is dvd audio dead

I would have presumed they would have made them within the tolerances of a single disc in order to maximise distribution.
 
I only discovered what could be a problem for SACD the other day.
SACD discs don't play in DVD players! At least not in any of the 3 DVD players in our house.

You may think... "of course they don't, unless the DVD player is a 'universal' machine".
But my point is that many people now are using their DVD players as the centrepeice of their entertainment system, and use them to play CD's aswell.
I don't believe SACD can therefore claim to be truly backwards compatible.

DVD Audio discs on the other hand, will play in all DVD players.
And, when these hybrid DVD Audio / CD discs come into play, they'll play in CD players too! Case closed.

However, from my understanding SACD has the greater potential in terms of absolute sound quality, but I'm in the DVD Audio camp and would rather that succeeded.
 
However, from my understanding SACD has the greater potential in terms of absolute sound quality, but I'm in the DVD Audio camp and would rather that succeeded.
I thought it was actually the other way round??

Knew I'd seen it some where. I've edited this post to include this Link to a very interesting article on the subject

Cheers

Croc
 
Originally posted by Jules
DVD Audio discs on the other hand, will play in all DVD players.
And, when these hybrid DVD Audio / CD discs come into play, they'll play in CD players too! Case closed.

This is not true. DVD-V audio discs - using dts, DD or even 16-bit PCM - will play in all players, but that's not what we are talking about. DVD-A will only play in players compatible with the format - and none of the 3 players that I have owned have been. Most people will need to buy a new player to play either format.

Originally posted by Jules
However, from my understanding SACD has the greater potential in terms of absolute sound quality, but I'm in the DVD Audio camp and would rather that succeeded.

No, SACD is the inferior format; it is bit-stream based so, at high frequencies it is no better than CDs. DVD-A, however, is multi-bit so better than CD at all frequencies. Interesting discussion of the technical differences here.

FWIW, I also hope that DVD-A succeeds as it is the better of the two formats but when has that alone resulted in commercial success? Anyone know where I can buy Betamax tapes?

_
 
Surely, as most SACD disks are now hybrids, they are the more compatible. The CD layer will play in any DVD player or CD player and the SACD layer will play in any SACD player.

DVD-A has some problems. Firstly, DVD is not yet associated with music. The DVD/CD hybrid is not forthcoming yet which will hold it back greatly. The cases are also a silly size, presumably to differentiate from CD's and also video DVD's.

Also, why do I need to put my TV on to play some music? Most DVD-A disks require this to differing degrees. Once the TV is on, I then have to mute the sound before I listen to the disk on the AV system or I get an echo from the TV. I don't want to be doing this if I have guests over and ust want to stick on some music.

With SACD, I put in the disk and my player is set to play the multi channel of available or the stereo if not, and away I go. I can take it in my car or walkman. The case is CD sized. Also, people with CD players can buy them and get a, usually, much better CD remaster and maybe upgrade later.

Don't get me wrong, I prefer the sound of DVD-A and still buy the disks, I just think it will be the loser in the end and it's certainly looking to be going that way.
 
Originally posted by Underscore
This is not true. DVD-V audio discs - using dts, DD or even 16-bit PCM - will play in all players, but that's not what we are talking about. DVD-A will only play in players compatible with the format - and none of the 3 players that I have owned have been. Most people will need to buy a new player to play either format.


Underscore is partially correct. All DVD-A discs will play in any DVD player whether compatible with DVD-A or not. If you have a 'standard' DVD player then it will play a compressed Dolby Digital or DTS soundtrack which can be mulitchannel or stereo or both.

If you have a DVD-A player then it will be able to read the high resolution DVD-A information plus be able to access additional features such as the photo galleries available on a lot of discs.

P.S. I have just started a poll on how many DVD-A discs you guys own.
 
Originally posted by Crustyloafer
Underscore is partially correct. All DVD-A discs will play in any DVD player whether compatible with DVD-A or not. If you have a 'standard' DVD player then it will play a compressed Dolby Digital or DTS soundtrack which can be mulitchannel or stereo or both.
Ah, it seems that I owe an apology - I didn't realise that having a DD track was mandatory for DVD-A. By the way, there is an interesting article here which seems to suggest that Sony's push for hybrid discs puts them in a strong position in the format 'war.'

