Universal Home Video today announced their line-up of DTS encoded DVD releases, ready to hit the streets during the first half of 1999. As expected, the list of 20 titles consists completely of films previously released as Dolby Digital DVD discs. All the titles will also carry a stereo Dolby Digital soundtrack alongside the DTS soundtrack to ensure compatibility with the technical DVD format specifications. Strangely the disc will also include Japanese subtitles.

In January, the first titles available will be “Dante’s Peak,” “Waterworld,” “Liar Liar,” and “Daylight.” In the months to follow, we will then see DTS versions of “The Shadow,” “Babe,” “The River Wild,” “The Getaway,” “The Nutty Professor,” “Apollo 13,” “Happy Gilmore,” “12 Monkeys,” “Dragonheart,” “The Jackal,” “The Frighteners,” “Born on the Fourth of July,” “The Boxer,” “For Richer or Poorer,” “Blues Brothers 2000,” and “Primary Colors.”

The interesting question now becomes whether the DTS releases of films such as “Liar Liar” will finally contain widescreen transfers, or if the company decides to re-release them in the pan&scan format. We will of course keep you posted as more news come in.