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Slate Disses DVD-A and SACD
Posted by Ernest Miller on Tuesday, January 07 @ 10:58:52 EST Consumers
Slate runs an article on two new formats for digital audio, DVD-A and SACD (Super Audio CD) (Put the Compact Disc Out of Its Misery). The article touts the higher fidelity of the newer standards, which approach studio quality.

The article notes rightly that these formats are unlikely to develop a mass market anytime soon as both deny users a digital output. Who wants to return to the days when music was stuck in physical formats? The article wrongly disfavors the fact that the new formats are the same size as existing CDs and DVDs. I don't care that the physical disks are the same size. In fact, it makes it easier for me (as a consumer) to use the disks, which store nicely alongside my CDs and DVDs. Manufacturers will find it easier to create drives for the disks and multiuse drives are also possible. The real issue is the one about being able to get a digital output. If you could rip the disks to a hard drive, the size of the original disk wouldn't matter at all.

However, the article struck me as strangely oblivious to the content industry. Although the issue of analog only outputs was raised, there was no mention of DRM. Yes, there there is a "manufacturer's consensus" to prohibit digital outputs, but that consensus rests on the fact that the copyright industry refuses to transition to new formats that do not include such restrictions. The article also touts both Bill Gates and Steve Jobs as visionary supporters of the "digital hub" (aka the media server in the closet) without mentioning that while Steve Jobs gave us "Rip, Mix, Burn" as a motto, Gates gave us WinXP Media Edition, as chock full of DRM as could be.

 
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Why would SACD sound be better? (Score: 1)
by JamesGrimmelmann on Tuesday, January 07 @ 14:02:23 EST
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.laboratorium.net
Based on what little I know about digital recording, CDs already keep track of signal up to 22kHz, which is above the top end of normal human hearing. Since, to my knowledge, PCM isn't a lossy encoding scheme, why would there be any point in increasing the frequency range in the SACD recording? Going from 16 bits to 24 bits of level information I can see, but not the point of increasing the sampling rate. I haven't heard SACD or DVD-A in action, but I've always suspected that they're just ploys to trick the same audiophiles who think they can hear a difference between one brand of digital audio cable and another.

Can someone with more audio engineering knowledge field this question?


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Re: Slate Disses DVD-A and SACD (Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Wednesday, January 08 @ 23:44:57 EST
He's mixing up the physical size of the new dics with the compabilities of the players that use them. It would be good if there was a smaller physical format that could hold 5 GB of data but there isn't as of yet.


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