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Toshiba says Audio HD-DVDs possible

1277 Views 20 Replies 14 Participants Last post by Rachael Bellomy, May 17, 2006

ChrisPC

Discussion Starter · May 1, 2006

"Future Audio applications: One of the unique benefits of the HD DVD standard is that in the future High resolution Multi channel audio only discs are possible without requiring a new standard. While all of the HD DVD technical teams have been understandably focused on the successful launch of the first movie titles, efforts have already begun to educate the audio community about the potential benefits of HD DVD as a high resolution Audio format. We look forward to discussing these possibilities, and will be seeking your advice as we ramp up these efforts."

http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscp...hd/index6.html

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1 - 20 of 21 Posts

Clepto

· #2 · May 1, 2006

I know BD was touted as a possible high end auio source as well.

With DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD, both formats can conceivably offer high quality lossless audio. Not sure how it'll turn out though, what with the small market for SACD and DVD-A, I'm not sure adding yet another 2 formats will help in this matter. ):

Ktulu_1

· #3 · May 1, 2006

One format to rule them all...

How convenient would it be to have one format for high quality audio, video, etc. instead of worrying whether your player supports this or that?

Ovation

· #4 · May 1, 2006

If they don't get paranoid and impose analogue connections with all the bass management/time alignment limitations that saddle most current hi-res players, then it should be a relatively simple thing--just produce lossless audio in the new DD and DTS HD formats and let the receiver/pre-pro do the work like it does for movies. Shouldn't be a problem (but then again...)

Rachael Bellomy

· #5 · May 1, 2006

1. The 4 major labels are too cheap to record music well enough.

2. The market for M/C is minescule.

3. I'll never buy any music that has to be run through an HDMI cable to get full resolution.

4. After SA-CD & DVD-A, I doubt the potential customers trust them at this point. I do not!

Kal Rubinson

· #6 · May 1, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rachael Bellomy
1. The 4 major labels are too cheap to record music well enough.

2. The market for M/C is minescule.

3. I'll never buy any music that has to be run through an HDMI cable to get full resolution.

4. After SA-CD & DVD-A, I doubt the potential customers trust them at this point. I do not!

I understand your attitude. However, if we are so lucky as to stabilize for a while on a single format with easily available mastering/pressing facilities, the small labels who do good stuff (and you know who they are) will surely take advantage of the situation. Sure MCH and high-quality are partly intersecting sets but there is a market if the dust will only clear.

Kal

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Chris Gerhard

· #7 · May 1, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Clepto
I know BD was touted as a possible high end auio source as well.

With DTS-HD MA and Dolby TrueHD, both formats can conceivably offer high quality lossless audio. Not sure how it'll turn out though, what with the small market for SACD and DVD-A, I'm not sure adding yet another 2 formats will help in this matter. ):

I doubt we will see continued life for SACD and DVD-A if these two new formats are launched. Maybe a single high resolution multichannel format can find a large enough niche market to have a significant selection available. I am not confident it will happen but hopeful.

Chris

Stan Rozenfeld

· #8 · May 4, 2006

I could be wrong, but with all that space available on blue laser discs... I am wondering if they will ever release audio only stuff. My impression is that if one or both of the formats take off, we'll be seeing audio/video stuff, such as concerts of live performances with high resolution audio tracks.

As for the death of sacd, there is enough classical music out on it now to keep me busy for the rest of my life, so I am not getting rid of my sacd/cd player.

rdjam

· #9 · May 4, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chris Gerhard
I doubt we will see continued life for SACD and DVD-A if these two new formats are launched. Maybe a single high resolution multichannel format can find a large enough niche market to have a significant selection available. I am not confident it will happen but hopeful.

Chris

Yes, I think the writing's on the wall for SACD and DVD-A anyway.

If we can get consistency by having HD DVD handle both audio discs and video discs, I'd go for it.

A fringe benefit is that any video content which accompanies the audio on any of these releases would be already handled with aplomb and no drama. I'm seeing hi def concert releases and music videos, here.

A quick question which may be off-topic. Does (or can or will) Windows Media Player support the decoding of TruHD or DTS-HD MA if I have the data on the hard drive? Let's suppose 2.0 stereo (or 5.1) as a base.

Just wondering if decoders for these can be a plug-in of sorts, or whether I'd have to save them as uncompressed LPCM?

If not, are there any other lossless compression streams that Windows Media Player can support at various sampling rates and bit depths?

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Luke M

· #10 · May 14, 2006

I've asked this question before but got no response. Does HD-DVD support CD hybrids (SACD style)? I'm guessing the answer is "no", because I haven't read anything about it.

PolarWeasel

· #11 · May 15, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rachael Bellomy
[snip]

3. I'll never buy any music that has to be run through an HDMI cable to get full resolution.

[snip]

Just out of curiosity, why not?

-Polar Weasel

rdjam

· #12 · May 15, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luke M
I've asked this question before but got no response. Does HD-DVD support CD hybrids (SACD style)? I'm guessing the answer is "no", because I haven't read anything about it.

Yes - Runour Has It, by Warner, was the first release in this Hybrid format. There are a couple of threads where this format is discussed.

Luke M

· #13 · May 15, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdjam
Yes - Runour Has It, by Warner, was the first release in this Hybrid format. There are a couple of threads where this format is discussed.

That's a DVD hybrid. CD and DVD are two different things.

