DVD-Audio Launch Delay of 2000

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thebarnman

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[ADMIN NOTE: The first three posts in this thread were copied from a thread in the AIX forum]

While I'm at it, I read on Aix's website http://www.aixrecords.com/contact/about_mw.html that "lawyers killed the DVDA." (It's on the right hand side.) Could anyone direct me or fill me in on the story about that?

I'm assuming DVD-A is not dead, but from what I gather lawyers somehow slowed down the progress of DVD-A? Since there's SACD and Blu-ray Audio, I guess it really wouldn't matter if it was dead or not.

Thanks,
 
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While I'm at it, I read on Aix's website http://www.aixrecords.com/contact/about_mw.html that "lawyers killed the DVDA." (It's on the right hand side.) Could anyone direct me or fill me in on the story about that?

I'm assuming DVD-A is not dead, but from what I gather lawyers somehow slowed down the progress of DVD-A? Since there's SACD and Blu-ray Audio, I guess it really wouldn't matter if it was dead or not.

Thanks,

When DVD-A was launched, it was set to be a standard feature of ALL DVD players sold, just like the fast forward button, but some people in Europe broke the copy protection on the discs, so the record label lawyers would not allow the DVD-A capability to be included in DVD players until a new copy protection scheme (which I believe was the watermark) to be implemented.

This delay not only kept DVD-A out of the initial launch DVD players, requiring folks to later buy ANOTHER DVD player in order to be able to play DVD-Audios, it allowed (the evil :) ) Sony to launch an all out anti-DVD-A assault, adding 5.1 to their new SACD format, and giving huge incentives to labels like Universal to release titles in SACD over DVD-Audio.

Two blows that would make it very difficult for the format to survive. And that doesn't even count the Napster/MP3 impending revolution of music listening.
 
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Here's a link to a story or two about DVD-A launch. There are many more on the web if you search for them.
THOSE BASTARDS REALLY F'D US UP!!! :mad:

https://www.twice.com/product/dvd-audio-launch-pushed-back-summer-or-fall-earliest-1497
https://www.cdmediaworld.com/hardware/cdrom/news/9912/dvd_audio_delayed.shtml

Coupled with the fact that SONY paid Capitol Records an 'undisclosed' amount of money to switch the release of PF's Dark Side of the Moon from a pre~announced DVD~A 5.1 release to SACD. Boy was I royally pissed. I had just
A~Bed SONY's Stereo Only Flagship SCD~1 player with Meridian's Reference DVD~A 800 Player and the Meridian blew it away. And had they used the Meridian in the High End Rags to audition DVD~A instead of the frankly SHITTY Panasonic DVD~A players ....... the tides would've turned. Absolute Sound and Stereophile trashed DVD~A based on those tests and in a later 'correction' I believe it was Robert Harley who finally admitted that the Meridian 800 was more adept musically at playing RBCDs than the then Accuphase $30K SACD player at playing SACDs.

And the irony....after all this brouhaha: the preferred by many version of DSOTM is the ORIGINAL Alan Parson's QUAD version on BD~A released in PF's Immersion box set....MANY YEARS LATER!

Money Talks and Bullshit walks .....but in the end, that money would've been better spent educating the public on the MERITS of higher resolution SURROUND SOUND.....instead of launching an all out format war!
 
.....but in the end, that money would've been better spent educating the public on the MERITS of higher resolution SURROUND SOUND.....instead of launching an all out format war!

Evidently format wars are a necessary evil.

BETA vs VHS
LASERDISC vs CED
DVD vs DIVX
8mm vs Super 8
VHS-C vs Video 8
Super Audio CD vs DVD-A
Sirius vs XM
4-Track vs 8-Track
8-Track vs Cassette
HD DVD vs Blu-ray
Disc Records vs Wax Cylinders
Mac vs PC
Mono vs Stereo
Stereo vs Quad
Dolby vs DTS
MiniDisc vs DCC
AC vs DC
 
Evidently format wars are a necessary evil.

BETA vs VHS
LASERDISC vs CED
DVD vs DIVX
8mm vs Super 8
VHS-C vs Video 8
Super Audio CD vs DVD-A
Sirius vs XM
4-Track vs 8-Track
8-Track vs Cassette
HD DVD vs Blu-ray
Disc Records vs Wax Cylinders
Mac vs PC
Mono vs Stereo
Stereo vs Quad
Dolby vs DTS
MiniDisc vs DCC
AC vs DC

Great list but you omitted that eternal conundrum THE BATTLE of the SEXES!
 
