DVD-Audio !!!

[gurgi]

Hi everybody !

I just noticed that the "Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse" CD has been re-released on DVD-Audio format. I ordered it immediately !!! Can't wait to hear how this lovely album sounds in surround !

Is anybody aware of other Disney-albums being released on DVD-Audio ?

It was announced early 2004 that there would be a Radio Disney "Ultimate Jams" DVD-Audio release on April 6th. But that's 2 months ago now and I still haven't seen it listed anywhere.

Maybe "DISNEY DVD-AUDIO" would be a cool new section, Luke !

Take care y'all !
Bart

[Mr. Toad]

Thanks for the heads up. I am really surprised SACD and DVD Audio are not catching on. They are really a hugh improvement over CD with the increase in number of channels. Some really incredible concert SACD's coming out.

However, the increase in quality of DVD over VHS is far greater. Maybe all us consumers are too busy working on increasing are video collection instead.

[Mermaid Kelly]

uhhh.......dvd audio??

....Isn't that called a cd

If this is some new technology thing, pardon my ignorance, I've just never heard of such a thing!

[yoda_four]

uhhh.......dvd audio??

....Isn't that called a cd

If this is some new technology thing, pardon my ignorance, I've just never heard of such a thing!

Ya, it's a new format. DVD-A, along with SACD are trying to oust the CD much like the DVD did to VHS, but the public doesn't seem to keen on needing 5.1 channel audio, stereo's more than fine for most. SACD, produced by Sony, is the better of the two, while DVD-A is much like a CD with videos and extras with it. BTW, your ignorance is pardoned.

[Mermaid Kelly]

BTW, your ignorance is pardoned.

Thanks for letting me know what dvd audio is

[Mr. Toad]

Kelly - there is no wonder you havent heard of either.

SACD is indeed the superior product(what else would you expect from Sony). However, niether ever seems to get any press. If I didnt read high tech magazines like Home Theatre and Sound and Vision I dont know if I would know they existed either.

[deathie mouse]

SACD and DVD-Audio are this decade's higher quality multi-channel capable audio discs supposed to replace of the 80's created 2 channel Stereo CD (Actualy CD's were originally to come in a 4-chanel (Quadraphonic) version too but nobody did them) but as JimmyJackJunior says ppl are spending their money on DVD's (CD prices are outrageous compared to DVD's, 2 chanels of music vs up to 6 channels of audio and a movie + features to go with it for almost the same price?)!

Both SACD and DVD-Audio use today's increased storage capacity of the shiny little disks to put up to 6 six separate channels of music instead of two and at much higer quality than CD without digital compresion.

For years "Golden Ears" audiophiles complained that the audio in CD's (44,100 samples per second at a resolution of 16 bits) was not enough, too "chooped up", "grainy" and "harsh".
"Non -musical"

They now like this new versions with several times the data (up to192,000 samples per second and 24 bits resolution on some cases of DVD-Audio, for example; 6+ times the "quality"). Sony's method is totally different but has the same goal, and I think it achieves it, or actually betters it.

But many people didn't seem to complain about the old "obsolete" CD in all these past few years and even loved mp3's and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound even more. And mp3's and Dolby Digital typically take CD quality sound and compress it (decimate the data very cleverly) at least 10-13 times if not more.

An interim system is DTS that compressed it much less (about 3-7 times only). That's why you see DVD's with alternate DTS tracks.

And some music DVD's that have an alternate "PCM" track, that's uncompressed CD audio on a DVD.

These High-Bit audio discs are better and many people will probably hear the difference and if not, it's reasuring to know you have a high enough quality copy that even the "Golden Ears" say sounds like the real thing, and theoretically, since when mass produced the cost is about the same, they should have replaced CD's by now

For video, I think we will have to wait at least 2 decades for the equivalent "so high quality it preserves everything" 2000 line ULTRA- def DVD. (HDTV's 1000 lines is good enough for conventional widescreen films (those around 1.75 wide) but i think it falls short for Cinemascope/Panavision and 70mm ones)


Anyway another reason the SACD and DVD-Audio haven't taken off is that they are both two totally different systems so you need a new player for each, or a new universal player that plays both (and probably DVD's) (Which are then DVD-VIDEO discs now )

Trying to alliviate this compability mess, most SACD's come with a plain old CD audio layer too so you can play it on regular cd and dvd players (but this doesn't always work) and DVD-Audio discs come with a "DVD-Video" like layer (or section) that has regular Dolby Digital 5.1 compressed sound (technically used to be called Dolby AC-3) that regular DVD movie players can play.

So supposedly, if you see an SACD or DVD-Audio disc you like, you can buy it and use it now and when you upgrade your disc player you'll get the fabulous new sound of the high resolution multichannel layer

A DVD-Audio multichannel I like is Pet Sounds.

