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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
I fail to see the point of a new HD audio format. DVD-A and SACD are all but dead, and the largest market for music (teenagers) doesn't give a crap about transparency to the source. There are a few audiophiles out there who would buy into a new audio format, but that small market isn't going to justify a new audio format, regardless of improvements. The majority of people would rather just download or stick with CDs.
\"My opinion is that (a) anyone who actually works in a video store and does not understand letterboxing has given up on life, and (b) any customer who prefers to have the sides of a movie hacked off should not be licensed to operate a video player.\"-- Roger Ebert
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
While implementing DVD-A playback on an HD DVD player should be relatively simple, I wouldn't say the same for SACD playback on anything. This is because SACD uses Sony's proprietary DSD codec, which from all appearances doesn't appear to be supported by BD..
\"My opinion is that (a) anyone who actually works in a video store and does not understand letterboxing has given up on life, and (b) any customer who prefers to have the sides of a movie hacked off should not be licensed to operate a video player.\"-- Roger Ebert
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
Actually, if the masters of these Quad mixes are unaltered (@ least in terms of the information contained in them), you should be able to decode them using Dolby Pro Logic. This is because SQ was the basis for Dolby Stereo and the other two channels were matrixed into the stereo mix.
\"My opinion is that (a) anyone who actually works in a video store and does not understand letterboxing has given up on life, and (b) any customer who prefers to have the sides of a movie hacked off should not be licensed to operate a video player.\"-- Roger Ebert
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
Quote:
| DVD-Audio and SACD failed because of format wars but if they stick with one format and have lots of current artists instead of just classics and classical releases |
Actually the only group that generally is concerned about high-quality audio formats is classical buffs like me. SACD won a TKO for the reason that Sony and Phillips "own" the classical music catalog, so that format war was over and decided many years ago.
And it still ticks me off that Sony of all people doesn't just include SACD playback capability in their Blu-Ray players.
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
And unless DSD decoding can be added with a firmware upgrade, they never will.
\"My opinion is that (a) anyone who actually works in a video store and does not understand letterboxing has given up on life, and (b) any customer who prefers to have the sides of a movie hacked off should not be licensed to operate a video player.\"-- Roger Ebert
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Marc Colella
First off... the format war between DVD-A and SACD had nothing to do with them both failing. They failed because most people found CD and MP3 to be perfectly fine, and the average consumer doesn't care about improved audio quality for music.
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I have to agree. I mean I have hundreds of CDs (not that much Mp3s anymore) and I feel that good CD is "good enough". But, I fully understand that there are many people wanting for "perfect" music experience. And I also admit that 5.1 set-up is not "ideal" for stereo-music.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Marc Colella
I suspect the same thing will happen with BD/HDDVD, but we'll have to wait it out.
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I don´t agree. Films have both Audio and Visual aspects + extras etc. And many people have now that HD TV-set at home - waiting. One HD-format will survive (and eventually replaces SD DVD - it just might take 10 years or something, hard to say..).
Was DVD-Audio and SACD even aimed for the "masses"?
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
It certainly wasn't advertised that way. About the most I ever heard about SACD and DVD-A came from Sony Style magazines, audiophile magazines, and dedicated music sites like MusicTAP.
\"My opinion is that (a) anyone who actually works in a video store and does not understand letterboxing has given up on life, and (b) any customer who prefers to have the sides of a movie hacked off should not be licensed to operate a video player.\"-- Roger Ebert
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
Yeah, the 2 hirez audio formats failed for a multitude of reasons, but iTunes/MP3 would be the simplest way to put it. DVD-A didn't even survive as a tiny niche format as far as I can tell. SACD is sort of still around kinda like vinyl now, but serving largely different niche markets. I still occasionally buy an SACD -- and bought a Denon uni-player a year ago after my kid broke my previous Philips DVD/SACD player.
I think though SACD was reasonably popular in some East Asian markets. No idea if it still is.
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Dennis Nicholls
And it still ticks me off that Sony of all people doesn't just include SACD playback capability in their Blu-Ray players. |
PS3 supports SACD. Not sure about the other players from Sony...
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
Actually, in checking the hardware forums on this site, it seems Sony removed SACD support from the 40GB PS3.