_
 
Sound card fixed - supposedly - Doors plays fine, but anything which goes at the card locks the PC
 
Ciao boys,

It has been a bit quiet on this thread ;p

I thought I might give you some fresh news regarding the dvd vs sacd war. They've released sales numbers.

From Highfidelityreview news desk - news

Wasabi
 
The link does not work.
 
sorry sacd,

I've now changed the link to highfidelity's news item as it is more detailed.

looking good for sacd, despite dvd-a leading in awareness because the dvd-a awareness is not becoming purchases ;p

Wasabi
 
I did read the press report from the DVD group about DVD-A doing 5 times better than SACD and assumed (as they intended) that it was based on hard sales figures. The truth is rather different and not a little spin has been used. I'm sure, like it says in that article, that many of the phone poll respondants would have been confused as to what DVD Audio meant. I mean surely that AC/DC DVD I have is a DVD Audio innit?

My beleif is that Sony/ phillips will push the sale of hybrid SACDs to the point where nearly every new disk released will be such. What will happen to sales then? Many people won't even know that the fine Des O'Connor CD they have just bought also has Des in full multi channel high res on it, they'll just whack it in the CD player and be happy. Eventually SACD hardware will filter through although most people won't appreciate the benefit as they will have Akai SACD players. Thus it will worm its way into peoples homes.

People like CD's. They are cuddly and familiar. They work very well and produce good clean sound. You can also, of course smear jam on them and gouge them with a screwdriver and they will still play.

To make people buy DVD-A you have to force them into a concious descision and they won't like that. Looking around my mates, I can think of one who uses a walkman plugged into and old panasonic amp, another who listens to CD's through the inbuilt DVD player in hid Nakai TV (using the TVs speakers) and another who has a flashy Aiwa stack which I have to adust the EQ on every time I go round as he has the bass maxed out and it sounds like a cement mixer.

So, people don't care but, all the obove could buy a hybrid SACD and not know the difference. One could get away with DVD-A but I'm not sure what would emerge from his TV.

Hybrid SACD is caviar to pigs. But, it's a winner.
 
Steve,

I agree with much of what you say, however, let me put a bit of heads to your tails.......

I think the same could be said for DVD-A, if and when, a dual-disc becomes the norm for single format releases for those labels.

DSOTM sold by the truck load, but, given the lack of SACD capable machines sold, you know that 99.9% of the customers probably have no idea what hi-res is in the same way as your AC/DC example....."errr well it's a CD innit ?"

Your mate with the CD/TV combo and the bass EQ set to max will still be doing that even when their whole collection is hybrid hi-res SACD's.

Truth is that it is only those of us with the hi-fi nerd gene that will give a monkey's about either hi-res format or be bothered to assemble anything like the kit to appreciate it.

Despite the statistics we see from time to time, it is clear that in my nearest and biggest HMV, the selecion of either format on the shelf is a complete joke.

Until everything is a dual format of one sort or both, I would rather they (DVD-A) be in a different box so I know what I'm looking for. For those that want SACD from a store that has put them amongst the main CD's it's like needle in a haystack.

CD's in standard boxes? not really these days either as the variation is getting worse there to.....boxes, card wrappers, cards, mini-LP's etc etc. I have loads that don't fit the racks properly.

People moan that the TV has to go on to play a DVD-A...rubbish. The same people probably love the extra value CD's that now have video footage, DVD's etc too. I haven't seen a machine that doesn't play the default format for a given system simply by hitting 'play'.

Anyway, for me...roll on both formats. They probably have enough, but, different merits.

cheers
 
Maybe I had my players set up wrong then as none of the players I tried would auto play Hotel California or Everything must go. They all stop at the menu and pressing play does not start the music, you have to press 'select'.

Maybe I'm wrong, I don't have a DVD-A player at the mo and am quoting from memory so maybe someone could clarify this point. Or, maybe I didn't wait long enough for it to start. Either way, unless the TV was on I never knew what the thing was doing.

Anyway, I'll assume I'm wrong on that point. How about the DVD-A dual sided disks jamming in some players as they are unable to make them to any recognised standard. They'll have to cure that one or ther'll be big trouble.
 

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