Incidentally, Blu-ray does, on paper, support CD hybrids - both single sided and double sided. HD-DVD can't support double sided CD hybrids (unless you consider DualDisc a technical success - I do not).

rdjam

· #14 · May 15, 2006

Ahh - apologies for not readin it carefully enough.

Revised answer - I have no idea.

Clepto

· #15 · May 15, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luke M
I've asked this question before but got no response. Does HD-DVD support CD hybrids (SACD style)? I'm guessing the answer is "no", because I haven't read anything about it.

HD DVD has DVD / HD DVD Hybrids, but they are more expensive than stand alone media of either format. BD also has the capability for a hybrid disc, but there's nothing in production afaik.

However, SACD on HD DVD would involve pigs flying and hell freezing over (;

DAB

· #16 · May 15, 2006

My system & me is beckoning for an upgrade. I am hearing and hoping the HD format will give us High-resolution music & with SACD format . My plasma beckons for the HD movies as well as better sound stage from movie tracts. But if all this â€œnext generationâ€ is still 2-3 years away, I am back to SQ 1. What do I up grade to now? If I spend a couple of K+ now. It will be some time before I can justify the next generation of upgrades. I was also thinking that higher end player (Arcam) might have some problems if HD/BR do create high resolution music sound stage- for the mid range audioholics â€¦

Just ranting today,

db

fresno1232001

· #17 · May 15, 2006

Oh, Ok Chris- We can now expect super, super hi-res audio from audio-only HD-DVD discs. No new standard required. So these will play just fine on our current standard-def DVD players that play DVD-Audio discs. So even when these new audio only HD-DVD discs appear, the record industry can go right on producing DVD-Audio discs and players and we wont see our currently growing collection of DVD-Audio discs become obsolete. I'm sure glad to see the assurances on that, Toshiba, because if the new audio-only HD-DVD audio-only discs did represent a new standard, it would look like a huge fraud and yet-another "obsolete the hardware by stopping the production of the software" scam. We've all been victimized by that several times now, and we think the industry are a bunch of scummy low-life crooks for doing it. Toshiba, I am sure, has tried mightily to prevent this in the past. I guess maybe I'd better stop with the five DVD-Audio discs that I own now and wait five years for the new audio-only HD-DVD discs, just to be safe. Let's all do that. Toshiba, the record industry can thank you and this blurb for halting the DVD-Audio format in its tracks right here. You guys should be real popular with them now. And are you sure you want to hear my advice to you at at this point? This is all understandabe though, what with the torrent of complaints about DVD-Audio discs not producing high enough fidelity and definition, their sound not being spacious and detailed enough, and their just plain all-around crummy, scratchy, distortion-filled low-fi sound. Yes, "find a need and fill it" is still the best guide for success in our capitalist system. Planned, indeed forced, obsolescence and screwing the consumer are something we all abhor and condem. Glad to see you are all thinking right there at Toshiba, and building a reputation among consumers as always looking out for their best interests. I'm so glad you've heard my pleas for a higher-res standard than DVD-Audio. Well, have a nice day.

applications: One of the unique benefits of the HD DVD standard is that in the future High resolution Multi channel audio only discs are possible without requiring a new standard. While all of the HD DVD technical teams have been understandably focused on the successful launch of the first movie titles, efforts have already begun to educate the audio community about the potential benefits of HD DVD as a high resolution Audio format. We look forward to discussing these possibilities, and will be seeking your advice as we ramp up these efforts."

http://www.ultimateavmag.com/hddiscp...hd/index6.html [/quote]

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Opiate

· #18 · May 16, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by rdjam
A quick question which may be off-topic. Does (or can or will) Windows Media Player support the decoding of TruHD or DTS-HD MA if I have the data on the hard drive? Let's suppose 2.0 stereo (or 5.1) as a base.

Just wondering if decoders for these can be a plug-in of sorts, or whether I'd have to save them as uncompressed LPCM?

If not, are there any other lossless compression streams that Windows Media Player can support at various sampling rates and bit depths?

WMP 10 doesn't offer TruHD or DTS-HD decoding at the moment, although no doubt they'll offer some form of decoder that you can buy just like they do with the DVD decoder.

All you would need is the relevant decoder, whether it be from MS or a third party (there are free ac3 codecs out there for example).

If you're after a lossless file format for music, FLAC is one of the more popular out there at the moment. http://flac.sourceforge.net/

WMP doesn't support FLAC natively, so you have to download the DirectShow filters for it. http://www.illiminable.com/ogg/

FLAC supports linear PCM samples with a resolution between 4 and 32 bits per sample, and supports linear sample rates from 1Hz - 655350Hz in 1Hz increments.

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Opiate

· #19 · May 16, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by fresno1232001
... snip ...

Without requiring a new standard I believe refers to the fact that we won't need a HD-DVDA player specifially for any new audio only HD-DVD discs - the HD-DVD format supports high resolution multichannel lossless audio.

This way, when there's a HD-DVD player in every house, we can ALL enjoy high res audio.

Clepto

· #20 · May 16, 2006

Whether it's HD DVD or BD, there are going to end up being different high rez audio choices, not unlike DVD-A / SACD...

You could have an uncompressed LPCM track, a DTS-HD MA version, or a Dolby True HD version. You'll still have to pick a player that fully supports all the formats in order to ensure that you'll be able to playback any disc, and if you buy a player now, you'll need another one later to make sure you can play all the formats...

1 - 20 of 21 Posts

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