\"My opinion is that (a) anyone who actually works in a video store and does not understand letterboxing has given up on life, and (b) any customer who prefers to have the sides of a movie hacked off should not be licensed to operate a video player.\"-- Roger Ebert
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RAF
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
For me, personally, one of the nicest features of HDM (both formats) was the potential for great sound ("great" being defined as better than most normal sources, and certainly better than the dumbing down sounds of portable players). I love to listen to music and I discovered very early in the game (I am format neutral with several players of each type - HD-DVD and Blu-ray) that one of the best features was the existence of some "concert" discs on HD Media. Granted, everyone is promoting the movies and movie sound but I love to listen to discs such as the Chicago/Earth Wind and Fire combo concert from 2004, The Eagles' Melbourne concert and many others. Some of these productions provide almost 3 hours of music and are usually available for under $20! Compare the price and the sound to "normal" CDs and you don't even need a display to enjoy the music!
Seriously, I'm always on the lookout for "concert" or "studio" HD discs from a wide variety of performers and to me the "New" HD Audio music format is already here in the HDM specifications. To suddenly add what the public would perceive as another music format by giving it an official name like SACD or DVD-A would, in my opinion, just cloud the issue and probably even be counterproductive. All we really need to to is to start emphasizing that HDM - no matter which format prevails - is not just for movies, but for musical performances of all types and, as such, a terrific bargain compared to many other music delivery systems. The visuals are just icing on the cake.
My 2 cents.
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Marc Colella
I always found that odd. The PS3 is aimed at gamers (yes, I know non-gamers also own it - but the majority of owners are gamers) and it includes an audiophile format like SACD. The typical gamer isn't concerned about audiophile sound, especially when the releases of that format are heavliy skewed towards classical music.
Sure it probably costs nothing to include SACD playback in the PS3, but not including it in stand-alone players (which audiophiles prefer) makes no sense to me.
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I agree. It's very odd that the (older) PS3's support SACD playback, especially when no other Sony players seem to.
And in a way, it's even odder that Sony decided to drop SACD support for the newer 40GB version, which is targeted less so at the gamers. You'd think they should continue to support SACD w/ the 40GB version, if they plan to continue support at all...
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
Quote:
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Originally Posted by RAF
For me, personally, one of the nicest features of HDM (both formats) was the potential for great sound ("great" being defined as better than most normal sources, and certainly better than the dumbing down sounds of portable players). I love to listen to music and I discovered very early in the game (I am format neutral with several players of each type - HD-DVD and Blu-ray) that one of the best features was the existence of some "concert" discs on HD Media. Granted, everyone is promoting the movies and movie sound but I love to listen to discs such as the Chicago/Earth Wind and Fire combo concert from 2004, The Eagles' Melbourne concert and many others. Some of these productions provide almost 3 hours of music and are usually available for under $20! Compare the price and the sound to "normal" CDs and you don't even need a display to enjoy the music!
Seriously, I'm always on the lookout for "concert" or "studio" HD discs from a wide variety of performers and to me the "New" HD Audio music format is already here in the HDM specifications. To suddenly add what the public would perceive as another music format by giving it an official name like SACD or DVD-A would, in my opinion, just cloud the issue and probably even be counterproductive. All we really need to to is to start emphasizing that HDM - no matter which format prevails - is not just for movies, but for musical performances of all types and, as such, a terrific bargain compared to many other music delivery systems. The visuals are just icing on the cake.
My 2 cents.
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Agreed. These formats, especially under the circumstance, probably don't need additional new hirez audio formats clouding the picture for consumers. The studios w/ music content should definitely do some work to market this aspect of the HDM formats. I would love to have some more high quality music concert titles. And while the iPod does do video, I don't think it really sells concert recordings all that well -- the tiny screen plus mobile aspect just don't cut it for the experience no matter what market segment, IMHO. So there probably is some sort of market for it that iTunes hasn't dominated yet (if ever).
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Re: Time for New HD Audio music format?
Which of course brings us full circle to the question of why bother with a new hi-res audio format in the first place?
\"My opinion is that (a) anyone who actually works in a video store and does not understand letterboxing has given up on life, and (b) any customer who prefers to have the sides of a movie hacked off should not be licensed to operate a video player.\"-- Roger Ebert
