Columns Retired Columns & Blogs |
Consumers have a right to create a copy for personal use. Why doesn't the RIAA create a media-player device driver for Unix?
It looks as if the release of DVD-Audio players will be delayed by several more months. Any comments about the situation?
It seems as though anytime the manufacturers race to meet the almighty Christmas deadline they put out average product. DVD-Audio could be a good music format, especially if done properly. Manufacturers should take their time and do it right.
With the release of each new technological marvel, there is pressure to conduct research by reading reviews and, if possible, auditioning the technology yourself. Then you have to decide who makes the best machine (and who makes the best machine you can afford or are willing to pay for). Finally, there is the expense of purchasing the machine, finding space to put it in your current system, and purchasing "software" to play on it. If SACD is an indicator, I predict the discs will cost $25 each. It seems like I just went through this with DVD-Video and with CD-R. I need a break to just enjoy music and movies for a while.
I'm sure by the time they come out, nobody will really care. C.D.'s have gotten so good lately and the audiophiles are going to S.A.C.D. Personally, I don't want another digital medium. I would rather get into analog and tubes just for nostalgia.
I've been waiting for DVD-Audio with much anticipation. I look forward to true multichannel recordings. Some people have judged multichannel unfairly because of bad multichannel remixes. DVD-Audio will propel multichannel audio as the new standard! Copy protection, watermarking, and the like are all a bunch of crap. What a shame . . .
DVD-A should be delayed until the chips containing both DVD-A and SACD are available, as SACD is better but nobody wants to pick the wrong format. Remember, Beta was and still is better than VHS; lots of good it did owners of Beta machines. I can hardly wait to have one of these universal machines. What what I want is a STEREO AUDIO ONLY machine, as I don't like what surround sound does to music, and collecting movies is like buying re-runs. I enjoy listening to the same music over and over, but most movies, for me once is enough. I have HDCD and I am ready for the next advance!
This is another example of the ignorant consumer electronics industry trying to introduce a reasonable format with little consumer interest (apart from us) and missing the boat entirely. In 6 months, DVD-V will be so entrenched, DVD-A will never have a chance to catch up. Go SACD (which, IMHO, sounds better anyway).
DVD-Audio is a joke. Why 24/96? It is difficult to deal with from a recording engineer's standpoint, and who has a 24-bit A/D converter anyway? I don't think they can build a power supply with a noise floor low enough to exploit 24 bits of resolution. SACD is here, and it sounds better than some hodge-podge of 6 channels of music unrealistically blaring at me from all directions (what happened to soundstaging?). Sony/Philips have the power to make it happen. I am a Microsoft developer and maybe that says it all, but the guy with the boat that floats gets my vote. Rhyme not intended. I don't care if DVD-A lives or dies; I will not support it. I love my DVD machine for video and the occasional CD that I play in the movie room (dual laser pickup), and that's it. Remember, DSD was, first and foremost, a better archival scheme for storing vaults full of deteriorating masters. 24/96 is still PCM, which, in my opinion is fundamentally flawed for music reproduction.
It is always exciting to see the birth of a new format. But I think that DVD-Audio is not going to be even half as successful as DVD-Video. DVD-Video usually has better pictures (anamorphic), better sound (Dolby Digital and DTS), extras, and, most important, the price is rightmuch less expensive when compared to the prices of laserdiscs. Many titles are now available. DVD-Audio players may not have digital outputs, and the catalogue will be limited to specialized recordings, and the prices will be definitively more expensive than CD. The price is definitely not right. I hope this format does not end up as stillborn.
Blaming DeCSS is a cover excuse for other reasons for the delay. There have been numerous problems with authoring the DVD-A discs. The DVD-A delay will give a boost to SACD. Most manufacturers will make an all-format (DVD-V, DVD-A, CD, and SACD) player because that will be the consumer demand.
I'm very happy with my tubed 2-channel stereo. I have a fair number of DTS CDs that I will play on the HT. They are fun. However, I have about 1000 CDs and even more LPs, hundreds not even out of the wrapper yet. I'm 30 now; by the time I'm 60 I might be through most of the ones still in the wrapper today.