Are these artistic images of man and woman, or just images of customers who lost their shirts (and other things) buying all of those formats during the format wars?

Both, Jon. I lost SO many shirts [and other things] in the format wars consider me a true VETERAN! And thank you SONY ..... for your DISSERVICE!🤑
 
wait, did Sony just use the 176.4kHz frequency as an excuse for a better format when all along it wasn't, but rather just a oppurtunity to compete with the fear of DVD-A's copy weakness?

This is why I hate the music "Industry".

How about do some R&D and actually provide a better format? Or have we run out of options and hit our technology limitations?
 
wait, did Sony just use the 176.4kHz frequency as an excuse for a better format when all along it wasn't, but rather just a oppurtunity to compete with the fear of DVD-A's copy weakness?

This is why I hate the music "Industry".

How about do some R&D and actually provide a better format? Or have we run out of options and hit our technology limitations?

We could always hire live bands to play in our listening space .........Until then ..... we're at the mercy of the majors! And do we really need another format?
 
That other better format is MQA-CD.


So far the jury is out on the efficacy of Meridian's MQA. It's built into my Oppo 205 and so far I've only played the Phil Spector [over] produced ALL THINGS MUST PASS [Japanese SHM~CD/MQA encoded] and I wasn't impressed. But that wasn't a fair representation of what it can do. I heard a prototype at the now 'shuttered'Meridian Studio in SoHo and again was not wowed. I've read pros and cons and I suppose with the right material if might have a chance.

Stay tuned. I know a lot of major record companies have signed on including Warner and Universal. Can only wonder what SONY has up its sleeve.
 
Wasn’t there a guy on here who worked in this very industry who gave some insight on this? Basically the problems Jon mentioned led to the fact that nobody bought the players.
 
So far the jury is out on the efficacy of Meridian's MQA. It's built into my Oppo 205 and so far I've only played the Phil Spector [over] produced ALL THINGS MUST PASS [Japanese SHM~CD/MQA encoded] and I wasn't impressed. But that wasn't a fair representation of what it can do. I heard a prototype at the now 'shuttered'Meridian Studio in SoHo and again was not wowed. I've read pros and cons and I suppose with the right material if might have a chance.

Stay tuned. I know a lot of major record companies have signed on including Warner and Universal. Can only wonder what SONY has up its sleeve.

Just remember about studio production/mics, mixing and mastering; the final format is just a vessel to hold what's come before: shit in - shit out!
Think, Layla-SACD. 🤨
Yours, very Truly - The Mutt!
 
wait, did Sony just use the 176.4kHz frequency as an excuse for a better format when all along it wasn't, but rather just a oppurtunity to compete with the fear of DVD-A's copy weakness?

This is why I hate the music "Industry".

How about do some R&D and actually provide a better format? Or have we run out of options and hit our technology limitations?
They essentially made a different digital "language". The ones and zeros of the digitized signal need a different "decoder ring". The ability to contain full studio master sound quality to the highest level is literally identical to PCM digital. When you hear differences between DSD and PCM, you're hearing different mastering. You can even translate DSD to 88.2k 32 bit losslessly (and then reduce the 32 bit floating point to 24 bit fixed when you've framed it with respect to 0db).

The big clue they were full of shit were the straw man like comparisons of SACD to CD. Not 24 bit 88.2k or 96k PCM which would have been identical. They always were comparing it only to red book CD in the ads. Purely a format war with an identically HD quality format that used hardware that "spoke a different language".
 
That other better format is MQA-CD.

No, it's a lossy down-res lower quality file. An attempt to get ahead on FLAC which is a better smaller file which is free. Free Audio Lossless Codec is what FLAC stands for. The majors hate it because it took off and left them with nothing to do with it. Apple really hated it. Music fans embraced it.

MQA is vapor-ware. Appears dead as an audiophile format, but may still gain some traction in streaming content.
 
There's a Carpenters album on MQA-CD that's not available on SACD, BD-A or DVD-A. It might be available as a high resolution digital download, but I prefer media I can store on a shelf or drawer. Also, I'm not going to spend the money they're asking for the decoder just to listen to one album.
 
Also, it's the Carpenters and they're terrible. One of the four artists I hold in a special category of hatred.
 
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