I was at a stereo shop today. I brought in a bunch of SACDs to listen on
speakers, and I commented on SACD sort of winning the format war between the
two. The salesman told me Sony and Phillips has stopped supporting SACD and
given up on it. He mentioned a new format with the blue laser discs will
come out replacing both DVD-A and SACD. Has anyone heard anything about
this? Is SACD really dead in Sony's world? To me it still seems to be going
on its own steam with other supporters, even though its sales are low.



--

"Braxus" wrote in message
...
I was at a stereo shop today. I brought in a bunch of SACDs to listen on
speakers, and I commented on SACD sort of winning the format war between
the
two. The salesman told me Sony and Phillips has stopped supporting SACD
and
given up on it. He mentioned a new format with the blue laser discs will
come out replacing both DVD-A and SACD. Has anyone heard anything about
this? Is SACD really dead in Sony's world? To me it still seems to be
going
on its own steam with other supporters, even though its sales are low.


It is. And the Blue-Ray disk he is talking about is one of two
high-resolution video formats, but with audio that may or may not be high
rez....most will probably be just Dolby Digital but with lossless
compression.

SACD is hanging in there as the medium of choice for classical music...but
little else is being released on it...just an occassional jazz or pop title.

So, is it dead. No. Is it alive. Yes. But in a niche status.



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Harry Lavo wrote:
"Braxus" wrote in message
...
I was at a stereo shop today. I brought in a bunch of SACDs to listen on
speakers, and I commented on SACD sort of winning the format war between
the
two. The salesman told me Sony and Phillips has stopped supporting SACD
and
given up on it. He mentioned a new format with the blue laser discs will
come out replacing both DVD-A and SACD. Has anyone heard anything about
this? Is SACD really dead in Sony's world? To me it still seems to be
going
on its own steam with other supporters, even though its sales are low.


It is. And the Blue-Ray disk he is talking about is one of two
high-resolution video formats, but with audio that may or may not be high
rez....most will probably be just Dolby Digital but with lossless
compression.

Not sure what "Dolby Digital with lossless compression" is--sounds like
DVD-A! But I can't say I've paid close attention to audio accompanying
video. The relevant point for Braxus's question is that Blu-Ray (or
HD-DVD, depending on the outcome of that particular format war) will
almost certainly not be used to produce audio-only disks. The
SACD/DVD-A experience has undoubtedly scared the music industry away
from hi-res in any form.

SACD is hanging in there as the medium of choice for classical music...but
little else is being released on it...just an occassional jazz or pop title.

So, is it dead. No. Is it alive. Yes. But in a niche status.

I think that captures it perfectly.

bob


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On 26 Mar 2006 00:06:14 GMT, "bob" wrote:

Not sure what "Dolby Digital with lossless compression" is--sounds like
DVD-A!
It should because both use MLP.

But I can't say I've paid close attention to audio accompanying
video. The relevant point for Braxus's question is that Blu-Ray (or
HD-DVD, depending on the outcome of that particular format war) will
almost certainly not be used to produce audio-only disks. The
SACD/DVD-A experience has undoubtedly scared the music industry away
from hi-res in any form.

Both disc formats will have, depending on source material, 8+ channels
of losslessly-compressed high resolution sound tracks. Both Dolby and
DTS have formats to support this.

Kal


--

"Vinyl Rules!" wrote in message
...
IMHO, both SACD and DVD-A have been huge commercial failures for the
big labels: There are no significant sales in either format.


snip opinion irrelevant to following


But guess what? When CD was intro'd years ago, they were marketed as
"Perfect Sound, Forever." And many bought into this advertising claim
and see no need to convert to either SACD or DVD-A. Hence, both formats
have failed as mass market replacement for CDs and only barely exist
now as niche products. Yes, some labels, such as RCA "Living Stereo"
and Mecury "Living Presence" are re-releasing their uber-exensive
collectible LP discs as SACD 2 or 3 channel recordings, and some of
them sound quite good, but this is a niche market and I cannot name any
major artists releasing new material in either SACD or DVD-A. I think
this tells you they are both DOA formats.

Well, lets see .... the London Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra,
and San Franccisco Symphony...but I guess they aren't major artists.
Hmm....how about Donald Fagen..doesn't count? Dolly Parton? Allison Krauss
and Union Station? Nickel Creek? John Hyatt?

Only to point out that what you say is basically true, but overstatement is
still overstatement. Classical market and bluegrass are not major pop
categories, but in some categories major players *are* using hi-rez based on
its sound quality. Interestingly enough, these are all labels which the
performers own or control, and they presumably want the highest in sound
quality.



As for Bleu-Ray and HD-DVD, IMO, this is nothing more than a blatent
attempt AGAIN by Sony and other studios to cram a format down our
throats that would require the payments of royalties by the producers
of said software discs. Bleu-Ray and HD-DVD claim increased fidelity,
but hey, they already told us "CDs were perfect sound forever." There
was some politician who said you can fool some of the people some of
the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time.


