Content Wrapper

[RoverGGM]

mindcage previously said:

RoverGGM, regarding DVD-Audio... your analogy to Sony beta is a good one... a classic example of how standards become adopted and how it has more to do with timing, positioning, and partnering in business than the best technology. In the case of DVD-Audio, it happens that that the music industry was very nervous about security and totally distracted and focused on the internet piracy.. they were desperately looking to find a way to get back in control of the market and to a large degree, superior audio formats were overlooked. They just wanted to patch that hole in the damn, which is still hemoraging. And were further convinced that the consumer did not care about quality and surround.. when it could have been sold to them as the 'true' way to experience the music they are serious about, then mp3s and downloading would have been the cassette tape alternative.. good for portability and the gym, etc. but you really need to own the "DVD-A" or album.

Anyway, that was the sense in the industry, and as a few of the content holders began considering DVD-A seriously, someone broke the DVD-Video copy protection. When that got hacked, the studios went into total paranoia even though the DVD-A copy protection could not be hacked or pirated by any practical means. This occurred at the same time the DVD-Audio players were being released, and since there were hardly any titles going to market it resulted in a 'soft launch' of the format. Then around 2003, some of the labels began getting back on board and producing some titles. Unfortunately it was too little too late.

The industry never understood or cared enough about the formats to educate themselves much less the consumer.. most consumers think you are just talking about 'regular DVD" when you mention it (hence the deer in the headlights). They don't realize, that the space on the disc for a DVD-Audio is used up by super high res, surround audio and there is no bandwidth left for simultaneous video.. but you get the best possible audio. Whereas on a DVD-video disc, the audio is compressed and therefore is often less than CD quality, even if it is in surround. The consumer needed to have the advantages spelled out for them, this is another place where the industry failed.

Still, if I want to blow someone's mind and see them cry and go berserk wondering why the whole world isn't listening to DVD-A, I put them in the center of my living room and simply put in the Queen "Night at the Opera" DVD-Audio.

Or the Pink Floyd "Dark Side of the Moon" SACD... which is uncanny.

They are still trickling out, along with SACDs.. ! Enjoy that player and know that you are listening to the best possible audio available and are light years ahead.. because by the time the beauracracy gets out of the way.. who knows where we will be.

Hopefully Blu-ray or HD-DVD will take off, and those discs have the space to not only include the highest resolutions of multi-channel digital audio - but it can also carry video.

Thanks for enduring my rant! I am still bummed we are listening to inferior audio on antiquated formats... and that music that is meticulously recorded actually has to be degradated to be distributed to the world!

Actually, the first time I was introduced to it was in the TL you mentioned, and I believe the Pink Floyd disk was the one used to demo.

Being in "MUSIC CITY" (Nashville) it bums me out too, I have Monsoon planar media speakers on this PC that are fine enough to display the audible difference in the MP3 sampling rate. Most ipod addicts will, unfortunately, never know the difference!

Love Ya, Mean it!