Sony DVD player Super Audio CD ? (1 Viewer)

[Alex-C]

I just bought this Sony DVP-NS775V DVD player which also does other things too, but I mainly bought it for the DVD player capabilities and I needed one that plays DVD-R/+R etc.

Since it also plays super audio CDs, I figured I'd pick one up just to check out how it sounds.

Anyway, does anyone know why you could play multichannel audio (i.e. DTS) from a DVD outputted through an optical cable, but the audio output from a Super Audio CD has to go through 6 interconnect cables ?

Is there something with the technology that prevents Super Audio from being outputted through an optical cable ?

 

[DonaldB]

Yes, this required use of analog outs for SACD is meant to keep pirates from making perfect digital copies of the hi-rez tracks. DVD-A does the same thing.

 

[PaulDA]

DTS CDs are encoded in a lossy compression format, identical to DTS movie soundtracks, so they can be sent via digital connection. SACD and DVD-A (esp. MCH) exceed the bandwidth for standard SPDIF connections. That, along with the anti-piracy paranoia, led to analogue only connections for these formats until very recently. Now, some expensive gear has iLink (Firewire), which is the only digital connection approved for both formats. DVD-A can also be sent via Denon-Link (proprietary format) and HDMI (though not the first generation of HDMI).

 

[Alex-C]

okay...thanks Donald and Paul.