SACD and DVD-Audio, Doomed Formats?

[Kato]

A friend just commented on this thread and said "classic example of the Prisoner's Dilemma".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner's_dilemma

Too bad the AV manufacturers don't read a little more game theory and play nice.

[deacongreg]

Originally Posted by Kato

Yes, it's probably a bit snobbish to say that only classical and jazz are worthy of or would benefit from hi-rez, there's plenty of rock and other stuff in the SACD / DVD-A catalog that I want to get.

In my opinion, there's one good reason why there isn't one format, it's greed. The company that collects royalties on a format that is widely accepted makes big bucks. Arguably, all the manufacturers could work together and create a world-wide standard and stop @#$$@ing around their customers, but then they would all have to settle for hitting a single instead of one of them hitting a home-run. In industries where the customers are larger and have more clout they force the manufacturers to adhere to standards, usually to the betterment of all involved, the margins get slimmer, but the market gets bigger. The AV market by its nature is too disorganized to make this happen, so we end up with multiple standards, a fractured market, and many potential customers sitting on the sidelines because they don't want another betamax doorstop. Way to go AV manufacturers.

Well Kato, we agree on a lot of fronts here. Unless you have someone like Jerry, that obviously shares our passion for music to take charge and put this together, we have seen that the current music industry is not. So, I like you, am unwilling to step out and be a first adopter.
However, as I stated earlier, maybe this new Samsung player is the answer. Even Andrew is frustrated that his Sony Blu - Ray player does not play SACD. Our racks are stacked enough already. We do not need 3 machines, all with eject buttons!!

[Kato]

Hey deacon,

This is a great site and forum, I just recently discovered it. It's frustrating to see such a huge worldwide industry like this wallowing around with no standards. I think the manufacturers will continue to act badly until and unless an AV consumer's association (the AVCA? ) is formed and has enough members to force the manufacturers to the table and agree on some standards. Jerry if you feel like jousting that particular windmill I'll be a charter member! Meanwhile this forum is a great place to vent. I think I'll head over to the software area and start putting together an SACD/DVD-A shopping list.

[JerryDelColliano]

Your post notification came up as I am preparing my fantasy hockey sheet for next week's draft.

There are a few industry groups that should be working towards standards - the CEA and CEDIA. You are correct however the lack of standards makes the gear a PAIN for consumers. I am not sure CEDIA is that worried as it keeps their members busy with billable hours and the CEA is busy courting computer companies the like of who wrote the HDCP copy protection that makes HDMI not work so well for home theater systems.

[David DelGrosso]

Originally Posted by Kato

What I want is high def digital audio. To put it more succinctly: Will high def digital audio eventually (or fairly quickly) move to one or both of the new high def AV formats and doom SACD and DVD-Audio?

YES...

The "disc" business is a "commodity" business. In other words, the record labels are NOT into "custom printing" small quantities of discs... they are into supporting mass-production quantities.

Therefore, the go-forward formats are DVD (both SD and HD) and Blu-ray (for the time being.)

The good news, is that both of these HD disc formats offer UNCOMPRESSED hi-rez audio, which means there is NO more need for the DVD-A and SACD interim technology.

And once there are millions of new HD players fueling a consistently high level of HD discs, it will become reasonably profitable for the record labels to release "music only" titles... with uncompressed 24/96 2.0 and 5.1 music... as an addition to our collection of favorite movies and videogames.

DD

[deacongreg]

Which is why we need a "true universal player." One that will play what you are talking about David, plus our old SACD/DVD - A titles.