies,you would end up spending atleast 30-40K on a HD AVR and 25k on a speaker setup.
If you strictly dont have the budget for this,you can very go for a entry level HTIB now by spending somewhere around 25-30K and still enjoy your Bluray,DVDs etc with the conventional DD/DTS formats and still feel happy like i do
To answer ur next question,yes assembled home theatre equipments are way better than the HTIBs but takes you more time and money in setting up but also gives you the best exp.
Cheers mate
Vj
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