Now that i know of it i'll try to find the "Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse" and
the "Ultimate Jams" if it's released.

I once saw a web site that listed these kind of releases. I'll try to find it again and see if there is any more Disney.

They could re-release the Fantasia soundtrack in multichannel (for playing in a car multichannel system for example) It kinda would be historically one of the earliest multichannel works of music. If not THE first.



gurgi wrote:

"Maybe "DISNEY DVD-AUDIO" would be a cool new section, Luke ! "


Maybe that would be a good idea, if enough people would like to post exclusively about audio releases (CD's and the new formats), the music itself, and maybe about the isolated music tracks in some of the DVD's.
Excuse me, DVD-Videos, I mean. ha ha ha!
Technology.
Making our lives "easier"

[Kram Nebuer]

Okay so...DVD-A's are CD's in the form of a DVD except no picture? What' this about videos? Is it a CD with music videos that play in a standard DVD player? I know there was a 30 minute special about Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse (a GREAT CD) that aired on the Disney channel when it was first released. Is this what's on the DVD-A?

[yoda_four]

deathie mouse: You can't just go and buy an SACD or DVD-A and try and play it on any old player that doesn't accpet either format. Most Panasonic and others new DVD players include a DVD-A decoder but you'd better make sure before you go buying them.

SACDs need the decoders with the player or it will be completely obsolete. As of now, there are only about 5 players from Sony and PIoneer which accept SACD and are quite expensive. The new Hybrid SACD has a layer of "upconverted" audio and the SACD high-quality layer so it's basically a transistional disc. Look here for more info: http://www.sony.com/sacd

There's also another lesser known format that being tested currently in Seattle and Boston (like Frasier and Cheers) called the DualDisc. One side of the disc inclues the artist's CD album in stereo while the other side provides usually all the extras (bio, music videos, etc.) and sometimes the DVD-A quality album. All hte studios are supporting the new format which could be out in stores very soon. Look here for more info: http://www.dualdisc.com

Just FYI, deathie mouse: you can quote by clicking on the stuff as person wrote in the top right handed corner to have a quote box like the one below of Kram's.

Okay so...DVD-A's are CD's in the form of a DVD except no picture? What' this about videos? Is it a CD with music videos that play in a standard DVD player? I know there was a 30 minute special about Mannheim Steamroller Meets the Mouse (a GREAT CD) that aired on the Disney channel when it was first released. Is this what's on the DVD-A?

While I'm not sure about the Disney DVD-A, try some of these sites to answer your questions about DVD-Audio:
http://www.digitalaudioguide.com/faq/dv ... _intro.htm
http://www.howstuffworks.com/question344.htm
http://www.wired.com/news/gizmos/0,1452,36583,00.html
http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/2001-1_16- ... egacy=cnet[/url]

[deathie mouse]

Thanks yoda_four for the info!

Maybe I should have make more clear that the High Quality sound is ONLY heard in the dedicated DVD-Audio and SACD players, or the combo DVD video/DVD-Audio/SACD players and only the STANDART quality regular audio may be heard in regular DVD and CD players,
and that there are regular players that have compability problems playing those "lower quality" audio tracks included in the super discs.

All my DVD-Audios play the non DVD-Audio Dolby Digital 5.1 layer in my plain 4 year old DVD player, but my Hybrid SACD's don't play the CD layer on it. (So I have a friend that has a SACD player I visit often )

One of this days I'll bite the bullet and buy a Universal one but i have to make sure it has all the features i want (like PAL/NTSC, etc) and no pixel cropping (Most players crop a few pixels and that drives me mad) but this pattern of buying the media before the player i've done for a long time. (I bought CD's before i had a CD player )

But you're right one should make sure you can play at least one of the "lower" quality audio layers on your current player before starting to buy discs.


And thanks for the quote intructions

I'll experiment with the quote thing at the next opportunity but i already had written this up before I saw your post so i'm afraid to break it

I'm new to this posting stuff



Kram Nebuer wrote:

"Okay so...DVD-A's are CD's in the form of a DVD except no picture? "

More or less, but the sound is supossedly much better than a DVD (and a CD) cus of the higher data rate.

DVD-Audio discs are an audio variation of DVD's (which really means Digital Versatile Disc) which are a multimedia carrier with it's main emphasis on music, while DVD-Video (or what we normally call plain DVD's) is a motion video oriented multimedia carrier.

Since the emphasis of DVD-Audio is music and sound, instead of using the DVD's huge storage capacity to hold a movie it dedicates it to sound, so you get (as with Sony's SACD's) better audio more channels. But since it was designed in a multimedia container, the DVD-Audio discs many times contain other files, such as like lyrics (which you'd watch on a tv while the music plays), and if enough space remains after the main audio section is filled, separate mixes (for example a disc might have a 6 channel mix and a stereo mix or a DTS version) and/or a short video section.

