[markl]

Quote:

"We strongly support a change in the DVD-A specifications to enable DVD players to distinguish between a CD and the DVD layer," stated Paul Vidich, executive vice president, strategic planning and business development for chief DVD-Audio proponent Warner Music Group. "We believe that this flexibility is very important to the new format because it will permit content companies to put out dual layer discs."

There's been a lot of talk lately about the need to release hybrid DVD-A's that, much like hybrid SACDs, will play on standard Redbook-only CDPs. Right now, DVD-As will only play back on DVD players. This would be a big move for DVD-A and level the playing field with SACD, eliminating one of it's key advantages-- backwards compatibility of dual layer hybrid discs.

Mark

 

[andrzejpw]

I've heard about this as well, though I'm wondering how long it would take to bring these to market.

 

[Onix]

Hey, I wonder how come they didn't think about this sooner.

 

[Pepzhez]

I believe they are waiting for the CD patents (shared by Sony and Philips) to expire, which should be sometime in 2003.

The expiry of the patent is the reason why Sony and Philips have developed SACD and also the reason why they have not licensed a CD layer for DVD-A (competing interest). This will cease to be an issue in 2003 and I am sure you will be seeing dual layer CD/DVD-A's as soon as the patent officially expires.

 

[royboy2k]

Hmm, maybe Pink Floyd DSOTM and Beatles releases will be among the first dual layer DVD-As available. I can't imagine the record companies would want to deny Joe Schmoe the chance to buy a new copy of Revolver for his CD player. They wouldn't do that, right?

 

[Zanth]

This is the killer format I think...more so than SACD. Why? Because only a firmware upgrade is needed on my modern DVD players which means...no new hardware for consumers!! This is the ticket everyone...peopel will be drawn to DVD-A because these dual layers will play in cars, computers AND DVD-audio enable DVD players.

 

[Nightfall]

Quote:

Originally posted by Zanth This is the killer format I think...more so than SACD. Why? Because only a firmware upgrade is needed on my modern DVD players which means...no new hardware for consumers!! This is the ticket everyone...peopel will be drawn to DVD-A because these dual layers will play in cars, computers AND DVD-audio enable DVD players.

I havent heard anything regarding firmware updates making it possible to play dvd-a on dvd-video only players and I am quite well read on this topic. I dont think thats correct, and I honestly hope that isnt true, because SACD simply sounds better. This is something virtually all of the "golden ears" in the high end audio mags agree on. Not to mention many musicians, producers, etc. I would personally like to see dvd audio fail miserably to give SACD a better chance.
And this despite my owning two dvd video players, which I love.

 

[Zanth]

DVD players can play DVD-A. It is not in the reading stage (i.e. the laser) but rather the interpretting data stage (i.e. software algorithms for decoding). This can be upgraded. This is possible, this has happened already and this will occur before people run out and buy DVD-A dedicated players.

 

[scottder]

Zanth, isn't there the issue of most DVD players not having the analog outputs pose a problem here? I doubt we'll DVD-A coming out of a digital path any time soon. Could this be a limiting factor in high end use of the formats (depending on the quality of the DACs in the SACD/DVD-A machines.

Scott

PS - Nice Avatar

 

[Zanth]

IF the firmware is available...it won't matter if there are no analog outs... =) This will be fun fun fun.

Thanks! That is me at 16 months.

 

[markl]

All DVD-A players have 3 sets of analog outs to handle all the multi-channel duties to hook up to your pre-amp (which needs to have 3 sets of dedicated inputs for this purpose). Players that do not support DVD-A probably only have two analog outs for playback of CDs.

If your DVD player doesn't support DVD-A, you can still listen to the Dolby Digital or DTS vesrion of the recording contained on the DVD-A disc, which of course can be output by the standard coax out and processed like any DVD by your receiver. but this is not at full DVD-Audio resolution but it's still multi-channel.

Confused yet?

Mark

 

[Zanth]

Heh, yeah this is confusing. From what I have been told, the only difference between DVD and DVD-A players is the capability to decode the DVD-A signal. The new "codecs" can be installed via a firmware upgrade. This will permit true DVD-A out of the standard DVD player...effectively turning it into a brand new DVD-?A player. That said...this could work...or not work...corporations will have to decide.

 

[scottder]

Yes the whole thing is rather confusing. I like the idea of the hybrid CD/SACD thoug. Of course I'm not as gentle as I should be with my CDs as it is, i don't know how a SACD would handle my journey to works each day.

 

[Calanctus]

I've always found the DVD-A thing confusing in just about every way. Apparently, DVD-A discs can contain stereo mixes at 24/96, stereo at 24/192, multichannel at 24/96, DTS/Dolby...but there's no easy way to know for most of them which mixes are on any particular disc, since the discs aren't labelled!

Many DVD-A discs pretty much require a video monitor to access some of the audio (not video) features. Navigating through the menus on the standard tiny display on the front of the player is said to be difficult or impossible. Not a problem if you have your player in your HT system...but for audio only systems, some users have actually bought little TVs just so they can navigate the menus.

DVD-A is undoubtedly a great-sounding format when the recording, mixing, etc. are done right, but I wish they would sort out these issues.