Heavyweight Championship Of The World !!

Whether video is in the DVD-A spec or not, all of my DVD-A discs need a monitor to navigate the choices on the disc - stereo, multichannel etc... I would be happy to have this necessity removed.

irfoton

 

Some sort of monitor as you mention is necessary, especially for non audio only players.
You can remove most of it during authoring though with discWelder, as you have an autoplay or menu option.
Not entirely sure exactly what you need removing though. Audio only players seem to have no issues with playback.
I'm confused...

 

A new piece of equipment has attracted my attention recently. http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=17013573
It looks like Phillips have gone over to MLP & DVD-Audio! So much for "DVD-Audio is an abomination" oft quoted by an employee of Phillips. (Read the article)
I'd call that 2-1 to DVD-Audio, with a knockout blow expected fairly soon, given the enormous losses just posted by Sony!

 

I don't know if I would say 2-1 for DVD-A, as the player link you have is both SACD and DVDA. More like a tie, The one thing that I do think will save SACD in hard times, is that Sony is releasing almost everything with SACD capabiltiy. My mom bought a Sony sourond receiver from Zellers on Z points (the Canadian equivalent of A Wallmart) and the player will play SACD. She didn't even know, but now that she has it she can start buying SACD. Thats how you get the market. You give something to people and then when they have it, they try it. Other wise with the extensive record collection, she wouldn't have even bothered. Just movies sound beter in souround sound. That is what also may make SACD, take a step a head.

 

Your argument, to me, is the biggest reason why I believe DVD-Audio will "win" in the long run.
So many people now have DVD players, and whilst it is true that most of the current crop of players are DVDV only, the new generation of players includes DVDA too. I think people will be more likely to buy a new DVD player, as it is technology we are already used to, than a new CD player that may or may not include SACD compatibility.
Then the argument that the high res option is present anyway will also apply to DVDA.
We shall see.

 

wilkes,
the issue I have is that with audio only players, choosing which set of music to play is not easy with little to no information displayed in the players display. For instance to play Hotel California, I put the disc in the player and it goes to the surround sound playlist automatically. To get to the stereo playlist I have to go to the top menu. That requires a monitor.

On the DVDA v SACD topic, remember when people buy Sony DVD players they are more than likely to get SACD playback. Also, I don't think their $1B loss can be attributed to SACD by any stretch. What Sony has in their favor is that they are also a music studio so can release their catalog on whatever format they want. With the merger of Sony and BMG it will be an even larger catalog. This is where the format will win or lose - content.

irfoton

 

I hear you loud & clear!
The issue with Hotel California is one of 2 things - either poor authoring, or down to the problem that 1 track of audio needs to be the default. I've always found that you can switch audio streams without having to see an OSD simply by hitting the "audio" button on the DVD remote. That should cycle you through the available options.
Interestingly enough, Phillips are now DVD-A & MLP licensees. So much for the oft quoted "DVD-Audio is an abomination".
As I have said, we will see, and I still believe the vast base of installed DVD machines means that when they need replacing they will be replaced by another DVD machine, and the new generation of these all have DVD-A capability.

 

No matter what happens in the format wars, I'm prepared. I have a universal player and buy the music I want. I just wish both formats would hurry up and get moving on better titles. I would love to have things like Dave Matthews, Chris Whitley, Mojave 3, Giant Sand ... on high resolution. Also, some classic bands are still missing like Led Zepplin (have how the west was won) and Jethro Tull and Van Morrison. You get my drift.

irfoton

 

Absolutely agreed.
The Led Zep HTWWW is on DVD-A now. Not got it yet, but soon...

 

Just traded the Limit for a Pioneer DV565.
Found a serious problem in the implementation of DVD-Audio in the limit, namely no multiscreen menus, and will only play a single group out of the nine allowable. Found it doing a DVDA version of an Opera, where the client wanted different versions on the same disc - stereo & surround, so set group 1 as surround & group 2 as stereo, and the limit wouldn't play the stereo ones.
The Pioneer is superb though - I got it on the recommendation on the DV563 in this very thread! Very nice is my first thoughts on it.
Must go for the moment - got a couple projects to finish off.
Mike - I've not forgotten you, it's just that the client for the job I was telling you about cannot make up their ****ing minds about content. Done 2 builds a day for the last week, and still they haven't sorted it.
The discs will be on their way to you as soon as content gets finalised.

 

It's all over with a knockout blow.
See "this is gonna kill SACD" thread!

 

Some news just in today:
http://www.highfidelityreview.com/news/news.asp?newsnumber=18483611

and a new website for DVDA in general
http://www.dvd-audio.org/

It's looking like the pretender is going to be counted out. In the current climate of "profit before quality", how much longer will Sony stay the course?

Interesting also that Philips have become DVDA/MLP licensees.....

 

What happened round 3, 4, 5, etc

 

The link didn't work for me. But this browser is all messed up. That will show me to use someones else computer. Silly thing crashes on Yahoo.

I still vote (with out seeing the info) on SACD. Not bad format and I don't own a DVD-Audio player so little biased.

 

I got Led Zep's HTWWW-DVDA and it sounds great!!
So far the best DVDA I could find.

But still there is a lot of "junk" titles out there.

When are we going to see a better collection for DVDA or SACD?

When is these battle going to end?

I think for people that dont know much about formats very well and are looking for a new best audio sounding disk are going to go with sacd, the name sets so,
the avarege joe thinks DVD is just Video, movies.
And if they see saCD well they will thik its a Super CD.

That's just what I think, but if DVDA sales are up, well maybe I'm wrong, and I hope I am cuz I love my DVDA player.

TheH

 

After purchasing many SACD's and DVD-A's and comparing them to the 24bit remastered & non-remastered 16bit CD's I came to the conclusion that DVD-A is somewhat a little more natural sounding. The SACD's have a slightly processed sound. BTW, Sony & Philips stating that SACD has the edge over DVD-A but after studying a scientific research (Doctor promotion) by two german guys it is proven that SACD is technically NOT better than DVD-A but also not worse. However DVD-A is more versatile and offers the extra videoclips. Example: I waited 20 years to see the Donald Fagen video "New Frontier" from the excellent Nightfly album (1982). Now it is on the DVD-A, voila! In the next week I will test the Steely Dan "Goucho" album - it is both on SACD & DVD-A. You will read my report on this.

Lord Vader: Come to the dark side Luke, we (The DVD Consortium) are stronger...hehehe

 

Darth Vader as the CEO of Sony!
Who does that cast as Luke though?

Interesting that the big co-conspirator, Philips, are now DVD-A & MLP licensees though.

My BIG problem with SACD is that it actually sounds a lot better when played through a 20KHz LPF Linear Phase Filter. It is a lot smoother. Trouble is, that kind of gives the lie to the claim that ultra high samplerates are required.

As any fule kno, it is much easier (and cheaper) to make a 192KHz converter sound good than a 44.1/48KHz one. You simply do not have to design the filters as well due to all the noise being shoved up into the ultrasonic area where we cannot actually hear it, psychoacoustics or no psychoacoustics.
Also, Ultrasonic noise is every bit as bad for a human as Low Frequency subsonic noise.
Subsonics will turn your organs to jelly, ultrasonics will do just as much damage. But Sony do not want to tell you that.
Stick to 96KHz if you must, although I still believe that even this is overkill. 192 is a marketing ploy and no more.
I will find the link to an article written by an ADC/DAC manufacturer on this one, where he says the same thing.