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I imagine small labels might use the capability, as Chesky and others did with DAD, but I can't see the major labels having any interest in high-quality music. Lo-res downloads and DVDs of concerts are where the sales are for the majors.

I'm not holding my breath, though.

Yes, it would be nice—in your dreams! You must be smoking crack cocaine if you think this is even remotely possible. The hardware manufacturers are offering suitcases of cash to the movie studios to release a handful of titles, hoping to prime the pump on the video side. Disregarding the fact that this tactic is doomed to failure, nobody is even thinking about doing this for high-resolution audio. Keep on tokin' that crack...

Format wars never succeed.

Hopes, but not expectations. Manufacturers are very good at designing equipment that is just good enough to "justify" the elevated price—leaving room to "upgrade" for the following model years.

We have all that we need in high-resolution audio formats. SACD, DVD-A, and even DVD-V provide more than adequate resolution. What we don't have is a consensus from the recording industry on which standard to support. Blu-ray and HD-DVD just serve to confuse the issue even more.

Certainly I'd welcome a source of real high-resolution audio, but I'd bet the farm we won't get a chance to exploit it.

Why should the fates of Blu-ray and HD-DVD be any different from that of SACD and DVD-A? Both those "roadkill" formats were hailed as the next great leap forward in music playback and both received a great deal of support from the audiophile community. However, the major interests in the music industry couldn't muster the guts to unite behind either higher resolution format, and the music consumer lost out. Does anyone really believe that the industry will ever unite behind a superior format? I don't expect this to occur in my lifetime.

They probably will use high-definition & resolution because they can. But, that just means the video world will again have another edge on the music world. While we are amazed with great video, our music is iPod or MP3. Don't believe that anything but, software based music is what the future holds. Except for a few snobs and people who want to impress others. The editorial from today is correct. High-end companies, no, all electronics companies better get on the bandwagon and offer convenience and features that take advantage of the new software based formats.

After the SACD/DVD-A marketing failure, I think I will be pretty gun-shy of any new format. I just purchased an Ayre C5xe and am falling in love all over agian with my Red Book collection. I would have to wait three to four years after the new formats prove themselves before I would buy yet another copy of The Dark Side of the Moon.

I definitely want to see this happen as SACD and DVD-A don't have all that many titles available.

SACD will remain the "audio only" high-resolution format and continue its steady growth. Blu-ray and/or HD-DVD will offer high-resolution sound combined high-definition video in either two-channel stereo or 7.1 24/96 surround sound for breathtakingly real music concerts and music videos.

If there's more than one format, nobody will buy it. In fact, maybe nobody will buy it anyway. The features on offer are not ones that the public thinks are important (which are all satisfied by DVD).

It'd be nice, but as I have little hope that any new format will be quality-driven, I don't intend to be disappointed if high-rez sound doesn't happen with these formats.

Yes, would love to see it. Sadly, I am more likely to be participating in the next moon landing.

Stereo—yes! Backwards compatability—yes! Get these right from an engineering perspective than consider multichannel as part of the spec. Just look at the sonic quality of some DVD-A and SACD releases and you see why these formats are a stillbirth. I prefer stereo, but if surround is done right, and for those who want it, include it.

Yes, would love to see it but don't have any confidence that it will happen... again!

But I doubt it.

Blu-ray? HD-DVD? Never heard of them!

The labels won't support them any more than they have supported SACD. Besides, it would likely be multichannel and I Ioathe multichannel.

You left out a good fifth choice: None, as in no hope whatsoever. This question puzzles me somewhat since there already is a higher resolution format than Dolby Digital available, ie, DTS, and it is not widely used. In addition, many inexpensive DVD players can play either SACD or DVD-Audio discs (and sometimes both) and neither of these formats have taken hold. Why should things change with Blu-ray and HD-DVD? The larger capacity will just be used to put on more extra features for movies or episodes for TV series. The average person wants a better quality picture but is quite happy with their "state of the art" Bose home-theater-in-a-box sound system. And they know it's "state of the art" because, after all, it is a Bose.

Translation, please?

Another format war, this guys can't get it?

It would be so very nice to see/hear what they could do with either format. Unfortunately, I don't see it going too well. The cost would be too high for the average buyer take advantage. We need their support to prompt the manufacturers to keep supporting the format. Just as most folk out there don't even know what an SACD or DVD-A disc is, they won't care about or buy Blu-ray or HD DVDs.

The real question is, will any of the entertainment industry executives ever make sound quality a priority again? I'm not holding my breath. I expect any new formats/technologies to be pushed into "look how much we can cram on a disc!" while quality is again ignored.

Yet another piece of hardware to purchase. I think not.

It's hard to imagine any form of high-rez audio coming from the new formats. First of all, why should they be successful where SACD and DVD-A failed in the marketplace. Then the iPod generation would have to remove its headphones and discover what high-end sound is all about. And since the new players would be targeted at the home theater market rather than two channel, we'd still have the five mediocre channels for the price of two good ones. Whatever potential exists for better sound just isn't going to happen. Maybe DVD-A soundtracks, but that's it. As The Who put it: "Won't Get Fooled Again."

But who is going to buy it? SACD proved that audiophiles alone cannot support a new musical format. As long as the average consumer can buy cheap downloads off of the internet there is no reason to buy a much more expensive format at a record store. The average consumer does not care about fidelity, so MP3 is perfect for them.

Not interested, simply because I do not intend on buying another disc player for a long while. The existing hybird/SACD format is perfectly fine, why muddy things up with other formats?

The bottom line ? The new formats for video will end up the same as the new formats for audio - DOA. After our current video standards are maxed-out via "extended resolution" techniques (sound familiar ?), they will not be needed and will fail.