You are ignoring the fact that DVD-V is the purpose of these players/disks,
and that once digital TV is mandated (2009) quality differences between
ordinary DVD-V and the new high definition disks will become more evident.
And improved sound quality as well as picture quality will be evident.
Better explosions with fewer headaches! And better music videos, something
which surely should be of interest to we audiophiles.

rest of opinion snipped as irrelevant to above



--

Even if production of DVD-A and SACD stopped today, there are hundreds
and hundreds of titles available for you to buy. Look at spealized
stores like amusicdirect.com or acousticsounds.com
It is true this is a niche market, it never got to the massive
mainstream consumers and like such it can be called a commercial
failure. Anyway, I just albums recordings from groups like The Police,
Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Sting. Actually, one of my favorite groups,
Depeche Mode, its re-releasing their complete discography (starting
this april) in SACD format. That only fact is reason enough for a fan
like me to buy a SACD. SACD is like VYNIL in the fact that is not your
tipical every day consumer buy but an option for audiophiles who like
to experiment "improvements" over the the "regular" CD sound. I hope to
enjoy SACD and DVD AUDIO until is available and get the most important
albums while I can.


--

insoc wrote:
Even if production of DVD-A and SACD stopped today, there are hundreds
and hundreds of titles available for you to buy. Look at spealized
stores like amusicdirect.com or acousticsounds.com
It is true this is a niche market, it never got to the massive
mainstream consumers and like such it can be called a commercial
failure. Anyway, I just albums recordings from groups like The Police,
Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Sting. Actually, one of my favorite groups,
Depeche Mode, its re-releasing their complete discography (starting
this april) in SACD format. That only fact is reason enough for a fan
like me to buy a SACD. SACD is like VYNIL in the fact that is not your
tipical every day consumer buy but an option for audiophiles who like
to experiment "improvements" over the the "regular" CD sound. I hope to
enjoy SACD and DVD AUDIO until is available and get the most important
albums while I can.


There is no doubt that first rate highbit digital can really beat
vinyl sonically, in every way, and little less that CD falls short of
that. It remains to be seen whether it can beat half inch halftrack
tape. By that, I mean the best tape on pro decks with the best heads
and the best playback electronics, which are NOT the Ampex trays the
home studio cretins turn into mic pre's.

If the music companies were smart they would have introduced a
disc-highbit digital or analog optical-that would not fit a computer
drive at all. Make it substantially bigger than a CD, and make sure it
was a read-only medium. Without any computer interface. However, they
aren't smart. They have proven that.

SACD and DVD-A are the best we are going to get, for the foreseeable
future. They are probably the last generation of permanent media,
because the mainstream media business is going over to downloadable,
digitally "protected" content.

Oh well.


--

From: Vinyl Rules!
Date: Sun, Mar 26 2006 9:38 am
Email: "Vinyl Rules!"

I think the mass market has woken up and realized that CDs (and DVDs)
are good enough for them and they are not going to pay a premium price
to replace music and movies they already own on CDs and DVDs. YMMV, of
course, but I think Bleu-Ray and HD-DVD are DOA.

It could be that the market has decided what is 'good enough.'

It could also be that the majority of the music-buying market is
choosing iPod and MP3 downloads.

It could also be consumer wariness. Remember Tommy Lee Jones in the
movie "Men in Black"? "Looks like I have to buy the White Album
again..."

The CE industry is its own worst enemy. Look at the format battles
around AM stereo, VHS vs. Beta, Laserdisc vs. whatever those Magnavox
video LPs were called, and on and on.

Those debates go all the way back to the introduction of FM radio to LP
EQ standards and the stereo groove design of LPs, BTW. IIRC, in the
case of stereo LPs it was WE's '45/45' vs. (a Columbia or RCA system? I
don't remember.). In any event, I believe the final groove design was
decided on relatively at the last moment. And let's not also forget QS
vs. SQ vs. CD4 Quadraphonic recordings...

So we have yet another format battle. I'd sit back and wait until the
dust settled too.


--

Hi,

"Bret Ludwig" wrote in message
...
insoc wrote:

If the music companies were smart they would have introduced a
disc-highbit digital or analog optical-that would not fit a computer
drive at all. Make it substantially bigger than a CD, and make sure it
was a read-only medium. Without any computer interface. However, they
aren't smart. They have proven that.

You really want to go back to Laserdisc? :-) Oh wait, some of those had
an RS-232 port...easy enough to hack that off though.

SACD and DVD-A are the best we are going to get, for the foreseeable
future. They are probably the last generation of permanent media,
because the mainstream media business is going over to downloadable,
digitally "protected" content.

The next generation of 'permanent media' (blu-ray, HD-DVD) are both
DRM protected, too. Seems to me that the copy protection mechanism(s)
is all that is delaying those technologies, so once again the lawyers and
RIAA etc. get fat and happy while the consumer has to wait for products
that will be broken before they even hits the stores.

Oh well.

Oh well indeed! Will they ever learn? Or listen?

Regards,

Glenn.


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