Warner DVDA Chief Admits Past Mistakes (1 Viewer)

Lee Scoggins · Apr 14, 2003

Tower Records' George Scarlett addressed the DVD-A/SACD format war, "Whenever there have been these sorts of wars, if you will, one or zero have emerged." He added, "It will be a good thing for our industry if a format between these two emerges and becomes ubiquitous in the marketplace." Scarlett said that, while Tower is an outspoken supporter of SACD, the company is still trying to find the best formula for selling DVD-A discs and the best location for them in the store.

A good idea. Why not just have one format and a wide industry push?

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Philip Hamm · Apr 14, 2003

Why not just have one format and a wide industry push?

Like they did with DVD perhaps? Remember how close the competing groups were to releasing different DVD contenders in 1996. It's almost a miracle that they all got together and made one unified format. Too bad hi-rez audio didn't end up coming out of a similar effort.

Too much corporate hubris. Nobody wanted to share their technology, licensing fees, etc. And darn it all if Sony can't come up with something idustry standard for once instead of reinventing the wheel, again. MiniDisc, Digital8, proprietary memory slots for digital camers, SACD, why can't they just get along with the rest of the induistry. :rolleyes

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Al B. C · Apr 14, 2003

why can't they just get along with the rest of the induistry.

Because they're greedy bastards.

Oh well - "Pigs get fat and hogs get slaughtered"

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Jerry Klawiter · Apr 14, 2003

And darn it all if Sony can't come up with something idustry standard for once instead of reinventing the wheel, again. MiniDisc, Digital8, proprietary memory slots for digital camers, SACD, why can't they just get along with the rest of the induistry.

Innovators tend to lead rather than follow.
If it fails, they will try again.
In the long-run the licensing pays for many years to come.
just my $0.02

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Dan Joy · Apr 14, 2003

A good idea. Why not just have one format and a wide industry push?

Here we go again

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Marc Colella · Apr 14, 2003

A good idea. Why not just have one format and a wide industry push?

I agree... kill off SACD and let DVD-A be the format for Hi-Rez.

There are more DVD players than SACD players on the market, and soon we'll see alot more of those DVD players including DVD-Audio.

Hybrid SACD will do very little to move people away from the CD format, and doesn't address the piracy issue.

DVD is the format of the future, and it makes sense that companies piggyback off of that with DVD-A.

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John Kotches · Apr 14, 2003

Lee,

On a purely semantic level, how does one describe non-existent marketing as "a terrible job"? Not much to critique and say "this could have been done better" here or there.

Anyway, with some of the recent announcements and upcoming day and date titles (Fleetwood Mac Say you Will and Steely Dan's Everything Must Go) it's time to actually market the format.

The stated (but not yet delivered) hybrid flipper solves one of the other bigger criticisms of DVD-A.

In response to Marc Collella:

All the interested parties couldn't get along when they were trying to lock down the DVD-A specs within WG-4. Sony/Philips split SACD off when DSD was denied as an alternative encoding scheme for DVD-Audio discs. To this day, Sony and Philips are listed as members of WG-4 which governs the DVD-Audio specifications.

Regards,

Ed St. Clair · Apr 14, 2003

GOOD!

Phil A · Apr 14, 2003

The article pointed to lack of success with many retailers and it is little wonder with sometimes 3 different size cases for the discs. Generally, retailers have shelf space configured for CDs or DVD-Vs. If they expect more retailer support, they need to come up with a standard size case for all DVD-As and it probably would not be a bad idea at this point for them to give retailers displays (other than kiosks). They have come up with a format that is different from the 20 year history of CDs in the manner in which the discs are intended to be viewed vs. just put in and played. They are going against the tide of an established norm that makes up around 94% of the music sales in this country today, where retailers and consumers have their storage configured differently and except for Warner, which has done an excellent job lowering the price to basically CD levels, other major commercial labels have not followed suit. The depressed music industry does not need a more expensive (for consumers) format that is a problem putting on the shelves of retailers or consumers. Warner needs to see what BMG or EMI (and even Universal) is going to sell their DVD-As for. If they are going to continue a trend of $25 list DVD-As, it is not going to cut it with the mass market and Warner may as well make the switch and the most money they can from their vast pool of musical content and talent.

