How's this for corporate fixing? I recently tried to get a quotation for HDAD replication (remember HDAD stands for "Hybrid DVD-Audio Disc", and has a Video_TS on one side with Audio content at 24/96, and an Audio_TS on the other side, with audio content at 24/192. Both sides are High Resolution stereo output) 1. Sony said that HDAD is "not available in the UK" , is not supported by Sony and is only available from Warner in the USA. I checked with one large replication factory in the UK and they confirmed that they did not have HDAD format available nor could they suggest any other factory. I have checked with a third, who cannot understand the attitude - and think the only possible answer might be some form of licensing issue. They will, however, take on a DVD10, DVD9 or DVD5 authored to DVD-Audio/Video specs - which naturally means linking into the Video_TS from the AMG to keep in spec. HDAD seems to be a way around this, with placing each type of disc on a different physical side. 2.Sony said that the DVD-Audio Disc on one side and DVD-Video on the other would be handled by developments in Blue Ray technology scheduled to be released later this year. At the moment, they (Sony Europe) had only one title in this format and that further releases would also depend on Playstation 3 developments - another words - watch this space. 3.The question of difference between HDAD and DVD10 was not raised in this conversation with Sony. In any case, any credible answer can only be confirmed by speaking with Warner. Next call is to Warner USA, and watch this space. But how about that for an attitude from Sony Europe!
LOL Sony may not have very good business tactics, but Sony still has some of the best electronic products on the market, even if they don't seem to make sense sometimes...
Their Video equipment definitely sets the standard, no denying it. If I want a new DVCam deck, it has to be a Sony. What I do not understand is their insane prejudice against High Resolution - Blu Ray's only mandatory multichannel codec is Dolby Digital. Dolby True HD & DTS-HD are optional (IE unsupported in the main). Furthermore - telling me they will not take an order as I have to "Wait for Blu Ray" is outrageous. Have you seen the prices of the authoring software - bearing in mind the specs are still not finalized, so it's useless? Dolby True HD = $8,000 (MAc OS only) BRD authoring = $$$$$$$ for something that still cannot even be produced. DVD-A works NOW, not later. Yet they refuse to deal with it - period.
Well, there has been a "refusal to support your enemy" all the time with SACD/DVD-A... Sony supports/supported (SACD may disappear if Blu-ray goes well) SACD since it's "their thing" while Meridian who invented MLP used in DVD-Audio stands firmly on the other side. Sony has always refused to deal with DVD-A in any way, Meridian just loves to tell you how technically inferior SACD is and why it would be to downgrade their label by making a universal player that also played "that crap". So much bad blood, I guess that it was required for Dolby to license MLP from Meridian and present it as Dolby True HD for Sony to be able to use it in Blu-ray.
Yet Sony, who for all their "refusal to deal with DVD-A", actually own several of the DVD-A patents. It's all about greed - pure and simple. Sony just want to own the entire cake, and decide who can have a slice of it, rather than make things simple for the consumer and get behind a format that A - works B - will play on every DVD player ever built. Meridian are essentially correct. Single bit audio is crap. It requires heroic noise shaping to make it even close to listenable, sounds like crap anyway, and even sounds better with an LPF at 23KHz inserted as all that exists above that is noise, and lots of it. So much for "massive bandwidth". All production has to be done in PCM anyway - the minute you try & mix anything by definition it turns into Multi Bit. So no great deal there either. SACD = Sad Alternative to Compact Disc, brought to you by the same team that designed the Emperors New Clothes. (I apologise for the rant. It just really pisses me off that Sony have apparently tried their best to completely kill the great experiment of giving the public studio quality audio in favour of overcompressed low bitrate crap like Dolby Digital - if you are lucky. Look what they did to DualDisc. DD 5.1 if you get lucky, otherwise it's 16/48 "enhanced" stereo. WTF is enhanced about 16/48? Why bother?)
For replication I have found that http://www.mediamegamall.com does just about anything, I think they use a few different factories to get the job done. I had a few projects done their and they came out great. Sony does seem to have issues with that kind of thing, they are used to doing things a certain way and if the boat is rocked, they do not help! Oh well, when you are one of the biggest electronics companies in the world who has time for us little guys.
Wilkes is right, Sony loves nothing as much as having World Patent Rights on something thay can squeeze license money out of the competition. Even if an open standard would give everyone, including Sony, higher profits. That's why Sony has been against MPEG-4 in highdef video (the first Blu-ray discs will come with MPEG-2, since Sony owns patents on that) but they have to bow for its superiority. But most remember other Sony "Specials" like Betamax video, Memorystick, Minidisc, DAT...
