SACD on its way out?


In a recent thread, someone said that they had heard that the SACD format was going to be dropped in favor of the DVD-A format. This is the first that I've heard of this. Has anyone else heard of this? ... and what was the source?

Thanks,
Richard
drrdiamond
You can use recordable DVDs and lay down stereo LPCM tracks up to 24/96k, which is certainly "high-rez." One potential problem with this is that most consumer-grade DVD-V players won't process 24/96k, so the player does a down-rez to 24/48k. Still "high-rez," but...

The DVD-V spec does not allow for hi-rez lossless multichannel. For the recording industry, this does not seem to be a problem. The recording industry has discovered that many people think that 5.1 surround sound in Dolby Digital is better than CD-quality sound (especially since they've been led to believe that MP3 is "CD-quality").

As to the demise of SACD in favor of a copyable hi-rez format, again I would not bet on your prediction. One of the primary reasons the record companies adopted SACD and DVD-A and now Dualdisc is because all three formats offer copy protection of hi-rez data (and Dualdisc also allows the CD side to be copy-protected as well).
Yes, actually hi-rez DVDA is watermarked so that it can't be copied in hi-rez. Also, with dual disc, it seems as though the producers must choose between hi-rez or video. The new "Donna's" hi-rez dual disc only has 10 minutes of video.
That's funny Audiobugged, I found that a tubed SACD player will run circles around old school vinyl and all it's hassle.
Web magazine AudioRevolution.com foten has good news articles but they tend to be DVD-Audio biased (even though they now include SACDs in their reviews). Just read some of the articles in their news archives such as the battle between OneDisc and DualDisc (both competeting DVD-A/CD dual-sided discs!) declaring SACD as a failed project.
http://www.audiorevolution.com/news/
quoted from 10-23-04: Musicslug
>I was the one that said that. I haven't heard that SACD is >"on the way out" though. What I opined is that SACD is an >attempt on the part of the music industry to stop copying >and downloading (no digital out on SACD, right?).

perhaps...
but lets not overlook that this different technology (DSDvsPCM) actualy does sound better. Thats a big factor.

>In the meantime, if you look into home studio and regular >studio recording technology, the clear trend is towards >"high-rez" (higher sampling rates, longer word lenths). For >now, people are mostly using the high rez for the master >and then "dithering" it down to "redbook" (regular CD), >but, if they want to, they can burn a DVD-A at the higher >resolution - AND THESE CAN BE PLAYED ON ANY DVD PLAYER!

well...not exactly
with $90 software you can author/burn your own DVD-A discs, but you need a DVD-A hardware player to play them back on. Not all DVD players support DVD-A.
you can burn 24/96 PCM onto DVD-V discs via the $40 "audio DVD creator" software that would be universal.

>So, my point is really my own prediction, but it seems to >me that with DVD players everywhere, and high-rez >recordings doable by anyone, there's going to be a lot of >momentum towards DVD-A. Just a prediction, folks!

right..anyone can burn high resolution DVD-V discs that have up to 24bit / 96khz PCM on them..this is true. And they will play in virtualy all DVD decks....but who is doing this outside of a small group of people? I mean, your average consumer joe does not have a bunch of master 24bit .wav files laying around.

I also hope both formats coexist peacefully and continue to develop. One day, digital will equal analog. I think DSD technology is a step in the right direction over the many decade old PCM digital standard. I like the idea of a new approach to digital music.