sspsandy
600 Club - QQ All-Star
A few thoughts here as to the issue of these releases being either SACD hybrids plus DVD (Europe) or redbook cd plus DVD (US with a 24/96 DTS 5.1 layer). While I believe that DVD is the ultimate format for hi rez music releases, specifically DVD-A, SACD has beaten the format in terms of consistancy. SACD was initially plageud with lousy labelling, you never knew if it was SACD only, whether is was stereo only, ultimately they went to the hybrids which state 5.1 clearly. And these always work on every SACD player.
DVD-A has had so many issues with authoring, and so many titles that lock up players, won't play the Hi Rez layer, etc. It is astounding that this still can't seem to be sorted out. Add to that all the hoops you have to go through to set up a DVD-A player so that it will find the layer and play it, you have to spend awhile in setup, while my Sony SACD player was plug in and play, immediate 5.1. You can also switch through the layer selections, cd, 2ch, 5.1, with one button on the front of the player, as well as the remote, no going into complex setup menus.
The Depeche Mode US DVD works simply like most DVDs. It brings you to a main menu where you select the audio in the format of choice, and you have the choice of selecting the album or the videos. After you select the album in DTS 5.1 you go to the track selection menu which defaults to track one, click on it and off you go. All DVD-As should work like this, but they don't, there is no standardization. I will also add that I've heard some DVD-As that Neill authored, and if you have your DVD-A player set to the hi-rez 5.1, when you put in his disc it automatically starts playing the 5.1 DVD-A layer, you don't even need to press play. Then if you hit the top menu button, you can choose the other layers. I would think that for DVD-A car players that this would be a must, but the industry doesn't seem to be able to figure it out.
I love the DVD-A format, but some of the discs and/or players have so many issues. I haven't heard of hybrid SACDs locking up players or being unable to play the 5.1 layer. So if in the US we end up with the cd plus DVD format as a standard with DTS 5.1 24/96 as the best compromise, I can live with it. At least it always works, you don't need an expensive specialized player which might or might not even do what it is supposed to after you've spent the funds on it and the specialized discs. I'm already there, have the player, and will continue to collect DVD-A discs, and fortuantely I don't have much interest in the problem titles like Harvest, Flaming Lips, TH Brick and whatnot, so all my discs play fine. But if I put out $100.00+ for that damn brick and it didn't work, I'd be ticked off.
DVD-A has had so many issues with authoring, and so many titles that lock up players, won't play the Hi Rez layer, etc. It is astounding that this still can't seem to be sorted out. Add to that all the hoops you have to go through to set up a DVD-A player so that it will find the layer and play it, you have to spend awhile in setup, while my Sony SACD player was plug in and play, immediate 5.1. You can also switch through the layer selections, cd, 2ch, 5.1, with one button on the front of the player, as well as the remote, no going into complex setup menus.
The Depeche Mode US DVD works simply like most DVDs. It brings you to a main menu where you select the audio in the format of choice, and you have the choice of selecting the album or the videos. After you select the album in DTS 5.1 you go to the track selection menu which defaults to track one, click on it and off you go. All DVD-As should work like this, but they don't, there is no standardization. I will also add that I've heard some DVD-As that Neill authored, and if you have your DVD-A player set to the hi-rez 5.1, when you put in his disc it automatically starts playing the 5.1 DVD-A layer, you don't even need to press play. Then if you hit the top menu button, you can choose the other layers. I would think that for DVD-A car players that this would be a must, but the industry doesn't seem to be able to figure it out.
I love the DVD-A format, but some of the discs and/or players have so many issues. I haven't heard of hybrid SACDs locking up players or being unable to play the 5.1 layer. So if in the US we end up with the cd plus DVD format as a standard with DTS 5.1 24/96 as the best compromise, I can live with it. At least it always works, you don't need an expensive specialized player which might or might not even do what it is supposed to after you've spent the funds on it and the specialized discs. I'm already there, have the player, and will continue to collect DVD-A discs, and fortuantely I don't have much interest in the problem titles like Harvest, Flaming Lips, TH Brick and whatnot, so all my discs play fine. But if I put out $100.00+ for that damn brick and it didn't work, I'd be ticked off.
