Queen’s catalogue has been remastered many times. The "Greatest Hits" album was originally mixed in stereo. For a DTS 5.1 version to exist, it usually comes from one of two sources:
Officially, you cannot buy a "DTS Audio CD" of Queen's Greatest Hits at Best Buy. You can buy the Queen: The Studio Collection on Blu-Ray (which includes 5.1), or the expensive Japanese SACDs.
So why is the CD-R "Top"?
Given that these are user-burned media (not pressed silver discs), quality varies wildly. To achieve "Top" status, your CD-R must meet these criteria: queen greatest hits dts audio 51 cdrar top
The "Rear Channel" Test: Play "Bicycle Race." In a top 5.1 mix, during the bicycle bell solo, the bells should ping-pong from the front left to the rear right in a perfect circle. If they just echo, it’s a fake. If they move, you found the grail.
The "Queen Greatest Hits DTS Audio 5.1" release offers a unique way to experience classic songs. Instead of a flat stereo image, you get an immersive concert experience. However, ensuring you have the right software to decode the signal is the difference between hearing "Bohemian Rhapsody" in surround sound and hearing digital noise.
It is crucial to state that this article is for educational and collector discussion purposes. Distributing DTS CD-Rs of Queen's music is technically copyright infringement. You must own the original source media (the official DVD or Blu-Ray) to legally create a DTS CD-R "backup." Queen’s catalogue has been remastered many times
However, in the audiophile community, the search for the "Queen Greatest Hits DTS Audio 5.1 CD-R Top" is a quest for format survival. Since the original DVD-A format is dead and streaming services rarely offer 5.1 lossless rock, the CD-R remains the last physical bastion for this specific, brilliant mix.
Based on top-ranked DTS audio conversions found in enthusiast forums (e.g., QuadraphonicQuad, Steve Hoffman Forums, private trackers):
| Feature | "Top" Version Expectation | | :--- | :--- | | Source | Official Greatest Hits – DVD Collection (2006, PAL or NTSC) | | Audio Format | DTS 5.1 (extracted, not re-encoded) | | Bitrate | 1.411 Mbps (full-rate DTS) – Note: original DVD is 768kbps; "top" rips up-sample to 1.411 for CD-R compatibility | | Sample Rate | 44.1 kHz (converted from DVD’s 48 kHz) | | CD-R Type | 80-minute CD-R, burned as an Audio CD (not data) | | Tracklist | 17 tracks (standard Greatest Hits Vol. 1 – e.g., Bohemian Rhapsody, Another One Bites the Dust, We Will Rock You) | | AccurateRip | Verified checksums match known "good" rips from trusted uploaders | The "Rear Channel" Test: Play "Bicycle Race
User reviews ("top" consensus):
DTS (Digital Theatre Systems) is a format used in movie theaters and home audio setups. In the context of music files, a DTS Audio CD (also known as a DTS-CD) is a standard audio CD that has been encoded with 5.1 surround sound data.
How it works: To the naked eye (or a standard CD player), a DTS file looks like a regular audio file, but it sounds like static or digital noise if played on a stereo system without a decoder. To hear the music, you must play the file through a system capable of decoding DTS (most modern AV receivers, VLC Media Player, or specific software decoders).