[Pepzhez]

Here's yet another reason to take a wait and see approach to hi-rez, as the format and standards issue becomes even more confusing. According to this article, the DVD-A consortium has approved a firewire interface standard:

http://www.audiorevolution.com/news/...firewire.shtml

This will be of no immediate use unless you have a preamp with firewire input (not to mention a DVD player with firewire output), but I do wonder what this means for DVD-A versatility. The article doesn't address the issue, but I suppose this means that the firewire stream could be connected to a computer, provided of course that software exists to decode the signal. (New challenge for hackers!)

I once read on this forum that there is limited support for DVD-A on computers, but have never come ecross any concrete info on the subject.

 

[darkclouds]

Not quite sure what you meant when you say limited support for dvd-a for computer. The audigy 2 card is the only card that I'm aware of can decode dvd-a. So, I guess that's pretty limited.

SACD has no support for computer playback at all.

 

[Calanctus]

The Pioneer player supports both DVD-A and SACD output via Firewire:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pi...,71351,00.html

 

[Pepzhez]

I've always liked Pioneer Elite. My PD-65 CDP is still going strong after 10 years. I have been looking around for a decent DVD player - and I figure I may as well get one that can handle both DVD-A and SACD. According to user reviews I have read, many prefer the Pioneer 45A over the 47i for audio playback. The 45A lacks firewire, though. I think I'll wait a little bit. Now that firewire is the official standard for DVD-A, it's only a matter of time before all DVD-A capable machines will include firewire. So the next generation of Pioneer Elite machines (which I expect in the next few months) will be the ticket. Time to start saving those pennies.

 

[gpalmer]

The benefit of the Firewire output is that now you can decode DVD-Audio with standalone DACs, or preamps much like you can with CDs. This is to allow us audiophiles a chance to tweak to our little hearts content! . SInce my preamp has firewire I'm looking forward to it showing up on a player near me! Although I will cry about losing my ModWright modified 38A player. This is VERY good news, since I would expect that SONY will play catch-up much like it did with surround sound and we will all benefit. Also instead of having to dump money on all the analog cables to hook our standalone player up to the receiver for SACD/DVD-Audio we can now buy one cable. (I use AZ Silver References and it adds up pretty quickly). Lastly, this finally will allow manufacturers to implement bass management features in the digital domain (if you're decoding on the preamp) which has been lacking except on a few very high-end preamps which did this in the analog domain. Yeah Baby! Go FireWire!

Greg

 

[Calanctus]

Quote:

Originally posted by gpalmer The benefit of the Firewire output is that now you can decode DVD-Audio with standalone DACs, or preamps much like you can with CDs. Greg

Which standalone DACs now support Firewire?

 

[gpalmer]

None I know of yet. First the format has to catch on more strongly. Until that happens most of the high end companies will dawdle waiting for it to look like a winner. (Not that I blame them, most don't have really large budgets and a misstep could really hurt most of them).

Greg