For example, if space is available, the Mannheim DVD-Audio could include the 30 minute video, just like a movie DVD contains extras. (But i don't know if it indeed has it, I'm just making up an example)

You also ask if "Is it a CD with music videos that play in a standard DVD player?"

kinda.

Read what yoda_four has to say first.

In general, to get the full higher quality sound you need a dedicated DVD-Audio player (or a combo player that does both regular DVD videos and DVD-Audio), BUT to watch the videos or hear the (included) Dolby Digital compressed 5.1 audio section you can use your regular DVD video player. But don't expect much video content. Just like those Enhanced CD's that bring a Quicktime video you play in your computer.

Just that this time the video would be higher quality. And if you have the DVD-Audio player, the music is also of highest quality

The other format, SACD's, are audio only higher capacity Super CD's: Better sound and more channels

With the SACD's, some of them come dual layer, and this other layer is regular CD audio so they supposedly play in any machine that plays CD's

In other words SACD is more of a purist music Super Quality CD
and DVD-Audio is a little more of a multimedia thing but mainly Super Quality audio oriented.

SACD plays stereo music in CD players (if the disc has the compability layer) and super quality stereo or multichannel music in SACD players or combo DVD+SACD players

DVD-Audio plays Dolby Digital 5.1 music and some short videos in regular movie DVD players and super quality stereo or multichannel audio in DVD-Audio players or universal/combo DVD+DVD-Audio players

Some universal/combo playersplay all, SACD, DVD-Audio, and regular movie DVD's (or DVD-Video if you may)

Hope this clears everything up.



One possible use for future Disney DVD-Audio would be to include the lyrics to the song so little children could read along (and maybe speed up learning to read) while singing the songs without being distracted by the animation.

SACRILEGE!

j/k

[Ludwig Von Drake]

Is there any possibility that they will be staging a coup in the near furture and CD"s and DVD's will be no more?

[deathie mouse]

In the beginning sony married phillips and phillips gave sony the disc and sony gave phillips the red solomon code and they begat cd that was 650 MBs tall. Then sony and toshiba married and each gave half and half anf dvd was born and dvd was 9 GB's tall. Then dvd had a twin brother and it was dvd with an A and it was also 9 GB's tall. Sony didnt like this so he had his own 9 GB tall sibling of the cd it was sAcd. then sony decided he didnt like toshiba no more so he had Blue dvd and it was 30 GB's tall, the biggest of them all. But Toshiba said I havethe dvd twins and they have friends so he tried and he spawned hd-dvd and it was tall but it wasnt as tall as sonys blue dvd. but it had more make up and more friends.

So, I don't tink theres gonna be a coup, maybe a format war behind the scenes that will prolong the current dvd's life a little more than it should.

But you can buy Blue DVD burners today and store Hi Def movies on them if you have the inclination. And the $$$.

And its my opinion we'll have to buy lots of movies before we get new HD versions of them. It's called milking the cow.

[Kram Nebuer]

Thanks yoda_four and deathie mouse. I think I get it now. My Mom has VCD's that play on our DVD player so I figured that was what DVD-A's were. It is a VCD kareoke kind of thing with a picture and lyrics.

[AwallaceUNC]

I have only one SACD (Pink Floyd- Dark Side Of The Moon), and no DVD-Audio. I've heard them both, though, and agree that SACD has slightly better sound. I think I'd still prefer DVD-Audio, though, simply because it uses the DVD format and has all those extras. But then, my SACD can be played on even my oldest CD player, and my oldest DVD player (but not my newest DVD player, lol).

Why hasn't DVD-Audio caught on? Well, it only really matters if you have a home theater set-up that can utilize the 5.1 channels. Most people don't, and even if they do, it's not likely the place they most listen to music in. For most people, that's probably their car, or in a boombox.

I would think that it would be in the music industry's best interest, though. Downloads are crippling them, and even though it's getting nearly impossible to find quality downloads of more popular songs, that problem will not go away until the format changes. That's where DVD-Audio comes in. Yes, you can rip from DVDs, but it's not nearly as easy as CDs, and people won't be willing to take the extra effort (not for a while, anyways). Furthermore, DVD-Audio provides added incentive: the use of the technology you already have in your house, bonus features, an addition to your DVD collection (an hobby increasing in population), and sound quality that far surpasses the .mp3s you can currently download. DVD-Audio is already pretty cheap, and they can bring them down to CD prices now if the market expands. It's a win-win situation for the industry and the consumers. But until DVD-Audio can be played in cars, it won't happen.

-Aaron