Justin Lane · Apr 14, 2003

David Dorn gets my vote for Captain Obvious. Warner has done the worst job imaginable to date marketing DVD-A. EMI's Ted Cohen in this article sounded like he was quite on board with DVD-A and even said making a profit with the format was "do-able". This is good news as far as the Beatles are concerned coming to DVD-A.

It does look like Warner may be turning the corner though. In this past weeks Best Buy circular, there was promotion in the music section for DVD-A as well as Fleetwood Mac's new disc Say You Will. Still the new Hi-res sections in the couple Best Buy stores I frequent is a bit stale. On both DVD-A and SACD, it seems like Best Buy sells their initial stock of discs, and then takes forever to reorder. It will interesting the rest of the year, as we should have a good view where DVD-A is going as a format by year's end.

J

Lee Scoggins · Apr 14, 2003

It does look like Warner may be turning the corner though.

How can you say that when Dorn suggests they may not keep DVDA alive forever???

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David Lawson · Apr 14, 2003

proprietary memory slots for digital camers

Yeah, why couldn't they use the standard CompactFlash? Or the standard SmartMedia? Or the standard MultiMedia Card? Or the standard MicroDrive? Or the standard Secure Digital?

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Tomoko Noguchi · Apr 14, 2003

While it is true that us classical music audiophiles seem to think SACD is the better format, I'm sure that in the end we just won't have anything to say in the matter. That's sad.:frowning:

Justin Lane · Apr 14, 2003

How can you say that when Dorn suggests they may not keep DVDA alive forever???

Lee, you do realize DVD-A is bigger then Warner? My comments were in response to DVD-A (and Fleetwood Mac) actually being advertised in this weeks Best Buy circular, meaning Warner is beginning to put its money where their mouth is suggesting they may be turning the corner in their efforts (at least its a start). Understand now?

If Warner wants to continue doing the half assed job they are now doing with DVD-A, I would rather see them give up on the format entirely. This would most likely lead to (especially with a cash strapped company like Warner) them licensing out their material to audiophile labels such as AIX or Hi-res Music, who will gladly put out music on DVD-A. I wouldn't be surprised if in the coming months we start to see some Warner artists licensed out to smaller labels. At this point it is painfully obvious that Hi-res in any format will always be strictly an audiophile format, which is fine with me. Just get me the titles out the door whether by Warner or by an audiophile label licensing out material.

J

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Philip Hamm · Apr 14, 2003

You get more titles to work with that way, backward compatibility via hybrids, and audiophile acceptance - something you don't get with DVDA.

Honest audiophiles (if there is such a thing) have no problem with "acceptance" of DVD-A. Maybe "irrational preference" would be a better term to use.

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KeithH · Apr 14, 2003

Warner DVDA Chief Admits Past Mistakes

So when is David Kawakami going to do the same thing with SACD? You know, single-layer SACDs, inadequate offering of budget SACD players to the masses, lack of advertising, not educating chain-store employees, etc., etc., etc.

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Lee Scoggins · Apr 15, 2003

Honest audiophiles (if there is such a thing) have no problem with "acceptance" of DVD-A.

I agree (I like the DVDAs I have) but my point is that Super Audio is the preferred format across many hifi events and industry journals.

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John-Miles · Apr 15, 2003

Come on none of the record labels can market, they never could and probably never will be able to. this is definitely not news.

I do find it interesting how the author of the article said they "hinted that promoting it as an audiophile format was a mistake"

exactly what was said to give this hint? he was pretty good at giving other quotes, but where is the backign for this one?

again personally I am just hoping the new metallica album has a day and date release on dvd-a, that would really show some committment for the format to me.

Tony Casler · Apr 15, 2003

I don't think the lack of marketing is the main problem, it's the content. I own two SACD and four DVD-A titles, that's all the ones on the market that interest me so far. There's already plenty of Classical music out there, how about some contemperary stuff? I want more from Disturbed, Godsamack, Korn, Linkin Park, Metallica,etc. When the labels start releasing music that people want to listen to, I'm sure sales would pick up.

Lee Scoggins · Apr 15, 2003

Come on none of the record labels can market, they never could and probably never will be able to.

They did serviceable work on the launch of the Compact Disc.

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