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There is no software yet and it seems we won t have many before a decade. Let s get the maximum resolution out of the CD!

garbage

The hybrids are essential for the success of the high resolution formats because most people aren't going to go out and buy a second copy of a piece of music. And retail space is limited so few retailers will stock both high rez and Red Book CDs. Hybrids, if competitively priced, allow the labels to ship the new discs in the place of the old standard. Buying an SACD or DVD-A player becomes a lot easier when you already own some software.

Why bother trying to make this format work? People that want to watch music and video at the same time don't care about music quality. Just give them standard DVDs with DTS.

Backwards compatible hardware the more important issue

The arrival of hybrid discs won't be important unless the music companies lower the prices.

Here we go again beating that poor dead horse SACD and DVD-Audio. This is another marketing joke by these guys. From the very start their clown act has had everything except the floppy shoes and make-up. Audiophiles are too small a market to make these new formats profitable. The general public does not know they exist and they don't care to know. On a car system or on the average home system no one could possibly tell the diffence. There still are not nearly enough titles on SACD or DVD-A to make me go buy a machine for them. Yes, I have done an A-B with both formats against a MSB Gold DAC though my two systems at home. My final reference is Sennheiser HD580 headphones. Oh, I almost forgot. Regular CD with a little help from the MSB won. This was not what I expected but, none the less true. For what it's worth, probably not much I admit, get a good DAC and forget the new formats.

If it speeds acceptance of SACD, like the Rolling Stone CDs, then I am all for it!

All Pink Floyd, Moody Blues, Beatles, Tool, and Radiohead titles on BOTH. It would also be nice to get some new recordings instead of only remasters.

DVD-A is becoming one of those gotta haves for the DVD player and the Home Theatre crowd. A good many of them threw out their CD players because their DVD players could also play CDs. So for the HT crowd, it's not important. However, DVD-A is making inroads to the car audio market where this will be more important for DVD-A to be the hi-rez car audio format. SACD had to go with hybrids, there was no other logical choice as it is a music format rather than a HT or Car format. The DVD-A folks are just following a logical idea, even if it's not as important for them as it is for the SACD camp. It's a good step, even if it's not a big one.

I have thrown in my vote for SACD and this will only serve to muddy the waters.

I don't care about hybrids because I almost always listen in my main system. If there's music available on DVD-A that I want to hear, I'll buy a player.

In order for the market to fully blossom, we must include backward compatable software for those who can not easly adopt new generation formats.

I FEEL THAT THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT HURDLE FOR DVD AUDIO TO ADDRESS. THE ROLLING STONES SACD HYBRIDS WERE THE DECIDING FACTOR IN ME MAKING THE JUMP INTO THE FORMAT. IT WAS VERY NICE BEING ABLE TO PLAY MY DISCS IN MY PLAYER IN THE HOUSE AND THEN TAKE THEM TO MY CAR WITHOUT ANY PROBLEMS, AND IT HELPED THAT THE PRICES WERE THE SAME AS REGULAR CD'S. DVD-A WITH DTS AND D.D TRACKS JUST AREN'T USER FRIENDLY TO THE AVERAGE CONSUMER, AND I THINK IT'S JUST A WASTE OF DISC SPACE THAT COULD BE USED FOR THE HYBRID FORMAT. IF DVD-A WOULD JUST FOLLOW SONY'S LEAD AND IF ONE OF THE TWO WOULD JUMP ON THE BEATLES CATALOG IT WOULD BE DIGITAL AUDIO NIRVANA.

Seemingly everything I have read concerning formats, copyright protection, etc, has been rumors. Frankly, I don't give a damn. I do not intend to spend more money on a new format and the playback hardware required. As long as the CD and LP are viable music media, there will be plenty of good music to buy and enjoy. This issue bears more than a passing resemblance to previous attempts at introducing new photo film formats. Anyone remember the Kodak disc camera? How about the Instamatic films in 126 and 116 formats? And now the APS format appears to be dying off as camera makers are reducing the number of new models. SCAD et al may appeal to audiophiles, but not the mass market. I believe this dooms them as commercial successes unless bolstered by high prices. Will the high-end market be enough for them to survive? We'll see.

I don't really think that either format will succeed without hybrids.

dvd-a is doa so far. Watermarking just makes it worse. SACD is much better.

Hybrid SACD and DVD-A can only speed the acceptance of those new formats in the marketplace. Think of them as the software version of the universal disc players that are now appearing. These will be universally playable discs.

One standard for audiophiles is what we want, too many would just create uncertainties and hamper healthy development of the SACD standard, I just started accumulating SACD disks recently, only after 3 years of its launch, please don't come up with another standard to confuse the cinusumers.

important, yes - I prefer SACD and don

It's the only way to push the new formats.

Having taken the plunge and opted for SACD, I'm not the least prepared to see yet another format invade the market.

While I could really care less what the DVD-A camp does, I'm a big fan of SACD hybrids. With the single layer SACD discs my listening choices are limited I can either a) only listen to them on my big rig (ie not in the bedroom, car, etc) b) buy a second (and often times inferior)copy on CD to facilitate listening in other environments or c) make an analog recording and mix-it/burn-it to CD. On top of this, if there's any music I want to lend out to friends (to expose them to something other than top 40) I can hand over a hybrid with confidence that they will be able to use it in their players. So yes, while not essential, I do find hybrids important if for no other reason than they just make my life easier...

I really don't care what they do.I find the prices of these discs way too hi.Besides I now discover the true potential of the humble cd and considering my big collection I 'll stick with this medium until sacd or dvd-audio is so common as to find it everywhere and in true consumer prices.

It's only that the patent of CD is running out, and here in Holland Philips electronics needs a new money maker. For me, it's not inportant, but for the economy here, it is. I probably will buy a multi-system player witch will swalow everything.

Another hyped format to enrich the recording industry is going to entirely bypassed by me, as well as, I hope, the majority of audiophiles/public. I already have greater quality from vinyl sources and will not be suckered into SACD/DVD-A. I'll be spending my money to improve my experience not repeat it.

Hybrids are the only SACD or DVD-Audio that I will buy at this time. The new hi-res format doesn't do much for me, even in the 2 channel form. I can't justify buying a new player, when it doesn't really sound better. Let's scrap both formats and bring on that 2", 2 channel, high-rez disk idea.

I'm not buying any DVD-Audio or SACD until the music companies start recording new material in 24/96. I have already spent a small fortune on both vinyl and CD's -- no way am I shelling out any more cash for stuff I already own.

Hybrids are only important to me if they motivate the "suits" who release records to release more multichannel sacd's & dvd-a's.

Not until: 1) Copy protection issues are resolved (a good piece of "personal copying software, like we used to have for PC's in the 80s would be fine), 2) A digital transfer protocol is selected and broadly implemented (eg Firewire).